Making late-night Sundays special defies the Monday blues

I saw a news item recently that mentioned the phenomenon of the “Sunday Scaries,” described in the coverage as the anxiety one feels when the weekend is dwindling and Monday morning and a new, full workweek looms just ahead. 

First off, it’s not a new phenomenon; only the name is new. Back when I was a young professional in Chicago, we used to call it the Sunday Blues.

Usually an indicator that it’s time to look for a new job, that periodic dread of going back into work Monday rarely got to me. Why? 

I had the remedy. I have the remedy.

No, the remedy is not, “live in Switzerland”… but maybe that’s not such a bad idea

I shut down the Scaries with intentional activities to extend my weekend. The idea is that while the rest of the world is having Sunday night blues, instead you consciously make Sunday nights special. 

Back in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago I’d save a VHS for Sunday at 10 PM.

While the street outside my walkup was its darkest and quietest — the only time all week it would be so still — I’d pop in that one video cassette (yes, it was so long ago we had those then) I’d been saving for last.

Failing that, I would have set aside a particular article or novel that I’d looked forward to digging in to. 

And pour myself a beer. If I’d ever been a smoker, that would have been the time.

In the background I might listen to “Rock Over London” or put on “120 Minutes” on MTV.

[On deep summer Sundays back then, where it’d still be light until nearly 10 (you’d still see runners and other people about), I might even go for a short lakeside run.]

Staying up later Sunday let me defy sleep and a non-yawning Monday morning, because hey, I was 26 and immortal in those days.

A little Sunday night positivity — and I still do it.

The weekend is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s good to know, it’s still possible to extend itjust a bit longer. 

To this day, I’ll treat myself to a bourbon, read, write in my journal, or grab that next streaming episode, thankful while the world sleeps.

Scaries? Nah.  Instead, make Sunday nights a small, personal rebellion. It isn’t that you’re escaping Monday; you’re just taking a little more of the weekend for yourself.