HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You'd think it would be the easiest question in the world: what day of the week is it?But whoa. when the holiday eve is on a Monday, and the holiday itself is Tuesday, every single marker of "what day is this" vanishes. Doesn't it?
I had the most impossible time last week figuring out what day it was. NO idea. As someone on Facebook wrote: How can today be Wednesday when the last four days were Saturday?
I posted this on Facebook last Thursday...
"Trying to figure out what day it is. Yesterday felt like Monday, because Sunday was a holiday. But OK, not Monday, because it wasn't. Christmas was actually Wednesday, so that meant yesterday was Thursday. But actually it wasn’t, so it isn’t. Yesterday also kind of felt like Friday, because something was over. So today I'm like, YAY, FRIDAY! But it isn't.. AH. This is the most Friday-ish Thursday ever."
...and got hundreds of responses!
Some brilliant cartoonist captured it this way:
And I really needed that place in the Milwaukee airport that allows travelers to regroup--is there a way to recombobulate the TIME?
And now we're heading into another week of calendar confusion.
Can you feel it? How are you handling it?
HALLIE EPHRON: This year it's particularly bad because Thanksgiving was SO EARLY! And because the holidays are in the middle of the week. The rest of the year it feels as if I'm speeding along, trying to hit deadlines, and for the last three weeks of December it's like slo-mo. It's nice. It's a good time to change calendars (I still use a paper datebook) and create new financial spreadsheets for 2019, so essential when spring has sprung and tax-time comes around.
I LOVE the Milwaukee airport's recombobulation area -- cracked up the first time I saw that sign. And what better time to be cracking up than when you're coming OFF or getting ON a plane?
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been confused since I came back from England on the 15th of November! I haven't done much of anything but work, so one day has just bled into another, with an "Oh, it Christmas already?" thrown in. I suspect it will be the second week in January before we get ourselves sorted out.
JENN McKINLAY: I have no idea what day it is but that's awesome. Because if you don't know what day it is, you can't be held accountable for your deadlines, right? RIGHT???
RHYS BOWEN: Usually I know what day it is but holidays throw me off. Christmas Day confused with weekend! But we're heading back to AZ this week so I need to get my act together and take care of business.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm also deeply unmoored from what day it is. I've been going over the calendar multiple times a day because today Youngest and I are attending the swearing in of Maine's first woman governor, tomorrow Youngest is having her wisdom teeth out (yikes!) and Friday, she has a doctor's appointment AND she's attending the Inaugural Ball in Augusta (thankfully, the boy she's going with has a car.) Why is all this happening when I'm still making dinner from Christmas leftovers?HANK: Right, right, right! But it truly feels as if we've got some extra days, and that's nice. Or, psst. Do we never know what day it is anyway, and this just gives us an excuse?
How about you, readers...does it feel weird to you? Have you confused appointments, shown up on the wrong day, awakened confused--or are you simply enjoying being baffled? (And doesn't this look like a fun life?)
Sometimes I think baffled is a permanent state of mind . . . Holidays jumble everything up, leaving me with no idea of what day it is [unless I look at the top of the page of this blog where you so graciously tell me what day it happens to be . . . .]
ReplyDeleteThere are times when confusion is a constant state around here . . . .
Well, there is that! And I suppose we should just give into it, and have fun
DeleteI'm messed up as well. It doesn't help that I usually use TV shows to help mark the day of the week, but none of my shows are on right now. Plus, I just talked to my family Tuesday night instead of Monday night, so that will throw me off. Yep, I'm pretty much sunk until this weekend.
ReplyDeleteExactly! But today totally seems like Monday, doesn’t it?
DeleteOn Monday there was an Antique's Road Show! That gave me hope...
DeleteCount me as confused, too. And, as Mark mentioned, TV shows are helping any. I usually tune in to the new episode of "Love It or List It" on Monday nights on HGTV, and last night (that was Monday night, right?), there was "Lottery Winners' Dream Homes" on, and it's usually on Friday nights. I suspect some sort of conspiracy at HGTV to add to the confusion of what day it is. I'm just hoping we get the trash toters taken down tomorrow night. Oh, wait, tomorrow's Wednesday. We don't take the toters down until Thursday night. Has Thursday already come? Help! I need a calendar!
ReplyDeleteOh it’s so ridiculous :-) it’s bad enough that we watch everything on demand anyway, but it’s not like the good all days :-) when Ed Sullivan was Sunday. And friends on Thursday, right? Now everything is on all the time.
DeleteI haven't really forgotten what day it is, but with all the time off I've had in the past two weeks via the holidays, it has made me feel a bit sluggish. Probably because I've spent so much time sleeping without having to setting the alarm. Having a cold doesn't help either.
ReplyDeleteGiven that I've got a big order to get started/finished at work, I can't afford to be confused or sluggish starting today. Lots of work to do really makes you focus, regardless of how you feel.
Oh, absolutely! Nothing like a deadline! Good luck....
DeleteJust as mixed up as the rest of you. I have a regular Wednesday slot on a Facebook group. You got it - I posted over there yesterday! Add having a foggy sickhead to the mix and it's hopeless. At least today I wrote the date on a note to my sister (with pen on paper), so I think I know the year, as if that helps.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand! It’s just impossible… And poor thing, having a cold makes it completely worse. Can you just float until next Monday?
DeleteOooh, 2019. I already had to put the date on something and wrote 2020.
DeleteIt has messed me up! I have been looking at my phone or computer multiple times a day for the date or day of the week! Fearing the whole dementia thing was strong!
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, when I was very little, I always thought holidays fell on the weekend. The eve was Saturday, Sunday was the holiday. No clue why I felt like that. Possibly it had to do with school and the way our vacations and time off fell. Except Valentine's Day, which always needed to be during the school week. This led to a very mixed up couple of years when I turned older and realized that was NOT how holidays happened! Ah, youth!
That’s because having the holidays and weekends makes so much sense! Remember when they changed to celebrating on Monday? That wasn’t too long ago, was it?
DeleteSo glad you all are as confused as we are! Now we should get back on track. Hope all had a wonderful couple of weeks! xox
ReplyDeleteOh, Lucy, it was very special… I had a wonderful but strange couple of weeks! Hope you did too…
DeleteYes, I am as totally confused as everyone else. Every year one of my Christmas gifts is a new Classic Dave Barry desk calendar - you know the kind where you tear off and see what day it is. So that should help, right? Well, it does while I am sitting at the desk but then when I go off to do some task I ask myself 'what day is it?' because it really doesn't feel like the day that Dave Barry said it was.
ReplyDeleteAnd relying on Dave Barry is risky anyway :-) he is so hilarious! Xxxx still, we may need to check in with you on the day of the week…
DeleteI'm just glad my phone and laptop tell me what day it is because since Christmas I've been surprised by that info every day. LOL
ReplyDeleteEvery day! I mean, how can that be? It would it be logical that once you figure out what day it is, the next one is not that difficult. But no! I agree. It’s a surprise every day.
DeleteI am totally aboard the "What day is it?" train. However, for me, it all comes to a screeching halt today. I am back in my office at my desk as I write this, so I know all the normal structures of life are about to snap back into place. Which is simultaneously depressing and reassuring.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! (I don’t go back until Friday, which is very bizarre.) So from time to time, will you just pop in and remind us that it’s Thursday? Oh wait, it is. Is it? Have a great day! And won’t it be weird when tomorrow is not Tuesday? Xxx. And good luck!
DeletePoor Susan. Now I'm feeling guilty for going out to play today (the last week for the Winnie the Pooh exhibit at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts).
DeleteHank: No, today is Wednesday!
DeleteHallie: Never feel guilty for going out to play!! Least of all for going to a museum!
I am confused but accepting! I have my To Do list in hand and all I really care about is getting stuff checked off. What day of the week I got things done has been relegated to the back of the line of worries. Now that I think about it, I'm declaring my office a "Recombobulation Area." That way, my confusion will at least have the appearance of purpose. Yeah, that works!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Let's all do it..xxo
DeleteEver since I closed my business 12 years ago (not "retired"), I've had trouble with the days of the week. It does not help that my self-employed husband has always worked every single day, regardless. So this confusion? Totally normal.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for the day and date feature on all my electronic devices: phone, computer, tablet. Even my car clock tells me what day of the week it is, or I'd wander around lost most of the time.
But now it's 2019! When did that happen?
Yes, our car used to have a readout which said what day of the week it was. When we got a new car, it's didn't have it. I was completely baffled.
DeleteThat falls under the heading of "Thing we didn't know that would have changed our mind about this purchase".
DeleteI have not watched network TV shows since 2010, so even that doesn't help. On Netflix you can watch anything, any time.
Today started out sort of Monday-ish, but now it feels sort of Friday-ish. Which means tomorrow should be Saturday, but of course it's not. But then, I'll have at least two Fridays this week, which is always a good thing, right? See, I'm not confused....
ReplyDeleteYes, it's totally Monday.
DeleteI know when to put the garbage out and I've paid the bills early but that's it. Yesterday my husband asked what time Puppy Bowl would be broadcast. "Honey, we're watching the Rose Bowl with the entire state of Ohio. Puppy Bowl and Dog Bowl are Super Bowl weekend."
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY! Yesterday I said, yay, it's time for Outlander. And Jonathan said--it's not Sunday. I was so convinced!
DeleteI get confused especially when there is a long weekend. I did laundry today so I have to remind myself that today is Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteSO confusing! And we don't realize how important those markers are... But Happy New Year, dear Dru! And we rely on your saying every morning, so if you don't know what day it is, we are all in trouble!
DeleteOh I need the recombobulation area. We went to my sister-in-law's house on Christmas Eve and returned on the following Thurs. Therefore that whole week felt like the weekend, then the actual weekend came. It was very confusing. Then there were so many football games the past two days so that had to be the weekend, right? All of my meetings and volunteer activities which keep me on track are in abeyance for two weeks. It will be next week before I am "recombobulated" I am sure. Starting the week on Wednesday is not right. I go from my desk calendar to the New Yorker cartoon calendar on the kitchen counter but I am still confused.
ReplyDeleteYup. It's impossible. It won't be recombobulated until next Monday. Whenever that is.
DeleteI've been on vacation from my day job since 12/21. I haven't known what day of the week it is since then. Now I'm back to work, I better figure it out.
ReplyDeleteMary/Liz
Well, at work. It's a workday. xoxoxoo
DeleteLike Susan, I go back to work today, and you'd think I could get back into the M-F weekly work structure, but noooo! I work today through Friday, have Saturday off, then we have tuba auditions all day on Sunday, which will make the following week six days instead of five. That gets weird. We have a concert on January 22, a Tuesday, but since we generally rehearse the Saturday and Sunday before, Concert Day always feels like a Friday to me. When I finally do get a regular weekend, I have to remind myself not to go back in to work because, at that point, isn't every day a work day? Sleep deprivation does not make things easier. But hey! Onward.
ReplyDeleteNooooooooo that is way too complicated! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteJulie's last day of work was November 30, a Friday, and I haven't known what day it is since then. I do know the date because it's down there at the bottom of the screen, at least as long as I am on the computer, which is no more than an hour or so in the morning.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm glad to know all the rest of you are having the same experience, or do we have a mass dementia happening here?
Speaking of dementia, we've been worried about our dog, Toby, who will be 13 in April, not that old for a poodle pom mix tho. Our neighbor walks him every morning, long story. For the past few days he has hidden when she comes to get him and Pennylane. We were afraid he was getting confused, as this daily walk has heretofore been the highlight of his existence. This morning I figured it out. He hates wearing his coat. The neighbor thinks he should have his coat on if she has hers on! From now on he can go coatless if it's above zero.
This is so simple, Occam's Razor and all that.
Our trash pickup will be a day later for the second week in a row and that's really confusing! So funny how we tie our awareness of the calendar to these things! And I've had a cold since the Saturday before Christmas (how many days ago is that??)and the fuzzy-headedness has not helped at all.
ReplyDeleteTrash day is a big deal around here, and it is ALWAYS a day later after a major holiday. Yet there are ALWAYS those neighbors who forget. And this means garbage is out an extra day to be distributed by the raccoons, blown by the wind, and tipped over by the Big Dogs.
DeleteAnd the fact that we have to rely on trash day to keep us in line is kind of crazy, too!
DeleteAnd poor thing! With a cold, it’s orders of magnitude more confusing!
DeleteOur trash day is also delayed by one day after both Christmas and New Year's....and given that we reside in a retirement community, this wee change in schedule has some interesting outcomes....apparently trash pickup should be set in stone! Added to that, our pickup alternates biweekly for recycle/garden waste. Hilarious when we looked up and down our street....some cans out, others not, some cans out with blue containers, others out with green. Which is it? Out today or out tomorrow?
DeleteSince I'm "retired" the only set date each week is trash day. And that is squirrely around the holidays. I'm entirely in the confused camp these two weeks of holidays. I will count myself lucky if that can be my quota for the year and I can be un-confused the other 50 weeks.
ReplyDeleteThat is a perfect way to look at it! Go with the flow!
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteRecent convo with Mom friends:
Friend: So, you're clear to come over on the 1st for mimosas.
Me: Yes, sounds great. See you Wed.
Friend: The 1st is Tuesday.
Me: *sigh* Thankfully, Tuesday works, too.
This has been every day. What day is it? Who am I?
What am I? Ack!!!
People are missing appointments like crazy! Showing up on the wrong day, watching TV shows that aren’t on, whatever. It’s kind of… Fun.
DeleteThank God, I'm not alone in this situation. Shared confusion lowers stress and helps getting through.
ReplyDeleteOh, clearly we are all in this together! Hooray!
DeleteIt's all good. Our office changed its tradition this year and required us to work the half day before Christmas and New Year rather than giving us off. Seems to help, but it also seemed to make the week longer. Not sure why.
ReplyDeleteThat is weird! Weird weird weird. What is the logic of that? And I bet it seemed longer because no one else was working :-)
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ReplyDeleteI usually rely on TV shows, too, but have been watching Netflix and Hallmark movies for a while. Since my sister-in-law was sick on Christmas Day, we just celebrated this Monday. So, yea, it is confusing. I usually go to the grocery store Wednesday and I did today. Next week is Farm Show week so that will change things up. Luckily I have lots of calendars and electronic devices to help.
ReplyDeleteSo hilarious--I love to hear how we all are dealing with it..xxo
DeleteLook at it this way. Today is, of course, Monday. Tomorrow will probably be Tuesday. And the day after that....Friday! Yay! (Unless, of course, you thought you had all week to meet that deadline.)
ReplyDeleteAnd that is perfect. Okay, that's how I'll think of it! Might as well.
DeleteFor years I have misplaced Tuesday. Every week I would finish the day on Monday and start the new one on Wednesday. It caused some serious problems. I retired from 25 years of teaching in May of this year. Now I'm completely lost. Sunday is my touch point. I try to always make it to church - unless of course it's on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI started reading this while at work today, Wednesday January 2. Okay, I got that correct. So very much commiserate with your dilemmas. My problem is dates, not days of the week, I'm a scheduler/coordinator for the local office of a homecare network. I'm constantly on a different date, actually multiple dates, than what is the actual date. I'm always asking for the date when I write a check at my doctor's office.
ReplyDeleteChicago:
ReplyDelete"Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care?"
A favorite song then and now.