Monday Doldrums

So, I am sitting here at work, fighting off a mind-numbing headache, and I am just watching the minutes slowly tick by. I think that's the problem with being paid by the hour - hours, seconds, the slow progression of the minute hand around the clock...it can become attention-consuming. Especially when there is nothing else to divert your attention. Let me explain. I have a great job. I really do. I get paid heads and tails above others who are doing exactly what I am. Paid benefits? I have them! My boss is incredibly kind, patient, and understanding. And the engineers I work with, contrary to popular myth, are quite hilarious and sarcastic. It's refreshing, to say the least. So what's my problem, might you ask? 18 out of the 20 days of the month I have to invent projects, assignments, or "jobs" for myself to do because there is just nothing to do! And there are days when creating something out of nothing requires so much energy, I sometime give up in defeat and watch the minute hand once again. Usually, I can keep myself somewhat occupied until the lunch hour, and then when I come back, I usually only have close to 2 hours left before Departure Time (the joys of being responsible for running the mail in are great, let me tell you) . But, unfortunately for me, the fates have conspired against me and all of the gainfully employed working population by creating the nastiest, most horrifying, disheartening enemy of us all that turns us into glaze-eyed clock watchers: MONDAYS.

The poison of Mondays starts seeping in Saturday afternoon, when I usually have the thought- "OH NO! In less than 48 hours, I will be back at my desk, getting paid to do nothing! And sitting there for 8 hours! AUGH!" I try to dismiss those thoughts as quickly as possible, because who wants a perfectly good Saturday afternoon ruined by the Monday beast? But the beast cannot be evaded for long. Because by 6:30 am, after a restful Sunday night's rest, the Monday Beast rudely forces its way back into plainsight. And the week begins.

The Monday Beast is so powerful in its de-enthusiazing ways, that work, which is usually bearable through some invention of my own, becomes all together doldrumatic. Looking up what exactly "doldrum" means (because heaven forbid I use a word inapproriately!), I found that it is indeed a word that is applicable to the Monday Blues we all experience: "A period of stagnation or slump. A period of depression or unhappy listlessness." (Dictionary.com) And so, fellow sufferers of the Monday Doldrums, I give you this ray of hope: We all experience it. You are not alone. So put in your Hairspray Soundtrack, buy a Twix, read a best-seller during your lunch break, and if worst comes to worst, day-dream that Gerard Butler will be waiting for you at home when you finally leave the Monday Doldrums of work , ready to sing to you the sweet lullabys of the Music of the Night.