Sunday’s the day I think of as the Day of Little Pleasures. Saturday is the day you go do all the things you should have done during the week. Monday through Friday are the days where you avoid doing the stuff you’ll have to do on Saturday. But Sunday, Sunday is the day when you take a pleasure from life’s little things. And get yourself geared up for another week of avoiding toil and drudgery.
Like getting to sleep in – guilt free. See I can, if I so desire, sleep in most every morning, except those days when I have a dentist’s appointment. I schedule my dentist appointments the first thing in the morning so I can get them over with and enjoy the rest of the day. Having a 3:00pm dentist appointment looming over you most of the day, is as likely to ruin it as starting the day off knowing it’s April 15th and you have to get your taxes done, like today. In any case, other than GloomDays, which is what I call dentist days, I can sleep in to my heart’s content.
I could, but a lifetime of indoctrination and conditioning, i.e. a real honest to god job in an office and everything, means, that most days I can’t sleep in without feelings of guilt. Not on Sunday. I can sleep in till noon and there’s no residual guilt feelings or a wife kicking me to get up and make the coffee. And after a guiltless late rising, I have the Sunday paper and coffee. A whole pot of coffee and the New York Times Sunday edition. Ah, bliss. It used to be that I’d read the local newspaper Sunday edition but they’re basically nothing but a mass of coupons for things that I’d never buy, even if you gave me 75 cents off, and the last withered and desiccated remains of the classifieds. And cartoons, and I do admit I miss the Sunday funnies, but that’s why God and Al Gore invented the Internet, and Steve Jobs (who may or may not be some type of deity – the jury is still out) invented the iPad with which I can sit on my comfy sofa and read comics on-line.
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, we even have a real authentic American breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Another little pleasure, since non-Sunday mornings are considerably more austere, often consisting of little more than hot water, library paste and slightly seasoned cardboard. And fruit.
Other little pleasures include Sunday lunch where, if I’m really lucky, I get to have a nice ham and Swiss on rye. If I remembered during the previous week to actually buy rye, ham and Swiss cheese.
The afternoon is action filled, if by action you mean catching up on some reading, still on the living room sofa, or better yet the reclining easy chair followed by, or interspersed with a lovely little nap. I know, I got up late and now I’m taking a nap. But it’s Sunday, so that’s okay. And you know what makes for a perfect Sunday nap? It’s falling to sleep lulled by the monotonous distant roar of the neighbor cutting his lawn, while my own grass reaches to mid-thigh. But it’s producing oxygen and helping offset my neighbor and his noisy, pollution spewing mower. That makes the nap oh, so much better.
Finally, Sunday is not complete without a nice Sunday dinner, early of course so one can settle in for a nice movie or two, afterwards. Sunday dinner should be something heavy and filling and ideally something you can throw together in a pot and then stick it in the oven for five or six hours. Like Beef Bourguignon or a nice slow simmered pasta sauce, or anything you can convince the significant other she might want to make for dinner. Maybe with some nice garlic bread.
Finally the last little pleasure of the day should be a sweet. I think a pudding with a little whipped cream on top is perfect. Not too sweet, nice and soft, and not something you have to make any effort to prepare or eat. Yes a little dish of pudding is the perfect way to end a day filled with little pleasures.