In the Meantime...

I was thinking to myself this morning that my desire for an uneventful week already is already down the tubes and this week is already more eventful than I would have thought, or that I would have preferred given last night's incident with the next-door-neighbor. I was thinking about what had caused that. So, if everything is me pushed out, what was I pushing out? She was expressing that she didn't feel safe maybe? That she was annoyed with me? Well, that plays into the program that comes up intermittently that I get annoyed with people in general. That they only think of themselves. After all, if my neighbor would have put herself in my shoes, how could a single dad, with his son and the dog in the house while he is on Spring Break and dealing with all the Covid vaccination stuff even have a thought about anything else?? And maybe I was also manifesting my own discomfort with her. She too got uncomfortable with me. Maybe she's an empath just like me. I thought about this in the shower and simply decided I was not going to let it bother me. I decided to make it a nothingburger, that is after I did all the Ho'onoponopono forgiveness stuff. I decided that my ego was yet again trying to distract me. I merely need to not give it any energy. Hard when I got basically pushed and not so gently. But that too is my ego getting annoyed isn't it? Why can't I just choose the experience of not seeing her anymore, as in not ever. Thank you for the reminder, now please don't bother me again. And with that I can move on to my usual Wednesday. Day 3 of Johnnie's Spring Break and he's still talking about looking for tadpoles. I gave him plenty of artwork ideas to kill the morning. After all, he himself said he was going to draw his mom at least one good picture a day as a present. Good.good. Go do that! In the meantime, it's as if I'm working on that damn Covid vaccination reporting every day now. A different report for each governing entity. And no shortage of other reports too as I reviewed the requests with the Data Team. Still, we're not underwater I don't think and Shilpa is actually learning. She is having a start similar to Kennedy's I think. So eager to make a mark, so eager to do stuff. But not very careful. Who KNEW I'd be the one to rein that type of enthusiasm in with attention-to-detail. Me! Anyway the big to-do this afternoon was that I wanted to make sure Johnnie spent some time outside and got some exercise. And so for dinner I needed to cook up the Italian sausage I had bought this past weekend. And so I brought us back to early last summer when I would barbecue that on a Tuesday night and Johnnie would hit the soccer ball against the wall. This time he brought the dog AND the soccer ball and boy and dog had a blast running around the grass for a while. So much so even Johnnie got tired after 20 minutes. He even had to sit down (see pic). And so mission accomplished with the Johnnie exercise, the dog exercise AND spending time outside! It is stuff like that that keeps one grounded and at least able to deal with the tugs of the outside world, and in my case the constant reporting requirements which seems to change on a daily basis of the Covid Vaccine project. The good thing is that all that effort seems to be paying off as the covid numbers are getting much better, and LA in particular seems to be ready to open a little bit more. A very very good thing indeed. Already we're allowed back in to order at Panda Express Westwood. Could it be long now before we're allowed to eat inside again? Can't do it with the dog obviously but still it would be great to know you can. And of course, this being Wednesday and all, the big task tonight is giving Claire a bath. She has visibly grown since last week practically and is not only heavier but sporting more hair. Which means she's going to take longer to fully dry. I tried to get the bath done earlier but we ended up not getting started until 8:30. And by 9 PM she was still a bit damp. But she sure did smell clean. No worries tonight about her wandering around the bed and getting anything dirty. Of course the shower made her want to sleep earlier, as it did Johnnie by him running around in the afternoon. On the other hand, while Johnnie and puppy went to sleep, I snuck out back to the living room and watched an episode of Mayans MC. I don't know what about a show about a Mexican motorcycle gang on the California-Mexico border attracts me but it pulled me in. Like the show Vikings did. Or the Last Kingdom I guess. Maybe it's the character Ezekiel (EZ). The Hero's Journey. It was nearly midnight when I went back to bed to go to sleep. It's ok. The end of the work week is around the corner.

Johnnie Spring Break and a WTF moment

So for this week's Tuesday edition, I never did figure out what to do to keep Johnnie occupied for most of the day, that is, without schoolwork. With LA now feeling more safe and moving out of the danger zone with COVID, and starting to re-open more widely there lots of news about Disneyland finally opening up in May and more importantly to Johnnie, Universal Studios opening up in a few weeks! That means Jurassic World obviously. But that is not for a few weeks and I still have the here and now and today to deal with. I quickly lined up some educational videos for him to watch this morning. I know I know, I need to not rely so much on him watching videos. But I'm stuck doing work. Yesterday was dedicated mostly to Covid vaccination reporting in the afternoon and today was more of the same. I did want to dedicate time to make sure my team is ready to go for Friday's FRB birthday deal online that we're supposed to be hosting... because we screwed it up the last time we were supposed to be hosts last month. And so I gave Kennedy the green light to line something up and show us later on this week. That actually made me feel better in that I don't have to do the bulk of the planning. That was what worried me yesterday. I reminded myself I wanted to experience UCLA winning to make the Final Four. DONE!! I wanted to experience our meeting yesterday so that we decide to use MyTurn for community events instead of EPIC. That didn't get done but a follow-up meeting is scheduled for Thursday. And I wanted to have a really good FRB birthday party this Friday. And so handing the planning of that to Kennedy at least leaves me with the feeling that he WANTS to do it and LOVES to do stuff like that. That's his personality. I hope we'll be good to go. And so in the meantime, as soon as I got my IS Team Meeting done, I already reached into my pocket of essential stuff to do that I was actually holding off on doing until at least tomorrow. I let him watch Raya and the Last Dragon yet again, knowing full well it would knock out almost 2 hours of the morning and give me time to work. Look at the pic of him on the couch eating chee-tohs. Hey, that's a good vacay picture right? That would at least buy me time to do a more regular Tuesday afternoon. He kept going on and on about looking for tadpoles in whatever still water we can find. That's because he did that activity with his mom on Monday and evidently enjoyed it. No still water around unless we go to Marina del Rey of course. Which is an option. But perhaps not today. Anyway the afternoon went by pretty quickly, especially when I made him do a karate class. At least he is getting his exercise in, that's for sure. And he's actually getting more precise with his karate strikes. Who knew...

WHAT IN THE FUCK??? It would have been an otherwise uneventful day until my next door neighbor Monica knocked on the door and started talking about seeing me supposedly hanging around and telling me to stop doing that. Did I just get accused of stalking? What. the. fuck?? I did go out of the apartment just as she was walking her bike out and I remember looking away when she looked back. And hearing her say "I see you". I looked away because I did not want to make eye contact with her. Never have since that day she sort of nagged me about not having my mask on. At the time I remember thinking I'm coming from the opposite direction and we're at least 30 feet away as we're walking in to our apartments, AND I covered my mouth. Did she have to nag me? I got embarassed. Since then I have felt awkward whenever I see her. Which is not that often but if I never run into her again, that would be just fine. And now she's accusing me of stalking her? Came up to my door and told me about it as Johnnie was coming up to me? She did that in front of my son? I was so astounded I really had no intelligent response. And I didn't want to say what-the-fuck woman? What on earth would make her think I was following her around? It's not like I even see her that often. Maybe once or twice a week if that. Is she just targetting me? Anyway I was so confused all I could say was that I didn't know what she was talking about and if she sees me it was nothing but coincidence. And now I REALLY REALLY don't ever want to see her around. I recovered from the shock of that incident when Johnnie spontaneously made me a note. It simply said I love you daddy and thanks for doing good things. What a way to wash away the reek of that incident. Thank you Johnnie. I love you too.

FINAL FOUR Bound

In what has to be the most scintillating runs of any UCLA team, the basketball team pulled off yet another monumental upset, taking down 1-seed Michigan to make the FINAL FOUR. The.FINAL.FOUR!!! I mean I was actually satisfied with them making the Sweet 16 last weekend. That already puts this team and coach on solid ground. Elite 8? Another level. Final Four??? Already one of the best performances, particularly this team who has no seniors, lost their best player and a 5-star incoming PG. What a run... And it is not over just yet. I'm not counting out another upset. Reminds me of Ben Howland's 2006 team. I remember being in San Diego when that upset of Gonzaga happened on the way to the Final Four then. Another Gonzaga upset in the making???

Easter Week Begins

So it's Easter week this week and I'm thinking it sure snuck up quickly. That means Sunday is Easter Sunday. Before that though there is still this week. I woke up thinking I had a couple of things to knock out this week. But I also need to figure out a way to keep Johnnie occupied all week without sticking him in front of the TV all day. This being Monday and all I prepped myself for (a) downloading all those Covid Vaccination data (b) getting a full day of steps in. And for Mondays, that is usually AT LEAST 14,000 steps. The key to getting that done is to get started early. I didn't do that this morning. I just lollygagged in bed too long. But I did get myself up and out of the house by 8:30 AM and then I walked to McDonald's to pick up a couple of sausage-egg-McMuffins for breakfast. It gave me a chance to get an early start with walking. And it was already warm enough first thing where I didn't have to wear a jacket. Spring is sure here alright. By mid-day I was already up to 8500 steps, well over half of last week's 15,000 steps total. And that meant I would at least get 14,000 done pretty easily. And I thought I'd just chill out today and not do so much... I took a pic of me walking around the neighborhood even, remembering the way it was a year ago when I started doing this walk-around-the-neighborhood thing. Who knew a year later I'd be doing the same thing still. Today, there would be no looking after Johnnie at least... Lisa seems to have cooled off just for today and seeing every doctor she can bug and in fact she let me know she was going to be in Sierra Madre hanging out at her dad's house with Johnnie. And she'll be dropping Johnnie off around 6 PM. Works for me. Gives me the green light to pretty much do all I can for the afternoon.  As it was, there was mostly work stuff. There was the meeting about where to put in data for community events, the same discussion where Emma and I are in 2 different and opposite corners. Then of course I have all those reports I need to run. Just another busy Monday. Oh and I have to think about what to do about Friday for the Staff Birthday party. 

By the time the meeting got done, we really hadn't decided anything. It was like a no-win scenario unfolding. Can't keep the patient and non-patient data segregated, yet they want to use the system to collect admin fees for all these people we will be vaccinating. In the big scheme of things, just another one of those situations where my ego is trying to push me for significance and acknowledgement and my Higher Self is reminding me it's one of those things that end up being inconsequential in the long run. Unless I make it a big deal. Today I chose not to let it be any kind of a deal at all. Other people can decide to do whatever, I just soldier on and do my job. It's also a reminder that these are the kinds of distractions that keep me from moving forward with the things that do matter. And when Lisa came by, that was the reminder of exactly what that was. It was Johnnie and Claire time again. And back to a Monday night routine. I made him penne pasta in the broth that Lisa brought and let me use.  Johnnie ended up eating 3 bowls of penne pasta! That is something I never see him do at Lisa's house! In the meantime, it's another night of my fabuloso meatball stew/albondigas soup Arnel style. And as Johnnie chose to watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood which was definitely a surprise, I decided to sit and watch with him for a bit. Kind of took me back to when we lived at Maplewood and I would have him watch it before Lisa came home, hiding the fact that I was letting him watch TV LOL. Now here I am trying to figure out what activity I can give him so he wouldn't have to watch TV all week! Last year we were definitely homebound on Easter week AND Spring Break. And it was raining most of the week too. Johnnie has this idea he wants to look for tadpoles tomorrow? Huh? That has gotta be because of some activity he did with Lisa and/or Courtney. Tadpoles? In Mar Vista? Now I have to look for some kind of standing water where frogs are? Hey it IS something. You gotta admire Lisa, she must have been having cabin fever and needing to get Johnnie out and about herself. Now it's my turn. But not tonight. Tonight I catch up on the sleep I didn't get the last 3 days. Aaahhhh...

Sunny Sunday

8:40 tee time this morning at Penmar and I was looking forward to a chill golf game. Being at Penmar meant no rush at all in heading out and grabbing breakfast somewhere. In fact, in taking my time, I made myself some tea and made my bacon tomato cream cheese bagel right in my kitchen. And I still had plenty of time. However, I did get a call from Scott that he wasn't going to be able to join us today. I guess his wife did not do well with her 2nd Covid shot and was experiencing reactions. So he was going to stay home and look after her. I thought to myself if that were Lisa what would I do? Well if I were still married to her obviously I would do the same thing. But today? My first thought would have been to take Johnnie so she could deal with it. There is nothing I can do for her really other than to get her to be more mentally tough. <Note: I even did the muscle test stuff with her yesterday but it did not go well> Anyway, moot point and so I headed off to Penmar hoping that Greg would at least make it. Last week it was he that couldn't play and it was just Scott and I. Today I was relieved that he, in fact, did show. And we ended up playing with another guy so it turned out to be a chill game still. As far as my game itself, I know I was too relaxed starting out and then not relaxed at all at times. It seemed like the entire game I couldn't find that groove that I had last week where my rhythm was flowing. I knew I was too relaxed when my shots would wander to the right and I didn't get around to the ball. I knew I wasn't relaxed at all when I would yank a shot to the right, both from the tee and from the fairway. Maybe today, i was just out there to enjoy the sun and the exercise and simply being outside. After all, by 9 AM it had warmed up considerably like it was a summer day. I will say that I had at least 3 long putts that I got in which did NOT happen last week. OH to put a game together where I'm hitting off the tee well like I did last week and I putt well like I did today. Still there were some memorable shots. I never did get a par. But I had a lot of bogeys including the string of them on holes 4-5-6. Coupled with the one on 2 and I would say I actually did have a decent game. Good enough to earn my salmon kabobs for lunch LOL. 

It was so nice out that it would have been a shame to stay inside the rest of the afternoon. And I didn't have to work hard to find an excuse to do something outside. And this afternoon it was to go out on my scooter. Yay! I hadn't ridden that thing it seems like since that afternoon that Johnnie and I rode to Panda Express Westwood. That was before Daylight Savings! That's been at least 5 months. This afternoon it was simply to pick up stuff from Ralphs to make this week's stew. And the meat of the week is... pork and beef meatballs! Kind of my version of albondigas soup LOL. And you wanna know something? It turned out really really good! That's because I slow cooked it in a pot for at least an hour, instead of using the Instant Pot. It thickened the broth much better doing it that way. I really like getting my week's meal prep done today rather than tomorrow, that since I made enough stew for at least 3 meals. And I ended up with a hearty meatball soup for dinner tonight! But for sure the highlight of this afternoon, would be the scintillating win that the UCLA Bruins basketball team pulled out at the NCAA tournament. They were playing in the Sweet Sixteen where they had last been when Lonzo Ball was playing in 2017. I was already satisfied. After all, they had lost their best player and best backup big earlier in the season. They had lost 4 in a row to end the season. But man, something must have clicked because they are confident now boy. And they beat #2 seed Alabama to get to the Elite Eight! The last time UCLA did this was the Ben Howland years with Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook. And so it was that I took time out from one of my reflection afternoons and gave in to my past self with its attachments, one of them being the UCLA Bruins and it was very satisfying to see UCLA advance. Just as the Lakers did a few moths ago, and just as the Dodgers did a month after that. This UCLA team is on a run. Dare I dream? I mean, they're playing with house money now. They've gotten to the Elite Eight. Can you imagine if... Anyway I was grateful for a nice, beautiful Sunday, and the golf day today. I was grateful for some great meatball soup. I was grateful for the time with Johnnie yesterday. I was grateful for the UCLA win and the feeling of joy and watching the players celebrate. It WAS a good weekend.

More Johnnie in the morning and finally ME time

When I looked back at the week I realize that I had watched Johnnie every single day this past week and will watch him again this morning. I also realize that THAT was due to Lisa's supposed condition. But I didn't care. As much time as he will let me spend with him is what I'll always take. This morning I talked her into still doing her piano class as the point is not to let herself give in to thinking she's sick and debilitated. I think that nothing could be further from the truth but that she has given in to some program, some narrative that there is something wrong with her. It runs completely contrary to all these things that I'm learning about the mind and the human body and how the former controls the latter and not the other way around. What we experiences in our bodies is a result, a consequence and can always be reversed. But it takes the mind to do that and something tells me that if I am going to help other people by the multitude, then it is an attitude like Lisa's that I need to learn from and work on. Maybe I can help her after all. But I have to work through my own programming first. After all, there is that history between us that is difficult to disregard. Case in point, I arrive at Lisa and she's making breakfast for all, egg whites for Johnnie, eggs for me. And she had made me Earl Grey tea also. I realize that there is a different program that is active now. She's trying to be a good "something". And I want to let her. Of course that also comes with listening to her continuing aches and pains and frustration. This morning I talked her into merely taking a walk down the block, just so she can start to feel some sense of normalcy. And she actual took my suggestion, took Johnnie and the dog and walked a bit. I think she felt better too. And in the meantime, while they did take that walk I went to the backyard and just sat with myself. Just sat there thinking about nothing but enjoying the warmth of the morning sun. It came to my mind that I used to enjoy doing this when I was still living here. Especially the fact that when I was, I had the backyard lush with green grass. But that's another thing I need to let go, just something I'm going to remember with pride.  And finally when they came back, Johnnie and I headed to my apartment too so Lisa could do her piano class. We made a couple of stops first of course, to Mitsuwa to pick up groceries and to Trader Joe's to pick up more groceries. And for lunch of course I had to go to Panda Express. This time though I also made a stop at Burger King. Sometimes, I just feel like having a burger. Impossible meatless burger in this case. And I threw in a couple of tacos too. Sometimes I feel like not cooking anything, not washing anything. The result was that I was so full I needed to take a nap again. But not before dropping Johnnie off at Lisa's. It was nearly 1 when we got there but Lisa was still in the middle of her lesson. I guess they had a late start. I almost fell asleep on Lisa's couch waiting for her to get done. When she did I took off, eager to finally get my ME time. She wanted to talk some more but really I was done talking about how she was physically feeling. And so how did I spend my ME time which was the rest of Saturday? First I went to get a much needed haircut. And like most of the time, they cut too little. Ok Ok, no complaints since I did go to Supercuts. Still did I have to spend time afterwards to cut some more hair off? Hey maybe I should just be grateful that I get to have a haircut cut by someone else at all. After all, I still prefer someone else do it rather than do it myself. And then of course I wanted to enjoy being outdoors since it had started to get warmer today. But not just outdoors. I ended up driving to Via Marina. I just wanted to be somewhere else and eat something else just to celebrate that I was able to once again. AFter all, there would be many a time when I would go to AMC Marina del Rey and watch a Saturday afternoon movie and bring home some dinner from one of the many choices from there. Maybe a slice of NY Pizza from Pizzarito? I wasn't ready to watch a movie at AMC. After all, I had watched all the new ones already at home. But I could shop for dinner at Pavilions. I remember fondly when Johnnie and I would eat chicken strips here coming home from daycare back in the day. We would come here so often, the folks at Panda Express knew him. Kind of like... now. Except that it's Panda Express Sawtelle, and Panda Express Westwood. And so it was that I brought home some Asian fried pork and some chow mein from Panda Express for dinner. And oh while I was already here, might as well get a slice of pizza from Pizzarito. THAT is how I spent Saturday night. Reminiscingly at Via Marina. Maybe I will live here someday. How about maybe in 5  or 6 years after Johnnie graduates from Mar Vista Elementary. Maybe I could go to the Barnes and Noble once again and read/ browse through books. That might make me sound alone. But tonight I needed it. I may have thought about Johnnie and the things we would do together. But it's also just fine to do that by myself. That is how I recharge. That's how I always have.

Mission Accomplished

I felt a great sense of MISSION ACCOMPLISHED with finishing the content of my presentation last night albeit in the wee hours of the morning. So much so I woke up tired this morning. And I wasn't 100% done though all I needed to do was pretty stuff up, like getting the right fonts consistent through the whole thing and stuff. Still I was able to send it by lunchtime and I got a good acknowledgement from Aisha and Candice too after doing so. All good. And so I could have easily tanked the rest of the day. And really it felt like I did actually although I still did an IS Team Meeting with my crew because they pissed me off yesterday about not having discussed processes and procedures when Noriel is out on vacation all of next week.  I made them put together a plan of action for me for specific downtime scenarios and this morning I made them articulate it to me. Such a Nazi I am sometimes huh?! LOL. Hey they needed it. And so by the time Lisa dropped off Johnnie it was almost 10:30 AM and it was just a few more episodes of Winnie the Pooh before we headed out to Panda Express to get him lunch. Do I feel guilty that we've eaten there every single day this week? Not in the least. In fact, when Lisa came to pick him up, it was barely noon and he had already started with his lunch! And so what to do left except to invite Lisa to have lunch with us in the patio area where the barbecues where, same as what we did on Saturday after her work was done. This time I made her lunch. I still had almost a pound of shaved beef from trader Joe's and a lot of onions and cabbage. I was actually going to make some noodles to bind all of that. Except for Lisa, I didn't need to put in noodles. I just made her a stir fry dish and  voila: lunch was had by all on a beautiful fRiday mid-day. Of course if you look at the pic I posted, that would be Johnnie eating, me chilling (I would eat later when they had gone) and Lisa on the phone while eating my stir-fry dish. She gave me the thumbs up sign of approval. Lisa being Lisa. All I cared about was that Johnnie was eating a decent lunch after all. I'm invited to come over later to watch him yet again while Lisa practiced the piano. At least I won't care what he eats because he has already wolfed down a decent meal this time. 

Anyway after a nice lunch they took off and then I made myself the rest of the beef and veggies. They really WERE good actually! And then I knocked off for about 40 minutes to catch up on the sleep I missed last night. And watched some of the "Irregulars" series on Netflix, the new show about a different take on the Sherlock Holmes/Dr Watson relationship. This one portrayed Holmes as pretty broken and the mantle being taken not by Watson but by some raggedy adolescents in Victorian England, one of which turned out to be his daughter. Interesting twists eh? Anyway I basically just tanked the rest of the day and by 5:30 PM I went on over to Lisa's... to find mom and son on the floor in the piano room doing nothing. Apparently, Lisa had taken medication (I won't say she's an addict to medication, I will let facts speak for themselves). No surprise that the medication has left her pretty listless and really not able to do much except chill in bed. Do I dare say some form of mild depression has set in too? The point was that it was pretty clear she was in no position or mood to eat anything and that was ok. I felt that she was in no mood or position to take care of Johnnie either. And so we cleaned up the piano room from their "picnic" and then I took Johnnie to my apartment so I could make him a decent dinner. He even picked what he was going to eat, which was macaroni and cheese! Shocking. He hadn't eaten that at my house in a really long time. And I know he wasn't starving. Lunch took care of that. So maybe it was still good that he wolfed down an entire bowl of the mac-and-cheese which was most of the box. And I bought myself some pre-roasted chicken doused with the remnants of the marsala sauce from earlier in the week. Some peas, some rice and voila: I had myself a good dinner too. I drove Johnnie back around 8:30 at least assured that someone had watched him properly tonight. Lisa was still complaining about the medication she took and at this point it just goes in one ear and out the other for me. I have to do that. I'm back in the morning to pick up Johnnie again. You can only listen to the same thing over and over again for so long. Besides I needed to catch up on sleep. Still it was a pretty good, chill Friday despite Lisa's prominence in it. Johnnie and I managed to do just fine.

Last Day Before Spring Break

If it's Thursday, I must be doing  my IS Team Meeting first thing while Johnnie was already in the middle of his second class today. I remembered that it was the last day of school before Spring Break for him. I don't even remember what we did last year for his Spring Break. Probably a whole bunch of nothing since we were smack dab in the middle of LA's Stay At Home order. We weren't even able to play golf on Sundays for at least a couple of Sundays I remember. That's when we picked up on playing the Pasadena courses mostly. And so I posted that pic of Johnnie posing the question to me since he really wanted to go to the Billabong Wildlife Observatory in Northern Australia. Maybe when the pandemic dies down Johnnie, maybe when the pandemic dies down. Of course, it IS doing just that otherwise we wouldn't be talking about Johnnie going back to school any time soon. And now we already have a date even. The week after Spring Break. And so even while acknowledging that last year around this time was hardly a memorable one, I mentally put myself on notice that we have to do at least ONE THING that would be memorable for next week. And me KNOWING that intention is the start of CREATION, then I have to believe that this should be *Fun* :) PS. I did mean memorable in the best and the most positive way possible. I did look back in my journal and saw that we even stopped playing golf for a few Sundays because of the closure, remembering that we drove all the way to Altadena only to find out it was closed that first Sunday we were all sent home. At least we won't have to deal with that this year.

And so by mid-afternoon this Thursday, I still hadn't really picked up where I left off with my presentation from yesterday. As in I was really distracted with Johnnie stuff and the dog stuff. By this time I thought that maybe, just maybe Lisa would pick up Johnnie before 7:30 again. And so I had him start cleaning up everything pretty early. And in fact, we headed to Panda Express to pick up his dinner right at 5 PM. And true enough, Lisa called around 6:45 PM. It was still light out and she was already on her way. YAY! She promptly tells me that I have to watch Johnnie yet again tomorrow because she has yet again made an appointment with whatever it was that was ailing her. All she knows is that it wasn't kidney stones. In my mind I had already explained to her everything. It was no different than the anxiety attacks I was having in the late 90s. No different than feeling like I was having a cardiac event before I would even go on a run, always thinking that something was wrong. Man, more than 20 years later and I think I've already disproved that. I told her I was glad to watch Johnnie tomorrow if just for the couple of hours that she was going to spend at the doctor's office. I was pretty sure they weren't going to find anything different or remarkable. Anyway, off they went on home and I went back to cleaning my apartment. Except that the dog was going to be here again so I didn't really do a full cleanup like I did last week. I'll have to do it some time this weekend. What I did do was FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY bear down and finish my presentation! I was finally able to concentrate. And it only took a few hours. Too bad it was between 10 PM and 2 AM. Yep, I stayed up until almost 2 AM and I wasn't even tired. I felt energized. I felt the buzz of great ideas. I think I created GREAT content. And where I was supposed to do 20-25 slides, I did 45! I'm done, done, and done! THAT felt good.

Tied Up At Work

This was supposed to be an easy week and I was supposed to be focusing on getting my symposium presentation all finished by the Friday deadline. I was, in fact, hoping to get the bulk of it done today. But from my meeting with the Data Analytics team in the morning, it all of a sudden turned into "reports" day, which is not something I had to deal with BEFORE I took over the Data team. Now all of a sudden with this Covid vaccine reporting thing, and with Emma being in charge of the reporting, I am feeling some tension from her "pushy" nature. I mean I respect she has a job to do and reports to send, just that my ego gets pushed and tested when I deal with her. Sometimes. It's really no different than Marina I remind myself. Marina tends to check my numbers too, but she is usually right. So I've gotten used to it. And since mostly right I tend to think of it like she's doing me a favor and helping me by checking my work. Emma, on the other hand, has always been pushy from Day 1. And when she is at her pushiest, it's my ego that gets activated and makes me want to push back. It isn't just an annoyance like Marina, it feels personal. Of course I know it isn't and so it's on me to work on my reaction. It's like a program, no different than the stuff I feel that comes with interaction with Lisa. Anyway, despite getting repeatedly stuck doing scheduling numbers more than once, and then at the same time trying to match numbers up with Shilpa so she can verify the PowerBI stuff which is supposed to have the same exact numbers, And so with all that going on, it's no surprise I never did get to my presentation. I did manage to do a stop-and-smell-the roses moment, which resulted in the nice shot of the blue sky, the sun framed by the trees in front of my apartment. And I did manage to work Johnnie through his classes, even got him to karate class in the afternoon. Just have a look at his uppercut in the picture. He's learning alright. And he's actually looking good doing so. I all will admit that focusing on Johnnie's stuff helps me deal better with all the stuff at work, negative or otherwise. And before i knew it the day had pretty much slipped by and it was already time to head on to Panda Express Westwood to get Johnnie's dinner. And tonight of course, was bath night for Claire the dog and see we were all looking forward to that. She was starting to smell like a .... dog LOL LOL. And so we all had dinner, we all chilled for a bit and then in to the bath with the dog Johnnie went. The thing with Johnnie and the dog is that he is not very gentle with her and I would love to teach him control. Heck he gets rough with me too now. But with Claire, I get concerned. He's actually in play mode most of the time, he just needs to be reminded to play gentle is all. And so in the shower, when Claire does NOT really want to get wet, it's like we forcibly keep her there and that makes me feel bad. And so I tried to get it over with as fast as I could, keeping it under 10 minutes or so and still make sure she gets a pretty good soap scrubbing. And when it was all over, and she got semi-dried up she smelled REALLY REALLY good. She has so much hair that it actually takes a while to get her fully dried up, at least without using a hair dryer. Aww just look at that face in the picture all covered with not-quite-dry hair. Still, in the process of drying her up right there on my lap, and while Johnnie was otherwise pre-occupied with the Octonauts after the bath, I actually got started with my presentation slides. That was a surprise. It was like I got a creative nudge and started to compile all kinds of cybersecurity articles that would help me synthesize the ideas I wanted to present. I couldn't explain it other than I actually knew what I wanted to say and that I had already had a cohesive format with a previous presentation I did on the same subject from a year ago. And so with the dog on my lap I actually FINISHED an outline of the presentation. It needed updated content obviously and as with everything that is a formal presentation, I really need to pay attention to format and keeping the thing spot on on an aesthetic level. I feel like I could have kept on working and gotten the biggest chunk of the presentation done, but I did  remind myself that I had the entire day tomorrow to knock it out and finish it, which would allow me to get Johnnie to bed in the usual time. He was already in his brand new pajamas by 9 PM after all, since he himself had to change from the dog bath session. Hey I am GOOD with going to bed early tonight. 

Is Mercury in Retrograde today?

There was something different about today right off the bat although I wasn't sure what when I woke up. This week is Johnnie's last week before Spring Break so it should be a chill week school wise. And I also got word today that they finally have a date for return to school. For Mar Vista Elementary, Johnnie gets to go back to school on April 13! At least I will now get 3 hours more to myself every day and that works out just great for me. As I also got word that the FRB won't be letting anyone back for the rest of the year 2021. And so really it should have been a pretty routine Tuesday. Except that it wasn't. rright off the bat when I tried to get Johnnie logged in to his class at 9 AM, I could NOT get his HP chromebook to turn on! What the -eff? I was so concerned with making sure Johnnie didn't get on late that I just powered up my own chromebook and let him work from that for his first 2 classes. How do I get in the middle of a hardware break/fix situation... in my own household??? I'm supposed to be the professional here right? These hardware issues aren't supposed to dog me, or at least bother me. But bothered me it did, especially when I couldn't get it to work for the next hour that I was fiddling with it. I have a feeling the battery simply ran out. So I just plugged it in and left it charging for the rest of the morning. In the middle of all this, I did remember that it is my Mom's birthday today, not the she acknowledged Johnnie's video that we sent last night or my voice mail message. I made sure she got something again TODAY. And as if the Universe was simply making sure, Tita Alice called me all the way from Australia to remind me of my mom's birthday. We actually ended up chatting for a good 20 minutes and as I suspected, the narrative that I am the wayward son who no longer cares about the rest of the family was at play. Still, Tita Alice was glad we talked and that she says I'm still the happy, smiling nephew she knew when I was Johnnie's age. She got to talk to Johnnie too and so that's all good. Still I posted a pic of me outside my apartment trying to get some peace and calm in the middle of the day. And a nice, sunny day it turned out to be too.  

And so later on, my electronic gadget woes would continue. This time the garage door  wouldn't open. Nor would any of the doors in the complex. Mercury in retrograde I tell ya. It's the only possible explanation. I had to go to the Apartment leasing office to confirm it. And now since nothing would open, effectively we couldn't leave the house because that would mean I wouldn't be able to get back in. I explored having a Panda Express food delivery but that ended up almost doubling the price if I were to order just one thing. And I had PLENTY of food. I still had that delicious beef stew for at least a couple of more meals. Fortunately when we checked around 6 PM, the manager had opened the garage door so people could at least get in and out of the complex. And so off we went to Panda Express for Johnnie's dinner. I also had it in my mind that I was going to be working on my CCALAC symposium presentation material today, being that it's due on Friday. But with everything going on today with the planet Mercury, it was all I could do to simply keep myself in as positive a state as possible. I kept trying to tell myself that it was simply the Universe trying to test my patience yet again. And actually, by mid-afternoon, I had gotten Johnnie's chromebook working again. It WAS the battery and I needed to charge it fully again and when it did, it powered back on simple as that. At least I didn't completely lose my mind today and so that's a good thing right? I didn't flunk the test. And by dinner time, it was back to Tuesday routine. Johnnie eating his dinner and then doing his kazillion drawings to pick out a present for his mom, me taking the dog out periodically to get her pooped and pee'd and so far so good, not a drop of pee inside the house. She is starting to smell some though so I can't wait until tomorrow when she gets her bath. And today, I also got Johnnie's new pajamas via Amazon delivery. He had outgrown every single one of his pajamas he's growing so fast. He knocked off early today. We all did. That's a very good thing.

Irregular Monday

So Lisa alerted me last Saturday that she is going to the doctor's yet again today for the same condition she had complained about or been complaining about for a couple of weeks now. I have no comment as to the need for such a visit. All I cared about was that I have to watch Johnnie while he is in his last online class because her appointment is at 1 PM. And so dutifully I showed up at 12:30 and caught Johnnie interacting with his schoolmates. Apparently a return to in-person learning is imminent and I can't wait. It's only going to be for 3 hours a day in the mornings. But that's still a meaningful enough 3 hours. This morning for example, I got up and immediately started my Monday round of reports (for Covid vaccination) and started my round of stretches and exercises. Monday is heavy steps day and has been for a few months now after all. I looked and I averaged 100+ minutes of activity every single Monday since the new year. Pretty awesome I think. And a routine I am not going to stop today even if I have to play things differently in the middle of the day. I figured this would be a good practice for when Johnnie goes back to school. By lunchtime I had already done 8000 steps, but the problem was that when I got to Lisa's I hadn't had time to get lunch for myself. Still, Lisa headed off to her appointment, Courtney was on her way out and Johnnie let me know he still hadn't had lunch either. WEll then... off we went to Panda Express Marina del REy! Was it a few years now that we used to come to this Panda Express every Tuesday? Today, we just got our lunch and went back to Lisa's house to eat it. At least the boy will have had a decent meal. I also got him to clean up all the saved work he had out, including his "restaurant" for the weekend. This would make it easier for us to leave later on as Lisa tends to not do anything until late late afternoon. By 3 PM, Lisa still hadn't gotten back, which meant she was probably in the middle of a bunch of tests. That was my timemarker to head back one way or the other. And so I had Johnnie pack up and off we went to my apartment. I figured we could always come back if Lisa wanted to have dinner with Johnnie. But then again who knows what mood she would be in right?  

Almost 4 PM I had my answer. It turned out that her condition was not kidney stones after all and now she's back to square one as to having this "mystery pain" and "mystery ailment".  Great. I can only imagine what that does to her mentally <roll my eyes>. She was actually surprised that we had cleaned up and left although predictably, she felt like taking a nap. And so it was good that we left after all and Lisa just waved off the rest of the day. Heck, we were already at the apartment and into the Monday routine kind of early. I had spent enough time at Lisa's house even though I managed to get to 10,000 steps by the time we got back. Hey, it was a nice day out actually and I was glad to burn steps just in Lisa's backyard.  And anyway, I cruised through all the reports that were due today. I wanted to work on my presentation for the CCALAC symposium actually but having Johnnie and the dog back severely limits my ability to concentrate and focus. Even if Johnnie was happy and content simply watching the Octonauts again. It really IS different to have him in the house. Not that I'm complaining actually. I think it's no small miracle that I pull off what I do pull off on a daily basis. Tonight I had him do a video wishing my mom a Happy Birthday. It's not until tomorrow and I noticed on FB that Grace and fam already had her over last weekend. She's not going to remember that I did it, because her narrative I think is that I am not such a good son. And maybe she's right. But I'm trying. This is one of those things I still have to do a deep dive on and do some clearing and emotionally cleaning and basically do some self-forgiveness on. I remind myself that everything is ME pushed out and if I am feeling some guilt at any level, it is merely a program I have mistakenly bought into. And so it was that Monday evening was really routine after a brief blip in the middle of the day. We were even back to making Johnnie penne pasta chicken noodle for his dinner and me eating my beef stew which turned out much better than before. I was thinking that those Lisa blips are no more than a little change of focus is all and if I don't judge anything and anyone, then it is merely me getting Johnnie a whole lot earlier than usual. And THAT in itself is preferable anyway. Early night for all, a good night's rest on Monday. It's all good.

A Pleasant Golf Day

So Greg emailed yesterday that he had hurt is foot and is unable to walk and so he begged off today's game at Roosevelt.  His loss too because it was a perfectly nice day. It was just Scott and I of course but it was actually nice that it was just 2 of us and there was another 2 some in front of us and a 4some behind us that would never catch up. And so we could actually relax and still not wait on each hole. The bottom line today? I played well. From the tee box to the green. But I couldn't putt all day until the very last hole! First hole: on in 2, 3-putted to a bogey 5. Hole 3: Tee shot barely misses the green. 3-putt to a bogey 4. Hole 6: the narrow funnel hole: Front of the green in 2. Wayward shot from there turns it into a 5. Hole 7: On in 2, missed the par putt and got another bogey 4. Kind of the story of the day isn't it? Until the very last hole when I finally took a wayward tee shot and the 2nd hole landed a foot from the hole. Even I couldn't miss that follow-up putt right? That would be my only par for the day. Still, it wasn't like I played badly, just that I would have scored lights out if only I could make a putt or two. Scott was in the same boat actually. He was hitting bogeys because he couldn't make a putt either. Still, it was a nice day and we got done by 10:40 and I enjoyed another beautiful Sunday morning on the links. I actually did feel good that I found a way to relax, at least on my tee shots and most of the fairway shots. No thought about anything other than relaxing at the point of contact and focusing then on making solid contact. And I probably whiffed less today than I normally would have. There were whiffs to be sure. Always on Hole 2 too. A mishit on 4, a rescue from the trees on 5. Really only that one bad whiff. I will take that any day. I decided to go directly to Crimson and get an early order in. While waiting I knocked off the rest of my steps walking around this Santa Monica neighborhood, imagining myself living in one of the houses. Would I live in this neighborhood? Hell yeah I would. And so I was home enjoying my salmon kabobs and lentil soup before it was even noon. Hey I deserve a reward right? For a pretty good morning?!

I spent the afternoon shifting between more TV shows (watched a little Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon... hmmm, last week it was the Grandmaster. What is it with the lean towards martial arts movies all of a sudden. And not just martial arts movies mind you, CHINESE martial arts movies at that), enjoying more of a beautiful day by walking outside. Hey, it turned spring officially yesterday after all didn't it. It's going to start getting warmer again and I, for one, can not wait. I have to think about what to do with Johnnie next week for his week long spring break. But never mind that for now. For the rest of the day, I'm simply going to chill knowing full well I have another presentation-heavy week next week. As in I have to put my symposium presentation together. No different than Tech Council really but still, it requires effort. More than a few ways to chill and relax though. I posted a video of mean cooking up some ground round while listening to Chicago. That would be because I'm making my weekly stew tonight instead of tomorrow like I had the past few weeks. Pretty soon, it will be too warm for any more stew. This night's version turned out pretty good too. I even cooked up some biscuits to go with it. Ahh, a fine dinner I had. And with some peace and quiet too. Lisa had talked about possibly coming over and using the spa with Courtney. Thank God THAT didn't happen. I just ended up watching the Walking Dead and NOT doing any work like I should have. The golf this morning already made it a pretty good day.

Looking for Peace and Calm

SURREAL  Did it seem surreal that Lisa would be sitting there in my "backyard" which really was the common area where the barbecue is and actually be chilling and looking relaxed? Lisa? relaxed? And EATING something? She had actually just come over after her full day of Saturday work to pick up Johnnie. She mentioned something about having some food from Zankou Chicken. Wooh! Zankou Chicken! How long had it been since I've had Zankou chicken. Can't deny I had been thinking about it for many a weekend to eat there. But I hadn't. And when she mentioned it, I asked if there were more leftovers so I can bum some off her. She had a plate but that was it. And then she asked maybe we can both eat right then and there, more than likely thinking about the patio area in front of my apartment unit. I mean why not? And why not the eating area by the barbecues? After all, Lisa would be the ONLY one in my circle that has not eaten back there. Heck even Sylvia and Quentin had seen eat and eaten back there way back when I first moved in. I thought it was harmless. And so it was that Lisa brought her food, ate there and while we just sat and chilled in the warm Saturday late afternoon sun, Johnnie and the dog were chasing each other in the grass area, very happy to leave mom and dad alone. Surreal. Johnnie climbing the tree there, the dog barking at him, Lisa and I just chatting away. Doesn't look like a broken family does it? LOL. Maybe because it isn't? Not so much anyway. I etched this moment in my memory only because any positive thing is always better than the negative stuff. For every negative feeling that I felt toward Lisa, just as I did a week ago, I will back fill and counteract with a memory of this afternoon. Otherwise it felt like just another Saturday. My goal was to chill with Johnnie and do basically nothing. After all, when he's with me during the week, it's always go-go-go from one class activity to another. Especially when I had to get up super-early because Lisa had a patient at 7:30 AM. That meant I had to give Johnnie a shower right there at Lisa's house and that we would have an early breakfast at Elysee. No matter, Johnnie got a freebie cookie didn't he? We did do some shopping at Target before going back home but we got started so early we were actually home before 10 AM. We were home so early Johnnie got to watch Raya and the Last Dragon yet again and finished the whole thing well before lunch. We went to Panda Express Westwood today, remembering that we used to come here and sit down and eat many a Saturday pre-pandemic. When we got back though my body reminded me i barely got 5 hours of sleep last night and I started to knock off. Even Johnnie shaking me awake every 10 minutes or so didn't help. He started to get so bored he was literally writing down the minutes on the clock before his mom would pick him up at 3:30. I did manage to play baseball outside with him for a half hour though. All this before Lisa came and the family interlude at the patio area. It wasn't all peace and quiet. Lisa still called Courtney who was supposedly on her way over. Locked down another play date for tomorrow. And by then I could feel myself wanting to kick them out to go home. I'm trying to think why I got so uncomfortable towards the end there. Likely an old program? Maybe I felt like Lisa was intruding on my peace and quiet at MY home? Something was going on. I gotta think about that one some. After all, even after they had left it was still barely 4 PM. Plenty of time to walk around my neighborhood on what turned out to be a very nice Saturday afternoon. By 5 PM I decided to venture out. That piece of chicken Lisa brought from Zankou had me finally inspired to go get Mediterranean food for dinner. And off I went searching for some south of me. I finally did find Tut's Mediterranean, which was barely a hole in the wall on Washington right off Grand View. Close enough to keep coming here if I liked it. I ordered the kefta kabob (ground beef) and brought it home. And before I ate it, I made sure I was at 9000 steps so I didn't have to worry about it the rest of the evening. And so finally I had my Mediterranean dinner and it was pretty good. I will definitely come back in the future. I ate dinner watching tales of the Pirate world in the 1700s at the height of its glory days. It was like watching the real Pirates of the Carribean right there in Nassau and Jamaica. And then later on I would watch some March Madness. Yep, UCLA did make the tournament, won it's play-in game last week and tonight blew out BYU in the first round. That was one thing that didn't happen last year was the NCAA tournament. Here's to hoping they win one more game and go to the Sweet Sixteen. And so it was that I did have a chill Saturday. Johnnie, Lisa and all.

Kind of A Tank Friday

Even after tech Council meeting I still had lots of stuff to do. After all, I have to speak at a symposium in a couple of weeks and my slides are due for review in a week. But I ain't going to get them done today. In fact, what I felt like doing this morning was actually to continue to clean the apartment. This morning, that was the bathroom and more specifically, the shower. After all, it had suffered through Johnnie and the dog for the last couple of weeks without being cleaned. And this morning, it was simply time. And so I got most of the apartment already cleaned up before I even stopped for breakfast. And after breakfast I read emails, double checked on my bank account... after all we did get paid today and I'm back over $30,000 AND I sent in my odometer reading for the Honda. Quietly, I paid off the rest of the lease meaning I bought the Honda outright and Honda Financial is trying to transfer the title to me. But really with all of this stuff what I really did most of the rest of the morning is kick back and chill the way I posted myself doing in the pic. I did binaural beats videos, a meditation session,  read articles. In other words, stuff I usually WOULD do if I were doing a TANK DAY at the office, hanging out in MY office. And at lunch time, when I would usually sneak out to catch a movie at the Regal LA theater at LA Live, I instead parked myself in front of the TV and watched the series premiere of the latest Marvel creation: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I mean Captain America is gone and Iron Man is dead and yet the Marvel Universe continues. And I'm going to be watching to be sure... at least until the Mandalorian series resumes again. I would have taken a nap too but I chose to do some steps instead. After all, it was a nice day out and it was good to enjoy the day that had gotten warm. Besides, Lisa had requested that I watch Johnnie for a couple of hours this afternoon from 4-6 PM while she practiced piano. And then we were supposed to all have dinner together. So whatever I did this afternoon would be my ME TIME for the day. 

As it was Lisa called me by 3:30 PM, right as I was headed out to do grocery shopping. 2nd attempt at depositing her check. And then she was going to drop off Johnnie at my house for a couple of hours. However, this ended up being totally unnecessary. By the time she got to the bank Johnnie had fallen asleep in the back seat. Which actually makes it even more convenient in that she no longer had to leave him with me. She could just let him sleep for the next couple of hours and she could practice for that long. I got to go on to my grocery shopping spree. Lisa still wanted me to come over to have dinner with them. After all, Friday night routine is still Friday night routine and I was down for whatever extraneous food Lisa still had left to cook. I did know that whatever she had us eating tonight, I'm sure it wasn't going to be enough protein for me so I ate a Chinese pork bun before heading out there. When I got there, Lisa was still playing, Johnnie was still sleeping, and the dog was being the dog. She was glad to see me though, or at least she totally knew who I was. Lisa wanted to cook the strip of salmon and although it was a sizeable piece it WAS enough for both Lisa and I. In the meantime, I brought some udon for Johnnie and that would be his dinner. I had this idea that I was going to use Lisa's grill for both the salmon and the veggies she wants to cook, but something was wrong with that damn grill. It did not get hot for a while and when it did, the fire was too low. Why is it that everytime I cook something in this house, there's always something I notice that doesn't work as well as when I'm at the apartment? All this expense Lisa does and it's practically mud for a lot of the backyard, the aforementioned grill wasn't working properly... and now I realize I needed to stop the pattern. my pattern of thinking. I was in mis-match mode. Only led to an almost-argument after dinner about such a serious issue such as releasing some ladybugs outside in the garden. Smh. Anyway Lisa insisted that we play a game of SORRY. Lisa and Johnnie love this game and I am not a fan only because I had yet to win against either mom or son! Heck Johnnie won tonight's game! Oh well, at least I got some time in with Johnnie and I'm back first thing tomorrow morning since it is a Lisa work day. And as Lisa said, she's gotten somewhat fond (though she will never use that word so I'll paraphrase) of Friday night "family nite".  AND I'll take today's tank day. I'll take it any time.

Early Clean-up Early Everything

The day after Tech Council Meeting is usually un-busy as I am breathing out from the day before. Today was no different even though I had back-to-back meetings first thing, with the IS Team and with my new boss, as I now report to Dennis Benton the VP of Finance. He actually seems just as hands-off as Eloisa has been, and ok with simply leaving me alone to do my job. That IS what I prefer anyway so we'll be good there still. Anyway even with the early slate I still was able to pay attention to Johnnie's music class this morning. And I was happy to see his pitch is getting better. I remember he didn't really have much pitch when he was starting pre-kinder music classes at Cornerstone. He is already improving very much and that is cool to see. After that 2nd meeting with Dennis I considered the day pretty much done even though I still had things to do here and there. They were mostly annoyances more than anything and the lesson for me was to make sure I didn't just thumb my nose at anyone or anything and to make sure I gave things the proper attention. By lunchtime I was in BREATHE OUT mode.

By lunchtime I was making penne pasta for Johnnie AND making making myself some ground pork bolognese over the leftover penne pasta. And that turned out pretty good too. Especially when I ate it outside in the warm sun enjoying some time to myself while Johnnie was in the middle of his last class. And when Johnnie did his online playdate, that was when I caught up with my steps. See, the key is to use the little slivers of time when they become available to do the stuff you gotta do. Still, as I said the afternoon the focus shifted and for Johnnie, that meant starting to clean up his SAVED WORK by early afternoon. I had very high hopes that Lisa would pick up Johnnie and the dog early although the variable there is the time. It could be 6:30, it could be 7:30, and I was hoping it would be more the former. And so you could imagine my COMPLETE SHOCK when she called at 5 PM letting me know she was already done. It probably meant that she didn't plan on sticking around to write her notes. I'm sure she missed Johnnie and the dog. Anyway she suggested that maybe we could cash her IRS check today. She got another one of those refund checks last week and this one was almost $14,000. I mean she got a couple of checks in the past month totalling $27K. I don't want to hear anything from her about being short of money or anything. I mean I'm not even getting a dime from that! Tonight though we weren't able to deposit the check even though we made it to the bank by 5:10 PM. Seems like they had changed their hours since the pandemic and now they close at 6 PM. Oh well.  I surprised even myself when I suggested we get something to eat since Johnnie and I were on the way to Panda Express actually when she called. Even more surprising was that Lisa agreed. And that she would PAY! W-h-a-t?! And so we ended up sitting down at all-u-can-eat Korean BBQ which was right next to the bank. We ate outside although really most LA restaurants were cleared to open indoor dining just this past Monday. I ended up eating most of the meat since Lisa was still recovering from whatever it was she was suffering from the past weekend...which by the way seems to be a case of kidney stones! And Johnnie didn't eat anything at all. And so Lisa asked if I could keep Johnnie for just a couple of more hours. That was perfectly fine... we ended up getting him food from Panda Express anyway. And then he hung around with me and I gave him his shower too before dropping him off at Lisa's, already in his pajamas, and ready to go to bed. So Lisa picked up Johnnie early, but didn't actually and I still had plenty of time to clean up the apartment, doing the living room and the kitchen and washing a load of the dog's towels. Everything is good. 

Another Tech Council Meeting

I'm not sure exactly why I woke up this morning and felt some negative energy. I'm thinking it's merely another imprint or echo of something going on elsewhere. After all, it was a pretty distracting weekend and I think I did a little too much giving in to the negative push/pulls. Today is merely one of those push/pulls I think and it is totally up to me to determine how I want to experience today. I focused on the feeling of having a pretty successful IS Tech Council Meeting, my definition of which is that I was able to articulate that everything is stable, we're going in the right direction and whatever we need to deal with now and in the future, we're in a position to deal with. In the meantime, I'm reminded that it is St Patrick's Day today and Johnnie already declared he needed to wear something green today. Ok then. Green Hawaii shirt it is. And if that first class he had <Library> where they sang Irish dirges for 20 minutes doesn't distract you, I don't know what does really. Ok it WAS amusing and you can see how attentive Johnnie was to the whole thing. As for me, I was all done with my prep work for the Tech Council Meeting and I pretty much focused on Johnnie's classes for the morning. That alone sort of helped me focus on positive stuff and kept me from obsessing. And so by the time the meeting rolled around I was pretty relaxed. And it came off without a hitch as usual. I had about 40 minutes worth of material and the thing took the entire hour because I let Barbara present her pitch on a folder structure for the Sharepoint sites, simply because she can't find anything she claims. I didn't want to be the one to tell her that finding anything in Sharepoint is the same as Googling something on the internet, in fact that was the very reason we moved everything to Sharepoint. But try telling her that. Try telling anyone to do something they are not already used to and it becomes somewhat of a challenge depending on the open-mindedness of the person. To be fair, Barbara has come a VERY long way but in certain contexts she simply forgets. And I WILL not knock her or anyone for that. Far too many people in the organization doing that to condemn them all LOL LOL. Anyway, the meeting went fine and then it was on to the next one, which was the OCHIN quarterly. That meeting surprised me in that I got a message from Eloisa right after commenting that she expected to see more engagement from our team. She's right. It's our biggest expense, certainly on the IT side and the management of all things EPIC doesn't flow up and down the leadership chain I don't think. Never had. But should I take that activity over? That's what Eloisa asked. I am not sure. I don't take on anything I don't succeed at. I knew I would with Data Analytics. I was successful with it before. But the EPIC TEam? Gotta give that one some thought... 

And so after that meeting it was on to Wednesday night, me and Johnnie goofing off with the dog, going to Panda Express Westwood to pick up dinner. And the highlight of the evening: giving Claire a bath. No small feat I don't think, since I have put Johnnie in charge of that activity. He's still more play than anything else and even the act of taking the dog out to pee sees me yelling at Johnnie because he loses focus inside of 5 minutes. Can't really blame him though can I? He IS 6 years old. I still have to remind him that the reason the dog barks is because he isn't being very gentle with her and sees him as an adversary sometimes. And so my little Johnnie is still learning control.  And Claire? She's blasting around the house trying to get dry after we gave her said bath. But afterwards? She smelled so good! NOW we can let her sleep anywhere on the bed. And after Tech Council Meeting Day, I can focus on simply getting rested again. It's all good.

Distracted, Busy Tuesday

So I didn't really get as much done as I liked yesterday, so I knew today I would have to focus almost entirely on the Tech Council presentation. Not a slamdunk when you have Johnnie and the dog around. On the one hand, I start to feel for Lisa as they are quite a handful those two and when you're not feeling well, I agree it's a challenge. And today, I never did get to any of that presentation work in the morning. I DID get my IS Team Meeting done, and I did get to my emails but between shuttling Johnnie in and out of his Zoom classes, and taking the dog out to poop and pee, it was already lunchtime in the blink of an eye. Look at Johnnie trying to bite through some hot pizza. Only when he got done with that AND settled in to his last group class of the day did I get to do something. And it wasn't even work. I got a whole bulk of steps in simply walking around the perimeter outside my apartment still inside the complex. I got all the way to 4500 steps before I went back in the apartment. It's great that I can leave Johnnie alone and he has such a feel for his school routine now that I don't even need to help him anymore, other than logging him in. I do the logging in to Zoom class simply because it's faster for me to do it. But once in the portal, he can even do his homework on his own. He reads the instructions and does just fine submitting his stuff himself. I'm chuckling as I'm thinking of the many folks in my own office that would have some difficulty doing that?! Finally in the afternoon, I zoned in and worked exclusively on my presentation. It's not that I was looking for material actually. I knew what I was going to present. It was just a matter of blocking out the time to work on it. And even though Johnnie was already done with his classes after 1 PM, I at least could get him some more 1st grade level exercises to do, and some reading from the EPIC website. That kid can't get enough of Cat Ninja and the Bright Family actually. For me, that's just enough of a diversion for me to get through my work. By the time I looked up, it was nearly 5 PM and I was just happy at how light out it is. More importantly, I was almost done with my presentation. No urgency there.    

The only other potential drama that came up was that Johnnie once again forgot Fuzzy at Lisa's house last night. Although I did call her, I reminded Johnnie this was the 2nd time in a row while with me that he had forgotten her. Maybe it was letting him know that, but he actually agreed to go last night without his favorite stuffed toy. Instead he made do with Linty, the 2nd identical stuffed animal I keep at my apartment. So crisis averted, no need to go to Lisa's to retrieve Fuzzy, and last night he slept just fine. So much so I had to wake him up at 7:15 AM this morning from a deep deep sleep. Something tells me I need to get him used to waking up earlier again. That's because in the go-back-to-school survey I filled out I selected 8-11 AM as the preferred time slot to be at school. Which means we're back to the way it was when school was open and getting up by 7 AM. Yes, I thought about how the morning would have gone differently had Johnnie been at school, but then again, I did get the presentation done, AND the Meeting Minutes, AND the agenda all before 7 PM. That's with heading to Panda Express to do the usual dinner pickup and everything. I was done so early, or at least earlier than I expected that I could have had a really long sleep. But for some reason, maybe it was because I still had the energy of work work work in my system, I couldn't sleep at 9:30 AM. The dog and Johnnie were already out like a light when I slipped out of bed and back into the living room. And watched the TWO episode season premiere of Mayans MC. I don't know what it is about a Mexican biker gang near the Tijuana border that captures my attention. I had watched Season 1 AND Season 2. The first season I was watching when I was still living at Maplewood. I liked it better than Sons of Anarchy to be sure though I don't know the attraction with that series either. It isn't like the series I usually binge on. No sci-fi, no time-travel. Has to be the characters right? EZ <Ezekiel> is not hard to root for. Talk about a hero's journey. I think that's it. Am i in the middle of my OWN hero's journey I wonder? I'll mull that over in my dreams. I headed back to bed and back to sleep. It was midnight...