Elvis Costello – Welcome to the Working Week

It’s the first Monday since we set the clocks back and it’s always such a shock to my system to walk out the office and discover it’s nighttime. I was able to get outside during the day for a little bit but I don’t have a window in my office so I forgot that it was going to be truly dark.

I told myself yesterday that I was finally going to see the advantage of the return to standard time because I have this early meeting on Mondays and I’m forever racing to get there on time. I thought now it will be easier to get up because it will be lighter in the morning and I won’t be as tired because my body will still be on the old clock. Uh, not so much. I made it in ten minutes before the meeting, instead of zero minutes or being a hair late.

My daughter graduated from college this summer and now she has a “real” job, 9:00-5:00. Even though she was working full-time over the summer, it was just an extension of the student job she had had for the past three years so it didn’t feel as serious. It has been a rough transition for her. The job itself is fine but adjusting to the fact that now this is what your life will be like – get up, go to a job, come home, eat, repeat – that part is hard. We talked to her on the phone this evening and she joked, “Can’t I be a stay-at-home daughter?” I did not say, “Welcome to the working week, oh I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you,” but I sure as hell heard that in my head.