Monday 8 November 2010

Feels Like Friday

Do the days of the week differ for you in more than just their given name or the regular tasks they may or may not bring?

A
friend of mine once said, for instance, that for him, Tuesdays are yellow.
Now, to him yellow means something entirely different than to me; I love the colour yellow,
whereas I know that for said friend, Tuesdays tend to be quite on the tedious side where work is concerned.
If I had to attribute colours to the days of the week, I think Saturdays would be light blue, as they have a freshness about them, probably originating from my usual weekly cleaning of the flat.


For others, maybe different days come in different tastes, like the delicious scent of home-made bread or freshly brewed coffee that one could attribute to Sunday mornings.
And what about sounds? There certainly is a different chorus of traffic noise, birdsong, church bells and neighbours' voices on a typical Wednesday than on a Sunday.

Generally, though, the days of the week have a distinct "feel" to them for me; distinct and yet hard to describe at the same time.

Last week, Monday was a holiday in my part of Germany, but I went to the office nonetheless (and wrote about it here). Everything was different from a normal Monday, and so it was hardly surprising that for the rest of the week, I felt a slight confusion as to what day it was, and had to keep reminding myself of it every now and then.

On top of that, I had Friday off (in exchange for having worked on Monday), and so my Thursday felt like Friday from the moment I woke up.

What exactly felt like Friday?

Was it the knowledge, always at the back of my mind, of not having to go to work the following day, and therefore wanting to finish all my tasks at work, even those I would normally not mind leaving until tomorrow? Was it the generally rather relaxed atmosphere at work, what with many of our customers being away for a holiday and with a very good previous month under our belts?

I really don't know and was actually hoping that writing this would give me a clearer idea, as is sometimes the case with writing.

All I know is that last week, Thursday felt like Friday.

8 comments:

  1. It is a funny thing how sometimes a day will start off and continue to feel like a different one. I thought this might be a common occurrence with retirees, but apparently not restricted to us since you are experiencing them too.
    PS...I like yellow and your yellow dress makes me smile.

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  2. Thank you, Jill - I am glad my yellow dress managed to put a smile on your face :-)
    So the different feel of the days happens to you, too; have you been able to put a finger on what actually does make the difference for you?

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  3. Hi there Librarian, by-the-way, do English and German folks say Hi?
    I've given this some thought over the last few days and I can't decide what exactly makes me 'feel' one day is like a different day, but I do know many mornings as I look out over my back yard I say, "This feels like Saturday," and the feeling will persist all day. You might conclude that each day is like the one before and the one after to a retiree and there is merit in that, but I really don't know what prompts these feelings that the day is somehow not rightly situated.
    From now on I will be attuned to the color of the day. I've never considered that before. I'll let you know if I have a sunny-yellow Saturday or a grey Tuesday.

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  4. Yes, Jill, English and German folks say Hi, too :-)
    It's funny, isn't it, how you get this feeling about a day and can't really put your finger on it as to WHY or HOW exactly it feels that way!
    If I had to assign a colour to this afternoon, I'd say it was red all over.

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  5. Aha! Not to self: Post comments from IE as firefox seems not to work. So. Most synesthetes feel Tuesday to be yellow. There wa s reason for this but it eludes me now. What startles me is just how different the same place can feel on different days, even under the same weather conditions and light levels. The shops feel so much more interesting on a Saturday afternoon, for isntance, than on a Sunday (now they are open on a sunday) or a Monday. Not that I have any affinity for shops, it was just an example.

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  6. Well, although I have synaesthesia myself (is that the correct spelling?), my Tuesdays are not yellow. I guess there are some variations, and I am probably one of them.
    Yes, I know what you mean about the same place feeling different, it even applies to such familiar places like my own living room or kitchen.
    Today is purple. A dark shade of purple. But not every Thursday is like that.

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  7. Yellow to me is such a happy color! If I had to assign colors to the days, Friday would be a lime-ish color; Saturday bright yellow; Sunday orange; Monday flaming red!; Tuesday purple; Wednesday blue; Thursday green. And I agree with Jill, the yellow dress looks great on you! :) When I miss a day of work, or the office is closed one day, it always sets my week off. I suppose that the reason a Thursday may feel like a Friday, especially if one has Friday off, is completely psychological. You know in your mind that tomorrow you have off, so today MUST be Friday. I think also, for me, when someone I'm used to seeing come in on a certain day, and they come in a different day, that may set my week off as well. Working for a Credit Union, we have "typical" quiet days, Tuesday and Wednesday are our quiet days. If one or both of those days are busy, or if one of the other three days are quiet rather than being busy, that will also make one or more of us at the office feel like it's a different day than it is.

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  8. Oh yes, I agree with you on that, it is a purely psychological thing, as is the whole original set up of weekdays and months. Of course, the changing of day and night times and the seasons are a natural feature and determine our biological rhythms more than a lot of people care to admit, but the dividing our time into week days is entirley artificial, and therefore everything that "makes" a certain day for us is acquired and not instinctive. That does not make it any less interesting, though :-)

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