Monday, September 24, 2007

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

...and grinds to a halt when you're not.

When I have a day off from work, the time seems to fly by, especially when I'm having a good time. I can be surfing the net, checking blogs and message boards, or writing a blog entry or comment of my own, with an hour passing in the blink of an eye.

Similarly, after a couple of enjoyable hours spent with a lover, the time when I must get up, get dressed, and leave arrives all too soon in most cases.

My weekends always pass in a blur. It seems as if five minutes after I've driven home after my last day of work, glad to have the weekend ahead of me, that I'm driving back to work, dreading the long, slow week ahead.

Which brings me to the second part of this equation -- time seems to grind to a halt at work. One day at work seems to last longer than my entire weekend. Twenty minutes is a ponderous, plodding block of time that seems to have no end. I can look at the clock, then do what seems to be twenty minutes' worth of work, then I'll look up again and five minutes have passed. And I swear that there have been a few times that I've looked up the second time and it's EARLIER than when I looked the first time!

The plodding/flying perception of time extends to breaks during the workday. I can go to lunch and it seems that no sooner than I've sat down to eat, than I have to get up again to drag myself back to work.

The perception of time passing in general is also related to our age. I remember as a kid that the first grade seemed to stretch on into infinity; that I was in first grade for ten years. By the time I was a senior in high school, that same school year passed in what seemed to be a matter of a few weeks. And the older I get, the faster time in general has stepped up. At 25, ten years seemed to be a considerable amount of time, but in my forties, ten years are gone before I realize it. I expect that this trend will only continue as I get even older.

But I'm guessing that the work/leisure time perception differential is the same for everyone, regardless of their age.

Thoughts?

4 comments:

Patty said...

You got that one right. For myself, time has really been flying, I can't even begin to imagine where Sept. has gone. But in one more week, it will be the 1st. of Oct. all ready.

And it doesn't matter what time I get up in the mornings, it still seems as though lunch time comes too quickly.

I guess that's life. Bummer at times.

LauriesAsylum said...

You are so right. I'm not working right now, but I remember getting off work on Friday, and being really frustrated if I had to much going on that weekend, because I knew it was going to fly by and it would be over before I knew it.

I always made a point to do laundry, shopping, and errands during the week if possible, so I could have the weekend totally free.

LauriesAsylum said...

I meant too, not to.

Reader Wil said...

Time always flies whenever you're having a good time. When I started this holiday/vacation 6 weeks seemed to be worth while travelling for such a long time.When I had to wait for 18 hours in Hongkong it seemed endless. Now my stay here is almost over. Today fortnight I will be on my way home again.And we have still some people to see.