Visiting Downtown

After the meeting yesterday afternoon I was invited by Lupe to a sort-of goodbye lunch for Chad today. And it was supposed to be somewhere at Grand Hope Park across from the FRB. They were going to get food from Panini Grill. I jumped at the chance to (a) socialize with someone, anyone other than Johnnie and the dog and/or Lisa (b) spend some time, any amount of time outdoors... especially on what turned out to be a nice Friday like today. It turned out to be a few of us from that same Thursday meeting. Courtney turned up, as did Steeone, Marina, Eloisa who had planned it, and Dr Liao even. I even took a pic of us eating right there on the grass. It was actually nice to see everyone in person, and not on Zoom. Almost hard to believe I hadn't seen these guys in almost a year. So this lunch actually had the feel of a reunion. Chad was one of the C's and an integral part of the management team. But to me, he was one more of the people I used to have lunch with almost every day for years at the FRB cafeteria. Now all of a sudden it seems, Alan is retired, Art has left the company, Barbara has stepped down, and now Chad is leaving. That is a lot of change in less than a year. And I don't think it is a QueensCare thing necessarily. And then even more than that, this is the first time I'm hanging out in DTLA in a long time. Just parking and walking to the park almost felt ... normal, even routine.  And eating food from Panini Grill definitely brought back old feelings of deja vu. As far back as when we used to live at the Lindbrook apartment. So today's lunch actually had a far larger emotional effect on me than I realized. That it was the highlight of the day would be an understatement. So we had the lunch and just like that it was Goodbye Chad and so was my visit downtown. I flirted with the idea of going to Ralphs and Whole Foods and doing my grocery shopping right then and there. But it felt like I was just visiting now.... and it was time to go home. And so it was that I headed back and did my grocery shopping rounds in my neighborhood. I did my Whole Foods and Trader Joe's run and I was still home by 2 PM and by then I already considered my work day and the short week over.  Not even James being late yet again on another deadline pushed me to worry or anxiety. A bit of irritation perhaps but I got over it real fast.  In fact I focused more on what to eat for dinner LOL. It was Friday night after all and I made it another movie night. I ended up watching Monster Hunter, the new Milla Jovovich action movie, not too far off from her Resident Alien roles. And I watched it while eating a homemade pizza from Ralphs. I don't know why I didn't just go get a pizza from Pizza Hut or something. Hey I had pizza and movie night, I had a freebie lunch from Panini Grilll, enjoyed a beautiful day outside and got to hang out with my co-workers. AND it was payday Friday to boot and even after paying off the Honda last week, I'm already at my balance from early November. And the BEST feeling yet? I woke up to and then later on came back home to a VERY CLEAN APARTMENT! I had to post a picture. All is good.