7 Days of the Week

I had a very interesting experience today.

My morning activity assignment at work today was to take 3 dementia residents (one of which is completely blind, just to note) to a KinderCare so they could read to the children for an hour.

This trip was a flop. The blind resident could, obviously, not participate in reading to the children, and the other two were reading to themselves. Quietly. Making up words. It was a disaster. So I decided to intervene and ask the children if they wouldn't mind singing to us. This went over very well. They sang the ABC song, 10 Little Fish in the Sea ( a new-aged 10 Little Indian Boys; I assume fish are more PC), the months of the year song, and the days of the week song.

It is this last song that got me thinking.
The lyrics are pretty easy: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. There are seven whole days in the week. There are seven days in the week.

What is there to think about? Seems straight forward.

Well here is the thing. I am very used to school weeks. Monday through Friday and then relax or accomplish leftover weekly talks on the weekend. Unless you count finishing homework or cleaning the house, I have never had a weekend that was extremely productive. Productive in the sense that it had the possibility of bettering my life as a whole. My weekends have always been a break from my life not a time to improve it.

This weekend is different. Tomorrow I will be job shadowing - the second step in a long interview process for a job I really want. I am excited about this because I haven't moved forward in this process since my initial interview three weeks ago. That is a long time to wait. That is Saturday.

Sunday (after work), Eddie and I will be hosting our pumpkin-carving housewarming party. I pretty much don't know anyone coming. They are Eddie's friends and a couple random people I have met from my building. This is a great thing! As a new girl in a new city I am ready to meet new people. It is time to start building a network of friends and acquaintances. I am hoping that Sunday will be a refreshing experience.

Job Interviews: Something I always did on a Monday at noon or Wednesday at 3. Anytime that was convenient for the porfessor or academic blah blah that I was applying to work for. Never a Saturday.

Building a network: Something I have always done while at school. I go to school and say hi to someone on the first day. We become friends and say hi to others whom we become friends with...yada yada yada. I am not saying I have never met a friend on the weekend, I am just saying my usual group of friend have always been people I go to school with.

I do not have the luxury of using the campus lifestyle to customize my life here in Chicago. I have to go out of my way. Way out. Going to work and coming home day after day does not move my life forward. It actually is the worst kind of standing still I have ever experienced.

From now on I will have to depend on the two days of the week I am so used to throwing away (by drinking and/or sleeping through them). I will look forward to my weekends from now on - not because I want to hide from life - but because I want to live it.

I am not sure that this is the most poignant blog I have ever written but hopefully you're picking up what I'm putting down. haha.

-C