A Different Thursday Somehow

I always look to Thursday as somewhat of a relief, especially now that I'm in charge of a dog in addition to Johnnie. It means that although I love my Little Bug to death, I do get somewhat of a respite from having to focus on him (and now the dog too) if just after tonight and through tomorrow. The pictures I posted of him and the dog is somewhat of a microcosm of what a day looks like these days. Johnnie playing with his dinosaurs, and the dog taking a nap. Actually Johnnie had EXTRA time with his dinosaurs because his Thursday after-school playdate happened to be dinosaur-themed... and of course Johnnie would be that excited about talking about his collection. As would the other kids too actually. It turned out he was not the only kid that had a fascination for playing with dinosaurs, though he was clearly the most informed of all of them. As far as the dog, well let's just say she got into a rhythm too, as did I, in terms of peeing and pooping outside... so much so that during her last poop of the day, she pooped right on a leaf. All I had to do was pick up that leaf and plop it in the trash. Eezy-peezy. In the meantime, this being Thursday and all, I had meetings all day long it seemed like. From the moment I had my IS Team Meeting at 9:30, it was followed immediately by the HIT Roundtable that ran until noon. I had to make Johnnie's chicken noodle soup lunch while taking a few minutes off here and there from that meeting. As soon as that meeting ended, it was time to shuttle Johnnie on to HIS Zoom class. And then I managed to compress whatever I would usually do in the time between then AND the 3 PM Thursday afternoon huddle. That included the dinosaur play date too. Actually he had another birthday deal to do tonight with his class but he didn't seem all that excited about attending that one so I let him skip it. After all, he did karate class right before that too. Busy...busy...busy. I had it in my mind that Lisa would TRY to finish work early tonight, just as she did last week. I don't know why really, especially considering that no 2 Thursday pick-ups are ever alike. Or at least the times they are alike from one week to the next are extremely rare. So I told Johnnie to clean up really early, as in even before he did his karate class late in the afternoon. And bless his little heart he actually went right at it. By himself, he not only put away his museum, his schoolwork stuff, even his shoes and mine! I was literally shocked at how clean the apartment was when he got done! And so by the time we went to Panda on Sawtelle for the dinner run, he was actually already ready to go. All this made it a different Thursday than most already, but maybe the bigger surprise was that I was actually right. Lisa called at 6:30 PM already parked outside my apartment. WOW! And we were READY to go! And so for the 2nd Thursday in a row, hand-off night came early and I actually got started cleaning the apartment, to continue the momentum started by Johnnie himself and got done with the living room before it was even 7 PM! And I got 11,000 steps in by that time already too. And even managed to make myself spaghetti and turkey bolognese for dinner. AND I managed to mop and scrub and clean up the kitchen to boot! And so I ended THIS Thursday night relaxed and chillin' instead of being exhausted from cleaning the place like I was last week. Different Thursday this was. I'm LIKING IT!