Waiting can often be the hardest part of anticipation. Often times we get excited about something, say, like the ninth Fast and the Furious movie, and then a pandemic hits and we are unable to live our lives a quarter-mile at a time. This type of waiting can help to further build the anticipation and excitement for something, like Vin Diesel in an array of sleeveless clothing,  but it can also drag on one’s soul to the point where they wonder why they were even excited in the first place. Especially when that wait becomes overly extended and exceeds any reasonable time frame for delivery. That’s a part of pop culture though. Waits that seem to never end. Most notoriously is the wait for George RR Martin to finally, maybe, one day finish The Winds of Winter. We’ve sat here twiddling our thumbs over and over again waiting for Black Widow to be released. There are some of us who are still holding our breath for a promise made in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan The Barbarian series. Granted, at least we know for sure we’re going to see Black Widow in July the others though… the wait continues.

Not everything is a forever wait though as some things just take longer than others. There will be an extended wait for the upcoming last season of Better Call Saul that while painful will certainly be worth it. How about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Seems like forever ago since we last saw Groot being admonished for keeping his room a mess, but with the film set to start filming next month the wait is almost over. And then, then there’s Rick and Morty. A show that we all know will get to us. Eventually. When they feel like it. I mean, last season they took a five or six-month break in the middle of a season. Sure, it sort of felt like it was two separate seasons of the show which I guess is kind of cool but it also kind of disrupted the flow. I don’t know, I think the fourth season of Rick and Morty is better in a binge setting.

All that’s beside the point because the wait for season five of Rick and Morty is over as the new season premiered last night and the world is certainly at its most Rickest and Mortyest. I mean, people weren’t revolting in their local McDonalds hoping to get some of that sweet, sweet Schezwan sauce but it was global Rick and Morty Day, so we had that going for us.

This all begs the question, after a year of waiting, how was the episode?

The answer… I have no clue. I haven’t been able to watch yet.

My inability to watch last night’s episode has nothing to do with my excitement for the season. In fact, I’m stupidly excited for this fifth season of Rick and Morty. This time apart from Rick, Morty, and the rest of the Smiths has been good. Honestly, there was a time where I was consuming far too much Rick and Morty and a little separation helped further the appreciation. I imagine this is how clone/not a clone Beth feels about her family now. I got into a bunch of adventures, survived a pandemic, and now I’m ready to sit down on my couch with Hudson the Cat, whose past hopefully isn’t as horrid as Matthew Broderick’s Talking Cat, and start watching these batshit adventures again.

No, Geeklings, I wasn’t able to watch last night’s premiere because… *pauses for dramatic effect*… *continues pausing because I lost my train of thought*… I went to bed. Yes, I’ve reached the point in my life where staying up to eleven o’clock on a Sunday is far to late for yours truly. What can I say, I’m getting older. Forty in a few short months even. Most weeknights I’m in bed by ten reading a chapter of a book and then sleeping by 10:45 at the latest. And if it starts to get later than that I tag in my good buddies CBD gummies to help get the eyelids heavy. A treat that was a lifesaver after COVID screwed up my ability to sleep normally.

Eleven o’clock on what essentially is a school night though, you’re asking me to stay up to at least 11:30 and probably longer while I digest whatever rapey jelly bean or Giant Summer the episode focused on. There’s no way I can do that and expect to function the following Monday. My mind doesn’t work that way and you know it Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland! So, instead, I wait… until Monday. At this stage of the game, I even have a method to my madness. Each season of the show I pick up the Season Pass on iTunes and watch the episodes on Monday which makes life easier especially since I’m not writing weekly reviews on the series anymore. This gives me something to look forward to post-work, something we can all use on a Monday, and episodes come uncensored so I get alllllllll the curse words. Plus, my eyes don’t look like they’re carrying luggage the next day.

(Yes, that was a “bag under my eyes” joke that I’m not entirely sure landed but I’m keeping in to find out.)

Do I want episodes of Rick and Morty to air earlier? Sure, I would love for episodes to drop at 10/10:30 on Sunday. That would be ideal. Am I going to start a revolution to get this changed? Nah, this is a me problem. This is a me getting older problem. I’m cool with that. The truth is I can’t watch most things exactly when they drop anyway (anything on Disney+ namely) and I’ve gotten pretty good at navigating Twitter and the interwebs avoiding spoilers. Watching live Rick and Morty seems to be a young person’s game now but it doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the show. It just plays as a constant reminder of the ever-moving cycle of life and how time is fleeting and no one can stop time from progressing. We’re all going to get older and sleep patterns are going to change and one day we’re staying up to one o’clock in the morning on Wednesday playing video games and the next you can barely keep your eyes open during an eight o’clock episode of The Masked Signer. Age is a constant reminder of mortality and just because I can’t stay up late anymore doesn’t define me as a person. Existence defines you as a person, not your bedtime. The thing about life is-

What I’m trying to say is, I’m just happy to have Rick and Morty back.