I’d promised myself for a long time that this week was going to be a week of rest. My last speaking engagement of the year was Sunday in West Monroe, my new book is totally finished, and I purposely didn’t put anything on my calendar for the rest of November. And so after I dropped Caroline off at school yesterday, I came home, put my pajamas back on and caught up on T.V. shows and drank coffee and talked to a few friends on the phone and just generally did whatever I felt like doing for the better part of the morning.
I finally showered and got dressed about noon and then realized I was hungry so I got out all the stuff to make a sandwich. And here’s where I need to explain that I haven’t made a sandwich in a while because Caroline is all about soup for lunch these days. I was stacking the pre-sliced ham on the pre-sliced bread before putting on a piece of pre-sliced cheese and I caught myself thinking, “Man, making a sandwich is a lot of work.”
I believe that’s what some people might call a low point.
Because you know who had to do a lot of work to make a sandwich? Caroline Ingalls. If she wanted a ham sandwich she had to go butcher a hog first. Which is significantly more work than pulling a slice of honey glazed ham out of a ziploc bag.
And so I guess my point is that after a few days of rest, I may need to regain some proper perspective about life and what constitutes hard work. Making a sandwich does not fall in that category.
So after I ate the fruits of my labor I got out and ran a few errands before I picked up Caroline from school. We came home and she didn’t have any homework because it was family night. However, she did feel the need to practice her flute for a LONG time, which really made the whole making a sandwich is hard thing in focus. The truth is she is getting much better at it, but there are only so many times you want to hear “Up On the Housetop” at the end of the day.
On a whole different note, I’m going to be on Daytime at Nine in the morning (Thursday) to talk about marriage. And when we discussed the show, they asked me to tell them my three favorite parts of being married and the three worst parts of being married. (I asked P at dinner last night and he said there is no worst part of being married to me because he is sly like a fox.)
Anyway, I think it’s a fascinating question. And so I want to know what you’d say. What are the three best and worst parts of being married? Unless you’ve never been married. In which case you can read the comments like a cautionary tale.
Maybe while eating a sandwich.