A Bluesy Afternoon

Like many people I know, and some that I don't, like Kris Kristofferson, I sometimes get the Sunday Blues.

Maybe you're familiar with the feeling. The weekend is over, you didn't get half of what you thought you would have accomplished done, and you're too tired to do any brain work. But you also don't want to stay out late or make yourself tired because you have a solid 5 days of work, or more, to look forward to.

From reading a few articles, I learned that besides being hung over, one of the reasons, we feel kind of down on Sundays is because our sleeping patterns are off. I've tried to fix this by getting to bed as close as possible to my weekday time, and I try not to let this slip by more than 2 hours. This makes me a lame party guest but a happier person. Taking the occasional afternoon nap also helps, but I don't know if that's considered cheating.

I usually reserve Sundays for laundry, grocery shopping, half-cleaning my room (making it bearable instead of plain revolting), and over-thinking everything I've said and done that week. Having a routine is nice but it can get boring. The winter chill makes me even more sad because it keeps me trapped indoors. But one of the ways to avoid just sitting thinking of what you should have done, and just suffering in your apartment or your house is of course to do something nice for yourself. You can bake, read a book, make fun plans for the week or get out of your home entirely. Bookstores, libraries, and coffee shops are the obvious places for people who want alone time without being alone. Or you can do something fun, something that's typically off-limits on Sundays that you would have done Friday or Saturday but didn't.

I went to see Cadillac Records, take note of the blues theme. And pardon the cliche, but I did, I loved every minute of it. Without giving too much of the story away, though music junkies and Chicago natives probably already know the story, it fulfilled the trailer's promise of sex and violence. But there was also substance. It touched on race and gender stereotypes and each actor was given a complex role to fill, each having his own flaw and moments of greatness. Plus the music was stunning--when I heard the breezy intro for "At Last" I literally held my breath in anticipation--and the plot held me until the end. I've been listening to Etta James, Chuck Berry and Muddy Walters all week, and their lyrics mean more to me now, than they did before. See it.