I don’t have a set schedule for writing these pieces for my blog but for the last month or two I’ve been writing them on Sundays. I don’t know why. It just ended up being that way. But this one I’m writing on a Monday because this was the weekend of my annual backyard barbecue. It was the 30th one. Last year was supposed to be the 30th one but it got skipped because of Covid. That was disappointing.
On the first Saturday in August I invite my friends over and we have a barbecue in my back yard. It’s always fun and we have a good time. It takes some work and I can get a little wound up in the days before hand but things always go well. It’s the couple of days afterwards that a crash comes.
Since the party is on a Saturday that means Sunday is the next day and that’s when I have to take it easy. I try to clean up as I go along on Saturday and I clean up almost everything after people leave but there are still a few things left to do on Sunday. I’ve learned to keep those things to a minimum. I gotta rest on Sunday.
I’m one of those people who likes to keep busy. I like to be creative and make art whenever I can. So if I have a choice between sitting around and doing nothing or standing at my drawing table and making a drawing I choose to draw. That’s my habit. On the Sunday after my party it’s a lot better for me if I choose to do nothing. It took me a lot of years to learn that lesson. Maybe 20.
There is a feeling I describe as a party emotional hangover. It usually hits on Monday mornings when I go back to work and am faced with the stark reality that life is not a party. The Saturday party is always a lot more fun than the Monday earning a living. I’m not the only one who gets the post party blues but I’ve found that when I’m the one throwing the party I’d better get a day of rest after.
It’s a bit of work to throw a party. It’s not especially hard or unpleasant work but there are things to be done if you want the party to go smoothly. And when you’re the host of the party there are things that have to get done during the party. I’m lucky in that I’ve got good friends who have been coming to this barbecue for a lot of years so everyone helps out and things run like clockwork. But it can wear me out.
When I was a younger person I could get up on Sunday morning, clean up what was left to clean, and then get back to drawing or being creative. I could jump right in. As the years passed recovery time for everything got longer. Where I could once stay up until 2AM and be okay the next day now if I stay up that late (which I never do anymore) I’m exhausted for the next two days. It got to be that way with the Sunday after the party too.
In the transition period between resting on Sundays and not I spent a lot of time pushing myself to do stuff on that Sunday. Where I used to jump right in and get creative I had to start psyching myself up to do stuff. And it would lead to me being even more exhausted on Monday. That was the real problem in this transition period. Mondays.
Mondays can be hard enough during a normal week. Who wants to go back to work after all? They are made harder on the weekend after a party, harder than that after a weekend that I throw a party, and then they got even harder after my weekend party where I exhausted myself on Sunday too.
It must be over ten years ago that I started watching movies on the Sunday after my barbecue. In those days some people used to stay over on Saturday night and then we’d go out to the diner on Sunday. Things wouldn’t end until Sunday afternoon and then I’d go home, lay on the couch, and turn on a movie. Pretty simple stuff. Lot’s of people do it every Sunday.
I’m a morning person. That means that I’m up at the same time everyday no matter how tired I am. So I get out of bed at 6AM. When people where staying over I’d quietly get up and quietly finish cleaning stuff up until everyone else was awake at 10AM or so. With no one else here but me this past Sunday I cleaned everything up by about 9AM and then had to figure out what to do with my day. There was no brunch to go to.
Most people can sit in front of the TV all day and make a good time of it. I keep wanting to get up and do something. I actually had to stop myself on about three occasions from getting to work on a project. I’d put on a movie, watch it (I can’t even remember what I watched and it’s the next day as I write this), and then get up and want to do something. It was habit that got me up so I had to consciously stop myself. It’s weird to stop myself from drawing.
I’m glad I took it easy. I was really tired. I think I may have nodded off a couple of times during the day as I sat in my easy chair. I don’t think I fell asleep for more than a few minutes but that’s how tired I was. Back in my twenties it was okay to push myself to get things done when I was tired. It helped me develop good habits so I could get my own artwork done. But now that I’m older it’s counter productive. Pushing myself means more recovery time and that’s not worth it. Being well rested also means those Monday morning “Life is not a party” blues are less blue. I’ll take that any day of the week.