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...