It’s My Period Off!

You could say it’s a snow day, but there’s no snow.

Perhaps you could say it’s as simple as a day off, but there’s so much that doesn’t say since its a day on for the kids.

I guess the best equivalent in my life would be it’s like your hour off at camp. There’s a lot of things us camp folks like to relate from everyday normal and extraordinary life to things we experienced first at camp. It’s annoying. It’s also often completely accurate and a way for us in the know to speak in shorthand. And to be fair, while we acknowledge that the rest of you exist and deserve love and attention, affection and respect, we are primarily interested in the others in the echo chamber of camp and are little more than put out by the rest of you. We’re wizards, you’re muggles. That’s just the way it is. I don’t make the rules.

Anyway, this day, this January 2nd, 2015, is my first ‘period off’ in a long time. And just like when I was a counselor, the oh so brief time that is totally and completely mine is so exciting and filled from this side, the start of my time, as boundless in it’s possibility. You see, the kids are at daycare, which opened up today, Friday as a simple matter of bureaucratic coincidence since they wouldn’t be able to justify not doing so. As a result all us thinking, sentient beings who logically took the day off today, the end of the long holiday week(s) are left with the option to have a day free of the kiddos. Isn’t that grand!

There is something grand and magical about the holiday season, something beyond any importance my time alone will ever provide. But it’s this time alone that is now the far more rare, and precious commodity. Since I work where my kids attend daycare my wife is bringing them in so I don’t have to interact with work on my day off. I’m sure we’ll have to pick them up sometime in the not too distant future, but who wants to waste these minutes thinking about that. No, this is the time for dreamers. I may have a fully cleaned kitchen by dinner tonight. Or perhaps a spare bedroom that will be usable if not fully finished as we get the chance to clear it of the debris of moving in two years ago with an infant merely weeks old and a toddler not yet two. Or maybe we’ll nap. My wife and I will be home. Alone. I’m sorry to make such a graphic and explicit statement as that, but my excitement can carry me away.

In any case, here’s to bureaucratic quirks in the calendar. I could probably do some research and find the next time a thing like this is likely to occur. But I won’t. That type of magic denying is a muggles game. Nope. I’m in it for the magic. All the magic. The magic of the holidays with your family and the magic of a day at home alone with your wife.

Alright, I’m off to do a couple push-ups, brush my teeth and shower before the lady of the house returns. I raise my coffee mug to you, parents of kids in daycare on this magical day. Carpe Diem.

Author: joejmedler

Joe Medler lives in New Jersey with his wife, who is universally understood to be far too good for him, and his two young sons, who are far too smart for him. His work has been featured on MamaLode, The Original Bunker Punks and Sammiches and Psych Meds. You can find more of his work at https://developingdad.com/ and follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/developingdad View all posts by joejmedler