it's nothing, really

I sometimes don't know what to say

     We went to visit Escanaba tonight, and a friend was in the audience.
     He asked me what I was doing.  I said, nothing.
     Nothing.  I actually told him I wasn't doing anything.
     Why I said that, I have no clue.
     I could have mentioned my blog that I write each night, or the column I do for the newspaper twice a month, or the weekly volunteer stints in kindergarten and the Hub project, the weekly Rotary meetings, the every other Friday  trips to the zoo, presenting a short program for the DAR, presenting a longer program for the Flagg Township Historical Society first ever dinner tomorrow night, cleaning house, mowing the lawn, washing the windows and getting my intestines scanned by an instrument that was shoved up my butt.  And that was all this week and last.
     But I don't want to sound like I am complaining or bragging.
     With the exception of cleaning bathrooms and mowing the yard, all those are things I want to do.        Well, not the colonoscopy either.
      Good grief, I am not getting rich writing a column for the newspaper, that is for sure!
     So why don't I tell people what I do?
     Instead I say, nothing.  I am doing nothing.
     I am busier now than I ever was when working.  But it's a different kind of busy.
     Plus, it takes longer to do things.
     My legs are killing me tonight from washing windows.  My arms are sore from picking up my wife.  (Don't ask.  Let's just say that wasn't thunder I heard.)
     And yet I find time to play solitaire, read the Tribune on line, and check Facebook.
     Then there are the hours I spend screaming to myself because of the anger I have bottled up inside me, anger that prevents me from doing even more fun things in life.
     I almost forgot all the time I spend looking for things, like the program I wrote for the dinner   Saturday night.....I know it is here somewhere, I just have to find it.
     And now that I am really bothered by that, I think I will tear the house apart looking for it because I just don't have time to do it all over again.
     Maybe next time someone asks me what I am doing, I won't say nothing.
     But I probably won't tell the whole truth either.