On the first full day after the bad guy became our nation’s 45th figurehead, Jennifer attended a Women’s March downtown. She says that now’s the time to make a difference in the world, to be kind to people, volunteer, stand up for what’s right, and take action. So, with a knitted hat emblazoned with NASTY, I dropped off my wife and her mother this morning to go out and make a difference.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, I kept three kids fed and calm while attempting to maintain a modicum of sanity. I took Owen to Lego League. The season is over for them, but they had one more meeting to say goodbye for the season. I filmed the boys’ robot run, while trying to keep Isla and Emmett quiet and happy.<\/p>\n
Later, I took Isla to a kitchen to make food for homeless people. We arrived with a can of corn, a can of beans, and four onions, which Isla carried in a weird mermaid bag.<\/p>\n
The other volunteers could, I think, sense that I wasn’t their altruistically, despite Jennifer’s decree. One of them, recognizing me from last spring, said, “Hey, you didn’t wait until the end of the school year this time, did you?” She was referring to the fact that Isla, as per her school’s policy, is supposed to engage in some sort of community volunteer work during the school year. Being a competent father, I waited until about six weeks before the end of the school year, and took her to this kitchen to help make food.<\/p>\n
In the evening, Jennifer declared she was spent and frazzled and not able to do anything else for the next day or so. I prevailed upon her to make popcorn, though. As she was pouring the popcorn from the big mixing bowl into smaller serving bowls, I said, “Just leave some in that big bowl, and I’ll use that one.” I figured that was a way to save on dishes. “Just leave me alone,” she snapped, “I’ve already got all the bowls out. I’ll wash them, anyways.”<\/p>\n
Today turned out to be a completely boring day. Despite Jennifer’s reiterated comment that she didn’t want to do anything today, she listed off five things that she needed to do. I offered to do some of them, in exchange for her putting a coat of paint on the trim that’s sitting out in the basement, but she got mad and reminded me she had told me not to ask her to do that. So, it was an unpleasant day.<\/p>\n
A lazy day, too. That, of course, does fit in with my goal of being lazier this year, but I find it tough to implement in practice. I farted around the house, taking care of very tiny things – I prided myself in putting away a few papers into the file cabinet, and boldly deciding I no longer needed our tax papers from 2008. Later, I wiped the dust off some picture frames.<\/p>\n
For lunch, we all had leftovers. I had the remainder of our potato casserole, and as I was about to scoop it into a plate, Jennifer said, “You can just eat it out of that bowl, to save on dishes.”<\/p>\n
“Oh yeah,” I said, “good idea.” So I did. Then I washed all the dishes.<\/p>\n
Later, Jennifer went to the grocery store. I stayed home all day and that, in an fundamental way, tells me I should view today as a good day, but it wasn’t. I went to bed early, fixing my blankets just right, I curled up and turned over under my heavy blanket, tried to read some Wikipedia on my phone, got bored, went to sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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