Blue Monday and the Bullet Symbol

Today was a work day at the paper. It was unlike other typical work days in that my usual upbeat co-workers were unusually quiet. It probably didn’t help that it was one of the coldest days of the winter. Karry, who works on billing and in the front of the office, shared that it’s probably going to be a quiet, boring day. I thought maybe I could clean the toilet or change some light bulbs if no ads or emails came in. Thankfully, no toilets or light bulbs for me as ads trickled in steadily throughout the day along with some stories to format.  Not surprisingly, our email was bombarded by news of the inauguration ceremony for President Obama. That wasn’t very exciting though. I think the only one who cared much about that was the CNN reporter who couldn’t contain her tears, saying, “I have to pinch myself today.” The phone only rang three or four times the whole day, most of which were just family members checking in with each of us. We had maybe one call for business purposes.

My boss checked in at the beginning of the day. He usually has something funny to talk about or some story about a football team that played over the weekend. He and Patty, the other football fan in the office, usually trade comments and complain about the quarterback. Nothing today, though.  I suppose it may be because the Vikings are losers and have been knocked out the playoffs. Or maybe it’s because nobody really cares who are in the playoffs now, being left with the usual successful teams in the running for the Super Bowl. Or maybe it’s just because it’s cold and a Monday. I don’t know.

I went to the café next door to pick up lunch, the café that is usually noisy and filled with locals. Today the café had two patrons sitting in the back corner with glum looks on their faces, one of them gesturing the waitress for a coffee refill. I guess people weren’t very hungry today either.

The long day ended and I drove home. On the way home, the radio announced that it’s “Blue Monday” which is thought to be the most depressing day of the year. I recollected on the highlight of my day, the one thing that brought me out of my slump; an accidental discovery of the keystroke combination that produced a bullet on my Apple computer . .  Alt 8!

 That was it. That was my excitement for the day. I will attribute it all to being ‘Blue Monday.’ Or maybe it’s because we currently have about 3.2 hours of sunlight a day. Or perhaps it’s because I just took our Christmas tree down and realized I’ll have to wait until February for Groundhog Day, my second favorite holiday. I don’t know what the cause was for all the moping. But I hear that we are on the upward swing now with only 55 more days ‘till spring. Hoping we all have a terrific Tuesday tomorrow!