Breather

Self-employment does have its moments. Like yesterday morning, when I ditched work and instead spent the day with my kids.

We went to the science center and made waves, tornados and electricity. We admired a five-foot boa up close and learned from its handler that scattering crumbled moth balls might convince the wild snakes from the woods behind our house to stay out of the garage and away from the road. We decided ant colony tunnels, replicated in pewter, are the coolest things we've never seen before.

Then there was the cosmic scale, which instantly calculates your weight on other planets. After discovering how much I'd weigh on Jupiter? I'm never leaving Earth.

We bought geode nodules to crack open with a hammer, an insect-eating plant, and complicated math tshirts. We dodged five-year-olds running with ice cream bars, and held doors open for their exasperated grandmothers. We skipped the educational movie and went to stand in the glass corridor walkway to the parking garage so we could watch the rain.

We talked about light refracting through a damp atmosphere, why fire-belly frogs are two-toned and the reasons a tarantula probably wouldn't make a great pet.

We were total geeks. We had a blast.

Everyone works for something. Paying the bills is nice, but hopefully it's more than that. My kids, their future, and days like this one are what keeps me trundling along.

What's your reason for working your ass off today?