SMA

I'm in Sloth Mode Alpha, at the moment. I just took a shower, after sleeping - crashing - for about an hour and a half, something like that. My wife said she thought I would, since thats what I usually do when coming back from being Santa, but I said No, I feel pretty good, actually......well, perhaps I'll just lie down for a little bit. 90 minutes later....

There is something that just takes it out of you, doing that kind of thing. I am in awe of the people who can do it professionally, five or six hours straight. I'm not sure where the drain comes from. I have some ideas, though. Part of it is the physical effort, lifting the kid up, holding multiple kids, but thats not a big deal unless the kid's a real chubber. I try to hug kids like that. Well, I try to hug most of them, but especially kids like that. I worry that they aren't getting enough attention, that they're getting written off. I'm likely reading too much into it, I know. But even so: the physical part isn't that big a deal.

Speaking of hugging: three kids actively wanted to be hugged. So I did. Their parents seemed delighted.

Sitting in one place for two hours - yeah, thats something of a strain. And you get so damn hot -- the red suit may not be actually warm enough to keep you comfortable in a blizzard -- I walked from my car in 19 degree weather, and I felt the chill -- but inside, where its heated, you get hot. I started taking my hat off when I could, which had a side benefit: I could play with it, which made a couple of the shy kids laugh. One girl in particular was reduced to paroxysms of laughter at the sight of me with the little white fuzzy ball from the top of the cap dangling right in front of my face, while I said Eh? What? What's so funny? But what I really wanted to do was take off the wig, which was really hot. That, you just can't do. One person did bring me ice water in a cup with a straw, and that was much appreciated, but even that was nothing as compared to the delight -- and shiver of cold -- that I felt once I got back outside, taking off the jacket and the wig. So perhaps dehydration is part of the drain, maybe all of it.

Whatever, it wipes me out. I found myself hoping that the local family who asked me to come to their house didn't decide that today was the day they want to do it. I could... but it'd be an effort.