Quick Question: What Day is this? NOT SO FAST

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: There’s certainly a good explanation. Maybe several, and only one or two are distressing.

(First, though, whoo hoo. Very happy with the cover of the new RT Bookreviews. Nice, huh?)

Anyway, about the “situation.” Let me admit to you, friends, that there are times I have no idea what day it is.

This has gotten so ridiculously out of hand that the other morning (whatever day it was) I woke up, and had to THINK: What day is this? And then, in my frustration, I thought: They ought to make some kind of a device you could look at first thing in the morning that would instantly tell you what day it is.

Yeah, I know. They, um, did.  

But calendars aside, this whole juggling writing and full-time-job thing has given
me a better understanding of the Dowager Duchess’s famous question on Downton Abbey: “What’s a weekend?”

My confusion, sadly, does not come from the reality that I don’t have to work and as a result there’s nothing to separate weekdays and weekend.  

It comes from the opposite reality, that I work all the time.

This is not in the nature of a complaint in any way—I am happy and delighted, and buzzing along, counting blessings. But I’ve got to tell you, it’s disconcerting to realize that I don’t know the day of the week. I mean, don’t doctors use that as one of the three questions to determine if a patient is grounded in reality?) (And listen, don’teven ask me the date, like what number of what month it is. I didn’t study, and that’s too hard.)

I’ll be walking down the hall at the station or at home, and it will literally cross my mind—what day is this? Sometimes, if someone is nearby, I even ASK them. Most people happily, assume I’m joking. (A few, with a little shake of the head, seem to understand,and even commiserate.)

Kind of fascinatingly, I have turned this into a musing on how we’ve assigned “meaning” to each day of the week…the difficult Monday, the placeholder Tuesday, the day things get planned; Wednesday, when some things actually get accomplished; Thursday, when it’s suddenly too late, because it’s almost Friday, when WHEW week over, and in some offices and city halls and statehouses it might as well be Saturday, where, depending on your own life, it’s either HAVE FUN or DO ERRANDS, and then Sunday, when it used to be a rest day but now its either a catch- up-on-stuff (writing) day or when you get ready for Monday.

But—and here’s my point, and I know you were wondering—if you don’t know what day it is because, like me, you are writing (or thinking about writing) all the time, no matter what else is going on in your life, you lose those day-designators we’re used to. And you can look at time a different way.

Sure, you could decide “It’s always Monday, argh.” Or you could decide: Hurray. It’s another wonderful day where anything could happen!

Just don’t ask me what everyone else calls it.

(Is it…just me?)

Comments

[Kristopher]

Hank - I have said it before and I'll say it again. I have no idea how you do everything that you do. If I had the amount of things demanding my attention that you do, I would just call it quits and hide under the covers. What day of the week it was would be the least of my problems.

[Hana Haatainen Caye]

Sunday's my barometer. Church and rest. It's the day I take off from all the other busyness. And then there's the weekly features on the blog that keep me focused, like Vinegar Fridays (although I'm always amazed at how quickly they come around each week). Without these "time stamps," I'd be in the same boat as you, but hey, as long as we had wine, think of the fun we'd have!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Kristopher, aww, thank you! But hey, you're no slouch when it comes to busy-ness!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Hana, I LOVE being in the same boat with you! xo

[Storyteller Mary]

Someone told me that retirement is six Saturdays and one Sunday . . . but no one I know has stopped doing things. My mental game when I awake is to try to remember the day and my schedule for the day before I get up -- I'm usually mostly right, but I have reminders on the iCal and on post-its on the vitamin caddy, just in case . . .

[Reine]

You're safe, Hank. We don't worry about your being grounded—only oriented. Missing the day of the week is not a crisis unless you think it's 1956 and you like Ike. You don't know where you are? Ah—nevermind…

[Renee Paley-Bain]

My comment flew into the netosphere and disappeared. But here's what I said: I, too, was beleaguered by the same problem, but I found the perfect solution. It's a little bit retro, but it works. Subscribe to a daily newspaper. They always know what day it is and they print it right up at the top of the page. Since the NY Times is delivered by six in the morning, I'm never left unawares. Sometimes I don't even need to read the date. If it's the Science section, it must be Tuesday.

[Claire Murray]

I empathize with you, Hank, because I get to that point too. It gets difficult to separate the days when you they are too full and you are never done.

Hang in there, though. You do good stuff!

claire

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Oh, I feel so much better that it's no just me! And yeah, Reine, I generally...know where I am. And I am grateful..xoo

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Renee! It's not retro--I read the actual paper, too! (And see you soon!) And Thursday is Styles, right?

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Claire, aw..thank you.

[Deb Romano]

My original response disappeared as I was typing it. Here goes my second attempt:

In order to know which day of the week it will be the next morning, before I go to bed I pull out one of seven color-coded index cards from the medicine chest, and prop it up behind my toothbrush. The card will read "Good Sunday Morning" or "Good Monday Morning" and so forth. On most Mondays and Fridays I get up earlier to go to physical therapy before going to the office. I have cards for that, too.

If I try to guess which day it is as soon as I wake up, I have a good chance of being wrong! Do NOT ask me the month or year! At work we are constantly working with different fiscal years, and current fiscal year documents can be dated months earlier.

This has nothing to do with anything, really, but I like and look forward to Mondays. I think it's because, um, because...okay, I'm weird; I just like Mondays! Weekends are too rushed, not enough time to relax. At least I know what to expect on a Monday...especially if I wake up knowing that it IS Monday (thanks to my index cards:-)

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

DebRp: "I know what to expect on a Monday" is a pretty great opening line of a book.... (And I like MOndays too--it's a good excuse.)

xxo