Memorial Day

I needed the day off today and as it was, I don't exactly get ME time either.  That's because Lisa had already lined up all these activities she needed to do and so guess who gets to watch Johnnie in the morning. Not that I mind actually, in fact I was happy to get to see him for most of the day. And so it actually felt like a Saturday when I got there at 9 AM to pick him up. Still I wasn't backing off the 15,000 steps Monday routine, which meant I had to get something done early. Enter a Leslie Sansone walk video for a good 30 minutes plus. By the time I got done with that thing I had done 4400 steps in almost 37 active minutes. A very good start indeed. I even got a nice breakfast in, and the workout was probably the reason why i wolfed down 2 eggs and 2 pieces of ham in about a minute. Meanwhile over at Lisa's mom and son hadn't had breakfast yet although I didn't care since I already did have my breakfast. At least she gave Johnnie some fresh squeezed OJ and the croissant I bought on Saturday morning.  It was clear he hadn't had a shower yet either. So I had to hang around for a bit to do the requisite chat with Lisa and then off we went to my apartment. THERE we started Johnnie's morning routine. I got him showered, brushed his teeth, and sat him in front of some Wild Kratts so that I could get a shower myself. It was almost 11 AM when we got done but I thought it was perfectly fine. I actually wanted to do something different with him today... go to the zoo, go to the museum, take a train to the beach. But he nixed all those ideas. And besides, Lisa was coming to get him by 3 PM anyway so we didn't really have much time. Hey all I wanted was to chill. I'll just chill in front of the TV with him. We didn't even end up going out for lunch. All he wanted was some penne pasta in chicken broth. It was as if he was on his mom's routine. As for me, I had a nice thick steak I bought yesterday with the intent of barbecuing it today. It IS Memorial Day after all. Which is exactly what I did. And so it was that I barbecued on Memorial Day anyway, and then ate me that honking big peace of steak which was almost a pound. Candidly, I didn't FEEL like finishing it. When I felt full, halfway through the steak, I gave up. Hey this WAS something different wasn't it?! 

Lisa called around 2:45 and came by a half hour later. She asked me to come over around 4:30 PM so we could all have dinner and so she could at least have SOME time with Johnnie today. Typical Lisa, all she wanted to do was cook up whatever in her fridge she hadn't cooked during the week. That turned out to be some ground turkey. Hey, I'm game to make spaghetti and turkey bolognese. Naturally I would be cooking and she also asked me to bring some green beans for veggies. And so it was that I came over and made dinner for all of us, including hot dogs for Johnnie. Lisa got to hang out an extra couple of hours with Johnnie and all was good. Even when Lisa started piping about how I cooked while allowing spatter to supposedly ruin her metal tea pot. <Really?> I chose to just let that roll off my back and choose to find some gratitude in her tone that someone actually made dinner for her. I chose to bring back memories of the Sunday nights I used to make us spaghetti bolognese when she lived in that studio apartment in Westwood and where I spent most of my time too. Some of the early days of our relationship.  It was a kinder, gentler us. Or maybe we were simply far more tolerant with each other then. Hey, at least she didn't blow up like she used to during the last years of our marriage. She said something about Courtney destroying something almost every time she stays over LOL. Now THAT is the Lisa I used to live with. I also found gratitude that I didn't have to deal with that energy the rest of the evening. Just me, Johnnie, and Claire going to my apartment. I was actually feeling pretty good but pretty tired. That's because I managed to make my 15,000 steps and 110+ active minutes even as I had Johnnie for part of the day and on my day off. I didn't actually get to my past routines. I remember I used to watch the movie Indian Summer. After all, Memorial Day is the timemarker for the beginning of the summer season. For today I was just happy I didn't have to work, didn't have to deal with any COVID reports, didn't have to field any calls about someone needing this or that. By the time Johnnie came over, I had shifted to routine but at least it is a short week. And this morning all I thought about how this time, I expected the TownHall scheduled for Wednesday to go off without a hitch. That would be a win. I reminded myself that I still had all these things percolating in my head, led by a decision to be made about where to live after mid-July. Do I stay here? Do I find somewhere else? I don't have to make that decision tonight. And something tells me the best decision in my best interests has already been made. I just have to open up to it. Tomorrow.

Sunday Golf Lazy Day

So tee time this morning was at Roosevelt at 9:10 AM, about a half hour later than usual, which gave me plenty of time to have breakfast at home before heading out. At least I had plenty of sleep last night and so I was sure I wouldn't play tired like i did last Sunday. And so to expect me to play better than then was already locked in. Today we ended up getting paired up with a couple as LA golf courses are allowing fivesomes again. But before we even got started, Greg hands Scott and I an invite. He's having a goodbye party next month, further underscoring that we're about to lose him in the regular rotation. And that made me feel sad for a second. I mean he was the most recent addition to our group which is now only 3 more often than not. But in a relatively short period of time, he has definitely become a part of the group just as much as Ellen and Ro did back in the day and Mandy and Lisa up until we got divorced. It's like he's part of my post-divorce golf group and I, for one, am sad to see him go. But I'm also happy that he gets to move on, retire and start a new phase of his life. In the middle of all the golf I was flicking back and forth between stuff I need to make decisions on myself. Stuff from where I'm going to be living after this current lease on my apartment gets done in about a month-and-a-half. To something more mundane as what to do next week when I'm scheduled for jury duty. Obviously the upcoming decision on where to live looms fairly large. And I am trying my best not to worry so much about it and leave it to the Universe to show me the most ideal and best situation for me. After all, it has never let me down even though the choice doesn't seem obvious when it gets dropped on my lap. I never thought QueensCare would become home base almost 8 years ago now when I got laid off at USC. Heck I didn't think I'd end up here at Sawtelle 3 years ago when Lisa asked for our separation.  But this too has become home. And now that I feel that Johnnie is ready to have a room of his own in MY home, I need to evaluate my options. One thing for sure, I am NOT paying an extra $500 a month in rent just for another room, which came up this weekend when I talked to the Leasing Office. It's not even that I couldn't afford it. More like the principle of the thing. The best thing is if I could somehow manage to purchase something. But there are a lot of obstacles to that option and there would be no way I could do that without creating the money to pay for it outright I don't think. But then again, maybe the Universe has another idea? Or maybe I just have to focus on the outcome I want. I get to choose after all don't I?

In the meantime, I will cut to the chase and say that I had a pretty decent game this morning. On the first hole, I missed a par putt that was totally make-able. And then proceeded to follow that with a terrible 2nd hole. I have been starting pretty well the past month, which means that I come in pretty focused and relaxed. But somehow the focus goes and I'm not able to sustain it for more than a hole or two.  I know it's just a matter of getting myself relaxed and controlling my thoughts on every hole and when I did that today, I did pretty well.  Case in point on Hole 8, after I just hit a bogey on the previous hole, I focused on what it would feel when I hit an awesome shot and focused on watching the ball land well beyond the dogleg flag. And what happened? I blasted it right down the middle more than 200 yards. I got EXACTLY the result I focused on. I just need to do that on every hole and the times that I let myself get distracted with thoughts of a bad shot, that's exactly what would happen too. In the end I never did shoot a par. But I got to the green in 3 shots or less on 6 holes. And that would be 6 par shots missed isn't it? I really just had 3 bad holes. Hole 2, Hole 5, and Hole 6. And that was just a matter of being too stubborn to hit out of trouble and trying to get too cute with shots through the trees, which is what got me in trouble last week. I did use my 2-iron which yielded some pretty good results today. Anyway, I enjoyed the day playing golf with my friends, I got lunch from Crimson like I hadn't done in a while and then I just decided to lazy out the rest of the afternoon. It would have been nice to celebrate a Dodgers win and a Lakers win on a Sunday but unfortunately, neither team won today. Instead I got so lazy I waited until well past 10 PM to finish my laundry, wash the dishes and finish my journalling for the day.  Lucky there's no work tomorrow huh?! Weekend is not over just yet...

A Different Saturday

So first off I'm posting a little video of Lisa and Johnnie biking to Rockenwagner for breakfast. Naturally, since I am the one taking the video, it could easily be surmised that I am also riding along and I'm pointing out that i am actually riding on the old Nishiki that I bought for myself almost 13 years ago. This would definitely not be how I saw myself spending Saturday morning breakfast. Usually today was a Lisa work day but she had the day off. She still wanted to have some piano time though so I thought we'd at least have breakfast before Johnnie and I hung out for the morning. That's all I wanted today was to have a nice, fun day with Johnnie. When I came over it was 8:30 and both mom and son and Claire were all still in bed. Nothing wrong with that really. It's her day off, Lisa SHOULD sleep in if she wants. Which would leave Johnnie and I to have breakfast, which is again, all I wanted.  Somehow this is the time where Lisa gets conflicted about going to breakfast with us OR just hanging around the house doing nothing. Which means I already knew I was going to get hijacked this morning doing something SHE wanted to do. I brought up having breakfast together at Rockenwagner since I was hungry and I could see Lisa was simply in too much of a lazy mood to cook for all of us.  She agreed to go but not after we hung around talking some more. Why we couldn't just go to Rockenwagner and talk there is beyond me. But really the game plan was to let Lisa come around to whatever she wanted to do and if we do that then we get to do what WE want to do. And Lisa announced that if we were going to go to Rockenwagner anyway, we should bike there. I did not plan on this. Didn't bring my scooter. Hence I ended up on one of Lisa's bikes, off we went to breakfast, and there's the video. To be fair, it turned out to be a nice breakfast actually. We had a bunch of croissants, Johnnie got his chocolate croissant and Claire surprised us all by running all the way home while Lisa biked next to her from Washington Blvd. Finally when we got back, Lisa got the exercise she wanted, we got breakfast albeit a late one and finally finally finally Johnnie and i drove back to my apartment.  And I gave him a shower first thing, then let him watch a couple of hours of the Wild Kratts, his new favorite show, before heading out again for lunch. 

"Thank you for the conversation", Johnnie said to me on the phone. This was at 6 PM while I was getting ready to eat leftover beef stew from last night for my dinner. He had called asking for directions to Party City. It perplexed me at first since I knew that if Lisa was going to take him there, she knew where it was on Sepulveda. I think she was just letting him go ahead and talk to me and I, for one, appreciated it right back that he wanted to reach out. Already I had given him a hug goodbye when I dropped him off this afternoon, knowing that the next time I would see him was on Monday. I told him that I loved him and when he said I love you too Dad, I thought to myself that him saying that to me would never get old. And it will always make my heart skip. Remember I told myself this morning that my intention for today was to have a nice day with Johnnie and to have some M&M (magic moments) I won't forget. I did just that didn't I? We did just that.  Never mind that Lisa had to pull a Lisa this morning. We had lunch together, even ate in at Panda Express Westwood for the first time in more than a year. When I dropped him off Lisa was bugging again about something, this time the grand piano she will be buying at some point this year. This from someone who talks and acts like she's broke.  Never mind that when I told him Johnnie that it was time to go, he said "why so early?". That's probably why he would call later. He just knows that Saturdays are our time together. And without the dog at that. And you know what? We DID have our time together and it WAS all I could ask. For me I wanted to make sure I didn't stay up all that late tonight and so I wouldn't play such shitty golf tomorrow.  Day 1 of the 3-day weekend may not have been all that different. But I felt like I got some rest and relaxation in and most of all, I had my bonding time with Johnnie. That made it a really really good Saturday after all.

Friday At Last 3 Day Weekend is Here

How do I know it is FRIDAY and I'm ready for the long weekend? Well I know it's Friday when I have to wake up by 6 AM to lock in a tee time for the following Sunday for us. Not lost on me was that we're losing Greg at the end of July and even though that's a whole 2 months away, I'm starting to get a little nostalgic about all that. And so I got us our tee time and tried to go back to sleep. After all, I have NOTHING on my schedule for work today. In my mind, half the office has already taken off for the long weekend and all I have to do is to hang on for the day. It started off nice and quiet actually. I did  some meditation first thing and actually got into a nice, peaceful space for the morning. It would be unfortunate that I would not be able to hold that space. See what I do know is that I get tested quite often. You think you have peace and harmony huh? Then what about some traffic in your face. Let's see about that patience then.  How about Lisa bugging you about what she usually bugs you about (that you don't have absolutely one iota of care about). Still patient? What energy is dominant today? Compassion or impatience? I did manage to remind myself of my own superpowers this morning. That would be the superpower of intentional creation instead of the habitual reacting to the tugs of the outside world. As of mid-morning I thought I was doing ok. Technically I was still "on the clock" and if I were at the office, I'd have been counting down the end of the day just as soon as I got back from lunch. Today I went and grabbed some Subway sandwiches, my usual meatball marinara and tuna with cheese on spinach and tomato, like I occasionally did when I did work at the office. Either I'd walk to the old AT&T Building or walk across the street for that one. Today, it was merely a quick drive to the next block. It was odd that I chose not to walk really, and I can't really say why other than my calves were unusually sore this morning and I didn't really know why. Couldn't have been from all the walking, I've been doing that every week for more than a year. And then I remembered it was almost exactly a year ago that my legs got sore too. Maybe it's just a late spring thing. Gotta rest something sometime. 

And so it was that I made it to mid-afternoon before I got one last ping from work. A call from Marina. This was not at all unusual, not for her. She would call me often actually. Except that today I guess I didn't have as much patience as I would have liked to think. She needed some help from the IS Team connecting a refridgerator that just came in. She was EXPECTING immediate service and told me she had called me earlier in the week. I don't know what about that made me snap. Other than it WAS a Friday before the 3-day weekend and I really did felt inconvenienced. And I felt like she was getting in my face. In retrospect what she did was no different than what she would normally do. But this time I snapped back. It was like people forget all these rules we set up and feel like they can do whatever they get away with. Yesterday it was Barbara emailing a 50 MB attachment. I mean What-the-FUck??! Today it's Marina. And I didn't feel like being nice. And so I told her we'll see what we can do but not before I laid into her about being a good teammate and making sure we are all on the same page. Because right then and there I did NOT feel like we were on the same page. And I did NOT feel like cleaning up after someone's shit. Of course even writing about it now makes me certain I was over-reacting and that I really did need to chill. Maybe I hadn't recovered from being tired from yesterday. By mid-afternoon, I decided that was it. I was shutting down. No more work. I went to the store, picked up some ingredients and made myself a nice homemade beef stew. Usually I'd do this on a Monday. Tonight, I wanted to stay in and eat comfort food. My OWN comfort food. I apologize to the world for losing my patience. That was on me. And now the weekend is here and I can just breathe. Just breathe. Breathe...

Pajama Day Hand-off Nite

So as we roll towards the end of the week, today just happened to be the day Johnnie had been looking forward to all week. It's pajama day and he gets to wear his pajamas to school. For Lisa, earlier in the week when I told her about it, she actually didn't know which pajama she was going to let Johnnie wear. That's because all his pajamas at her house were already too small for him. I mean, it's ok to wear at the house obviously but ouside? For all to see? Not good. Fortunately, I did find some pajamas at my apartment that did fit him just right. It just wasn't what he would usually wear, but they looked good. Why don't I dress him up at night in these pajamas? Because I think they're too tight. I mean you're supposed to sleep in comfort and Johnnie already gets too hot and wiggly in bed. Which is why I put some loose pajamas on him when he goes to bed. But for wear outside of the house? These work just fine. And so it was that I got him duded up for pajama day without any issues. And then I went home, did my IS Team Meeting for the week, met up with Dennis my direct report boss and we got a couple of things done and I felt like by noon time, I was actually done for the day, which meant I was done for the week. I finished the Health Net grant report and got it to Oneida by the end of the day even, which was the only outstanding thing left to do this week. By the time I picked up Johnnie from school at 3 PM, I already felt like it was almost like the weekend. I didn't make any plans for the entire weekend mind you, I just thought I'd get myself some nice Rest and Relaxation at home. Still, after I picked up Johnnie and we went home a couple of loose ends came up at work. Turned out I was NOT done with my Health Net Grant report. They needed an expense accounting report. Sort of like my budget expenditures. Now I'm really going to have to make up that one since I didn't really track everything all that closely. Oh well, that's another hour or two I have to spend on that and since I was actually tired at the end of today, I thought I'd just wait until tomorrow to get it all done.

I don't know why I was tired really, maybe it's watching Johnnie and Claire taking its toll on me. Or maybe it's just the way it is every Thursday when it's close to hand-off time. I just get mentally exhausted. It's not like I do anything different on any other night. I made Johnnie pizza for his late lunch. And still headed out to Panda Express a couple of hours later for dinner like we always do. He didn't want to eat in tonight. He wanted to go home and continue to bug Claire until his mom picks him up. It's ok really, I even ordered some Panda Express for me tonight as well. I'm tired of cooking for myself. I simply didn't feel like it tonight, like I didn't feel like doing much of anything. Certainly I didn't feel like cleaning the house and without an extra push coming from Johnnie, I was ok leaving things as they are. After all, it is a long weekend coming up. I'm ok to clean things up later on at some point. As for the pick-up, since no 2 consecutive pick-up days are ever the same, I did not hold out any hope that Lisa would come early. I did wait until 7:29 to call her at which point she informed me she was already outside in fact. And talking to a colleague. I dropped Johnnie off and headed back inside just as quick as I could since Lisa was still on the phone. It was Johnnie that called me back to tell me that I hadn't sat down and talked to his mom yet. Sigh. I headed back outside, chatted for a few minutes to lock down weekend plans, which weren't much really and then off they went and off I went. I finished off my 11,000 steps, and called it a night and crashed on the couch. I am so ready for the long weekend...

Midweek Space Day

It's Wednesday, middle of the week, and one more day closer to the 3-day weekend coming up. And as I count down to the end of the week, so has Mar Vista Elementary towards the end of the school year. After this week there's only 2 more weeks of school. Hard to believe I know. Their countdown started last week actually and they have had dress-up days every single day which is kind of fun I think. Today is SPACE DAY and so I put an oversize LEGO Star Wars T-shirt on Johnnie and he had a lot of fun with that. Look at him mugging it up for the camera. For me it was just another drop-off day and it felt good to go back to T-shirt and shorts first thing as opposed to yesterday. The thing was that when I got done with my Data Analytics team meeting, I looked at my schedule and lo and behold, that was it for the day! W-h-a-t? There seemed to be less people pinging me over email too. Maybe the exodus from the office has started... And so I had a relatively relaxed rest of the day. I took the dog out, let him run around in what amounts to be my backyard grass, also known as the grass area in front of the apartment where dozens of dogs poop and pee on a daily basis. Claire must know that from the scent too because he drops off and pees and poops almost on command the second he gets on that grass. Boy is she going to need a bath later. Anyway, I put myself in cruise control for the rest of the day. Oh I did manage to work still. Kept myself in front of the computer for the most part. AND I did work on my steps too, just so I didn't have to wait until way later on to make up 40 active minutes. I'm still determined to do an hour of active minutes a day while not pushing myself too much either. Which means I better be at a half hour by the time I pick up Johnnie. So really I'm calling this my true WORK-AT-HOME mode, only because if I were at the office, I wouldn't be up and about, enjoying late spring, early summer, taking in the days getting warmer slowly and with that great smell of flowers about ready to welcome summer too as I am. In doing all this walking around the neighborhood though, I managed to miss the Mar Vista Room 25 Open House at 4 PM. I did pick up Johnnie on time at 3 PM and then sat him down for his late lunch, but then I just lost track of the time. Fortunately, Ms Wiley did record it and sent it to us parents and I really did enjoy the 14-minute video. It had lots of Johnnie in it of course, just like it had lots of stuff on his classmates. And I wanted to make sure to save it here for posterity. Johnnie is for sure going to remember this later on, or at least he will have something to look at to remember the strangest year ever in terms of being in class. I mean TK was strange when they went online a year ago, but that was for just a couple of months. They had been remote for the the majority of this school year and THAT by itself is a huge deal. I even posted a pic of him enjoying the presentation too. And then we finally got on to watching the last few episodes of Jurassic World, Camp Cretaceous Season 3. Did they finally get off the island once and for all? Quick answer is yes... but... it would seem their boat had picked up a stowaway. Another dinosaur no doubt. Something to look forward fo for Season 4 LOL. And so it was that we concluded mid-week with yet another bath experience for Claire. She is much more comfortable now and even the whole drying process isn't so wiggly. And so by the time we all go to bed, she is smelling so clean.  And we prep for the end of the week...

Early Day At Work

If yesterday's time at the Santa Monica Airport soccer league was somewhat way off routine, then so was this morning when I had to be at our East Third Street Location at 8:30 AM for round 2 of Strategic Planning meetings. Fortunately, I would get Johnnie checked in by 8:01 every day anyway and I figured a half hour is plenty of time to get to East LA. It was just that I had to be ready to go. Which meant I had to shower when Johnnie did, and I had to be dressed for work when I dropped Johnnie off. Check and check, even though I did feel rushed getting his lunch together and getting myself put together as well, all by 7:30 AM. I still managed to get him checked in by 8:01 and I was on the road and off to E3 shortly after. What I didn't expect was that E3 had a parking problem. Maybe it was Covid vaccinations, maybe it was my meeting but I barely got a parking spot in the tiniest of spaces. I still made it to the meeting on time.  As far as the meeting itself, all I really cared about was that there be no snafus like what happened last time a few weeks ago. And to that end, it was good to see Nelson there as I was walking in. No snafus today to be sure. As far as the meeting itself, I really don't know why I had to attend in person. Emma attended, as did Gloria and both attended via Zoom. But hey I wasn't going to get lectured at about my committment and my accountability. What I did worry about was that when we left this morning, for some reason, Claire was crying and whining about being left alone. I hope she doesn't do that all morning. My neighbors might think I'm torturing her or something! As it was, the meeting ended around 10:45 and although there was a ton of traffic going home, I was in my front door before 11:30 AM and Claire was resting comfortably on her pillow. It was all good. I walked her immediately as I got home and it was not lost on me that it had gotten pretty hot out there too. Like close to 80 degrees at midday. Yep, summer sure is around the corner. Today's lunch was ground pork and baby bok choy over rice and then I caught myself closing my eyes for about 10 minutes after. That's what happens when you have a heavy lunch.  But going in to the E3 location in person meant I could also tank the rest of the day since I had already put in work LOL. And it wasn't long before it was 3 PM already and time to pick up Johnnie.

The thing about picking up Johnnie anymore is that he seems to have lost interest in eating anything until he got home. Which today was 3:15. And then he'll ask for a pizza, or spaghetti. And not just any pizza either. He wanted Domino's. Huh?! Oh well, he gets the turkey filled ravioli that he didn't eat the first week of school. And he not only finished that, but I had to make him some macaroni and cheese as well! Nothing wrong with this kid's appetite. And I always have to be aware that there is a couple of hours between his "late lunch" and "early dinner" which is still going to be Panda Express. Look at the picture of Johnnie eating his dinner and Claire foraging for whatever food he drops on the floor. That dog is annoying that way, and especially tonight when she chewed up my power cord for the Thinkpad! I don't know how she didn't get a small shock because the thing was sparking after what she did to it. Damn that dog! Anyway tonight I decided to watch something with Johnnie. After all we had gone through SING last week. Tonight I sprung on him that Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3 is already here! The continuing saga of Darius, Kenji, Sammy, Brooklyn, Ben, and Jasmina. And whatever dinosaurs they're avoiding this time around. And this time around there was, in fact, a new hybrid dinosaur. It was called Scorpius Rex and it was for sure THE ugliest and meanest looking dinosaur yet. It jumps electric fences and shoots barbs at you. And needless to say, it did scare the bejeebies out of Johnnie. So much so that when I got up and tried to watch the Dodgers play the Astros and the Lakers playoff game, he immediately went to get me to make sure I was there watching with him. Awww. We did watch about 5 episodes and left the rest to tomorrow. AND by the time he went to bed, the Laker game concluded... a win against Phoenix in Game 2, even-ing up the series. Hey they started like this in Houston last year too. Lost Game 1, then won the next 4. Here's to hoping this is what is going to happen here. Of course I had to stay up to watch some post game after Johnnie fell asleep. We're still early in the play-offs. Hope it goes on a while for the Lakers... Hope it goes all the way...

Off Routine, Lisa Scores A Goal?

The thing about this upcoming week is that although it is a full week, it is the Monday before the first 3-day weekend in months. That would be the Memorial Day weekend of course, the timemarker for the beginning of summer and this morning, it sure did feel like it was around the corner. It was already warm first thing and although I reminded myself that this was the time a year ago when I basically got tired, I still pushed myself to try to continue the 15.000+ steps on a Monday streak. I mean why not? It wasn't like I felt really tired or anything. In fact, I also reminded myself that this being the week before Memorial Day, folks at work were sure to be tanking most of the week, if not taking at least Friday off altogether. I remember last year's Memorial Day for the fact that it wasn't memorable at all. It was just another day because we were all right in the middle of the pandemic. Hopefully I get to do something a little more fun and relaxing this time around, if just to go to the beach or something. Anyway I did think about what I wanted to experience this upcoming week. I wanted to experience an eezy-peezy week with little out of the ordinary and off-routine for Johnnie and I. I mean I do know I have to be at a meeting at E3 tomorrow morning at 8 AM but I could easily get there if I drop off Johnnie on time at 8 AM right on the button, which I always have. And so it was that I got to 5000+ steps by mid-morning like I had for many months now, I got to shower and have a nice, relaxed breakfast, AND I got through the Business Continuity meeting uneventfully. Even made myself some ground pork bolognese on top of the leftover penne pasta I had from Johnnie's lunch last Saturday LOL. The wildcard today was whether I was supposed to help Lisa out by picking up Johnnie at school. She had yet another Monday appointment for her supposed infection/condition and this one is all the way in Hollywood. Even if she got done by 2:30, LA traffic is back and there would be no way she could pick up Johnnie by 3 PM. And so I volunteered to do it. I mean what do I have to do Mondays except the Covid vaccination reports stuff... it would be a nice break in fact.

And so true enough, she texted me by 1 PM that there would be no way she could get to Johnnie by 3 PM and that I should pick him up. He wasn't surprised that I picked him up. He WAS surprised that we headed to the apartment. He knows it's not yet time. He asked for lunch of course and so I had to give him some more penne pasta (chicken noodle soup) and then a half hour later, Lisa did come to pick him up. She asked if I would be interested in bringing Johnnie to her soccer game tonight. It seems that like yesterday, all the soccer leagues are back and that she is back as well, playing on Mondays. I was ok with that. She did not spend any time with him at all today and I am sensitive to that. It would give mom and son another couple of hours together. And so i bought myself a pizza for dinner, brought half of it over to Lisa's by 6:30 PM and off we went to the Santa Monica Airport field. It had been more than a year obviously since I had even come to this field, let alone to watch soccer. This time, we had to bring the dog obviously and I couldn't bring him on the field. What was a tad surprising was that it was the same old teammates. There was Chris and her sister, Jen and Paul and he in fact gave me a hug. It was nice to see the old faces and though Lisa and I were almost totally distanced, they at least interacted with me just like the old days. I can remember when this was my way of life too on weeknights and that I would bring Johnnie when he could barely run. Now he's much bigger and he's doing warmups with his mom on the field. And when the game started, Johnnie and I and the dog went up to the upper parking lot to watch. Chris looked thicker and slower, Jen was her attacking self, and Lisa? She scored the first goal of the game. This is what surprises you about her. She looks so unathletic out there, as if she doesn't even belong. Yet, when given the opportunity, she will contribute. She will score. And that is all you can ask as a teammate. Back in the day I would have been whooping and hollering right along with them. Not anymore. I felt like an outsider and that's ok. Johnnie cheered his mom on and then later on yelled goodbye and "see you Thursday". The new normal. Off we went to my apartment after halftime of their game. And we snapped back into Arnel routine mode. Of course Johnnie would watch some Wild Kratts. Of course Claire would sink into her pillow. This is their home too now.  And it's all good. If not somewhat surreal from the soccer hour. That was not planned at all. But it was ok.

What in Heck Happened to my Golf Game??

Why do I stay up and binge watch stuff I have already watched before? And until almost 3 AM in the morning yet? Why do I do that? Don't I realize it is one of those behaviors I can classify as self-destructive? I mean I literally got barely 4 hours of sleep last night. For what? And that guarantees I'm going to be tired playing golf today. Sigh. And it was such a beautiful day too. Look at the video I posted from Hole 3 at Harbor Golf Course. Even though our tee time was not until 10:10 AM, I was still tired and sleep-deprived. And not only did I feel tired, I felt irritable. I felt off. Great. And when I got to the golf course, there was no parking! That's because a major sign that LA is returning to normal, is that the Sunday soccer league in the field adjacent to the golf course has started up again and is teeming with players and the familiar sounds of many soccer games going on at the same time. So back to that video on Hole 3. That followed a horrendous Hole 2 for me that basically I just gave up on because I kept hitting the ball to the other fairway! W-ha-t the FUCK?! And to be fair, it didn't start off that way for me. On the very first hole, I hit a great tee shot to the middle of the fairway, then hit my 2nd shot right on the green! I SHOULD HAVE had a par. But I missed my putt and that was that. I hit under my ball on the 2nd tee and then launched a rocket for my 2nd shot. That hit a tree branch. And what followed was a succession of terrible shots that should have let me know I was already thrown off my game. I remember the last time I played this hole. I almost had a par then. Not today. Not on Hole 3 either, which led me to just trying to enjoy the view. Because it was clear that my focus was off. And that's because I was tired and sleep deprived. I tried to fight through it. But nothing doing. I tied for the win on that first hole. Never won a hole after that. I was short arming everything which told me I WAS playing tired. And my rhythm was way off. I did sink a couple of putts but nothing about today's game felt good after the first hole. Oh well. Easy lesson today huh? And the negative feelings lingered far longer after that. With the return to some semblance of normalcy in LA also marked the return of really bad traffic. Up until today playing at Harbor was ok since the traffic on the drive home wasn't all that bad. Well that ended today. It took almost 40 minutes to make it back to the westside. So bad was it that I didn't stop for food until I was already near home. And I decided to get an Impossible whopper and chicken fries from the BK lounge. oh well, at least yesterday's food experience was really really good. Today I just wanted to eat, crash on the couch and catch up on the sleep I didn't get last night. I closed my eyes but couldn't actually knock off not even with some binaural beats on Youtube going on. All I did was just to chill... after all my foot was sore too from all that walking I think. Or maybe from all that walking from the previous 6 days. Anyway I did manage to get a decent dinner in. I didn't cook this time. I didn't want to. I got the usual salmon kabob lunch from Crimson but had it for dinner tonight. And made me feel instantly better. Lucky for me, I got all my laundry done yesterday so no need to do that. And finally by 9 PM the lack of sleep caught up with me. I don't know when I knocked off actually. Must have been sometime around 10 PM. It was shortly after watching FEAR THE WALKING DEAD. Weekend over. Brand new week all teed up.

MORE Time with Johnnie and Mom

ROCKENWAGNER AT 7:30 AM  So my sleep got interrupted at 7:30 with a phone call form the Lisa household of course.  It was Johnnie. He wanted to make an "order". Half-asleep I realize that he did have an idea about what to do for breakfast and Lisa is just playing along. Turned out he wanted some croissants. Lisa just supplied the "hey Rockenwagner has the BEST croissants" thing, otherwise I would have just gone to the donut shop down the street. Their croissants are good too. OK, so maybe not quite as terrific as Rockenwagner. Which is why I found myself jumping into some shorts and driving down Washington Blvd still not quite awake so I could get croissants for all for breakfast. I got some ham-and-cheese for Lisa and i, some plain ones, and one chocolate one for Johnnie. My reward was that Johnnie gave me a back massate (see picture). And then off we went back to my apartment. Turned out I didn't actually have him all day even though Lisa is seeing Morris Aynechi's kids for dental cleaning. Actually, BECAUSE it's Dr Aynechi's kids, naturally Johnnie's presence is required. After all, we all used to go to Palm Springs for at least the weekend... right around this time of year in fact. Dr Morris and Lisa would volunteer at the Coachella fairgrounds, then we would all hang out afterwards. After they stopped volunteering, we would just hang out in Palm Springs anyway. Yeah, I do miss that time with them. I haven't seen them since June 2018 when we last did that.  And so what that meant was that Lisa was going to pick up Johnnie at my apartment around 11 AM. Ok. I have him for a couple of hours. It's good enough for me, at least for today. I gave him a shower then let him watch Wild Kratts, which is his NEW favorite TV show to watch.  

FRENCH DIP MMMM... Lisa did pick him up but closer to 11:30 and then I decided I wanted to have something different for lunch. No more Asian food, no more noodles, no more chicken. And so I decided to pick up a French dip sandwich at Marie Callenders across the street. I hadn't eaten at MC in a really long time. Used to be I'd go there after Sunday golf. But I haven't done that in more than a year and a half at least. And  I hadn't had French dip in longer than that. Used to be I'd have the one at Champagne after golf as well, with tomato soup too. That was so good. I miss it. And so you can imagine how nice it was to bite into this one. Yes it was takeout, but French dip au jus is still French dip au jus not matter how one enjoys it. And I enjoyed this one very very much thank you. That would be the 2nd food treat I enjoyed today already. How can it not be a memorable day at this point?  I didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day.  DIY HAIRCUT  I needed/wanted to get a haircut later on this afternoon. But for some reason I had it in my mind that it was ok to do it myself. I mean when I tried early in the pandemic, I didn't think I did so bad really, just cut it shorter than usual. Heck, it's going to start getting warmer real soon anyway. And so that's exactly what I did was to cut my hair. I will say I didn't do better than a Supercuts haircut. But I didn't do any worse either so there's that. Besides, being at home I cleaned myself up with a shower afterwards. Saved me $30 I think LOL. What I did not want to do was to binge watch something on Netflix. There weren't any new shows this weekend, but there's always something to watch. And when I'm not doing anything, that would be the default thing to do. And so I started watching TRAVELERS again and got through about 4 episodes before I realized I was hungry and needed to think about dinner.  For some reason I ended up in Marina del Rey Pavilions. That's because I was trying to get some Hansen's Lemon lime and they ran out at Whole Foods. And since I was out there anyway, the fastest thing to eat was to stop at El Pollo Loco drive through on Beethoven and Washington, right down the block from Lisa's. Second time I'm in this exact part of town today. 

ANOTHER MEAL WITH JOHNNIE AND LISA  Which was why it was astoundingly coincidental that Johnnie would call me right as I'm pulling away with my food. He missed Fuzzy he said. And wouldn't you know in another fit of synchronicity, Fuzzy was already in the back seat of my car? I was actually wondering earlier when Johnnie would miss his favorite bunny. And I was not going to bring him over unless he specifically asked. Well, he specifically asked. And so me being right down the block already, it was no problem to just drive over and have my El Pollo Loco meal with mom and son.  That would be the 2nd meal I'd be having with them today and this one was definitely unplanned. Still it was nice to eat together again and afterwards, Lisa cranked out Johnnie's latest toy. That would be a putting green, complete with a regulation putter and Titleist ProV1 balls. W-h-a-t? What in heck is she doing buying the most expensive golf balls? The cool thing was that Johnnie has a pretty nice putting swing already. This is ONE instance where I wanted him to learn from his mom's precision swing rather than my do-it-yourself, make-it-up-as-I go  putting swing. And he did knock in a few from 4 - 6 feet out. Hey I can't even say I'm automatic even at that distance.  It is definitely my Achilles heel in fact. And so it was that I went home around 9 PM. Heck dinner was actually pretty late even for me. And i found myself crashing on the couch and reverting back to default. Yep, I'm watching TRAVELERS again to end the evening.  I justified the binge watching with the fact that our tee time tomorrow was not until after 10 AM. I could sleep in. Have breakfast! It's all good. It turned out to be a pretty memorable day...

Tanking Friday, and Johnnie's Swim Lesson

I got up bleary eyed at 5:55 AM this morning to lock up a tee time for next Sunday. For some reason I didn't get the one I wanted at 8:50 at Roosevelt. But I did get a 9:10 one and that was good enough. And then of course generating Johnnie's daily pass to send to Lisa. All by 6 AM mind you. I wished I could have gone back to sleep but once I got my brain turned on I couldn't turn it back off. I did do some nice meditation at least before I did get up once and for all to start my day. I did have one big thing on my schedule and that was about an hour meeting with OCHIN about the Risk analysis surveys that I had put off all the way from February. Finally 4 months later and I'm getting around to them.  I did do some indoor aerobics to my own playlist first thing to get my blood flowing and before I made myself some nice corned beef hash and eggs breakfast. THEN I finally took a shower. Hey, it's Friday! And by the time my morning meeting got done it was still just past 11 AM. I was already thinking I had done enough work for the day.  I was ready to take a nap and just couch potato it for the rest of the day until I get a call from Lisa around 2:30 PM letting me know they're 5 minutes away. I was confused until she reminded me Johnnie is still having swimming lessons today, just that it was going to be an hour or so later than before since she wanted Johnnie to get his prizes on Prize Day Friday for Beyond-the-Bell. Well of course Johnnie had to get his prizes doesn't he? And so I headed over there, brought over Johnnie's wetsuit since it had gotten a bit windy and I knew he was going to complain about being cold and then just chilled myself like I had planned... just that I'm going to do it at my own facility pool.  True enough, Johnnie is whining about not wanting to swim, and whining about the water being cold. But with goggles and a wetsuit? He was going swimming today. He's lucky he's not alone with me or I'd have just pushed him in the water! As it was he did get a really nice swim lesson in and I'm very confident he can now go across the long end of the pool... and maybe make it unconscious competence once he just gets comfortable being underwater. Lisa went in with him as well, prompting me to go back to my apartment to get HER a towel.  And of course it didn't stop there...

Lisa asked Johnnie if he'd like to warm up a bit in the jacuzzi. Of course the big jacuzzi wouldn't be working. But the small one in my building was warm enough. And so Johnnie dragged us both there. Which was ok until Lisa decided she had to go to the bathroom. And the public one by the pool isn't open of course. Sigh. And so I had to let her use my bathroom in my apartment. WITH ONE CAVEAT! I told her if she said one negative thing, she would never again be allowed in my facility. And so she wouldn't tease fate. She used my bathroom alright, but with her facemask blindfolding her and with Johnnie guiding her washing her hands LOL. It was as comical as it sounded. But hey, I'm DAMN serious about her not being allowed to see my place. Those are the rules. They were NOT negotiable. Still, she got it all done and then we all went to the little jacuzzi. And Johnnie all of a sudden showed how comfortable he was diving under the water. I knew he was. It was here that we played our look-for-the-rock game in the summer when he was still learning. Lisa was duly impressed. And then I heated up the pizza he got from Beyond the Bell and voila... He got his dinner in too. By the time they left it was already past 5 PM! Mom and son had spent the entire afternoon in my building. Quite spontaneously. When they left, I made myself some stuffing and cooked up the Chicken Piccata I had just bought from Trader Joe's earlier in the day. That was dinner. And finally finally I could just finally potato-couch it for the rest of the day like I had wanted to do. I will say that I did not expect to have the kind of time I spent with Lisa and Johnnie this afternoon, but it wasn't all that bad really. Most of it was pleasant really. Even Claire had a moment were she thought she was back home when I let her in my apartment. She immediately headed to her favorite pillow which I didn't put away. I resisted giving any more meaning to the afternoon's events. Just Johnnie's swim lesson is all. And then I ended up binge-watching TRAVELERS to conclude my Friday evening. Another weekend beckons. And I'm back picking up Johnnie first thing...

Thursday Late Pick-up Early Hand-off

So this being the Thursday right after Tech Council Meeting day, I would usually be at the CCALAC HIT Roundtable at noon and then lollygag the rest of the day. Even do some browsing at Macy's sometimes on the way back. Even then it wasn't much different than working from home other than I actually did drive in to work, but I didn't do much. Funny thing about working from home is that I actually work more I think. This being Thursday and I see myself running the Lookahead Covid vaccination schedules report through the next few weeks. After all I did show a graph of the thing at the meeting yesterday. I see myself having my IS Team Meeting like I have every Thursday although that is more entertaining than not this week. It's one thing to pretend like I'm getting down on the guys but really they know I'm just pushing. I really do want to push Noriel a little more and James a lot more but we're still all good. Which is why I chose to post a pic of Johnnie enjoying his breakfast before I dropped him off at school. Today I told him I was going to pick him up a little later than usual. I have that Leadership Thing going on at 2 PM and it is supposed to go until 4 PM. Really my intent was to see what we're going to do and if I am able to bug out by 3:30 PM then I will. After all I have already had a pretty productive morning and the day had actually turned warmer by lunch time and I enjoyed taking Claire out for a walk, though I admit I didn't want him running around so much to dirty herself up because she smelled so nice and clean from last night's bath. I actually spent the rest of the morning focusing on doing steps, which is one thing I can do on demand when working from home. 

So by 2 PM I started the Leadership Retreat thing and actually participated. That means I asked a couple of questions, and really that was just to let my team know I was on and engaged and participating. Still, it seemed like the presenter was mostly asking questions rather than leading us through material. She kept talking about leading us through material but spent more time with Q&A and that really annoyed me. By 3:30 I didn't even have to make up my mind. I just bugged out and picked up Johnnie. As usual he was dirty and sweaty and that was still a good thing. Because I picked him up later, it felt like no time at all before we had to go get dinner at Panda Express. We left the dog at home and had every intention of bringing the food back... Except that Johnnie noticed people eating IN THE STORE! Now that's a first in a long time. Has it been a year since we were allowed to eat in at Panda? So OF COURSE we took advantage. We ate right there! How happy am I?! How happy was Johnnie?! No need to clean up after himself today though he still had to clean up all the stuff he put up in the beginning of the week. Neither one of us were too motivated to clean the living room really which was ok. And in keeping with her pattern of unpredictability, Lisa came early to pick him up today! And so Johnnie hand-off actually got done by 6:30 PM. It was still light out and I didn't have to do much left to get to 11,000 steps today. So I decided to chill out for my Thursday night. What did I end up doing? I watched ANGEL HEART, that movie that scared the pants out of me in the 80s with Mickey Rourke, Robert de Niro and Lisa Bonet. Real uplifting choice huh? Hey that is how I'm choosing to ease into my Friday ok?

Tech Council Meeting Day

Ahhh another third Wednesday of the month, another Tech Council Meeting day. I'm hoping it's like last month when no less than 3 people, including Eloisa, blew the meeting off at the last minute. Was I bothered by that? Not in the least. Hey you book a talk you better do the same talk whether your audience numbers 10, 100, or 1000. Then again I was not the least bit worried, since I had finished my presentation last night, and then finished my agenda and Meeting Minutes writeup before I even had my first meeting this morning at 9:30. That means I jetted Johnnie to school drop-off and then worked on it just as soon as I got home and as I was eating breakfast. All that allowed me to chill the rest of the morning until the meeting, which I even set for 15 minutes later in order to accomodate for the latecomers from other meetings. So relaxed was I that I even posted of me making a better-than-average, better-than-usual lunch. I made myself stir-fried rice with beef chips AND shrimp and spinach too. Mmmm. I made so much I was easily full with another serving left to spare. I ate so much I could have taken a nap right after I ate. THIS is what makes it nice to be working from home. To be able to cook lunch at home even though I'm pretty much tired of washing dishes right after. Still, no lunch I could have bought could have beaten this lunch. Don't get me wrong, I do miss having lunch at the FRB Cafeteria. After all, I only did that for 7 years before the pandemic. And just like if I were still at the FRB, I pretty much lingered and killed time before it was time to do the meeting at 1:45. This time there was a full complement of the usual attendees. I did have enough material for an hour but somehow we got caught up on the projects, which was fine because it at least let me know that now upper management knows what's going on. And we got caught up with the Role-Based Access stuff which is due for its annual review. I'm not even going to mention that at least 3 things on that project list I did yesterday and today just so I could say it's been addressed. Otherwise I'd let those go for at least another month LOL LOL. Anyway the bottom line was that the meeting got done by 2:47, 2 minutes over the hour and the longest I had had this meeting all calendar year. Another Tech Council Meeting successfully under my belt.  Immediately after the meeting, I headed out to go get Johnnie. And there he was, pants all dirty from rolling around on the dirty concrete, a little sweaty even. I guess I WON'T put shorts on him until it gets much warmer. We came home and we snap into late afternoon routine. And to my surprise I didn't even notice how quickly he got done with his SeeSaw homework but he did it almost stealth-like. I double checked. He did just fine and I never even noticed that he logged on! Of course it's Panda Express night too but tonight I didn't feel like going to Westwood. We passed by the Sawtelle Panda Express, noticed that there was no one in line and immediately went into the parking lot to get our food there instead. After all, we didn't have Claire with us. We could just walk in there Johnnie and I. As for Claire she was really really good all day and kept her distraction to a minimum. And so by 7:30, I was ready to give her a bath. With no Johnnie in the tub with her, we actually get done much faster, and I have also learned not to get her too uncomfortable in the tub. I did that by pouring the water slowly over her head and taking more time soaping her up as if giving her a massage. She liked that much better. And so I got done cleaning her up before it was even 8 AM, Johnnie was just fine simply watching more Dinosaur Train. This being the night after the Tech Council Meeting, it's a breathe-out time which means I don't expect to be working too much or too hard for the rest of the week. Certainly not tonight. Nothing to work on tomorrow anyway. Nothing on my schedule even except... one of those Leadership Meetings late in the afternoon. Tonight there WAS that play-in game between the Warriors and Lakers to determine the 7th seed in the WEstern Conference seedings. The Lakers had dropped all the way to the 7th best record simply by losing so many games when both AD and LBJ were out injured. This is attrition simple as that. They barely had any time off from the championship run and really broke down during the latter part of the season. Now they are fighting simply to be in the play-offs where us Laker fans HOPE they gel in time to make a run. Tonight was a good start. LBJ sinks a 3-ball with seconds left to win the game. After another mind-blowing offensive performance from Steph Curry. We're still in the hunt. Let's hope it's good enough...

Blue Day

No better example than this morning for me to realize I am not a perfect parent either (note to Lisa). How I would get through Johnnie's breakfast and get him all ready to go to school before I realized I hadn't even packed up his lunch is beyond me. Hey, it HAPPENS. And then Johnnie reminded me that it's FAVORITE COLOR DAY at school, which meant I had to deck him out in blue. Already I'm a bit off-routine. I felt off really, but that wasn't going to let me be late taking him to school. There simply is no excuse as far as I'm concerned. And so even though we got to the line to get in 5 minutes later than usual so there was a lot more people in line than the usual time we get there, we still weren't all that far back really. Just a few kids. And I was still in and out of there by 8:01. And I was still able to get home to just sit and get my bearings again. Enjoy my Earl Grey hot tea and my breakfast in relative peace and quiet. It really does feel different when Johnnie isn't around. It's moments like these when I had just dropped him off that I can truly appreciate working from home. And then once I got showered, I put my head down, reminded myself that I still had my entire presentation for tomorrow's Tech Council meeting to do and went at it. Last month it felt like getting the entire thing done was pretty effortless. This month, it felt like I had a bunch of new graphs and visuals to do. Which meant I didn't get done in a couple of hours. Heck I still had the IS Team meeting to do and then of course people kept pestering me for stuff here and there. But I kept at it, only stopping for lunch. I still had the pizza from last night but today I decided to grill the Italian sausage. I had plenty of food in the fridge, why not eat them? I will say though that washing dishes gets really old and that would be the main reason for eating out for me. I made some pretty good progress with my presentation, as in I got the meat of it done early afternoon, but not all of it. It seemed like time went by so fast that it was 3 PM by the time I lifted my head from my computer and it was already time to pick up Johnnie. Today he had pizza bread in his food bag, which made for a snack or a second lunch for him when we got home. He brought home a nice dreamcatcher that he made in class too. I was pretty impressed because it looked cool. And then he asked if I could watch Dinosaur Train with him. Wow, I don't know where that came from. We hadn't watched dinosaur train in forever. I remember when that was his staple TV show but that was almost 2 years ago now. It had been so long, some seasons and episodes had opened up for us to watch, whereas before we would have had to pay for them. I was obviously happy to oblige him and though I still had work to do, I did sit with him for an episode or two. And then it was back to work for me. I know he doesn't like it when I leave him alone and get in front of the computer but we gotta do what we gotta do. And so I kept at it with my presentation. Between the dog needing to be walked, and then eventually heading out to Sawtelle to pick up Panda Express for Johnnie's dinner, and then making mine (3rd week in a row I'm frying up shrimp to go with Panda Express chow mein on a Tuesday night), I didn't get done with all my work. I knew by then that i was going to have to put in some work when Johnnie fell asleep, the trick though was not having to stay up all night. And so it was that Johnnie got to bed by 9:30 and just as soon as I heard him softly breathing, I went back to my work. I actually finished everything by 11 PM so it wasn't that bad, although it took another half hour to get my brain to calm down enough for me to get to sleep too. But it was mission accomplished and I was sure I was going to have a pretty good presentation tomorrow.  Thumbs up all around.

Last Part of Spring

The USC Commencement is somewhat of a timemarker for me. It tells me it isn't quite summer just yet but close.  Never mind the drizzle from yesterday. That seems to be gone today. It is still cloudy but it's just another June-gloom kind of day. As in June coming early. And certainly it wasn't cold at all. I hopped on the computer early to get Lisa Johnnie's day pass and then run my Covid vaccination reports and then headed out to start the Monday steps routine. I took a pic of me walking along  McLaughlin so I could get a good start on my steps today. I saw my puffy face in the picture. Does that guy look old or what? Better get those steps in LOL. As it was, the sun started peeking out a mile into my walk and by the time I got back in the apartment, I had already logged 5000 steps and 40 active minutes. A good start it is. An even better one that the Business Continuity Meeting had been cancelled this morning. I don't know why really. And I didn't care. Gave me much more time to do my Monday morning reports so I could get done well before  the afternoon. I reminded myself that the Tech Council Meeting is back on this Wednesday which means I had better get started with my presentation today. Although I had never not done justice to getting my material by the day of the meeting, I had no intention of staying up until late tomorrow night either, especially since I had not really gotten good sleep for the past week either. I always count on catching up when Johnnie is with me though I don't know how that's going to work when he gets his own bedroom this summer. Yep, I have to start thinking about that too. All these thoughts crossed my mind on my walk this morning which is probably why I felt no urgency at all throughout the day. That is until it was time to think about picking up Johnnie. By lunchtime the sun had come out in earnest and my mid-morning walk was augmented by the smell of late spring. That would be courtesy of those flowers whose pic I posted too. They had that definitive pungency that remind me that it's starting to get warm again. I took my time for this walk, once again taking the opportunity to clear my mind simply by feeling the warmth of the sun on my face. You could call it my ME MOMENT for the week really, especially since in a couple of hours, the calm will disappear with Johnnie's arrival. That was not meant as a complaint mind you, merely a reminder to seek balance first and all good will follow. No more a reminder of that as when I picked up Johnnie at Lisa's. Mom and son were in the front porch with his school bag materials all out. Apparently Lisa was looking through his homework materials and trying to catch up. She lamented about the 3 PM pick-up and how she really didn't have a whole lot of time with him before I came by at 4:30 to pick him up. I reminded her that it was her idea for me to come earlier because she had Pilates class on Mondays now.  Of course, this unleashed a string of grievances that Lisa bottled up. There would be the grievance about Courtney being over so much. Then there was the grievance of her office manager Nikki being pregnant. My guess is that she is tanking it far more than she ever had. Candidly I was chuckling inside because had I still been living here, it was 100% certain she would have had a grievance with me. Because her mental program is to find drama somewhere somehow. When really it was she that caused the drama in the first place. I would have been happy to come later to pick up Johnnie. Something tells me I would be blamed for the 3 PM pick up since it was MY idea LOL. I reminded myself of yesterday's mantra: LOVE PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE AT. DISENGAGE FROM THE DRAMA. I sat there really waiting on her to work her own conflicts out until she was ready to hand Johnnie off. I had already told her earlier in the week, it was her own guilt of not being such a good mother that causes her grief too. I could tell her that I felt the same way at times but I balance myself by reminding myself that all I can do is the BEST I CAN. And do the next right thing. And decide what that is quickly. Funny how a song from FROZEN II could resonate that much LOL. Anyway, Johnnie and Claire were back at the apartment soon enough by 6 PM. We had even stopped at Pizza Hut because I did not feel like cooking anything. I barbecued some chicken thighs at lunch and added it to that Cuban chicken bowl from Trader Joe's. And proceeded to spend an hour in the bathroom pooping up diarrhea. I figured a pizza would be much safer for my stomach. And for his part, Johnnie ate up an entire large slice too. Before asking to watch the movie SING yet one more time. Tonight I actually chilled and watched some of it with him. Nope, I did not get to work on my presentation. Yep, I finished 15000 steps and almost 120 workout minutes. Another hard Monday to allow me to chill the rest of the week. I'll work on my stuff tomorrow. We're all good tonight.

A Drizzly Golf Day

What's this? Is it really wet outside when I look out the window? Is it actually drizzling, very lightly, but drizzling still. I did not count on this. Immediately I thought to myself "I wonder if Scott and Greg are playing?" We're at Altadena this morning and as I make the drive I'm hoping that the drizzle actually stops the more I get in the San Gabriel Valley. By the time I reached Pasadena, it actually felt like it had gotten just a touch stronger. Not enough to deter me from playing mind you, I've played in much worse than this. Scott too, as I recount memories of an outright downpour we had played in many years ago. When I got to Altadena, Greg was already in the parking lot and I talked him into giving it a go. Hey there were lots of people in line to play. They're braving it. Why couldn't we? And so with long pants today and my hoodie in tow, off we went to tee off... and right after he shanked his drive, Greg said it was too wet to play. And left after the first shot. My first shot wasn't bad although it still took me 3 to get on, I thought we'd be able to make it through the entire 9 and it wasn't going to get any wetter. But to actually play decent? That was the question. Actually, my tee shots weren't bad. But they weren't my best either. That is until Hole 6 when I finally warmed up it seemed. That's when my tee shot with a 5-iron on the short par 3 ended up right in the front of the green. And although I way overshot it on the 2nd shot, I knocked in a long par putt from the upper fringe going downhill. YES! A par!! And then on Hole 8 I knocked a beautiful 220 yard drive nice and straight down the fairway. And chipped the 2nd shot right on the green. I missed the birdie putt but made the par putt! 2 pars in a row! Another nice 5-iron off the tee ended up in left front but again I overshot the hole with the chip. But this time, I couldn't make par. At least I had another nice tee shot off the tee 200+ yards and straight yet again on the last hole. I missed the par putt on that long hole but I actually thought I played it pretty good. And so it was that it took me 5 holes to warm up but when I did, I got on a pretty nice roll there, enough to save the game and for me to feel good about it. So we did finish the game before noon and I made a pit stop at Popeye's Louisiana Fried chicken on the way home. Yes Popeye's. I figured I was hungry so I'd eat some fried popcorn shrimp. That and one of those famous chicken sandwiches for lunch. It hit the spot!

I needed a nap this afternoon. My Fitbit showed I had only logged 4 hours of sleep last night. That can't be right. I felt great. Then again I did stay up yet again past midnight. I did have a nice meditation session and I think those binaural beats on self-love I put on with the Tibetan bowls in the background must have done something. Because I thought of Lisa this morning and all her usual self-aware self-serving stuff she did last night. We were celebrating Dexter, yet she put him to work fixing stuff Courtney supposedly broke. And so the dessert stuff Johnnie had started to prepare was never used. You never know how something like that would affect Johnnie. Lisa I know won't change and at this point it is no longer my journey to change her. As a co-parent all I can do is try to be as non-judgemental as possible and as the visual states, to do my best to accept and lover her exactly as she is, where she is. And whatever she doesn't do with Johnnie, that's what I'm for. To make sure it is balanced. The rest of Sunday zipped by pretty quickly. I never did finish cleaning the bathroom and bedroom. I did finish grocery shopping and I had the japchae and shaved beef in the freezer for dinner. And watched FEAR THE WALKING DEAD. I know I know... some lazy program kicking in. The night actually ended with Johnnie calling me asking to send the movie SING so that she and her mom could watch it, which I was happy to oblige. That's ok. I hope she enjoys it as much as he does. Anyway, it's the end of the weekend. And it was all good.

Johnnie Day, Dexter Evening

So today is a Lisa work Saturday and I'm over there picking up Johnnie at 7:45 like I was supposed to. I find all the outside gates unable to open.. one was locked and one was stuck and so I hopped the fence. It was good to know I could still do that though I got my wrist all scratched up in the process. Always something at Lisa's isn't it? Johnnie was still asleep, apparently because they had HAD a late evening last night at Joah's house.  By Lisa's account Johnnie had loads of fun last night though later later on I would find out there was a bit more to it than all that. Johnnie woke up before Lisa left and half-asleep cuddled with me still in his clothes from yesterday. I could only shake-my-head quietly and without saying a word try to not judge anyone for anything. It's my watch now and I quickly took Johnnie back to the apartment so he could take his shower and we could start our day. I told him he could continue to take a nap if he wanted to, this being Saturday and all... and I remembered 2 weeks ago the last Lisa workday when I picked him up. He took a shower and then knocked off on the couch immediately after... for the next 2 hours. Lisa simply has no concept about late nights on Fridays I guess and I'm ok with it just as long as Johnnie gets his sleep even if it's on my watch. But not today. Johnnie wanted to go get breakfast at Elysee and insisted we needed to start with washing the car since there was bid poop all over his passenger side door. And so that's exactly what we did, start with a car wash and THEN go to Elysee.  We hadn't been here in about a month and so it was good to eat here again, especially now that we can all eat inside again for the most part. Pretty soon we won't even need to wear masks either and that is most welcome indeed. But just doing the Elysee breakfast routine is good enough for me. 6+ years of doing this makes this something Johnnie will remember forever...just like I still sometimes remember the French Dip sandwich and tomato soup I used to have at Champagne French Bakery right there on National where Chipotle is now. I can still taste the same in my mind. And so it was that Johnnie and I went off to Target afterward and although I was there to pick up TP and tissues and paper towels, he had it in HIS mind he wanted to make something in clay for his mom for a present. W-h-a-t?? We couldn't find any clay of course but I did manage to convinced him to do it in Play-instead. I didn't realize how serious he was about this "project" of his for the day. Until we got home and he went right at it. Anytime he does something ahead of watching any videos, he's serious about it.  As it turned out, he wanted to make a flower out of the play-doh as a present. And he wanted to put it in a box. No problem, I went to the trash room and picked up one in perfect size for it. Only he didn't want just the box, now he wanted to pretty it up. W-h-a-t?? Ok then I told him to simply make his own wrapping paper. And I was only half-kidding when I told him to do a water color pattern. Wouldn't you know he did just that. Make wrapping paper in water color. Sometimes this kid truly does amaze me with how his mind already works! And the patterns turned out to be pretty good too if I do say so myself. Lisa had better be duly impressed later on. By the time he got done with all this, it was already noon, and lunchtime. Panda Express time. We finally went in together since we didn't have Claire the dog with us. 

And so it was that we finally got to my favorite time on Saturdays... which is just to hang out on the couch and do nothing. Actually I wanted to take a nap... but Johnnie wouldn't let me. Just look at the pictures I took of his shenanigans. He not only wanted to finish watching SING which he remembered he didn't get to do last Thursday, but he also kept doing drawings for his mom. It was in the middle of all this that Dexter texted me that he was coming at 6 PM. I invited him to have dinner tonight last week but I didn't think anything would come of it. I even thought maybe Yadira would come up but it was clear she wasn't going to make it and hey, I did owe the guy a dinner anyway since it was his birthday a week ago. We'll just get together after Lisa picked up Johnnie... Except that Lisa didn't call to pick up Johnnie until it was already 4:45. I told her Dexter was coming and somehow all that ended up with the plans being changed to include Lisa and then at her house, and then to pick up pork chops and for Lisa to bring her load of Panini Grill food she had left over. It would have been much easier just to take Dex to Crimson to get some lamb chops but oh no I just had to include Lisa anyway <sigh>. This meant I had to feed Johnnie, since it was already close to 5 PM and I would be able to get all that done well before 6 PM anyway. And so to make a long story short, we all went to Lisa's, Dexter grilled the pork chops, which turned out really really good and tasty. Lisa had lots of kabobs leftovers from Panini Grill and we had dinner in the backyard. It was then Lisa would tell me last night actually had drama because she fell asleep in the bedroom at Joah's, to be joined by Johnnie and then Claire. Why they didn't just spend the night I don't know... other than apparently Joah's wife had issues with them sleeping over. And Claire couldn't be in the bedroom, Joah and wife ended up fighting, Johnnie ended up crying and Lisa ended up going home really late. She was obviously perturbed. I was, too, but only because Johnnie had to be involved. Why Lisa chooses to stay late when SHE KNOWS she will knock off after a certain time is beyond me. Why Johnnie even has to stay late is beyond me. Of course if it were me, we would be out and home by 9 PM, because well, that's me. Lisa? Her brain simply doesn't work in that way. No wonder she gets the guilts sometimes about being a mom. She doesn't think like a mom most of the time I don't think though I think she simply learned that from HER mom. The night ended with Lisa getting Johnnie to help her fix the blinds/shades that apparently Courtney had busted in the guest room. Better him than me LOL. I took off by 9 PM. Golf tomorrow you know. And Dexter high-tailed it right behind me. That Lisa <smh>... At least we got to celebrate Dexter's birthday and I had a good day with Johnnie.