I drank this cup with my parents and Cooper at breakfast. I made the mistake of blowing a raspberry at Cooper. He responded with his own raspberry, then blew another, and another. When I asked him to stop, he blew a louder, wetter raspberry. I ended up having to take him out of the diner until he was raspberried out.

I’m enjoying this cup with my parents, wife and kid in a post-Christmas present stupor.

My back still hurts.

My parents will be in here about twenty minutes. I’m starting to feel drowsy–I didn’t get my nap today–so I’m brewing a wake-me-up cup.

I believe I threw my back out. I don’t know what that means–I hear a lot of old people talking about how their backs are thrown out–but if it’s something that happens to you when you try to lift your satchel and then your back suddenly aches, and that ache prevents you from sitting, standing, or walking normally even an hour after it started hurting, then I’ve done it.

Anne Marie said I can work at Starbucks for about an hour, but then I need to come back home to watch Cooper so that she can do a visit. One hour to work, and how am I spending that time? Blogging about what’s happening in my life when I drink coffee.

Today Anne Marie has a couple of visits for work, including one at 9:00 AM, which means I’ll be watching Cooper while she’s gone. I also need to clean the house a little before my parents arrive for a visit. And at some point I need to do some research and writing on the chapter. It is going to be a day where a lot will happen, but I don’t know how or when it is all going to get done.

What I do know, though, is that I am starting the day slowly with a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. Coffee and oatmeal ask nothing of me, and expect nothing from me.

Anne Marie made this cup for me after putting Cooper to bed. I used to put Cooper to bed every night until a couple weeks ago. Since then, he has insisted that Anne read to him, rock him, and put him down. So after taking care of Cooper’s needs, she takes care of mine. I don’t deserve a woman like Anne.

After today’s first cup of coffee I played with Cooper for a few minutes, then took a nap. I woke up three hours later. I planned to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, but we don’t have any jelly, so I ate three bowls of sugary cereal instead. So, I’ve slept all day, and eaten nothing but crap so far.

I’ve spent the past hour synthesizing my notes on a book chapter I’m co-authoring. It’s on how Christian belief systems (i.e. fundamentalism, evangelicalism, and post-evangelicalism) influence film criticism. At least this progress in my work kind of makes up for my failures in taking care of my body today.

Church is cancelled this morning due to the seven inches of snow that fell in the past 20 hours. We got seven inches of snow regularly in Iowa and Rochester, but church was never cancelled there. If we still lived in one of those places, I would have had to wake up early to clear the driveway so that we could leave. Instead, I got to sleep in and enjoy my coffee. Viva North Carolina.

We brought our snow blower with us when we moved to North Carolina from Rochester. I suppose I could use it to clear the driveway, and to clear my neighbors’ driveway. That would be very considerate.

While making my third pot of coffee today, Cooper opened up his Play-Doh set that Santa Claus brought. We made balls and sharks and french fries together.

There is no correlation between success and talent. However, there is a correlation between success and perseverance, commitment, growth, and engagement.