Love me some Sunday (and not cause of the NFL)

Maybe I’m a bit of an introvert, but Sundays are frequently my favorite day of the week for the socially questionable reason of I often don’t leave my apartment. This in turns means I’m typically trou-down all day (+1) and before your brow wrinkles at the image I just sprung into your head realize it’s the Philippines…it is hot! I’ll give you our low/low’s for the week. The lowest low for the next week is 74 and the lowest high is 84. Sounds pretty wonderful if your shivering somewhere right now under your 3-5 layers of clothes but the humidity makes it much hotter and muggier, that coming from a lifelong Floridian. Why am I still defending myself? Onwards!

Next, spending a day in the apartment offers so many mid-week elusive activities for me. Example number one: because it’s Sunday so much is closed out in the city which means I don’t have to come up with an excuse NOT to do something (+2)! It’s closed already! Don’t thumb your nose at me, forced involuntary procrastination is by definition one of the best forms of procrastination. It comes without the crushing guilt. Not being…permitted…to do something means you have time to do things that you want to do. Like read. I read probably about 3 hours today (+3). Chewing through a book and listening to my iPod hooked up to my speakers (+4) are a fantastic expenditure of time to me. Plus it’s easier to work up the motivation and desire to do things I’m usually too distracted or tired too…like writing this blog (+5)While we’re still talking about how it’s Sunday, it’s also worth mentioning that there are very rarely events scheduled on a Sunday here in the Philippines. It’s a rest day. Which means I rarely have to commit to being somewhere on a Sunday (+6). This allows for me to wake up when I want and under my terms. Very useful if, for example, this morning I wanted to wake up and watch Manny Pacquiao fight (+7). Or, if a given Saturday night is more adventuresome and causes me to have a necessary and voluntary afternoon wake up time (see: hangover) then I have my leisure to accomplish that end.

Now I know you’re saying “But Andrew, you buy at least two of your meals every day during the week. Watcha eatin, boy?”. Fair point, on Sundays I can’t buy my standard breakfast of soup egg (arroz caldo) and a fried egg in a bun (-1) nor my standard lunch of lumpia and rice (-2). However, I still easily fry an egg and douse it in chili powder. Make a sandwich lunch. And Sunday nights are my real best chance to cook something for dinner. Most nights I’m too busy, tired (aka lazy), or unwilling to do the dishes that follow to make a real dinner for myself (pancit canton does NOT count, I’ll make that anytime along with boiled eggs and PB n J)(+8 for my favorite non-intensive cooking foods). Not true on Sunday! I can cook anything I like without the aforementioned things to do, fatigue, or fear of swamping myself in doing dishes.

Quick aside: Why dishes dictate my cooking in the Philippines. I hate doing dishes by hand. My roommates in college will attest. It comes from having a job in a biochemistry lab where I washed their dishes amongst other duties, but being a lab full of experiments I had to wash them very thoroughly. And then rinse them. 7 times. In tap water. And…7 times in distilled water. But even so I can do dishes consistently enough to cook nightly even by hand. What really makes it unbearable is that my kitchen sink is Filipino sized. The cabinets over the sink are at just below eye level for me so I have to hunch and bend or else crack my head (which happens anyways). And the sink itself is way way too small for washing dishes. I spend more time being careful I’m not accidently spilling water onto my counter than I do scrubbing. Hence, my distaste for doing dishes in particular in my kitchen sink dictate my cooking patterns. There you have it.

Back to what I was saying about cooking on Sunday. On Sunday I can take the time to think out what I want to make. Tonight I’m imitating some kind of macaroni and cheese using cheez whiz and some pasta (+9). We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have macaroni so I’m using linguine and I’m not sure how my ‘sauce’ will go but I’ll try to rescue with clever seasoning if it goes south. Other odd food inventions include a strawberry carbonera pasta, many ways of combing bread eggs cheese salsa and hot sauce, and ‘cooking it myself’-pizza (I recently discovered a pizza place within relative walking distance. Cheap and decent! Woo!)(+10).

Finally, Sunday is typically the best day to skype back home with the family (+11). Given the time difference it’s easier for me to dictate a Sunday -> Saturday time to have a videochat. This in and of itself can make a week, even after a tough week (+12).

All in all that's 12 positives and 2 negatives (favorite-food related only though). Plus +10 is a solid ratio for any Pros and Cons list. So in summary, Sundays are my favorite day of the week because I don’t have to wear pants, I can read a book, and make some good food. Sounds about right.