Saturday, November 03, 2007

calendars

i buy calendars really only for the pictures. and i've been known to keep a couple of pictures from earlier years calendars simply because i really enjoyed looking at them. we currently have three calendars. we have a penguin one in the extra bathroom. this is fairly mandatory since the bathroom is decorated in penguins. we have a tori amos calendar in the office. we give to rainn so they send us a calendar. and then in the bedroom we have a russian calendar. for the past several years, we've had some weird, foreign, unreadable calendar and this year it was a russian one.

the story behind the foreign calendar goes back to kentucky. my old boss there, until recently, had never taken a serious vacation. when i say serious, i mean really no work. no emails. no phone calls. no work. he always managed to spend a part of everyday doing some work. then one year, his wife booked a cruise in the mediterranean. and on the ship, he was finally just all hers. the cell phone was out of range and the email didn't connect. it was probably just as much as excuse for him and it was for us, since we were also guilty of contacting him during vacation. and every year since then, they have gone on a cruise to some exotic destination. i'm sure with all the international phones they make now and wireless networks and stuff, that he probably could work during vacation, but once you've tasted freedom, you don't give it up.

my old boss and his wife are also in the dying breed of thoughtful and generous human beings. they always buy small gifts for everyone at christmas and birthdays. they always host wedding and baby showers. they always brought back presents from trips for the entire office. and usually those presents included some funky calendar. the first year, every week on the chart had ten days across instead of seven. the second year, there was a small picture in the top left so that every month, day 1 was positioned in the tuesday block. each month all the days were in a different position from what we think of as the week. this year, the week starts with monday so that saturday and sunday are together at the end. and of course, every year, the calendar is in another language. so they have all been completely useless for determining what day it was but the pictures have been simply superb.

i also am very strict about not looking at future months pictures until it is that month. yes, i glance at the back of the calendar when choosing, you've got to have a broad idea of the whole year's pictures or you might get stuck with a dud calendar. but other than that, no cheating and looking ahead. this is a very painful rule for andrew, though i'm sure he looks ahead when i'm not looking. except that maybe he doesn't because he's always super thrilled to get to turn the page on the first of the month. and here we are at the point of this story. today, november third, i discovered that all three calendars were still on october. i'm stunned. andrew practically sets the alarm for midnight so he can turn the page and see the next picture so why are they all still on last month?? since its a guard weekend, i can't ask him until tomorrow. it also means that i alone have viewed the new pictures! i realize this isn't exactly an epic achievement, but its the little things in life that get you through.

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