Busy Busy Wednesday

So it's Wednesday, and not ONLY am I hosting the TownHall at 8:30 AM this morning, but I'm also leaving IMMEDIATELY after that's done and heading to East Third Street for a Strategic Planning Meeting. This meeting was what precipitated and heavily influenced putting Johnnie in the Beyond the Bell program actually and so I was thinking in my mind it better be as important as all that. After all I did get a bit of a lecture about how I need to set an example and show up and be accountable. As if I needed a reminder. That's when I reminded myself that I serve at the pleasure of the CEO and that I better get my ass in gear about getting replacement income in, passive preferably so I don't have to deal with such bullshit anymore. The morning drop-off went without a hitch and I even bought myself a McDonald's breakfast sandwich so that I'd go right from dropping Johnnie off to the Town Hall prep and the TownHall itself. My part was pretty good. Music went fine, my intro was well received. But a few execs decided to do the meeting from East Third which meant that was like having much more users to use the WAN bandwidth, now throttled down to 100 Mbps. Of course we ran into problems. Repeatedly. Not just with Eloisa my CEO but also with Dr Liao our CMO. Sigh. I am pretty sure I'm going to hear about it the second I join said execs at the meeting at 10 AM. At least I got there in plenty of time. And I wish I could say also that the meeting went off without a hitch as well. But Eloisa had a couple of Board Members joining via Zoom and she practically dismantled the media podium just so they could participate. And of course we had to move the mic back and forth because they couldn't hear. It was as if we were unprepared. Heck I didn't know they were going to do a Zoom meeting from there?! So I'm pretty sure we're going to have to do something about that too. As far as the meeting itself? My presence there was not as important as all that. I offered a couple of comments but really it wasn't like i was a crucial element, which is to say my being there in person felt like I waste of time. I could have done this remotely too. But I respect that Eloisa wanted people there in person. Again, I serve at the pleasure of the CEO right? She's the CEO. We got done by 12:15, I grabbed my box salad lunch and headed on home. 

One more thing to worry about, which was what Claire would do while left alone. I confined her to the kitchen and dining room area, blocking off the rest of the apartment. I didn't know what to expect really and when I walked through the door, she had pooped all over the area by the front door. At least she tried to poop on the puppy mat but missed. And she pee'd there too. Sigh. Here I am in my office attire for the first time in more than a year and here I am on my hands and knees wearing said attire, cleaning up Claire's shit. At least I can say I got through with the morning meetings and really I didn't have much in terms of work for the rest of the day. I had finished the FCC grant already and when Oneida sent it off later on this afternoon, she sort of gave me a virtual high five and emailed everyone that it had been sent. All good. I asked for $230,000 total. Hope I get it... And so it was on to the next step which was to pick up Johnnie. Look at him walking to the front of the gate all by himself. There were kids playing but certainly not the same numbers as STAR after school last year. Once again he was sweaty and the knees of his pants were scuffed up. And he was thirsty. I could tell he had been running around and that's about as much as I could have hoped for really. Better than being at home watching videos that's for sure. I had one more errand to do this afternoon. And so just as soon as Johnnie had had another snack and got his SeeSaw homework done, we headed out, this time to Target in Westwood. I had run out of puppy mats and I was not going to let Claire run around without one. After all, I have to leave her alone again tomorrow, for roughly the same amount of time that I did today. And I did not want to go home to her dogshit all over my kitchen floor again. And so we made the Target run in Westwood, and on the way home, stopped at Panda Express since it was already on the way and when we got back home it was already 5 PM and dinner time. All good. Why not have a busy afternoon to mirror the busy morning?! Sometimes I look back and realize that maybe it's a good thing to be so occupied. Can't be internal all the time you know? Maybe that is Lisa's role in my life.. to come up with stuff to keep me occupied even indirectly, like taking care of a puppy. Tonight I even gave her a bath myself since I let Johnnie park himself in front of the TV to watch PJ Masks. That's ok. I wanted to give her a bath. I yelled at her for pooping on kitchen floor and I wanted to assure her it was ok. She's just a puppy. I did her bath and dried her off, and then of course Johnnie wanted to take a bath too right after. He didn't need to anymore but he did anyway. Even said he could do the shower himself. Gotta admit I was pretty exhausted at the end of all this. But my brain was still going on 100%. I knocked off at 9 but it felt like a nap because I woke up at 11:30 again. I went outside and watched the latest episode of Mayans MC. So much intertwining drama. It was that talk about identity that made me stop... who is that guy who is cleaning up puppy poop and picking up his 6-year old from school and then putting him to bed tonight. My identity. One of them. But I dare say of all the things I did today, it's the job I'm proudest of. I make no apologies for that.