The Strange Effect of Saturdays...

I can't believe the weekend has flown by already. It seemed as though a moment ago, it was just beginning. Now it's Sunday evening and I'm readying myself to wind down so that I can start the new week.

I love weekends because, well, they're weekends. Yet I'm slowly realizing that I don't seem to be a big fan of Saturdays. I don't know why but it seems like Saturdays are the days for me when things most likely aren't going to go right. If I use them to run around and do errands, I feel as though I've blown a precious day of freedom by being horribly productive. If I decide to do nothing and spend the Saturday doing very little, I end up doing that for a maybe a couple of hours and then realizing that I'm being lazy and finding projects to do.

Regardless of it, I often wake up on Saturdays feeling antsy, unable to relax. I run down the roster of things I need/want to get done that day and immediately the simplicity of being able to lay in my bed and be free not to get up fades and I find myself feeling guilty for staying in bed when there's stuff to do. So I get up and do it and the day begins its strange magic of taking me across the bridge of it just starting to be the weekend on one side and realizing it's already half over on the other.

I can't really explain why Saturdays have this effect on me. I didn't realize that they did until recently when I find myself feeling habititually like a foul tempered beast on Saturday afternoons after I've been out and about, running errands. I end up getting angry with myself and impatient with others. If I stay home, I wish I'd gone out and about. If I'm out and about, I just want to be at home. It's a strange phenomenon. I'm hoping it's temporary. After all, Saturdays are a perfectly nice day. They're part of the weekend which, let's favourite, is almost everyone's favourite time of the week.

I do wonder if it's the same thing as the Christmas Day phenomenon. I find myself feeling antsy on that day too. It's like...an anticlimax. All those weeks of shopping, wrapping, baking, movie-watching and hall-decking and then, in a day, it comes to a head and...boom, it's over. I love Christmas Day but I so much prefer Christmas Eve where the anticipation is everything and the possibility of tomorrow is a strange, unknown creature the entices us and taunts us but makes us excited to find out.

Maybe that's what it is with Saturdays, albeit on a much simpler scale. All week long, we count down to Friday and the idea that when that day ends, the weekend is nigh and freedom is ours. Then freedom comes to us on a Saturday and we realize that while it might not be as confining as work, it often comes at the price of having to use that day to either run errands, go to scheduled social events, clean....something...anything. I know some people who can just wake up whenever they like, roll out of bed and do nothing but most of those people are a)either not adults or b) they refuse to accept that they're adults or c) need to help me figure out to stop being so responsible and say "screw it" a little more often. I've tried it and that pressing feeling of knowing that if I just do the stuff on a Saturday and get it done, I can have all day Sunday to be lazy or do whatever relaxing activity I want to do.

When I was in school, I used to try to do my homework on Friday nights. This is the point when you realize I was, in fact, a nerd. I am still, in fact, a nerd. I liked that feeling of getting my homework done. While my brother was up until late on a Sunday night, trying to get his homework done and inevitably ending up sleep-deprived and snippy on a Monday, I was reading a book, watching a movie...doing what I liked.

Nowadays, I don't have homework but I do have errands. I try to do as many of them in the first part of the weekend as I can so I have the second part of the weekend all for me. This is probably why I end up enjoying Sundays more than Saturdays. Also, I never feel antsy on Sundays. They're naturally relaxing.

I really can't figure out why Saturdays aren't that way. They should be that way. If you have a theory on this, feel free to comment below. I'm open for any suggestions. You can even suggest that I'm just completely mental although be aware you won't be the first to suggest that, if you're going for originality.

Nevertheless, weekends are still good. I'm just sad this one is over already. Oh well, only five days until the next one.

Happy Monday!