Calendar Confusion

First of all, Happy Memorial Day. I have often said Memorial Day is pretty close to the perfect holiday because for most people it means a day off from work but doesn't come with many other traditions or obligations demanding your time like several holidays do. You can pretty much do whatever you want, which in my opinion is what makes something a real holiday. Plus, unlike Labor Day which signifies the end of summer, Memorial day is the unofficial start to the season so it is full of people getting out of the house for the first time in months and full of hope for a long stretch of good weather. At least, that is what would have happened this weekend if the weather would have cooperated. Unfortunately the last few days were rainy and cold, with temperatures only getting up into the 50s after a couple of really beautiful weeks. It certainly felt a lot more like the middle of November than the last week of May. Because of the crappy weather the last few days I heard a lot of people commenting that this certainly didn't feel like Memorial Day weekend. I can't really disagree with them, but it just made me think about how often people would happily change the calendar based on how they feel on that day.

I'm pretty sure 90% of the population has said the following phrase at least once in their lives: "Well, it certainly doesn't feel like a ____" and then filled in the blank with whatever weekday it was but shouldn't have been in their minds. And I totally get that. The days of the week can start to take on a certain feel to them and when they feel even slightly off it can really throw you for a loop. (Especially when you find yourself at a point in your life where your weeks have fallen into a routine because it doesn't take much to throw that rhythm off.) The problem is that this can be hard to explain to other people because no day is going to feel the same way to two different people and there is nothing harder than trying to explain to a person how Wednesday feels to you. The only good part about this kind of confusion is that no one can make fun of you for it because they probably did it themselves recently. I include myself in that because just yesterday I was saying that it certainly didn't feel like a Sunday since the next day was a holiday. Also I am quite familiar with how it unpleasant it feels when you spend half the day thinking it is Friday only to remember that it is actually Thursday and there is still another day before the weekend about an hour before you sign off work for the day. But it is not like it is any better when you mess up weekend days, because then all your sports viewing is off. Given all the examples I can come up with, it is pretty clear this happens to me a lot.

Of course, it is pretty convenient that people only have this problem about Thursday-Sunday. You certainly don't hear people commenting that a Tuesday feels like a Wednesday very often because honestly what is the difference? The days could be reversed on the calendar and very few people would notice. Heck, they could be given totally different names and the only thing which would really change would be that TGIFs would have to come up with a new name for their restaurant. [Sidebar: If you think about it, it is actually pretty amazing how much of the planet has decided to go along with the current calendar system. Sure, there are a few cultures that won't agree on the year, but everyone has pretty much fallen into line on days of the week. If you want to get something shipped internationally and order it on Friday they will still tell you it will probably arrive on Tuesday, regardless of the country. Considering all the other things we don't agree on such as currency and units of measurement, I guess I just find it funny that 99% of us agreed to divide the calendar up in the same way.] The point is, even though there are only 7 days to keep track of, it is pretty easy to mess up the order.

I feel like the biggest reason for this is that people are getting too used to looking ahead to what is coming next rather than enjoying the day at hand. I mean, the only reason yesterday felt like Saturday rather than Sunday was that most people had today off from work, which means they are letting how they think about today be impacted by tomorrow, which is rather stupid. They should have been enjoying the day off rather than making plans for the extra day off (besides, isn't that what you do when you are at work?). I know looking forward to something which is quickly approaching (which can happen even if the coming event is something you are dreading and actually tends to happen more when that is the case) is a perfectly normal thing. Still, the old saying is that if you watch the horizon you miss the scenery in front of you, so maybe we should all stop worrying about what we are going to do with the day we think it is and focus on making the most out of the day it actually is. If nothing else, it will lead to people being a lot more accurate when they try to make plans for specific dates. Which is good because if you are going to forsake today for something which is happening tomorrow, you'd better hope you mean tomorrow and not next week.