On Traveling- Holiday '10 PART TROIS!

Here, at last (at long, long, 3-major-cities-in-as-many-weeks long last) is the final installment of the "On Traveling- Holiday '10" series (in case you are just joining us, you might want to check out the first two- on being in a hotel and Things you Must Pack). (Also, please notice that I knew how to and did spell "trois" correctly, and thus I do know how to spell in french)

I must admit, however, this final installment has actually morphed quite a bit from it's original topic. Originally, I was going to talk about relatives- and to be honest, I still feel that relatives and the ettiquette surrounding them and how to manage/navigate amongst their broods and dwelling-spaces will make an excellent post (holiday '11????), but as I was holiday-ing, something even more important made itself painfully relevant (no, seriously, I actually felt pretty awful learning this lesson- not like 'get out of the way, Aunt Margie, I'm going to up-chuck' bad, but like 'my insides are making a sad panda face really really hard' bad).

So what, you ask, is the topic? The topic is:


'Time Management'

with a subheading of 'How I almost over-scheduled myself into trouble.'

The holidays are a time of joy and cheer and catching up with old friends. When traveling, there is hardly a more delightful experience than catching up with a dear old friend over a drink, or drinks, or dinner and drinks. You find out about their life, you get to talk about yours (and, of course, highlight the Awesome things that have happened to you since last you saw each other- don't worry, they are doing it, too) and share in giddy reminiscences of ye olden days past.

Now, as with an ever-lengthening list of things, it is of the upmost importance to remember that moderation is key. Let me say that again, as it's own paragraph for emphasis:

Moderation is key.

Now to put this in context, a bit of background: All of the traveling I did this holiday season was with The Date. He is (among many of his charming features) an excellent traveller, and more importantly, incredibly game when it comes to meeting my many friends and family members. As we were planning our holiday schedule, I asked him "The Date, is it ok if we meet up with a few of my friends while we are in ________(fill in city of choice)?" and he would say "Of course! Let's do it." and then I would get super excited about seeing said friends and even more excited for said friends to meet The Date, because, let's face it, he's Awesome and if someone is a friend of mine, they have to be Awesome too, so it will be like a whole mini-Awesome convention, what with all that Awesomeness in one place.

And it was so. We met up with quite a few of my Awesome friends. And The Date seemed to be enjoying himself. But appearances can be decieving, and at a certain point, The Date pulled me aside and reminded me that, while a short trip down memory lane was fine and to be expected, a long, multi-city voyage by horse-drawn carriage and/or on foot was not exactly a trip he would book. What could he contribute? He was feeling (entirely rightly) a touch left out.

(I would like to stress at this point that any persons who may have met The Date this holiday season should not be alarmed or concerned. He says he enjoyed everyone that he met.)

I was stunned. I was flabbergasted. How could I have been so blind? So insensitive? So Rude? Needless to say, I was appalled at my own behavior.

There is a theory that some of you (hell, all of you, being the readers of Intelligence and Taste that you are) may have heard of and it is called the Pendulum Theory. It states that if a certain cultural attitude/idea/what-have-you swings too far in one particular direction, it will inevitably swing back the other direction and counter the original attitude/idea/etc. I believe in the Pendulum Theory. Not only do I believe it, but I happen to be a fantastic case study in it. And when The Date let me know that he didn't find my 2-hour conversation about previous employments simply and exhaustively fascinating, well bet your ass, I pendulumed back.

Now, as we all know, the Pendulum Theory isn't actually that teriffic in practice. You get lots of extremes, but not much in the Center (where Moderation lives his lovely little well-balanced life). Anyone who follows politics surely knows the insanity of wildly swinging from Far Left to Far Right (or as I like to call it, the goings-on of the US Senate). And thus it was with me. Trying to correct my most egregious faux pas, I then became excessively concerned with The Date's level of enjoyment of a given activity, checking every five minutes or so that he was having a good time- and thereby irritating him by checking in constantly.

In summation, my lack of moderation lead to hot mess of insecurity for me. Had I practiced a bit more Time Management, however, and limited some of the events to shorter intervals (and my own conversation about other non-present old friends), the whole mess could have been avoided.

Mondays: GET 'ER DONE!

So there's that song Manic Monday, and I have to say, I just don't understand it. A sort of sad, droopy sounding music plays and the Bangles lament that it's "just another manic Monday" and how they wish it was Sunday because it's a "funday." I hear that song and it just depresses me. It sounds like the saddest parts of the 80s all rolled into one- crimped hair, boots and shorts, elastic waisted jeans- but then add rain and bad traffic. So essentially, what I imagine Portland to be. And what's more, there's a lot of passive aggressive anger at Monday in that song, which I don't think is healthy at all.

I think we need to have a re-examination of our relationship with Monday. We need to understand what Monday is- it's weaknesses and it's strengths. You could look at Monday as the end of the weekend, OR you could look at it as the start of a brand new week. You can't have a great week on Saturday only. You have to start on Monday.

Also, a lot of commerce is reduced or stopped completely on Sunday. Awesome job standing in the way of economic recovery, Sunday. Monday gets things up and going again. Mondays are the stimulus of weekdays- unpopular, but necessary. History will remember the good you've done, Monday.

And while we're on the topic of the day the precedes Monday, I know that it has it's strengths (brunch is pretty much one of the most awesomest things ever in the history of all time), but it's not all mimosas and lounging. Anybody who has ever had to finish an arts and craft project over the weekend and run out of blue pipe cleaners at 6 pm on Sunday evening knows how sweet it is that closing time at Hobby Lobby on Monday is 8 o'clock and not 6. And any day that Chik-fil-a isn't open definitely has some explaining to do.

But before this turns into a rant against the other weekdays, let's focus on the day at hand: Monday. It's the newness of it, the possibility of success that give Monday it's value. The week you win the lottery starts with a Monday. So does the week when somebody proposes to you. If we stopped looking at Monday as a douchebag for ruining the weekend (and while I love weekending as much as anybody else, lest we forget, most things are best in moderation- and weekends would grow intolerable if there weren't something to make them special), we could appreciate Monday- because, quite frankly, Monday is a kick-off party for a full week of getting things done.

If you have a list of things to do, Monday is your man. Monday says 'give me your list' and then it allows you to totaly pwn it. If you work with Monday, and not against it, you will be happier, more accomplished, and the weekends will be that much more awesome.

So Manic Monday? I don't think so. I've decided that the NEW Monday song is Beyonce's Upgrade U. She says that "this won't be easy" but "trust me, you need me." And if you trust her, you can "build up your accounts." That means get rich. You need Monday to get rich. Six star suites, Hermes briefcases, Cartier tie clips- hello?!? I mean, I don't even wear tie clips, but it's the principle of the thing. Plus it's sung by Beyonce AND Jay-Z makes a cameo. I don't know about you, but my day is made a little bit more spectacular by the presence of those two. And if you could pick, who wouldn't want a spectacular Monday?