Dawn Is Me

Hey, it’s Christmas.

We’ve just finished eating a remarkably Thanksgiving-like dinner; for a set of reasons I’m not going to get into right now, the traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding has been postponed until New Year’s.

I have new reading material on this joyful day: An Assault on Reason by Al Gore and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. My only problem at the moment is deciding which to read first.

It’s enough to make me wish I had two heads.

The kids made out nicely. I don’t really have the time or inclination to get into every single gift they each got, so I’ll just mention that my favorite was Ricky’s robot bug — mainly because of the entertainment value of watching the cat trying to figure out what to make of it.

That and I’m looking forward to amazing scenic views of amazingly scenic Ithaca, NY, courtesy of Gina’s new digital camera.

I’m tired, of course. It’s one of those obligatory things. When you’re a parent, Christmas makes you tired.

But I’m also happy. We had a better Christmas than we’ve been able to have in quite a few years.

I like to think that bodes well for 2009.

So, it’s Christmas Eve … technically, I suppose it won’t really be ‘Eve’ until it’s … um … evening …

… and here I am, thinking not about gifts or family or other related schlock but about exercise.

That’s because I’m planning to go jump around my living room shortly.

I keep promising myself that I’m going to start taking better care of myself and I keep breaking my promise. That sucks.

In most situations in which I have to make time-management decisions pitting my body against my business, my business usually wins.

Balance? Surely, you jest.

Those are just excuses. My reaction to the multiple stresses and bouts of depression I deal with is very different from Dear Spouse, but I do have them. I just try not to inflict my shit onto the innocent bystanders around me.

(That usually results in many of the people around me having difficulty in figuring out if and when I’m bummed about something. That has its pros and cons.)

Right now, I’m thinking about aerobics. That’s just one piece of the whole picture. My family is broken. Nobody can fix it but me.

I have work to do in 2009. That’s good; it’ll keep me occupied.

Gina took me on a little trip down memory lane tonight and it was a lot of fun, too.

Of course, she already hijacked one of the household favorites among the (very) young Baker children, so I had to turn to another.

You wouldn’t ordinarily think of turning to Sesame Street to look for dance music but, if you can listen to this and sit still, then you must have ice water flowing through your veins.

This is one of those that used to get Mama Me and the itty bitty Bakers jumping all over the living room. Man, we had a lot of fun! Them wuz da dayz.