Anxiety Sundays:

Sundays always fill me with anxieties, just knowing that the next day (Monday) I have to go back to work and start another week all over again. I just feel as though time moves way too fast and there is nothing I can do to slow it down. I feel like my weekends always go to waste. For example today 4/10/05:

Morning: Woke up at 9:10am, made coffee, turned on television to watch CBS channel 2's - Sunday Morning Show. I do this every week to catch up on the news while having breakfast. Watch it for an hour then turn off television, put on my old Sony walkman and listen to NPR's On the Media & The Next Big Thing for the next 2 hours while my girlfriend and I clean the apartment, just the basics - vacuuming, dusting and cleaning the bathroom.

Noon: Today my girlfriend made plans with her mother to go to NYC to watch the musical Mama Mia. We share a quick 'mini-lunch.' She leaves by 12:15pm. I jump onto the internet to check email and check some discussion boards I post on sometimes. Then quickly jump in the shower, shave & get dressed. I'm out the door by 1:00pm to the local market to buy some fruit & vegetables. I'm back home within 20 minutes and I make myself a cup of coffee and head for my drawing desk. Sit at the drawing desk while listening to the new Beck cd as well an old Tool cd. I get a call from NPR to renew my membership - this is the millionth time they called asking for money so I break down and 'donate' $80 dollars so they stop calling me. My shoulders hurt from being hunched over so I head over to the couch to watch a little television while I crack a bunch of walnuts so we (my girlfriend & I) can make banana nut bread later on today. Cracking all the walnuts takes me about an hour so I catch the end of Dead Poets Society, which I haven't seen in years. Clean up my mess and decide to go back to the drawing desk. Within half an hour I take another break - I'm hungry and decide to have toast and coffee.

5:00pm: I receive a call from my girlfriend to start dinner she's on her way back. We eat dinner then decide to start making the Banana Nut Bread. Within an hour it's in the oven and we head out to the couch to catch 60 minutes. 60 minutes is delayed because of golf, The Masters. I'm about to change channels when I realize Tiger Woods, (I don't ever watch golf and Tiger Woods is the only golfer I know), is about to win the tournament so I watch it to the end and it then segways into 60 minutes. Half an hour into the show the Banana Nut Bread is done so we let it cool while I start coffee. After 60 minutes my girlfriend changes to channel 7 to watch Desperate Housewives, I'm not that desperate to watch it so I leave to come to the computer and check my email.

9:00pm: Now my day is pretty much over. I start to replay the day in my head and the anxiety starts to hit. Tomorrow I'm getting up by 6:30am to go to work. I sit in front of the computer screen trying to figure out how I've managed to waste another Sunday. Then decide to try to figure out what I've done today and start typing out my day.

10:00pm: I decide to post this story.

Mark Sanders, Apr 11 2005 1:55PM

I have entire weekends that I can't recall what I've done and I certainly don't have banana nut bread to show for it. Usually it's a sign of relaxation through moderate inactivity. Thinking about it that way puts me at ease regarding my acute amnesia.

Wise move to avoid the Desperate Housewives. You can do a lot more with a loaf of bread than with Teri Hatcher and company.

Can't believe I just wrote that. Sorry Dr. Freud.

Sandie, Apr 11 2005 9:29PM

Thanks for sharing your day. I actually find the mundane quite interesting.

Two comments come to mind. 1) you drink a lot of coffee. 2) Who cracks open walnuts for banana nut bread? My inclination would be to procure the chopped nuts in the bakery aisle.

paul, Apr 11 2005 10:31PM

i know i drink way too much coffee but i've actually cut back. sundays just can't be helped it's just one of those days that i walk around with a mug in my hand practically all day.

originally i was looking to buy a bag of chopped walnuts but the smallest bag that i could find at the store was 14oz.- way too many.

i can make this next comment because i've actually sat through an episode or two of Desperate Housewives. this show is pitifully predictable and it has mid season fill-in written all over it. the fact that it is getting ratings really says something - (which i can't &won't repeat here)