More Ego Distractions

I can't believe it's the last day in April already. I have the day off today actually and I planned on taking a mental sanity day. Of course Lisa calling on the phone first thing because she accidentally deleted Johnnie's day pass this morning isn't my idea of mental sanity and rest and relaxation time.  Still I helped her out, sent her another copy and then went back to a quiet Friday. Or so I thought. Why I decided to answer a chat from Eloisa when she asked about my further thoughts on another department realignment, most likely involving me taking over the EHR department, is beyond me. She asked to have a chat over lunch. And then I made the mistake of trying to be transparent about how I was having a conflict on Wednesday with picking up Johnnie at 11 AM and me needing to be at E3 for the Strategic Planning meeting.  I sounded like I was being inconvenienced I think. And so I got a sharp response back, getting a reminder of my responsibilities as a senior executive in the company. Really? I needed a reminder? It was all I could do not to clap back because I was in defense mode after that. As in "better be careful how hard you push"... Fortunately, i did realize that was in straight up react mode and I was not in a good state and I gave a bland answer back sounding like "there won't be a problem about Wednesday". I was sorry I even brought it up. But to be clear I was annoyed well after lunch. And I had to decompress about it with myself. And I had to pivot to finding a better solution for the Johnnie pickup than Lisa's options with one of Johnnie's classmates' nanny. That's when I looked up the BEYOND THE BELL program. I think that will work out. It's almost like the STAR program except that it is totally FREE! And that pushes out the Johnnie pickup to 3 PM! Hey I only have to worry about it for a month and a half anyway now that school will be out soon. Now to fill out the paperwork and convince Lisa...

So now the analysis: Everything is me pushed out.  Did I create that confrontation? Did I need to get nagged by myself? Was I nagging others trying to be right?  Is my ego trying to be right again? Did I display my frustration in the scheduling conflicts instead of simply changing my vibration to get the results I want? Oh yeah. I forgot to do that didn't I? Did I get lazy and not look at all my options <Why didn't I look at Beyond the Bell earlier>? Is it all of the Above? What polarized me and made me react and be angry? I knew I needed to take myself out of react mode. Oh this is happening LOL. I am polarized. I can choose to look at it from a positive note and move to the outcome that I want. Did I really want to miss the meeting at E3? Did I really want to focus on the reasons I couldn't make it? How am I reacting and what meaning am I giving to that which I am reacting to? I decided I will simply focus that everything will work out on Wednesday, that Johnnie will be picked up and that I will be able to go to the meeting at E3 and stay for however long I need to stay. In the meantime, it was another warm day out and I ended up having to work after all today. Not even counting the mental and emotional energy I used up with the "chat" with Eloisa. On my walk I also reflected that it was the last day in April today. Another month going by. Maybe the thing that happened this morning was also a reminder nudge from the Universe not to be too comfortable at my job and to focus on creating an alternative source of income so I DON'T HAVE TO WORK. Wouldn't that be great? I have plenty of money to lay low for a year at least if I had to, that's if I suddenly get let go but I shouldn't be focusing on that either. I would much rather prefer a gentler transition into the replacement income. Heck a financial windfall so I could retire right here and now with as much income if not greater would be very much welcome too. I would be FREE! So today's day off did not exactly provide me with an opportunity to recharge. But that's ok. I didn't need much recharging. Everything will be ok.

Bugs In The Routine

So just as soon as I start thinking I'm settling into this new routine, bugs show up. Maybe I just got myself used to working remotely 100% of the time for an entire year plus that now that something has come up that (a) makes me show up at work in person (b) butts against the new drop-Johnnie-off pick-Johnnie-up routine I'm all of a sudden feeling like I'm scrambling. That something is a Strategic Planning meeting next week at East Third from 10 - noon in person. Of course that puts it squarely right in the sweet spot of when I have to pick Johnnie up from school and so I'm finding myself with no backup. Hadn't worked on that really. And so the first thought was the Lisa staff option. Back in the day she would send Nikki to pick up Johnnie, or Ed. But that was 2 years ago. I sent her a text and hoped she could help me out for just one day. I will admit that I'm thinking that an in-person meeting is an inconvenience. A huge one. But then again it's not like I've been asked to do that all year long and now I'm being asked to do it and it's the first time in a really long while so I have to try to make it. Again I'm hoping Lisa can help me out this time. I don't think I need to remind her that I've always showed up when she has a doctor's appointment (LOTS OF THEM) on a Friday and again I'm crossing my fingers that we can work something out this time. And I'm trying to erase lingering thoughts that point to her dramatics and my perception that she is simply not 100% reliable. She simply puts her practice and her patients in front of everything else. I'm not saying it's wrong or it's bad. Just fact. And that I better find a solution which doesn't involve her. What was different about today was that it got downright hot by the time I picked up Johnnie from school. As in mid 80s hot. I didn't mind of course and I was sure glad I talked Johnnie into wearing shorts today.

I told myself that at least I took the day off tomorrow as a sort of breather. In the meantime, as soon as it started running into the late afternoon, we started shifting into LISA HAND-OFF mode. That means putting away Johnnie's toys and packing up his school stuff. It used to be he would build these huge structures or make a store or something. Things that would take a little time to put away. Not these days. AND sometimes, Johnnie would actually be motivated to clean the ENTIRE HOUSE. As in the entire apartment. I didn't believe it until he did just that a couple of weeks ago. And he started doing it again today. I took a pic of him cleaning up the dog's multiple towels outside to get rid of the dirt and other foreign objects. And then he actually put the towels near the hamper to get washed. That wasn't all either. He asked to move the sofa so WE could clean under it. THAT by itself is for sure a learned behavior and he didn't learn it from me LOL. The thing was once we got started and cleaned the floor under the sofa we couldn't very well stop there. Of course I had to do the rest of the living room. And it was Johnnie who noticed that the stand holding the TV was dusty. And of course he got a towel and started cleaning THAT too. He put our shoes away, even put the sofa pillows just so, in a symmetric order that could have only come from Lisa. The result at the end of the evening was the picture I posted. I had a STAGGERINGLY CLEAN apartment again. I mean the difference between just a few hours earlier when the dog was there couldn't have been more night and day. NOW it's as if there was no animal staying here. I even cleaned the kitchen floors on my hands and knees. The hand-off was fairly routine and Lisa did come at 7:50 after I called her at 7:30. No complaints from me there. I was already done with my 11000 steps anyway. All I had to do was to go back in the house and finish cleaning. And then I chilled by watching the new Michael B Jordan movie NO REMORSE (Tom Clancy). A good Thursday night it was. And I have the day off tomorrow! My work week is done!!!

Locking In The New Routine

How quickly I embraced this new job I have of dropping Johnnie off to school and then picking him up 3 hours later. How quickly did I lock in to the new routine. Of course it wasn't like there was something really different to get used to, other than actually physically walking with Johnnie to school. I was doing that already a year ago when he was at TK. Of course the difference then was I'd drop him off at school and then I'd drive to work. And then in the afternoon, I'd hustle home by 4:30 PM to pick him up from STAR. Huge difference picking him up at 11 AM as opposed to 5 PM. And not just showing up with that yellow sign with his name on it (see pic). When I think about it, I didn't really know what he did in TK class, but I did get to see what he would do in STAR and that I think is where I got started with the idea that he was already smarter than a lot of kids a couple of years older than he was. These days the routine I'm getting used to is to find something for him to do when he got home other than watching something on the iPad or watching videos. I was ok with him getting to know Cat Ninja and the Bright Family on EPIC Library but how long could I keep that up really? Something to work on still clearly. In the meantime, Claire seemed to be doing better today. Her poop was still a little too soft in the morning. So much so I kept giving her the chicken and rice meal for breakfast and lunch. Great. Not only do I have to get up at 6 AM to take her outside to poop and pee, which is now part of this new routine <or risk her peeing and/or pooping on anything I would have to wash>, now I have to boil chicken this morning too. Smh. Did i really sign up for this? It feels like the 3 AM feeding I used to do with Johnnie back in the day when he was newborn. Ok, not completely the same but I'm still up much earlier than I like doing something I am sure I wouldn't be doing otherwise. Today I added something to the routine after lunch. I took a nap. Not that I was sleep deprived, as I actually did catch up on sleep the last couple of nights, but hey you can still take a nap regardless and I took a good half an hour too. I figured I may have been tired from all those steps the last couple of days. After all, I did do almost 150+ hours of active minutes just on Monday alone.

The other part of the routine for Wednesday is now the weekly bath for Claire. Before getting to that, there's karate class for Johnnie, which I made him do tonight because he seemed to have a lot of energy and he seemed a little too cooped up in the apartment. I noticed he had ripped the knee in his pants. The knee that was already reinforced with double stitching. I'm sure he wasn't doing anything really really wild, just him being the ever so active Johnnie.  So much so I made us take Claire out for a walk late in the afternoon. The grass in the front of the apartment hadn't been cut in a couple of weeks and I'm sure it felt like a blanket to Claire. Look at boy and dog walking around the front of the apartment.  And of course there was the Wednesday night trip to Panda Express Westwood. I augmented tonight's fried rice with some of the leftover Italian sausage from yesterday. Worked out just fine. And then finally it was time to give Claire her bath. We learned last week that she didn't like being forced to be under the faucet and so this week we were much more gentle with the bowl and just rinsing her with water slowly and deliberately. She was far less agitated and even sat there patiently while we rubbed her with soap. The best part is that how good she smelled afterwards. NOW you can lie all over the bed. Johnnie took a bath too since he was already all wet. And he even spent time playing in the tub like he used to do. Now mind you just wiping off the loads of wet hair on Claire was enough to keep me wet myself until it was time to go to bed. And although she had all this energy right after the bath that she was running around wildly and tossing stuff around, she calmed down soon enough when I held her while trying to do stuff on the computer. I didn't do much work mind you, I think I had earned a little take-it-easy time. In fact, I went ahead and took Friday off seeing as I was at that point where I would be losing hours since I am already at the cap. I did start researching for trips to Orlando with the intent that we're going there just the two of us around Thanksgiving time. The last time he and I took a trip together was when we went to San Diego in 2019 Spring Break. Seems so long ago now. 2 years ago it was. He was still at Blue Oak. And this time he's older and I don't have to carry him around anymore. Heck I can't. He's bigger now. As I'm reminded when he kicks me in the bed looking to stick his feet into something warm. We're going to need him to get his own room for sure by this summer...

What's With The Stomach Issues

So Lisa told me last night that the dog was still kind of having diarrhea off and on and to possibly watch his diet. Diet? What diet? She eats one thing. And so this morning got off to a rousing start when I woke up early to take her out for her morning poop. But I had to pee first so I put her down. And I put her down inside the shower. I don't know why I did that really, just sort of a reflex cautionary action I suppose. Heck it only takes me a minute to pee anyway. And so what happened? He pooped right in the shower. And pee'd too, all over her leash. Sigh. What a way to start the day... cleaning poop out of the shower. Oh well, at least I could use TP and flush the damn thing in the toilet. It WAS a bit soft to be sure, but not abnormally so. And so I didn't think much of it and Johnnie and I headed off to school as per Tuesday morning routine. I must admit, my heart buoyed with happiness watching the kids play together in the front yard while waiting to get let in. Ahh that's their natural state. Just playing, having fun just running around. They're not complaining about masks, or lines, or getting their temperature or even that blasted daily pass you have to generate before even getting in line.  They're just happy to be playing with each other again... while we parents stand in line for them. The way it's supposed to be. And so I came home after Johnnie gets in and what do I see in the living room? Claire's semi-liquid poop tracking all over the place. Sigh. I guess her stomach isn't so good yet after all.  I guess I'll be monitoring for my watch these next few days.

I did read somewhere were you can actually give your puppy a bland meal to help calm down her gastro system. That means boiled chicken and rice. Lucky for Claire, I had made rice last night and I bought chicken this past weekend simply to add to my chow mein. I guess it isn't for me anymore I guess. So this chicken and rice mini-bowl is what I gave the dog for lunch and it's funny that for dinner she and Johnnie pretty much ate the same thing LOL. Johnnie almost didn't get to eat his regular fare too. He ate so much in the afternoon... and I mean he was snacking almost every hour... that his stomach finally got upset right after the Panda Express meal that he barely ate. I think the nutella sandwich on brioche that he ate an hour before that had something to do with it. All I know was that I was in the barbecue area making MY dinner, which was Italian sausage, trying to reprise our routine from a year ago. And when I came back, Johnnie told me that he had messed up. And he confessed that he went to poop and since I wasn't around he tried to wipe his butt himself. Naturally, he is not nearly as thorough as he needed to be and of course his poop was diarrhea-like as well. The result? It was as if he pooped through his pants. Poop all over his underwear. Sigh. If I'm not cleaning the dog's poo, I'm cleaning Johnnie's. Is this some conspiracy for me to be focused on cleaning shit this evening?? Now I'm wondering whether I should be eating something... is there some stomach bug going around? You know how susceptible I am to that stuff... Anyway the good news is that dog and Johnnie seemed to have gotten over the stomach issues somewhat by the end of the evening. The dog didn't poop when I walked her because I'm sure there was hardly anything TO poop. And boy and dog knocked off to sleep rather quickly this evening too. This week I had that FCC Telehealth grant thing to write up and I'm sure it's important but I wasn't going to get to it until later on this week let's face it. I may have gotten caught up on sleep once and for all last night but I still knocked off early myself. We'll just do a re-boot tomorrow.

Is It The Last Week of April Already?

I was drained as of last night, probably due to talking my mouth off all afternoon. There really is something to spending an afternoon in a social situation and how that affects my energy. It's like I needed to replenish it. And so what I was doing staying up in front of the TV until 1 AM in the morning is beyond me. Truly self-destructive behavior I'd say. The thing was it wasn't only that today is Monday, it's also Business Continuity Meeting day, it's also run-all-Covid-vaccine-reports day, it's also the day I usually go for 15000 steps and to walk more than 7 miles. And so why I'd stay up and then acknowledge how tired I still was the second I got up is disappointing. Oh well, I guess I'll have to slog it today. And of course morning had to start with a brief meditation session on what I want this week to be like. Nothing on the horizon work-wise really, maybe I could even take the day off on Friday or something especially since I'm up over 400 hours of vacation again. And it will be a while before I actually take a legitimate one. In the meantime, I simply note how tired I look in the pic I posted. And that was already while I was putting in my steps first thing. The key is to start early and get to 4000 steps before my BC meeting. I got that done pretty easily and when I did start my meeting, I was already close to 5000 steps. I would spend the rest of the morning and afternoon alternating between doing my Covid Vax reports (which I am actually trying to optimize) and taking a walk around my neighborhood to get steps in. I even walked all the way to Ralphs to get some chicken strips. I don't know why with all the food I bought this past weekend why I wouldn't just cook any of them. Actually I do know why. Because I'm tired of cooking and washing dishes sometimes that's why. Besides I had to finish all that macaroni salad and baked beans I had in the fridge from the weekend. Or were they from LAST weekend? For sure I had to eat them already. So it seemed that the rest of the afternoon went by in a blink of an eye. And it was already time to head on over to Lisa's to pick up Johnnie for the week. That would be 4:45 PM and it IS hand-off night.  

To my surprise when I went over to Lisa's there was no one home. It would appear that they went for a walk, as I did get a note from Johnnie letting me know as much. When they did get home, I had to fight off an emotional reaction. Johnnie's hair looked like a bowl. Someone had cut his hair. And Lisa would tell me later on that she did it. And it looked like SHIT. He looked like Moe of the Three Stooges. All the shit about waiting for Elisha to cut his hair, warning me not to touch it. How she would think to do the same and expect no reaction from me is just Lisa being her usual self-absorbed self. To my credit, I held in what I needed to hold in. And I just vowed VERY SILENTLY that I WILL FIX it. Once we get home. What kind of shit is that? Tell me not to cut his hair and then go off and do just that??? I just hurried us out of that house so we could go home and I could get us all back in balance. Let's see, penne in chicken broth for Johnnie. And I gave him the rest of my chicken strips too. Made for a decent meal. Lisa told me Claire was having diarrhea as well. We'll see about that later on too. Hope she doesn't poop in my apartment! The surprise tonight was that Johnnie wanted to watch the movie Moana. I am 100% sure someone in Lisa's orbit told him about the movie. I don't care. I like the movie and so we did spend the next hour and a half or so watching it. And then right after it, I had him watch FROZEN <the first one>. It gave me just enough time to chill and let go being angry at Lisa. After all, I did make my 15000 steps today and so I was a bit tired and my lower back was feeling some of it. And I still had to catch up on the sleep I didn't get last night. Everyone in the apartment is in bed by 9:15 PM and we're all out before 9:30. Monday is all done.

Golf Then A Date

So first things first, golf is at Roosevelt this morning and then immediately after that I have to head on over to Marmalade Cafe in El Segundo where I have a date with Sylvia, a woman I met on Zoosk. Which is why I started this morning with a shower. I do remember that first time I had a date with a woman named Rose right after golf in Pasadena. She cancelled at the last second then and although this was way back in 2019, more than 2 years ago now, I still have it in the back of my mind that until it happens, anything can happen. Something like that can happen. And so I didn't really have really high expectations. But at least I had to be a little bit cleaned up don't I? Shower it is. Still I managed to get to the golf course right on time, since the tee time wasn't until 8:50. If all went well, we'd be done by 11 AM and I'd have a good hour to get to El Segundo. That is if all went well. What I didn't count on was that we'd be paired up with this guy who basically had all kinds of mannerisms that slowed us up. Not that I can't blame everything on him actually, the foursome in front of us weren't exactly going fast either. But the guy would chat with the other golfers, maybe take his time when an awry shot would go to the other fairway. In other words, he was a major distraction. As for the golf itself, I did ok. Not good, but considering the distractions I had back to back holes on 4 and 5 where I was on the fringe of the green after 2 shots, then blowing par putts. Great tee shots on hole 8, lousy one on hole 9, in other words, I was back to my inconsistent self. Still it wasn't like I played badly. Just that Greg had 3 pars himself on the first 5 holes. Not going to beat that. And frankly, after the first 4 holes, I became obsessed with being done by 11 AM! And so I started to rush myself, which is what i wanted to avoid. As it was we got done by - gulp  - 11:30! WTF? We NEVER get done after 11 AM! What the hell happened today? The one day I needed to be out of there as early as I could. Anyway I sent Syl a text letting her know I was going to be 15 minutes late and then hoped for the best... 

I actually got to the restaurant at 12:12!! Despite the usual slowness of traffic on Vermont and then again on the 101 S, by the time I got to the 110 Freeway, it cleared up considerably and it was smooth sailing from there. As it was I actually got there before my date. And then she showed up. First impression? She looked like her pictures which was fair enough. Was there an electrical connection? No. But she looked pleasant enough and so we'll see how it goes. Today, I reminded myself that the object of a first date was to see if there is a point to having a second date. And we did have a good time talking. Turns out she's a filmmaker. Turns out I was social, even though I assured her that was me basically working up to that and that I'm going to need to replenish my energies later. So was there an energy between us? Was there a connection? I wanted there to be. But in truth it is too early to tell. I engaged us in conversation so long it was almost 5 PM by the time we got up and went home. We had gone from Marmalade Cafe where we stayed until almost 3 PM, to Starbucks. And we talked about lots of things for 4 hours plus! So that's encouraging. And I think she could like me actually. I reminded us both that the Oscars was tonight and so we left, agreeing to do a second date next Sunday. Hey at least I can say I've been on a date right? It's been a while. I was starting to get worried about me. I went home and felt depleted. That's what happens when I yap on and on for hours. I went to the couch and stayed there and barely moved, watching the Oscars. I even heated some frozen dinners for my real dinner tonight I was so uninclined to leave the apartment. The Oscars were surreal, being held at Union Station. Yep the train station downtown. And I was actually fairly disinterested, except for a few moments, particularly when Glen Close danced to DaButt, and when the mom-in-law in the movie Minari won Best Supporting Actress. That had to be a shock right? And then I watched FEAR THE WALKING DEAD and just let myself get tired enough to go to sleep. It had been a pretty long day...

A Quiet Saturday

I must admit I woke up this morning feeling a little bothered that Lisa let me know last night that she had bought tickets for she and Johnnie to go to Maui for 3 weeks right before the fall semester starts. On the one hand, I don't blame her especially if she got an explicit invite from Joy. It was my ego again and it was because she did it without even bothering to ask me. Not that I could say no, I mean how could I? I was also jealous that she gets to go to Hawaii on vacation with him. I WANTED to take him. But I also know that if I did take him, we probably wouldn't be seeing Joy and family and Johnnie would just be hanging out with me. And so I figured the only way to make it even was that I plan a vacation too with Johnnie for a week. And I targeted Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe we could go to Orlando the first part of the week, and then we could come back home after a couple of days and go to San Diego. AND also see my sister for Thanksgiving. WITH Johnnie with me. I think that's fair. And so that's what I told Lisa this morning when I came over to pick Johnnie up for a few hours. There's no more piano lessons on Saturday I was told. It now moves to in-person in Pasadena on Fridays. But Lisa still wanted some practice time. I just wanted to see Johnnie again if only for a couple of hours. Which is why I came over. I let Lisa know my vacation plan and she agreed. Let's see if she remembers... So Johnnie and I headed out right after breakfast. Once again I already had breakfast at home but I had some of Lisa's Earl Grey tea anyway. AND did her dishes. I was supposed to bring him back by 11:30 because Roge was coming over to visit. And I was ok with that. Hey I already spent a lot of time with Johnnie yesterday. And so what we did this morning was a very mundane car wash. No it wasn't like we actually washed the car, more like Johnnie stayed in the back seat while the car was being auto-washed. Look at the pic of him mugging. Just that we would do this a lot on Saturday mornings before going to Elysee in the summer. And so it was like part of Saturday routine too. By the time we got done, he only had a half hour to watch videos. And then it was time to go back to Lisa's house already.  And I was perfectly fine with that. Roge was already there when we got back. I've always liked him. He was always nice to me. Whatever they were doing, there was no explicit invitation to me and I did not push for one. I went to Chipotle, picked up my lunch and went on home. It would have been nice to take a nap too, I figured I would be tied up all day tomorrow as I finally locked in reservations for a lunch date with Syl at Marmalade Cafe in El Segundo. Hmmm... 

I did realize that the Oscars was happening tomorrow. Hmmm really REALLY late as it usually occurs in late February. But then again the film industry has been one of the biggest casualties of the pandemic. Only recently have theaters opened back up and I still haven't made it to an indoor movie theater. It's one of those things where I realize I could just as easily enjoy the movie right from my couch. And I am a movie buff! Anyway it used to be that I would take pride with watching the Oscar contenders. But this year I wasn't as focused on it, mainly because I didn't have any interest in most of them. I mean Nomadland sounded compelling, but maybe as a semi-documentary about forgotten people who don't really live in homes and such? Interesting? yes, interesting enough for me? No. The movie that did catch my attention was MINARI, which was about a family of Korean immigrants who settled in Arkansas of all places. I ended up watching this movie and I couldn't help but draw parallels with my own immigrant experience, though not in the deep South. I empathized with the kids, having been one of them myself. I empathized with the father's need to be successful as that must have been what drew my dad to coming here to the U.S., for which I will be ETERNALLY grateful! Finding work, finding a way to take care of his family, all that hit home. As did bringing in the mother-in-law to live with them. Unexpectedly, another thing that hit home was the trouble in the marriage because of the business. "You chose the business over this family" was a line that reverberated with me, as if it was me saying the line, and saying it to Lisa. I realized that I had distanced myself from Lisa's dental practice and the Maplewood house, marking those things as the two biggest things that led to the end of our marriage. And so though I may be still all smiles when I come over Lisa doesn't see and know that I basically just turn myself off with her house. I don't want to care. It's no longer mine. She may be excitedly talking about the new tiling in her kitchen. But I am turned off just responding by rote, trying to find an answer she wants to hear so we could talk about something else. Wow. And so needless to say, that movie was a favorite of mine, just like Parasite was last year. I hope it does well.  With that I tried to go to bed earlier than usual today. No TV binge watching until 1 AM. Lots happening tomorrow...

Tank Friday

I am SO DUE for a tank day. And I intended not to work much today if at all. Still I had to get up at 5:55 AM so I could lock in a tee time for next Sunday, fueled by the thought that I'm just milking as much time as I can with the current foursome as constituted until July when Greg retires to Arizona. And anyway I had to get a Daily Pass for Lisa this morning anyway. But at least I didn't have to drop him off at school this morning. Instead I watched the Episode 6 Season Finale of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Boy did it ever touch on the same racial issues we're dealing with in the hear and now. Just this week, the verdict in the trial of the cop responsible for the death of George Floyd in Minnesota came in  and he was found to be guilty. Trials like those reminded me of the Rodney King trial in LA in the early 90s. I'm glad Disney found a way to weave in a monologue about race right in the story line.  I mean that was truly a valid question in the here and now: Can a Black man ever be Captain America? I did enjoy the episode and lollygagged through breakfast and even found time to take a shower this morning, even if I really didn't have to. What I did instead was clean the shower. After all with Johnnie and the dog dirtying it up in the last couple of weeks, it was necessary. By the time I got myself cleaned up it was already time to get ready to pick up Johnnie at school. THAT I got assigned to me since Lisa's appointment was at 11 AM. At least I didn't have the dog this time, he was just fine hanging out at Lisa's house. And so Johnnie and I went home did his homework and I made him spaghetti for lunch just like yesterday. Only today he didn't eat much of it. As it turned out Lisa called me right around noon letting me know she was done with her appointment and headed home.  And since she was making herself lunch, she offered to make me some. Only I didn't feel like eating a salad and I didn't feel like waiting either. And so I did the next best thing: I brought the shaved beef I had left, cut up an onion and cabbage, wrapped it all up ready to cook. Lisa did make her salad, but she also let me make the beef cabbage stir fry too. And so I had myself a decent lunch after all, as if I was at my apartment.

And so having done my good deed for the day, I went on home. Not lost on me was that I got a call from work WHILE making the stir fry. Not such a tank day after all huh? Damn COVID vaccinations. Still it wasn't like I was really working in the afternoon either. I went to Whole Foods, and did some of my grocery shopping. I took a walk around my neighborhood to run up my step count for today. And then at 4 PM, I went to Supercuts to get a haircut. After all, I think I still have a date scheduled on Sunday don't I? Can't be looking too raggedy. I couldn't help thinking if I was not working from home, I'd be doing the same thing getting a haircut... except at the Supercuts on Grand in DTLA. How many times did I do that huh? And so it was that I got my fresh crisp haircut and then right afterwards, since I was already on Pico, I just drove over to KFC to get fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.  Haven't had that in a while either. It was a favorite in the early days of the pandemic.  I had an early dinner and was perfectly happy to watch the latest Netflix sci-fi series, this one called Shadow and Bone. Why is Netflix series always have British people with English accents and have backwards weapons like rifles from the early 1900s? Still I knew I'd end up binge-watching it. Something about watching people with other-than-normal powers. At 7:30 I was surprised by a call from Lisa. Or rather it was Johnnie. He was wondering if I could bring over a pizza and we could have dinner. Yep, that was my son's idea alright. NOT! I knew Lisa had somehow gotten herself too tired to cook and Johnnie was hungry. So why not call daddy to see if he'll bring food over. Sigh. How can I NOT? After that? After realizing Lisa wouldn't be making him food he'd like or eat? I got a medium pizza from Pizza hut ready inside of 12 minutes and I was over by 7:45. How's THAT for fast? Johnnie had made the table and written an invitation note on our plates? How could I not bring food over knowing THAT?!! Anyway he loved the pizza, he had a good meal and then afterwards I did agree to play SORRY. Since Johnnie invited.  I ended up taking the dog out to pee and poop. It was like I was at home! And Johnnie ended up winning the game. Yet again. I don't think I have won a game yet. I don't really like the game, but mom and son do and so I play because of Johnnie. It was 9 PM already when we got done. Easy call to go on home. I'm glad I ate early. Got me a couple of slices of pizza in. Lisa got rescued again with an impromptu family night. And I got to see Johnnie for the better part of today which is always good. I'm ready for the weekend.

Routinely Thursday

And so with Tech Council out of the way yesterday, it is smooth sailing towards the end of the week. Except one more report/survey I had to get done today while Emma was out. By now the school drop-off is routine and we're there well before 8 AM and even the school staff has gotten faster about getting the kids in. We're all good. And I'm home eating breakfast by 8:15. Maybe not this morning because I had it in my mind I'd get steps in right after dropping Johnnie off. I mean it's the perfect time really. I'm already walking anyway since I usually park us almost a half mile from the school. I'm just extending the walk to more of the neighborhood. I really like my neighborhood and it would be great if I could buy a condo here. I need to think about the summer since I made up my mind I need to move somewhere where Johnnie can have his own room. BUT I am not willing to leave the Mar Vista Elementary school district. I love his school that much and he's already making lots of friends, especially now that he is back to seeing his classmates in person. The funny thing is that TIME REALLY DOES FLY between dropping him off, doing my meeting(s) and then picking him up again. It's like I snap my finger and it's already time! Which I also don't mind one bit since it also gives me a break. Look at my little boy posing next to cactus! Because of ONE episode of Coyote Peterson, he now has interest in cactus! What kid do you know looks for saguaro cactus and troya while walking home from school? Today he even asked for spaghetti for lunch! Ok Ok that came out of my urging. But the surprise to me was he ate a bowlful! As in he ate more of it than he usually would an udon bowl. Or even a chicken noodle bowl! As for me, I still had pork chops to eat that I got on sale last weekend. But it is still good. And so it was that we did another nature walk after lunch since yesterday's walk turned out pretty good. And then of course this being Thursday, I had to think about hand-off night.

I was already acknowledging that with no 2 consecutive Thursday hand-off nights ever being alike, I had no idea if I'd get Lisa early tonight or really late like last week, or no call at all like 2 weeks earlier. Johnnie however knew he had to do clean-up and was very much up to the task. One thing Lisa did teach him was how to clean up the house. Or an area. Any area. But since my area was so small, there were no complaints, no negotiations, no nothing. In fact, it was Johnnie who was urging me to move my couch so we could clean up underneath it! He put his school stuff away, he put my shoes away in the bedroom, he even wanted to clean up my office area. What the heck does Lisa get this kid to do?? As it was Lisa did call by 7PM. Not like last week when I had to drop Johnnie off at her house because he had already gone home. And we were ready. Dog had been pooped and pee'd, Johnnie had cleaned up. I had his bag all packed up and ready to go. Today Johnnie was fixated on a card of fish from Hawaii. It seemed to be a present he got in Hawaii and he was going over the fish. Had to take it home to show his mom. All good of course. Lisa reminded me she had a doctor's appointment tomorrow so I have to pick up Johnnie from school and that would be no problem at all. It was still light out when they left. I was already close to my steps goal so all I had to do was walk around the block a little to make it. And then I just crashed on the couch. I can lollygag and do nothing now. Oh wait. Is that pee on the couch where Johnnie had Claire this morning?!@ Damn that dog!! Just going to have to let it dry out is all. So I watched this week's episode of Mayans MC and reminded myself tomorrow is golf tee time morning so I have to be up really early. Ahhh the things I do for routine...

Tech Council Meeting Day

Ahh it's Tech Council Meeting Day and oddly enough it felt like just another day for me first thing. Maybe it's because I got my content done in just a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. I still had Minutes and Agenda I needed to get done but I figured I had that blip of time between coming home from dropping Johnnie off at school and my first meeting at 9:30 to do that. And as it turned out, not only did I do that but when the meeting came around I was missing 3 people. Eloisa sent a text saying she was going to miss it because she wasn't feeling well. Emma was already out all week. And then Maryam said she was stuck at the DMV taking care of paperwork for the dental vans. Oh well. Barbara was still coming so I had to go through with the meeting anyway. But it did feel very much anticlimactic. As in there was no pressure whatsoever. I just went through my slides, gave folks a lot of numbers for the first quarter of this year, gave them my monthly scare on Cybersecurity and how the numbers have not improved in 3 months, although as it were the numbers were still way better than most organizations really <there IS such a thing as getting the most one can expect... kind of like those visit numbers we never could meet back in the day>. Anyway I got done earlier than planned and before 2:30 meeting was over and it was nonchalantly uneventful. Best of all though is that I could call it a day! Heck I could call it a week, such as it were for TEch Council Meeting week. I did hear the faintest blip from my ego wondering if people were blowing off my meeting. But at the end of the day REALLY do I care? Hey my material was ready. Same as the CCALAC symposium. Really do I care if a lot of people showed up? Part of being a speaker is to be as prepared mentally and emotionally for everyone to come see you as when no one comes and sees you. And I did that. I was ready, I was prepared and I think I did a pretty good job. Now on to the rest of the day... 

For his part Johnnie had plenty of stuff for us to do. I was worried that he was already bored yesterday afternoon. Today, he had homework and that included a nature walk to find stuff. I posted a picture of him making notes on what he was finding. I mean I know I don't have a backyard and I know I probably should have taken us to the park. But there was plenty to log just taking the dog out for a walk as it turned out! Johnnie logged 10 things he found in nature. Homework done, dog got walked and pooped and pee'd outside, and we spent time outside. Win-win-win. And by the time we got done, it was already time to head out to get his Panda Express dinner in Westwood. Of course this being Wednesday and all, the big thing tonight is to give Claire her bath. And not a moment to soon too. She had walked around so much her paws were dirty. I could only imagine what she would be like running around Lisa's backyard all the time. And so it was that tonight, Johnnie and Claire got both their baths and for the first time we simply used one of my plastic bowls to get Claire wet instead of sticking her under the faucet. And she was much much calmer. And the bath went so much better I think. Look at the picture of her licking me with her tongue while she was still wet as a soaked towel! Man this dog has a lot of hair. I wish I had a blow dryer but even while thinking about that, I am pretty sure it isn't really all that necessary. Tonight I let Johnnie lollygag in the bath himself, as i spent a good half hour trying to get Claire all dried up. The best thing is that even when semi-dried both dog and Johnnie finally smelled so good again! NOW you can take Claire on the couch I told Johnnie. He had 20 minutes left before bedtime we started so early. And he took full advantage watching an episode of Ricky Zoom (another new animated thing on Netflix that caught his attention) AND he watched it with a still damp Claire on his lap on the couch. I went on and on about the bath didn't I? That's how little a focus I had on the Tech Council stuff today. I know I had sleep catch-up to do but I did a good 7 hours yesterday and without staying up and sneaking off to watch TV when boy and dog were asleep, I knew I'd get the same tonight. Both were soundly asleep by 9:15. Within 10 minutes, so was I...

No Rest For The Weary Today

So I was hoping to get a lot done yesterday but as it turned out I had more To-do's than usual BECAUSE of all this reporting I am now responsible for. Which means as of this morning I hadn't started my Tech Council presentation yet. But I wasn't worried. Somehow I knew I'd get it done at some point today, and I don't mean stay up all night to do it either. Funny that I do have a memory of doing that. How was it that it took me that long to put content together back during those times? I remember not even being done with the agenda until right before lunchtime the day of the meetings. LOL LOL. I would like to think I've come a long, long way from those days. And so even as I start Week 2 of Johnnie's return to school in person, and I still let him almost oversleep past 7 AM, I still had him all ready to go and out the door by 7:40 and that is with a full stomach with his usual McDonald's breakfast. In other words, we now are getting used to this new routine already. And new routine meant coming back home doing my meetings, and then watching in amazement at how quick the 3 hours Johnnie was in school went by. It was almost like I blinked and it was already time to pick him up! And then of course the Tuesday routine called for he and I to go to Grand View Elementary School to get his Covid testing done for next week. And still we were home before 11:30 AM. By noon, he had eaten his pizza and he was done with his SeeSaw homework and he was already playing with the dog. THEN and only THEN did I finally finally finally get started with my presentation. Of course by now, my base presentation is already 50% done, I just have to update my charts, update the Status report and so I actually got done before 5 PM! Yep, it only took me a couple of hours to do. And this WHILE I still had to do the HRSA report in Emma's place since she's out all week. I focused so much on work through the afternoon that Johnnie actually got bored and MADE me go out with him and the dog to hit some baseball in the grass area by the barbecue. And it actually made for a PERFECT break for me. Perfect mental break, I got my steps in to boot and Johnnie got to exercise too. As did Claire the dog. Look at the 2 of them hanging out while I pitched. I couldn't have asked for a better break in the afternoon! And it actually helped me finish my work before it was time to head out to get Johnnie's dinner. I actually couldn't believe I was done with all my work so soon! The power of focus? Or just merely me deciding to get it done when I did. Probably a combination of both actually. And so it was that when we got back with our food, and we got everyone fed, including me with my newfangled garlic shrimp in Panda Express chow mein (not bad at all actually), I was planning on working some more but now I didn't have to. Instead Johnnie and I watched the original Jurassic Park. It wasn't because he had gotten so bored cycling through the Octonauts, cycling through Tigger and Pooh, cycling through Cat-In-The-Hat that now I'm reduced to cycling through myself. But this time I'm cycling through movies he has already seen, hence the trip to Jurassic Park. I read my journal about this time last year and I had the same quandary, which was how to keep Johnnie occupied for the better part of the day. Of course a year ago last year we were still barbecuing Italian sausage on Tuesday nights while Johnnie practiced soccer. And I still had not bought myself a real face mask LOL, opting instead to make one out of a couple of my old T-shirts. A year later and I have several masks, as does Johnnie. And we won't be taking them off any time soon either even though some idiots still cry it is affront to their "Constitutional rights". Dumbshits. How about our right to be healthy and oh, I dunno, NOT DIE?! Anyway I went to bed the same time as Johnnie tonight, with no need to stay up and push stuff out. The rest I'll do in the morning, whatever is left to do for the Tech Council Meeting. We're all good.

A Very Busy Monday

This being a Monday, and the Monday of Tech Council Meeting week yet, the routine would have been to put my head down and work on my presentation. Unfortunately, over the last 4 weeks, Monday has also evolved into Covid Vaccine Reporting day. So much so I actually thought of running my reports yesterday so I could buy a lot of time today. But alas, I never got to that and then got too tired to do anything in the evening. And so I'm up first thing this morning... first to generate Lisa Johnnie's Daily Pass for the day, and then to start running my reports. And this was at 6:30 AM in the morning. I still had Johnnie in the back of my mind as I went outside to take a brisk walk first thing. After all, it's been a known fact for me that in order to get to 15,000+ steps for today, as I have the previous 4 Mondays, I have to get started early and get to 4000 steps before the Business Continuity Meeting even starts at 10:30. My walk this morning took me in the direct path of the moms and dads on their way back from dropping off their kids at school. I wonder if some of them recognize me? As it was, as hot as it was yesterday, it seemed like more of the same today at least judging from how warm it already was at 7:30 AM. I got to 4000 steps and THEN SOME by the time my first meeting started. I was all the way up to 5000 steps already. I reminded myself that yesterday, i was already close to 10,000 by the time I came home from golf. And so just as soon as my meeting got done, I walked myself to  9000 steps too. And then I did some more while cooking up some teriyaki chicken thighs. That would turn out to be lunch. They didn't exactly turn out like Panda Express chicken, which I admit I was trying to replicate so I could give them to Johnnie at some point. It just didn't turn out right it seemed. Still pretty good though. With that, barbecued beans, and macaroni salad, I had myself a pretty good lunch indeed. With all that done I wish I could say I went right to doing my Tech Council presentation, but alas I still had all those reports to do. After all, I'm submitting the HRSA survey tomorrow for Emma. I can at least do the data manipulations so all I have to do is enter numbers in the survey. Before I knew it, the afternoon went by. And it was already time to head to Lisa's to pick up Johnnie... 

Monday pick up is now 5 PM instead of 5:30 PM because she has Pilates class now. Pretty soon her soccer league is going to start too. I did not mind at all picking up Johnnie earlier than before. I prefer it in fact. But what is going on with Johnnie's hair?? Look at the pic. I like his hair long-ish, but not this long. Pretty soon I'm going to need to do a man-bun for him! Ok not really but this is the longest Johnnie's hair has been in months. What is Lisa waiting on? Is her stylist still on IR (injured reserve)? Anyway picking Johnnie up no matter what the time shifts me into Monday mode. That means I better have penne pasta ready because Johnnie is going to ask for chicken noodle soup for dinner. That would be penne pasta in chicken broth.  That means I better have cookies for dessert ready too. I was ok on both counts and all I had to do for my dinner was warm up last night's leftover ground lamb. I admit, it's strange not to have a container of stew in the fridge. But hey, it's getting warmer now isn't it? For whatever reason I managed to nudge Johnnie into watching episodes of Puffin Rock, something brand brand new for him. All I wanted to do was buy time so I could work on work stuff. I got all my reports done but then again there's always something new. Today, it's a survey for the state <yes, another one> that I was about to butt heads with our CMO on. He was so pushy about getting it out today and the EHR team produced his numbers for him. Because my team could not. No pushing from him or anybody could have changed that. As it was i learned that the EHR Team put the numbers together manually. My team was NOT going to do that. Still despite my ego trying to prove that it was right <which it was actually> I tried to realize that being right doesn't actually solve the problem. I will meet my team on Wednesday and figure stuff out. In the meantime, it's not an emergency to me. It's that lack of urgency that allows me to sleep well at night. And tonight is no different, especially considering I only slept 4 1/2 hours last night. Probably why I was tired today, probably because I still DID my 15000 steps. We're all good...

A Hot golf Sunday

It is Sunday and naturally I'm up at 7:00 AM fumbling about in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. Until I reminded myself that tee time isn't until 10:10 AM this morning at Harbor Golf Course. I chose a little later start so we could all have a freebie golf game today, courtesy of a huge number of points we've each collected over the past year. I knew the guys would love that one and by God I did too. And for me yet another chance to calibrate my learning. Another reminder to not get myself speeded up, to find the sweet spot of relaxation right as I make a ball strike. We had the foursome this morning and I couldn't help but start appreciating all these rare times anymore when all four of us get to play together again. After July, Greg retires and heads on to Arizona. Which is why I'm feeling a little more sentimental than usual today I guess. But hey, there's still a lot of golf between now and July. And actually today felt more like it really WAS July. It got hot. Not warm, hot. As in summer hot. I noticed yesterday morning that I was starting to feel a tad dehydrated in the morning, like I used to when it started getting hot in May.  Today I at least remembered to stop at the store and get some electrolyte water to tide me over the 3 hours of golf. And so how was the golf you may ask? I shanked the very first shot and barely went 50 yards. Then I hammered the second but went wayward left. I did manage to get on in 3, and managed a respectable 6. But wouldn't beat Chris's par. I completely lost it on Hole 2 and took a 7. But I finally found my bearings on the next 2 holes. The long Hole 3 got me a bogey 6, good enough to tie for the hole. And on Hole 4, I won it outright with a par. yep, I had 2 great shots with an iron off the tee and then barely missed getting on in 2. I won2 consecutive holes! But just like last week, when I thought about it, instead of just playing I got into my own head. Barely getting an 8 on the next hole after a nice tee shot. And then a 5 on the next one, before finally launching a decent tee shot on Hole 6. I got a 5 on that hole, again getting a tie. Hey I have at least won 3 holes already. Too bad I muffed Hole 7 and after a beautiful tee shot on the last hole, I whiffed all the way to another 7. So much for not letting myself get speeded up. I need a relax routine right before I hit the ball, just like shooting a free throw. Something to help me find my rhythm. Gotta keep working on it. 

It's too bad my date with Sil got called off, instead I drove to Playa del Rey right after golf to get a turkey sandwich and cole slaw at Bristol Farms. What I didn't expect was how trafficky it got. Like back to normal trafficky. We had been enjoying far less this past few months of the pandemic. But I have a feeling that we are really starting to head back to normal and traffic is a good indication of that since people are now out and about again. And not only was there traffic out on the roads heading to Playa del Rey, but there was a line at the sandwich counter too. Grrr. i'm getting my patience tested I know it. By the time I got my sandwich it was already 1:30. I decided to eat it right then and there at Bristol Farms like I used to pre-pandemic and by the time I made it home it was already close to 2 PM! Maybe this wasn't the best idea in the world. I planted myself on the couch and did not plan on leaving there until much much later. I never did get a nap in either, maybe because it was already way later than usual. Hey, my Fitbit said I had already done 10,000 steps and done at least 140 active minutes. No need to do anything else. Of course I did head out to finish my grocery shopping later on, and picked up dinner for tonight. I decided to take a break from cooking stews especially considering I didn't even finish the stew that I cooked last week. I did ground lamb and chickpeas and cranberries with tumeric. i don't know what to call this dish. is it Middle Eastern? I doubt it. I made it up basically. But it WAS pretty good. Later on I fought off a bout of sneezing and my eyes getting really itchy. Am I having allergies? How immensely annoying is that. I spent Sunday evening watching FEAR the WALKING DEAD. Last week they killed off one of the favorite characters <John the marksman> and then this week, the main protagonist Virginia got a bullet in the head too, courtesy of John's heartbroken wife. If anything this series doesn't care how big a character you are boy. I didn't go to bed early tonight. Had to catch up on this journal. Had to clean up the kitchen too. I'm reminding myself that it is Tech Council week next week and I'm tied up for the next couple of days preparing. It's all good.

Dental Day and Johnnie's Socks

So it's a Lisa workday today and so I am at her door dutifully at 7:30 AM to pick up Johnnie. I always have every intention of defaulting to routine, which is breakfast at Elysee if it were a Lisa workday. But yesterday, Nikki locked me in for an appointment at Lisa's office this morning for a cleaning. At 9:30 AM. And so that pretty much means I have to give Johnnie breakfast at home. Especially since he bounded down the stairs to greet me and it was clear he hadn't even showered this morning. Or last night. And so a quick goodbye to Mom and off we went to my house to get him cleaned up. I didn't really want to get him McDonald's breakfast today. But it was the quickest way to get his shower in AND get him breakfast AND get us out the door before 9:30 this morning. As it was we barely made it on time for my appointment.  And I got Kristin Wong this morning too. She hadn't cleaned my teeth in at least a year and so it was welcome to have her expert hands getting the barnacles off my teeth this morning.  We of course caught up on our kids, Johnnie and Logan who is a year behind Johnnie. Who can believe how fast time flies. Speaking of which, Johnnie actually did well drawing stuff at the front desk while I got my cleaning done and after an hour had passed, we were done and out of there. No chit-chatting, no lollygagging, very business-like this morning. Lisa didn't even examine me. Which was fine by me too.  After my appointment the #1 mission this morning was to get Johnnie socks. He hadn't worn any in over a year and so he had outgrown the socks I had for him which was already small as of last year. Lisa's socks for him were even smaller than that. So this was actually very high priority today. We first went to Carter's Kids next to Target, but I was NOT going to get not even a dozen socks for $30. And so we went on to Target. This was more like it. Cat and Jack socks for $7. AND to top it all off, there was a Panda Express inside Vons next to Target. AND a Burger King around the corner. We could pick up our lunches and be on our way home! Teriyaki chicken for Johnnie, Impossible Whopper for me. By the time we got home from running around all morning it was already 12:15. Finally, Johnnie got to have his lunch AND watch the Octonauts RING OF FIRE for the umpteenth time...

We did get a chance to just chill and hang out on the couch. That is, in fact, my most favorite thing to do on a Saturday with Johnnie. No homework to catch up on, no class, no nothing. Just doing a whole lot of nothing. The favorite activity of every man LOL. Lisa did pick Johnnie up at 3:30 since she obviously made plans with Simon to play with Johnnie this afternoon. Usually they go biking. Today who knows? And with this hand-off that was it for Johnnie this weekend. I actually had a date lined up for tomorrow... with this woman I met online named Sil in San Pedro. We had been exchanging emails and texts all week. And she had just told me where we were going to have lunch, before she had to take back everything because she had made plans she forgot to put in her calendar. No harm no foul you know. It would have been a hoot to go out right after tomorrow's golf game at Harbor. Still I knew I wasn't going to see Johnnie until Monday. Tonight I wanted to use up the $25 gift cert I got for Doordash for speaking at the CCALAC symposium. Free is free right? I couldn't make up my mind what to eat tonight. Finally I settled on Thai food and I got pad see iw and wonton soup from BKK 101 on Venice. For a Thai restaurant so close to me, I had never eaten at this place. I'm trying it now.  When I went there to pick up my food, the lady in the front recognized me and said hello. Even while I had my mask on. I recognized her too. But I couldn't place which Thai restaurant I knew her from. Probably one of a few Lisa and I used to frequent back in the day. It wasn't Siam Chan.  There was a Thai restaurant in Westwood we went to a lot. And we would order the same thing all the time. Until it closed sometime around 2014-2015. Before we made the move to Mar Vista. I think I remember we would come on Friday nights LOL. Lisa used to hate me having these routine restaurants.  But not in the early days when we were first married. She liked going to this restaurant too. I thanked the lady mentally for helping me remember happier times. Those are the Lisa memories I prefer to keep. The ones I'm fond of. Not to mention I did enjoy the Pad Se Iw and soup too. I didn't really do much of anything of note tonight after Johnnie left. And I kept telling myself I needed to hit the sack early even though our tee time is not until 10 AM tomorrow morning. It wasn't that early when I fell asleep on the couch. I was distracting myself with something on TV. But then I also got to daydream about having a nice golf game tomorrow...

Uneventful Friday

I was up at 5:55 this morning, like I am most Fridays trying to lock in a tee time at one of the Big 3 (Harbor/Roosevelt/Penmar) for NEXT Sunday. It had been difficult getting a reservation any more since golf is one of those activities that had been allowed all along since the early days of the pandemic. So I continue the ritual this morning, drag myself in front of the computer half-asleep and look for a tee time. Oooh, there's one at Penmar, but I was too slow to get that one. Oh well, I guess we're playing at Roosevelt next week. And that's ok, even though we just played there LAST WEEK. I'm milking these golf games as much as I can since Greg is off to retirement in Arizona this summer. I guess we have to find a replacement for him huh? Or else it's mostly myself and Scott. And how much fun is that LOL. I prided myself in the fact that I got to play most Sundays during this entire pandemic. And that's because I did drag myself in front of the computer for the better part of a year and counting.  I tried to go right back to sleep just as soon as I got the tee time but I couldn't, not really. So I just got up and watched the latest episode, EPISODE 5 of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the latest offering from the Marvel Universe. It only has 6 episodes and I'm not really buying that a young Eastern European girl could rally the bulk of the world's population and against whom I'm not really sure. But the whole new Captain America bit with John Lewis is very VERY compelling, as he turned into a murderous maniac last week after turning himself into a Super Soldier too. And now he's up against the Falcon and Winter Soldier.  Anyway that and I printed a Daily Pass for Lisa this morning. I toyed with the idea of riding over there to make sure she got through the check-in ok. But then again she wasn't all that concerned last night. So this is one of those things were I need to let her experience what she is going to experience and leave it at that. I didn't hear from her by 8:30 AM and so I assumed everything was ok. Didn't hear from her at 11 AM either so I assumed the pick-up went well too. She did call me around lunchtime waving off the drop-off of Johnnie at my apartment today. She still has a doctor appointment, but her mom is coming to drop off groceries and so her mom gets to watch Johnnie for the afternoon. I'm ok with that. I'm sure Johnnie is used to the Friday afternoon routine by now anyway. 

And so it was I actually got some ME TIME all day today which was unexpected. I did get a pic of Johnnie in class from Johnnie's teacher and that was ok in terms of replacing seeing him today. I get him tomorrow morning anyway so it was cool. I was happy to see him smiling in class with his classmates in the background. And so immediately I tried to take a nap after lunch and I had so many leftovers from the week I didn't have to go out and buy anything. Not to mention I had the Cuban Chicken bowl from Trader Joe's I had yet to open. THAT became lunch. And I got to do my parts of my grocery shopping run a little early today. I thought about the week that was since it was already mid-afternoon by the time I got done.  Hey I got a lot accomplished for the week didn't I? I got my taxes done. AND I'm getting a refund. Johnnie started school on my watch and the whole thing was pretty uneventful. Uneventful is GOOD. I did get a ping from work. The schedules survey didn't come yesterday, it came today. And so i updated the COVID vaccine schedules for the 3rd time this week. Might as well do the damn thing everyday don't I?! I didn't really feel like doing anything on this Friday night. Netflix night would have been just fine. But I didn't feel like watching anything new either. I did watch this YouTube clip about New Thought gurus from this guy James Jani who seems to want to expose these manifestation gurus as mostly scammers making money from courses rather than actually teaching people. It's an old paradox and an old argument. Should I pay Tony Robbins for giving me skillsets about mindset I wouldn't have had before? And yet this guy talks of money and the creation of value. In the end I think it is yet another distraction technique my ego has pulled to my attention. My gut says I'm on the right track, but not putting in as much energy into learning and 'sharpening the ax' before attempting to chop the tree down. And I'll go with that. And although there is also a lot of truth with the things he does talk about and there is no doubt there are scammers out there. I also can't doubt how I manifested specific things in my life already, even right down to a par on a hole in golf. That I visualized. Or a job offer from UCLA when I got laid off from USC. The trick is to document the examples on a daily basis. That way I don't doubt.  And to keep my focus on the things I want to experience in my reality.  What he talks about is his reality I'm sure. But it isn't mine. And if it isn't my reality, it's just distraction. Anyway I'm glad Friday is here and I can look forward to the weekend again.  It is all good...

Day 3 Johnnie's School Return

So tonight is Day 3 of Johnnie's return to school week. We've already got a new routine down. Up before 7 AM, and since Johnnie took a shower last night when the dog took a bath, no shower necessary this morning. At McDonald's to pick up breakfast by 7:15 AM. Back in the house so Johnnie could eat breakfast, leave by 7:45 or earlier. We parked in the same spot as yesterday, which was just a little farther than where we used to stop and park a year ago. Same walk really. Anyway, today the 4th and 5th graders come back too, but they go in after the little ones. Once again Jennifer and his dad were there and for once he didn't bug me about vaccinations. Johnnie was in by 8 AM and off i went on home to do MY NEW MORNING ROUTINE, which was breakfast and a shower. And one of my team meetings. This week I've been making myself ham and egg over something [bagel, muffin, pancake] all week. I think we'll continue that through next week just to break up the monotony of eating bacon. This morning I actually had 2 meetings, my IS TEam Meeting, and then my one-on-one with my boss Dennis. Both ended up being pretty uneventful but still I was out of the house to pick up Johnnie well before 11 AM. Today he got let out with yet another bag of food but I didn't feel like eating the contents of this one. There was fried fish and taters. And french fries. Much more junk food in this one. When Johnnie's teacher Ms Wiley asked if we wanted to keep taking home a bag of food I respectfully declined. Other than the chips and popcorn, Johnnie wasn't going to be eating any of the food anyway. On the walk back to the car, no less than 3 groups of people called out to Johnnie, including a couple of teachers from STAR, the Librarian, and Lisa's neighbor Rose's nanny. It really IS good for him to be out and about instead of getting stuck inside the house with me watching videos.

Of course today being a Thursday and all that's left that is routine is hand-off night with Lisa. And I'm sure I'm going to need to give her a run-down of what to do. It's her turn to drop Johnnie off and pick him up tomorrow. I'm sure she has no idea how to get a Daily Pass for Johnnie. AND she had already asked for me to watch Johnnie after lunch earlier in the week because she has yet another doctor's appointment. Man, when are these appointments going to ever stop?? What was cool to watch though was by late afternoon I reminded Johnnie to clean up the apartment and put his stuff away. Mind you he's been pretty good all week, a product of him not being around in the mornings. But he took the cleanup to heart much more than I could have ever expected. He swept the floor, put his school stuff away in the proper bags and containers, put the dogs toys away, even asked me to move the sofa so we could clean underneath it! How stunned am I? See he IS capable of doing these kinds of things. By the time we got done with dinner it was already 5:30 and I was still holding out hope that Lisa would have one of those early days like she did a few weeks back. That thought got blown to shreds when she called me at 7 PM telling me she had already gone home so she could take a nap. Sigh. Never the same pick-up on Thursdays still held true. SMH. AND she asked if I could hold to Johnnie an extra half hour. Of course I did that. What choice did I have? I dropped him off closer to 8 PM and we found her assembling a mailbox she had bought. She must be stressed out about something. But then again she's stressed out about everything. I wanted to sit with her to show her the ropes for tomorrow, particularly with the Daily Pass. But I could see right away she would not be receptive to it. She is in SHUT DOWN mode. And so I just told her I'd create it for her and email it to her in the morning. The sooner I got out of there the better. Whatever energy she was in I was sure I did not want to be a part of it. And so I quickly went on home. And hoped for the best for her tomorrow. Hoped for the best for Johnnie that is...

The Week Is Halfway Done

Johnnie got up earlier than usual this morning. As in 6:30 AM! I probably woke up him when I took Claire out to poop and pee. I was on the couch trying to meditate for my morning quiet time, hoping to get 10 minutes in. Not this morning I guess, not when Johnnie is finding me while half-asleep and laying down next to me on the couch. He was cold he said and cuddled up to me. Awww. An M&M moment: me and my little boy just half-asleep on the couch cozied next to each other. Nothing like a moment like that to get the feeling that the everything in the world is ok. It's going to be a good day. And why not? Today is Day 2 of Johnnie-goes-back-to-in-person-school week and today we're there as early as we were yesterday even while I parked us before Barrington and walked the rest of the way. Hey I get a little exercise and we get there early. Of course I wasn't counting on standing next to Jennifer and her dad again and this morning, he is hounding me about vaccines! He says he's going to take it, but if he is why is he asking all these questions?? <Just take the fucking thing will ya so we all turn the corner on this thing? It ain't that hard! I don't know why that interaction left a bad taste in my mouth but suffice it to say as soon as Johnnie got checked in I got out of there as fast as I could. This morning, same routine, ate a leisurely breakfast, lollygagged shower, and then did my other team meeting. And then just like that it was time to get Johnnie again. Today he was sent out with a bag of food. I mean a BIG BAG OF FOOD. No explanations. I think what it is is that the Grab-and-Go program is ending and they have a lot of extra food left. In any case, there really was a lot of food in that bag, including beef on rice and a chicken breast patty that I warmed up and put in between sliced bread and voila. A sandwich. And lunch for me. I took a pic of me eating it and then Johnnie eating a bag of popcorn that came in the food bag too. Free is always good. So today I had a meeting from at 1 PM and I had Johnnie watching Coyote Peterson while that went on but when it was over, so was my work day effectively. For once I didn't want to spend my afternoon going over Covid vaccine numbers, refreshing schedules so we can plan for capacity, and monitoring how many people we vaccinate on a daily basis. Today I even took a stab at fixing the vaccine inventory/allocation numbers that our Director of Nursing compiles every day. I was sick of looking at the numbers he reports and basically becoming confused as to how he figured out balance on hand. I figured a simple spreadsheet could do all that and wouldn't be that hard to create. And so I did it. And at least it would make sense to someone used to staring at numbers in cells. Maybe I am kind of good at doing that. Synthesizing data to tell a story. I'm not saying I'm an Excel spreadsheet expert by any means. But I can put up a basic dashboard. Which is what I did. By the time I got done, it was already almost 5 PM. Time to head out to get Johnnie dinner at Panda Express Westwood. Today he broke routine by asking for penne and chicken broth for lunch. But he still wanted chicken teriyaki for dinner.  Tonight I actually sat down and did my taxes for 2020. Normally, they would be due tomorrow. But with the pandemic and all, deadline is pushed back to May. I decided to do it tonight anyway as IF it was due tomorrow. A good thing too. I end up with more than $3000+ in refunds this year!  Getting money back is always a good thing. And then of course later on, the big event of Wednesday evening is Claire's bath. The goal today is to not get me wet, what with the dog shaking off water any chance she got. But that's also because we held her to the running faucet last week. Today I had a better idea. I took a big bowl with me and kept her bath gentle by pouring water a lot more gently this time. And so she fought less and I got wet less as a result. And the best result of course is that she smelled MUCH MUCH better afterwards. And she's much cleaner too so I could actually let her sleep on the bed. Tonight everyone went to bed at 9 PM as per usual. Except for me. i snuck out and watched an episode of Mayans MC. Watched TV until almost midnight I did. I wonder why I do that? It's because I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night that's why. Not used to it at all. Clearly won't happen again tonight either. But hey, the week is half over right?