Passing the time...

Kat, here. One thing's for sure. When you have mono, you have a lot of time on your hands.
Feel the pace of my day for a moment: First, you wake up about two hours later than you normally do. You get up just in time to have breakfast with your husband before he runs out the door.

You then decide to embark on reading multiple pages of Matthew Henry's gi-normous commentary to try to understand one of Jesus's more difficult parables, but it makes your eyes hurt and so you just sit for a while on the couch. It's ok to just sit. Then you wander into the kitchen for a snack and are pleased to find you still have a much more civilized appetite than normal: half a banana will do.

Let's go check our email. You actually sit down and type several longish emails, because it's only 11:30am, after all, and you still have much time in the day. You check the New York Times for the headlines and read the good science stories, and then you check out the Scripps News & Views (normally you just skim, but today you read--intently--all the articles).

Your husband calls at 12:30pm on his lunch break. You still haven't done anything on your mono-approved to-do list, but hey, you're supposed to be resting. You then suppose that yes, it is time for lunch, so you fix half a sandwich and some soup and start a movie. But you can't actually finish it when there's so much to do!

So you start typing up your travel journal from your August trip to Uganda. It could be a great Christmas gift to your dad and grandparents--basically the only folks who will actually read it. And it's been on the to-do list for weeks. Well, soon your back hurts from resting so much, so you take a walk. And you see this! A frightening sight at first, but you're now getting used to the idea that your neighbor is probably a professional yard man, not a crazy out trying to intimidate the neighborhood with his wide array of torture devices. The air is crisp, the day long, and you've learned how to handle not being...busy. What a gift this holiday season!