{"id":2560,"date":"2015-04-20T09:58:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T07:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2021-04-02T10:33:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T08:33:29","slug":"the-sunday-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=2560","title":{"rendered":"The Sunday Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/reigrovy.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-2561 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/reigrovy-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"reigrovy\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/reigrovy.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/reigrovy.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s Sunday, so I do \u201cSunday\u201d things. I put on some Tom Waits, make coffee and an omelet. I put in a load of laundry and scan the book for Monday\u2019s class.<\/p>\n<p>After an hour, I realize that I have not yet sat down. I\u2019ve eaten standing at my kitchen counter, read my coursebook walking around the flat.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t shake the Sunday Edge.<\/p>\n<p>I have never liked Sundays. They have always been the day before everything starts: school, work, a new week of anxiety and stress. And so even though it is a day off and a day which in Czech almost literally translates to \u201cdon\u2019t do anything\u201d I often find myself edgy and glum.<\/p>\n<p>More than that, Sundays have always seemed a rather lonely day. Even in a house filled with people, Sundays seem to me a day when every person seems unavailable, stuck in their own Sunday world.<\/p>\n<p>So I walk around in circles wondering how to deal with the Sunday Edge. How?<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we drink.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we clean.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we walk to the mall and get our phone service changed.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->I walk down the river towards the center. The day is gorgeous, the sky is blue, the air is crisp. Still, the edge doesn&#8217;t go away. If you have ever gone for a late Sunday morning walk in Prague, then you know that nobody does bat-crap crazy like a late Sunday morning in Prague.<\/p>\n<p>The first man I run into is either homeless or has had the most epic Saturday night blowout in Prague\u2019s history. He is eating cheese spread from a container with his fingers. He has not only defecated in his pants, but has gone to the extra trouble of decorating his clothing with it. We make eye-contact, he wants to talk. I keep moving.<\/p>\n<p>Along N<span class=\"st\">\u00e1<\/span>plavka, the river walkway, there are more people. Couples, families, some talking to themselves, some still out drinking from Saturday night. There seems to be a lot of drool. I wonder if this was the best idea. Perhaps I\u2019ve just unwittingly joined Prague\u2019s crazy club. At least at home I can have a normal conversation with the cat. I sally forth.<\/p>\n<p>By the time I get to the mall, there are a lot of people out and about. I try to read their minds. They all seem so content and relaxed. One thing I have always admired about the Czechs is that they enjoy their weekend to the absolute fullest. They worry about work on Monday, not Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, this is the perfect approach. Enjoy all of your moments, live in the moment. Novel idea.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy the whole weekend? Even Sunday? I don&#8217;t know, sounds pretty radical. Despite that, after walking around the city for another two hours trying to shake the Sunday Edge, I decide to give it a go. I write to the Czech and she suggests a visit to the beer garden.<\/p>\n<p>Two drinks on a Sunday night is crazy talk. The only thing worse than a Sunday afternoon is a Sunday night. But around us there are people laughing and dogs humping each other and others playing Foosball. We have utopenec (pickled sausage), and before I know it, we are lodged in a pleasant chat.<\/p>\n<p>When it gets too chilly, we hit another cafe on the way home. The Sunday Edge still hangs around, but at least it&#8217;s kept at bay with good company and conversation. Maybe enjoying a Sunday can be a new &#8220;Sunday&#8221; thing. In any event, I wonder if that guy cleaned his pants off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Sunday, so I do \u201cSunday\u201d things. I put on some Tom Waits, make coffee and an omelet. I put in a load of laundry and scan the book for Monday\u2019s class. After an hour, I realize that I have not yet sat down. I\u2019ve eaten standing at my kitchen counter, read my coursebook walking [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-Fi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2560"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5225,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions\/5225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}