Normally when the weekend happens, I am ECSTATIC! YES! Two whole days to do WHATEVER I WANT!

I can sleep in and eat a slow breakfast or go somewhere for a bite! WOO! Alarm clock, you’re off duty!

I can even take my sweet time and read EVERY INCH of the paper! So informative and accurate and unbiased! (I especially love the Letters to the Editor- Montanans come up with some pretty persuasive arguments as to why America/Montana is turning into a pile of crap- Muslims! Atheists! Birth control! Obama!)

I think I’ll watch my favorite movie (a still from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds) because it’s the WEEKEND and I have TIME!!

Perhaps I’ll even go out with my friends!

Then I look around after sleeping in, thinking I’ll make the Long Breakfast and watch The Movie and go Out, when I realize I have no clean clothing and I should probably do laundry. Insert expletives here.

Then I remember that I have 200+ pages of reading, a paper, and a quiz on Monday. I should probably get to that. Eventually, you know.

Then I look around and realize I was also hoping to clean this weekend. My hovel is looking even more hovel-y than usual- and I really wanted to vacuum and perhaps even get rid of the lentils I got on the ceiling last semester (that’s a tale for another time).

And then I feel like this.

So, folks, you must share these feelings. You have these dual goals: you want to better yourself, your life, and get stuff done on the weekend. At the same time, you want to relax, and do your thing, be it gardening, reading the paper, or making origami. How do you strike a balance?

I am suggesting that we stop settling!

If we had a 3 day weekend, we could balance it better- our lives could be better! Our work hours would be less, making us less tired at work, making us more productive, justifying the 3-day weekend, etc…plus, we could sleep in at least one day, and be productive, while still getting our social lives fufilled and getting all those little tasks done.

Anyway, I have to go do un-weekend like things, like write papers for professors who don’t really take me seriously. Then I’ll go do more homework. Then more.

Until later, folks, go have a Paradox Weekend- we have them every weekend!

(Images: 1st from Tumblr, don’t know source. 2nd- Stephen Shore. 3rd- Tumblr. 4th- still from The Birds from Tumblr, 6th, 7th, also random, not sourced from Tumblr. 8th is 100 Houses, a photography project in Detroit. 9th from Tumblr, 10th is Hark a Vagrant.)