The Sunday scaries. When you start getting anxious about Monday.
My wise friend noticed her Sunday scaries start about 3pm the day before that day we won’t mention. Instead of taking harmful substances or overeating, she schedules something she enjoys. Usually a walk or a tramp. And she’s an all-weather girl while I’m a fair-weather outdoors girl so her strategy works each Sunday.
When I worked in the public service in Wellington, the keeper of the stationery was a guy called Trevor. If the sun shone and the wind paused for those two magical days it was safe to ask Trevor for a pen or pencil sharpener.
If it had bucketed down and the horizontal wind turned your lungs into those of a two-packs-a-day smoker, you would be wise to avoid Trevor and borrow a colleague’s.
I’ve taken a leaf from my wise friend’s playbook and organised a walking group for Sunday afternoons. We go on a different route each week. I do have another agenda, which is introducing walkers to parts of the city they haven’t been to before. And I hope they will introduce me to tracks and trails I haven’t explored.
During my last rodeo as a community editor, I often went to work on a Sunday afternoon (this was before working from home) and then went to Barista for dinner. Sadly, Barista doesn’t offer that Sunday wind-down or up option any more. But the lovely memories remain.
At the end of my time subbing for Australian titles I worked Sunday to Thursday, so I guess I had to conquer the Saturday scaries.
In the words of the Bangles, “it’s just another manic Monday, I wish it was Sunday”. I just discovered that song was written by Prince.
While no new day is guaranteed, it’s surely a sign of adulthood that we don’t engage in cotton-wool thinking that Monday won’t arrive, a new bag of cat biscuits will magically appear in the pantry, and an empty tank of petrol will get you across town.
“And if I had an aeroplane I still couldn’t make it on time,” the Bangles went on.
Cats don’t need aeroplanes as they don’t need to be punctual for anything, especially vet appointments.
And in the words of the Carpenters, rainy days and Mondays always get me down. I wonder what Trevor the stationery keeper is doing now?
Some guy called Paul Combs, who describes himself as a would-be roadie for the E Street Band, has compiled a list of 10 songs about Monday that don’t suck like Monday sucks. It is worth reading, despite him calling Duran Duran idiots, if only to get you thinking about your favourite Monday songs.
Gloriously, we can skip the Sunday scaries this Waitangi weekend, giving us another week to develop our strategy to whack those scaries around the head.
I wonder if Simon Le Bon wants to explore Palmerston North on Sunday?
What are your strategies to defeat the Sunday scaries? What is your favourite walking route in Palmerston North? Email us at manawatuguardian.co.nz.
