The Highs And Lows Of Sunday, A Saga In Weekly Installments

It’s Sunday morning, and you wake up feeling fab because your weekend is still in full-gear. You reach for your phone — slowly, gently, your tender head still pounding from one too many shots last night. Ugh, why so many shots? Regardless, you answer your texts and respond to your brunch invitations. Brunch will make you feel better, you’re sure of it. Sometimes you have to bite the snake that bit ya’ and jump on that bottomless mimosa train.

Moreover, brunch is a time where you are able to recap your weekend with your closest friends. There is no better feeling than sitting at a table while you indulge yourself with french toast and fried eggs. You somehow don’t feel guilty for eating so much bacon because it’s brunch. Also, it’s a combined breakfast and lunch so the calorie intake can be divided in half if you feel like you need to justify it. During brunch you may get a text from that guy you gave your number to last night. Was he actually cute, or was it that last vodka water that you had to have?

Do you follow brunch with a trip to the gym? Nah. It’s Sunday, the day of rest. You’ll go tomorrow.

After you are fully juiced up with mimosas and your Saturday night hangover has (mostly) subsided you’ll probably walk around the city and shop a little bit. I’m not talking about shopping for a purpose — this is the art of simply wandering and poking around in stores and exploring the things that they have to offer. Most likely, you’ll keep your sunglasses on because you don’t want anyone to see the bags under your eyes from the weekend’s events. Chances are good you’re too tired to try any clothes on, and your shopping trip probably ends in a coffee shop. You realize that you need some coffee and a pastry to refuel for whatever the rest of the day brings. Although you are extremely weak from last night and exerting most of your valuable energy shopping, you are still feeling good vibes. So many good vibes in fact, that you may choose to visit your family.

You decide that you are patient enough to disregard the Sunday drivers and appreciate the day for what it is. Be careful though, because if you go to your mom’s house, she will give you a million things that she is trying to get rid of. You have to take the good with the bad: namely, free dinner, and a couple dusty lamps that would “look just darling” in your apartment.

After you indulge in a homemade meal, your emotions are slowly starting to decline and dip below sea level. Not only do you feel utterly beached because you begun the day with greasy bacon, but you have ended it with 1,000 calorie lasagna and garlic bread. Let’s not forget about that pastry either. Plus now, you have to go home and start to worry about the upcoming work week.

Between laundry, grocery shopping and organizing, you probably feel like you are being really productive but the intensity of the looming work week is still hanging over your head like a dark cloud. Your productivity is immediately cancelled out by the thought of having to check your work email tomorrow morning at 9am. Your emotions are now at the lowest point that they will be all day. You might glare at the iron with slitty eyes because you need some sort of scapegoat for the emotions that you have about ironing your clothes for the next morning.

This is when you remember, however, that all of your shows are coming on shortly. HBO and Showtime have really got it together. There is a bittersweet feeling as you indulge yourself in your Sunday night television ritual because you’ll have to wait all week to see what happens next, all over again. Your emotions have reached an acute high. This feeling is fleeting because once it is over, the weekend has truly drawn to a close and the only thing that you have to look forward to is the sound of your alarm at 6am the next morning.

Today, your emotions have gone from carefree to a looming sense of dread with a few ups and downs in the middle. We ride this roller coaster of joy and disappointment every week as the traditional day of rest has turned into the most bittersweet day of the week. It is a day that is stereotypically spent with friends and family but ends with the anxiety of responsibility.

It’s okay though: by Wednesday, you will already be planning the shenanigans for next weekend.