12-18-2011

Our winter break started on Friday and I am ready for this.  I strongly believe that having nothing to do is very underrated.  People like to talk big about how much work they do.  But you never hear people boast about how they loaf around all day and have nothing to do.  Until now.  I truly have no activities that require a large amount of effort during the Christmas break.  Eating may be the most physically demanding activity I do today.  Maybe I’ll put it in a small plate so I have to get up twice for a refill.  Or maybe I’ll just bring the skillet to my chair and eat it there.   By eating straight from the pan, I will increase my physical activity by have to dodge dirty looks from my wife.  So I’m not sure if the trade-off is worth the extra effort. 

Fishing on the Yukon.

Monica is learning things about me she probably didn’t want to know.  Monica and I have spent more time together up here than we have in any other time in our marriage.  Monica worked the night shift as a 911 dispatcher before heading up here, so our schedules were not in sync.  She’s beginning to observe first hand my slothful ways.  One of the things she hates is how I have everything I need at arms length (except the toilet) when I’m at my chair.  Luckily I don’t need very much, but I know I can get to it in short notice and without the extra effort of leaving my chair.  I know there are many other things that she finds exasperating about me, but I fear if I share them, everyone will know how big of a toad I really am. 

Something that I have discovered about Monica is that she can cook.  And cook very well.  Who knew?  I didn’t.  And I am a bit miffed that she never shared that information with me before.  We’ve been married almost 9 years and I’m just finding this out.  So, for all of this time, I’ve been doing the majority of the cooking (and eating) out of fear and love.  Now, I find out she can cook.  She’s been keeping this from me so she didn’t have to do her share of the cooking.  Not telling me this is akin to me having the ability to fly and keeping it a secret from her because I knew she’d pester me to run more errands.  I think that would be an abuse of my power, flying to Starbucks for a cup of joe.  But, it sure would come in handy for a beer run.  Or to show off at class reunions.

We had our school Christmas program last week.  After hearing ‘It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas’ constantly for the past two weeks, I’d love to punch Michael Bublé in the face.  So we sang that and we read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’.  The kids did a great job in spite of fact that their teacher does not have the proper skills or knowledge on how to choreograph our part of the program.  Guess I’ll start watching Glee. 

I have over two weeks to rest up for the second half of the school year.  Next week we can begin to count the hours of daylight as they increase.  Most of the teachers have headed south for the break, so it will be very quiet here.  Our school counselor is staying so we’ll have Christmas dinner with her.  Our snowmobile is scheduled to get here next week, so maybe we’ll have that to help entertain us.  Monica will be busy with her college work, so I’ll be able to play Tiger Woods on the Xbox.  The sad part is that I won’t be able to spend my break watching Oprah.