One Year Ago

So a year ago this week went from half the managers working from home to EVERYBODY working from home. Yep, it's been a year. Can you believe it? One year of managing Johnnie through online classes. One year doing twice a week Zoom meetings. I think one can safely say that after a year of working from home I don't think I'd have it any other way. So one of my wishes came true after all. I remember exactly a year ago I scoffed at Lisa because she stopped by the grocery store on her way home from picking up Johnnie and there was nothing on the shelves. True enough I had to see it for myself. There was nothing on the shelves. That was the week we all worried if we had enough toilet paper LOL. That time I still wasn't 100% convinced about the wearing a facemask thing although it is second nature by now. Even if I had to be scolded by my neighbor right in front of my apartment unit. A year ago I would have never thought that we <WE as in QueensCare, as in Lisa and I, as in everybody> would have to stay at home locked down for an entire year, nor did we have the resilience to do so. Yet here we are. The vaccine is here so we can now start talking about things getting back to semi-normal. Because I don't think there is any going back 100% to the way it was.  If anything there is now a renewed focus on being able to do things outside more. And I for one welcome all that wholeheartedly. I mean there is an improvement even in the traffic of LA's freeways. Not significant, but an improvement just the same. And so far I have logged 24K on my car after 3 years+ Way under the usual. All those things are positive. BUT I also haven't seen my family in more than a year, though that is more preference than resolve. Everyone else in my circle I've see at least a couple of times and I have to say I have seen Lisa more in the past year than I thought I would ever have, certainly much more than if the pandemic wasn't going on. AND SO, with all that reflection, I noticed that I worked hard today. Yes today Friday. No tank day today for sure. I took a shower early, hopped on a Zoom call to talk about Covid vaccine data with the Data Analytics crew, then hopped on another call at noon to plan for more vaccines coming in from the Federal govt. Boy they sure are serious when they say they want everyone vaccinated by summer. That meeting had a little tension because Emma and I disagreed on where to collect the data.  Later on I realized that was me trying to be right. I could give a rat's ass where it's collected really as long as my team rolls with it and is able to report. I think that was just an echo between Emma and I from way back in the day when she was new.   

The important thing was that we had a plan after that meeting.   I worked so hard today that by 3 PM I hadn't even done 1000 steps yet.  It was like I was sedentary all day long by then. I fixed that real quick. A walk to Ralphs to do groceries, and then again to Trader Joe's to do more groceries and I had caught up with my steps before 5 PM. Why 5 PM? Because the most recent Friday night routine when Lisa isn't working on a Saturday is that she practices piano for her class. Hence I've been coming over to share a meal and then to watch Johnnie while she practices. Today I called her since I had nothing to do and really nothing to binge watch on Netflix LOL. And as it turned out she had plenty of food she needed to prepare or they would go bad. She had an entire steak and shaved beef <the kind I would use for homemade pho>, the good one from Trader Joe's. And I'm sure she's due for another grocery drop this weekend already. And so I made us some stir-fry with broccoli flowerettes. And it turned out really really good too. I also brought some of the leftover penne for Johnnie's chicken noodle soup. A fine meal was had by all on this Friday night. I did end up watching Johnnie. Or rather we ended up starting up Raya and the Last Dragon again. I knew he wanted to watch it with Lisa but she wasn't obliging him. No matter, we still saw about an hour's worth before Lisa got done with her piano practice. And then I went on home. The new Pandemic Friday this night was and that was ok.  AND the final piece about remembering the significance of today was that I am GRATEFUL. I appreciate that I made it through the year just fine, and actually came out of it even better financially, even better emotionally, and very good physically. There were some challenges there, but nothing I didn't learn from and overcame quickly. Now to focus on the next coming year. And the here and now.