An Sign of Impending Old Age?

Ok, so somebody explain this to me.

Once upon a time, when I was in college and then in my first job out of college, I and everybody I knew lived for Friday night.

While on most evenings our activities were tempered by the knowledge that the following morning we'd have to pull our half-dead carcasses out of bed and haul ourselves to the office, on Friday night we knew that we had all Saturday morning to sleep in if we so chose, so we could stay up as late as we wanted. If you wanted to hang out with your girlfriend until all hours, so be it! If you wanted to sit up and watch twelve episodes of Dr. Who nonstop, great! If you wanted to get in your car, pick a road at random, and drive for the fun of driving, you could do that.

Now, having a wife and kids does even this out some. No matter how "free" your weekend is, you still have to get up and feed them, or they come in and start jumping on your bed. (The kids, that is; not the wife.) Nevertheless, one would think that Friday night would still be a joyful time.

It's Friday, Let's go do something!

And I work for a company that's on a 9/80 work schedule, meaning we work 80 hours over two weeks, but squeezed into 9 working days instead of 10--so we get every other Friday off, for upwards of 26 three-day weekends per year. Today was what we refer to, tongue-in-cheek, as "virtual Friday", since we get tomorrow off. You'd think that given that I don't have to worry about work tomorrow, I'd be happy to stay up with my wife and do something--even if it was just watching some movie that doesn't involve talking vegetables.

You'd think that. But then, you'd still be young.

For some reason, starting just a couple of years ago, the moment that the kids went to bed on Friday Night (or Virtual Friday night) at 8:30 or so, when the house is finally quiet, when the cats are lying about, and when I finally have time to myself, what do I want to do?

I want to head straight to the bedroom to...

No, not that. Good guess, but remember, I'm getting old here.

I start imagining how good it would feel just to get some sleeeeeep..... Somehow, all the exhaustion of the previous week comes crashing down on me right at the beginning of the weekend. I think to myself, "Wow, if I get started right now, I can catch 10 hours by the time the kids start jumping on my bed! Doesn't that sound heavenly?"

The funny thing is, I don't generally feel this way on all the other nights of the week, when I have to worry about getting up early the next day. On a Tuesday or Wednesday night, I stay up until 11 or 12 with nary a complaint. For some reason, it's always the beginning of the weekend that does it to me.

Anyone else notice this, or am I the only one?

I await your comments. I'll probably get to them late, late tomorrow morning when I'm good and ready. In the meantime, I'm going to bed.