Thursday, August 30, 2007

a note on Thursdays




I think Thursdays are the week's birthday. I love Thursday like I love Halloween. It's not technically the best day maybe, but it's the last little moment before the best ones. And anticipation is almost always better than the actual thing you're anticipating. Thursday is Weekend-Eve, which makes me so happy. For me it really is Weekend Eve because my work week is Sunday through Thursday. I suppose by this theory, then, Wednesday should become my new Thursday, but - well - I mean come on, there is so little to love about Wednesday. I put a real picture up today. These are my happiest thoughts. They totally get me through Wednesdays.


But I was thinking especially about that youngest one, gleaming at us angelically through black and white. He wanders around me while I work through the day - spilling things, ripping things up, pulling my hands off the keyboard while I try to type, leaving fall risks every few feet from here to the living room, putting things in the VCR, wanting held when I'm busy, ignoring me when I remember he's the best thing on the planet - you know how it goes. Well, I was kissing the life out of his poor little cheek today just before I put him down for his nap, and I was very aware that perhaps he had me all giddy in that moment because he was about to go down for a nap. Anne Shirley in Anne of the Island once discovered a letter from her mother that said of Anne: I love her best when she's asleep, and better still when she's awake.


That completely ridiculous use of superlatives throws the reader off from the first sentence which proves my point. There is something about the fact that they eventually go to sleep. Evening comes, bath time finally ends, albeit with me soaking wet and exhausted, and then comes that wonderful happy snuggle with him the cleanest he will ever be from that moment until this time the next night, and he's giggly and busy and wonderful, but then he goes to bed.


I don't know what humans would do without sleep. I usually thank God profusely for that scientific phenomenon every time I finally sink into bed at night. But now that I have children I get it even more. I love them best then. Or maybe right before then - kind of like Thursday.


And of course - I mean, look at those faces - of course - it's better still when they're awake.

2 comments:

Den said...

I've long associated Thursdays with autumn, which is my favorite season. This may well have to do with some degree of narcissism since I was born on a Thursday in the fall, but I think there is something lovely to be said for a day that is winding down the week as well as a season winding down the year.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't sure anyone would know quite what I meant by comparing Halloween to Thursday, and here you knew exactly what I meant and have always thought the same way. Thursdays and autumn. I love seeing two of my favorite words share a sentence.