Slouching Towards the New Year

Each year, at this time, I find myself putting off the commencement of new projects. In the Law business, at least the accident case side of things, NOTHING gets done near the end of the year. Defense lawyers would give up their first born children rather than go to trial during the Holidays, when jurors are feeling all nostalgic and sympathetic, and therefore prone to award big damages.

So, at the office it's been mostly tying up loose ends, and delegating. Today, if I'm honest, the only reason I'm even going to work is because the cleaning lady will be here, and I HATE to be home when she comes. First, since my basic Spanish is better than Wifey's --she asks me all kinds of questions about stuff in the house. But the bigger reason is my proletarian distaste of having someone else clean up my toilet and floors, even though I pay her fairly to do it. You can take the boy out of the middle class, but...

D2 has no such break. She's had a group of AP Economics students over each night, working on some major project. She wrote an editorial for her paper comparing her senior year to her father's 30 years ago. While I was spending most of my time at the Planting Fields or Jones Beach, she's still working hard! No easy time for her --she's the one who will most savor the coming vacation time.

D1 finished her finals, but was still working on a paper on Bulgarian language! I refuse to accept that there's such a country as Bulgaria --I'm convinced it was the place the cartoonists created as the homeland of Boris and Natasha Badanov.

Wifey, world class putterer and FaceBooker, is no less busy than usual.

No --I'm the family slacker, and proud of it!

So, if all goes according to plan, we'll leave Monday for a cruise with our closest friends. There are 19 of us booked to sail to Key West and Grand Cayman. Since the destinations aren't exotic, I plan to read, drink, and stare out into the open sea.

I figure the way I'm spending this week is good preparation.