Last Day In June

So it's the last day in June and waking up this morning I'm still a little sore from the fall in the shower yesterday. But not sore enough to hamper movement really. If you look at today's pics, it's like nothing happened at all. Besides, I'm supposed to be working on my self-eval which is due today and my goals for next year. I figured I should be done by lunchtime. If I don't get too distracted. So what did I do? How about I found myself at Target Culver City mid-morning. I have run out food for the dog so I had to buy some. And while at Target, might as well pick up Johnnie snacks. And oh since I saw him taking an interest in dribbling a basketball at camp (I was watching while I was walking around Penmar perimeter) I figured why not buy he and I a basketball to play with too. By the time I got all that done, it was lunchtime and so much for getting my work done by then. At least I brought home an Impossible whopper for my lunch. Something different. And some chicken fries too. And the satisfaction of being up and about town in the middle of the week and not worrying about being in the office. Gotta tell you that feels good even if it's just for an hour or so and even if said trip did not yield results since they ran out of the dog food for Claire. At least I brought home a basketball yuk yuk. Ok so I thought I was going to take a nap right after lunch too. But I decided to finish those pesky self-evals once and for all. And I did finish my work in an hour. Mission accomplished for the day dare I say it? And I even finished an assigned Paycom learning class to boot. By the time I was ready to pick up Johnnie I had even gotten in some meditation on my Image Cycling deck. Reminding myself full well to keep things light and treat it like a game. I did remember that a year ago Johnnie and I would hop on scooters so he could really practice and get good at it. We would scooter to Mar Vista Elementary and wonder when he would get to go back again. And how we would sometimes go to Whole Foods in the morning to line up and get him a huge slice of pizza. See how everything worked out a year later?

These days Johnnie pick up at camp is actually nice and dare-I-say pleasantly uneventful. It's like picking him up from STAR camp more than a year ago. He would tell me all the things he did today, the stuff he made <look at the pic of him with the Ooblech-looking thing they made>, the kids he played with naming them all by name. Heck he names his camp counselors by name too. Very different experience from the Walgrove camp before he entered TK. And then he comes home and wolfs everything down. The chicken ravioli. Ice cream sandwich to follow that up. And some Chee-tohs to finish it off. And then he pounds the trampoline while watching Wild Kratts. I guess I'm not that worried that he's not doing any learning stuff like I tried to do a year ago. I mean I'm not really worried about reading and math. I'm glad he's socializing with other kids. That's what the camp is for. In the meantime, there were other things going on in the world that would be part of summer. NBA play-offs for one. The Lakers were bounced a month ago but tonight the Clippers were bounced too and I am definitely rooting against them winning anything. Hard to believe the Phoenix Suns are going to the Finals. This after the Lakers had what looked like a comfortable 2-1 lead in the first round. Just goes to show you. Tonight was Claire bath night too. And I did notice she was a little meek all day today. Like she was looking for attention and when she didn't get any from me, she just sort of lay around the house. I'm sorry dog. I'm not like your momma Lisa. But I did give her a nice bath. And she was relaxed through the whole thing. dare I say she looked like she even enjoyed it. The best part is how clean she smelled after the whole thing. Not that she sleeps next to me anymore, but it's great that she still smelled nice. Later on I snuck out when Johnnie was asleep to watch this week's episode of Loki. And Claire knew I did and whined until I opened the door to let her through to the living room to hang out with me. We watched Loki together. And then we finally went to sleep. The last day of June. When I think of June 2021, I think of the ushering in of summer. End of school for Johnnie, and start of camp. Golf on Sundays. Johnnie swimming lessons. And eating out more often once and for all. Lockdown in LA is over.

So This Happened...

You know how I keep saying there aren't really any accidents. Just things that happen that you aren't aware you attracted. I'm not at all saying you attract every negative thing that happens to you. But then again, negative things are only negative because of your perception (#1), also they are more likely to happen if you are in a negative state. You get what you focus on right? In any other time before these past couple of years, I might have thought a simple slip in the shower, producing a painful bruise in my back, behind my ear, and my hand would just be an accident. I was just trying to get soap on my feet and I slipped.  That is a very plausible explanation obviously. But then again if I unpack my mental state this morning, I remember thinking about Lisa and HER accident on Sunday night. That I kept asking if she was ok with her neck and back. I think maybe it was still on my mind this morning. That and possibly other negative things going on in my mind. At least nothing was broken. Although if it is this painful right after it happened, it is sure to get even  more painful later. Maybe I'm just supposed to take it real light and easy the rest of the day. After all, I was already at 33 active minutes and almost 4000 steps even before breakfast, courtesy of a walk around Penmar Park right after I dropped Johnnie off. I'm liking doing that. And really all I had to do today as to get my personal goals and self-assessment done and entered in the system. Yep, it's performance evaluation time. I don't particularly like this time because I have to focus on my team and I do not look forward to reviewing James. It ain't going to be a good one. But then again I had reviewed him before so he should know me by now. Funny thing about Tuesdays though is that I don't really plan anything but then the time gets filled up by work somehow. This morning I ended up doing the HCCN report and then we got the 3rd party pen test results too. So all of a sudden I had to debrief on both. No red flags, it's all good. We're solid on the infrastructure still. And after having read both reports by mid-day I pronounced myself done with work. Yep, I figured the performance stuff was not due until tomorrow and I will not get it done until then. 

In the meantime I had other stuff to do. My Pixel needs to be replaced now. Actually so does my Fitbit. Is it the Universe testing me on these smallish expenses that add up if one isn't careful? As in if I really felt abundant, these expenses would be nothing. It IS a fine balance between being cheap and being miserly and not really caring much about what you spend on stuff. I mean I have over $60K in liquid cash lying around after all. What I do have to watch is not-enoughness thinking and my ego yet again trying to exert control. In the meantime, it is the last Tuesday in June. I was watching the EuroCup soccer championships and remembered when it was in France and we were actually there. One of my most memorable things of summer. Of late June. Even if it came with all the emotional crap that Lisa brought to bear. This year June was relatively quiet. Filled with days of Johnnie at Penmar summer camp. And still it was already far more eventful than last summer when we were all waiting out the pandemic. Of course that doesn't count the civil unrest of the George Floyd killing that found its way here to SoCal and brought on a curfew on top of the lockdown. And so you will excuse me if I am ok with the boring. Picking up Johnnie at 3 PM. Making him lunch. Sharing an ice cream sandwich. Walking the dog. Going to Panda Express to pick up dinner. Still wearing masks though we no longer have to. Still bringing the food back to the house even though we don't have to. Very mundane to be sure. Tuesday used to be Italian sausage night. I don't know why I gave up feeding that to Johnnie. Maybe I was making sure he ate well. Today I did have Italian sausage. But I cooked it at lunchtime. Used that time to pad up my steps. Got to 6000 before mid-afternoon even. And tonight for dinner, I just stuck said Italian sausage over fried rice from Panda Express. A quick dinner! At least I had a look at the goals from the past year for both I.S. and Data Analytics. Funny how I didn't feel like I did well in a couple of them, yet because I stepped up with Covid vaccine stuff, I'm sure I'm going to get a fairly good review. Anyway what would it matter if I am working for myself with plenty of money at this time next year? By bedtime, I am much more sore than this morning. My ribs were bruised and the left side of my head was sore too. Maybe I should be glad it wasn't worse. Much worse. And I'm pretty sure I'll be over it by tomorrow. Just a nudge from the Universe is all. Should be thinking about other stuff. I got the message. I got it just fine.

Monday RESET

Is it too late to talk about a Monday reset being that it's already the last Monday in June? Never too late I say. Google Photos sent me one of those comparison pictures, which was me in April 2016 compared to today. Glad to see there wasn't all that much difference. The picture in 2016 was from Portland when I was at the OCHIN Learning Forum. The one today was from my early morning walk as I am determined to finish with 15,000+ steps again. I don't remember when this year I  decided to reach for 15,000 but once I got there, I've been keeping it up for at least 4 months I know that. And today, not only did I get a nice start with 5500 steps even before breakfast, but I got some nice re-setting meditation in too. I focused on what I wanted to accomplish this week. For work, I simply want to create massive value, and this week I'm supposed to take over the EHR team. So I want to start making that transition a seamless one. Other than that, I wanted to be more intentional with transitioning other stuff too. As in my activities outside of work so I can be (a) positioned to help more people and not in the way I'm working now (b) financially independent. I affirmed to myself that I DO want to be a stay-at-home-dad and build other activities working from home. And I don't want to have to work for someone else.  I also reminded myself that I will need to work and clear on some perceptions I have of people in general. As in my lack of patience with them sometimes and my high expectations of the way they SHOULD behave.  I call it grumpy-old-man-itis. That I must overcome to be sure.  Anyway I felt like I accomplished a lot even before breakfast. And then I needed to take a shower in the worst way. All this summer heat has me smelling like sweat. And not taking a shower all weekend made it worse. I can't get away with THAT as much as I did in the winter and spring. It did feel refreshing to clean myself up to be sure. And then it was on to the Business Continuity Meeting, it was on to Covid Vaccination reporting. Ho-hum stuff for a Monday. I did feel like doing something different for lunch and so I walked to Marie Callenders and got me a french dip sandwich and onion rings. Mmmm. Look at the pic of me I posted. Yes I enjoyed it immensely. And then I followed up lunch with a very motivating video from Tony Robbins being interviewed by Lewis Howes. Everytime I hear Tony Robbins speak, I still get motivated and I get reminded of who I am. Especially when he talked about being a parent because he apparently is a new dad again. Parents start off pretty much unconditionally loving their kids as babies. Why don't we have unconditional love all the time? Tony had a good answer. Love is putting somebody else ahead of yourself. It starts with appreciating people because you feel their essence. Gee. What an ANSWER to my focus on impatience with people isn't it? Ahhhh....

By the time I went to pick up Johnnie it was well past 5:30 PM. Almost 6 PM even. I'm sure even Lisa with her penchant for making plans should remember the Johnnie hand-off routine tonight. It turned out mommy and son were in the back porch eating pizza. I'm thinking Johnnie had a really REALLY late lunch. And that is perfectly ok. It was then that Lisa told me she had gotten into a car accident last night. Apparently she was stopped at a light and she got rear-ended. Sounds like the freak accident that wiped out both of our cars the first month we moved into the Maplewood house and Sylvia was over. Someone plowed into our cars simply parked on the street. Fortunately, Johnnie was unharmed and showed no effects whatsoever. That would be a testament to kids being in a car seat I suppose. I am a firm believer that things like car accidents are drawn by some negative energy we get consumed by. The one with both or our cars? That would be because of all the negative energy emanating from Lisa and the tension with Sylvia's visit. The last accident I had in the Prius? I still remember we had had a big fight prior to me leaving the house. Is it a wonder something negative happened? Especially events where we did not get hurt really but somehow caused a tremendous amount of inconvenience? Whatever she was dealing with yesterday, I'm sure it had something to do with family issues. It always does with Lisa. At least she's ok it seemed like. I helped her with her trash cans and then Johnnie, myself, and the dog were off. A quick stop at El Pollo Loco for dinner and we're back in middle of the week mode. Johnnie wasted no time with Wild Kratts videos and his artwork. I just wanted to chill tonight but I had a lot of extraneous energy I needed to process. Still, in terms of resetting for a Monday, it was pretty much mission accomplished. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Golf with the Foursome

So golf Sunday is at Harbor Park today. And it is the usual foursome of me, Scott, Greg, and Chris playing together here possibly for the last time with Greg in a while. Yeah yeah it is me that is sentimental and a tad emotional about it. You'll forgive me. Through separation and divorce and then the pandemic, there was always golf somehow and there was always these guys to pull me out of what would have been an isolated existence. Not that THAT is going away once Greg leaves for Arizona. It will be a different cast of characters every week probably. Just my way of appreciating the moment that's all. So I took a pic of the four of us for posterity. Anyway this morning was a bit different in that the tee time was not until 9:50, which gave me plenty of time to lollygag around the apartment and have breakfast. And when I drove to the golf course I was hit with an anxiety attack on the freeway. That was strange. Fortunately for me, I simply did my breathing exercises and it was good to simply remember to revert to that. It was all in my head. Some residual stuff bubbling to the surface needing to be released. How do i know that? I was back to normal after 5 minutes of steady breathing. And it was like nothing happened by the time I got to the golf course. So to the golf game... yet another opportunity to learn how to control my focus. I did some practice swings in the netted tee area and I think I got my swing down specifically working on my fairway swings. Of course what you do in practice goes out the window once you get out on the course for real. I had a nice swat off the tee right off the bat. And then reverted to the weak, inaccurate fairway swing that had plagued me the last couple of weeks. It cost me a par on the first hole. And then on the second hole, I yanked my shot way left and then blundered my way to an 8, again misfiring and whiffing on my fairway shots. I had to STOP my pattern. What was it that had me winning the first 3 holes on this same course not even a month ago hitting long shots on the fairway with my irons and then I revert back to these maddening whiffs on the fairway? I'm thinking I reprogrammed myself for that good golfer scenario but somehow could not seal the deal and could not sustain the focus even on that day. And then I reprogrammed myself back. It's like I changed my own thermostat. And that was what was at play today clearly. On Hole 3, I yanked to the right again, not making an adjustment and actually saved myself at least getting out of the trees. But the fairway hits were not long at all. On Hole 4, I yanked it left AGAIN, and I could see I was not making an adjustment. And blundered my way to yet another 8. Same on the next Hole 5. It was like a whiff-a-rama by this time. It wasn't until Hole 6 that I settled down and not until I overadjusted and yanked the ball right this time off the tee. I at least tied for the Hole win with a bogey. And so at least I wouldn't get shut out today. And followed this up with a beautiful long drive on the next hole. Probably the best shot I would hit all day. I still hit it short from the fairway but at least I tied for the win again on the hole. I was pin level on the short par-3 Hole 8 but I whiffed again. Almost missed the ball and left it well short. What coulda woulda shoulda been a par turned into a 5. Sigh. And there was the game. Scott tied for the match today. He had a good round. As for me? Back to the drawing board, back to practicing my focus. Back to learning how to undo my own programming.

Hey at least I had a nice lunch on the drive home. I was thinking I wanted to go to IN-N-Out in the South Bay but I didn't want to deal with the people traffic in that busy place. Somehow I ended up driving to Sepulveda in El Segundo and found another IN-N-Out. I decided to stop at this one. And wouldn't you know it wasn't nearly as busy as I thought. So much so I even had a table to sit at and so I actually had a nice, leisurely lunch right there. And took my time going home through LAX. It was almost 1:30 PM by the time I got home but I didn't care. I had the rest of the day to chillax.

And chillax I did. Watched the Dodgers, watched some NBA playoffs. And basically stayed on the couch until I goaded myself to finish Sunday chores: grocery shopping, laundry. I even got dinner at Crimson, this time with lamb chops and the same rice/lentil soup combo. And I continued chillaxing watching A Discovery of Witches. Possibly the new thing to watch on a Sunday night. I also did some reflecting on the weekend. It's what I don't do but intended to do that needs reflection. I do worry a bit that I get way too comfortable with just hanging out with myself. I mean I wanted to go to Universal yesterday and take Johnnie to the Jurassic World ride since Lisa was out of the way for pretty much the entire day. But I didn't. And today I wish I had. I also need to get my ass going on putting my own money to work. I need to give it a chance to multiply. And so the work is how to make the most out of every day and get myself away from distractions. That is for next week. Tonight, the weekend is over, and I am tired...

Saturday Rituals With Johnnie

I woke up early this morning not having any time at all to sleep in. That's because Lisa is working at 7:30 AM this morning and so I'm at her house at 7:15.  Johnnie is starting to get a real feel for our routine especially Saturdays. He was the one that told me to get my car washed before we did anything else. Who am I to disagree?  And then he requested to simply pick up breakfast from McDonald's instead of going to Elysee. I'm afraid the Elysee routine is probably dying out. Hey it had a 6 year run, it couldn't last forever. Anyway it felt like a weekday morning with the familiar breakfast. I was actually in favor of it because Lisa scheduled a swim class for Johnnie with Stacey this morning at 10:30. So all we had time for was a quick trip to the grocery store and then back home until it was time for the swim class. The pool was empty for that time in the morning and this morning, Johnnie was not as motivated as he was last Friday. Maybe it was because he didn't have his wetsuit on so he may have been cold right off the bat. He kept whining and complaining and so I played tough guy and literally pushed him back into the pool whenever he approached the side after just a couple of strokes. It's like he had forgotten he knew how to swim.  He did manage to settle down after a while and so Stacey had him learning side-of-the-face breathing. I will say that in spurts, when Johnnie remembered to move his feet to propel himself, he looked pretty fast.  I let the slight regression of today go. We'll see how he does next time. Anyway by the time he got done it was well past 11:30 and it was already close to lunchtime. Hey he earned it today.  Today Johnnie decided he wanted to go to Panda Express in Westwood. Hey we hadn't gone there in a couple of weeks. And to my surprise it wasn't all that busy. It was a perfect opportunity to eat there like we hadn't done in a long time. We ate at the same table top we would usually eat at more than a year ago before the pandemic. And it was right there that Johnnie and I had lunch. And when we got home Johnnie went through all the stuff he usually does to occupy himself. There were Wild Kratt videos of course, then whenever he found an interesting thing he wanted to draw, he drew it out. Oh and we had to go to Staples to buy regular and colored paper. Then he had an ice cream sandwich AND another bowl of ice cream after that. Considering how skinny he is, I thought there was absolutely no harm in filling him with calories, no matter how sugary they may be. Anyway I thought maybe I could have a little nap in the afternoon. I mean I had less than  6 hours of sleep last night after all. But Johnnie jumping on my stomach took care of that. The funny thing was that I didn't really even care. And then afterwards, yet again because of Johnnie's urging, we played a little baseball too. Yes I let Johnnie pretty much call the shots all day today. Lisa did not actually pick him up until 5 PM. By then I had given him a pizza pocket for dinner too. And I realize I spent the entire day with him when all was said and done. By that time, the urge to get irritated with Lisa and the impulse to feel like she was taking advantage of me and my generosity took over the feeling of having been with Johnnie all day. I called her twice to pick him up and told her to clock in with her other job. That would be being Johnnie's mom of course. She has worked too much for the day and I don't care where she's at with her notes. Time for me to have some ME TIME too. Not that I didn't enjoy the day with Johnnie but I did have stuff I wanted to do starting with cleaning the house and then doing some research on my own accounts at E*Trade. Time to do some consolidation and time to figure out if I need to move some money into a ROTH IRA to  save taxes. Yep, I have gotten into that range of assets where I need to pay attention to avoiding being moved into the highest tax bracket. Ahhh taxes. I told Johnnie I would see him Monday as mom and son drove off. I realized I still had plenty of food in the fridge so I made myself dinner. Beef and spinach casserole over rice. How many times did I make that for Lisa and I? I thought of other June rituals too for some reason. Like the annual Steve Deutsch birthday lunch. Not this year I'm afraid. Not when Philma no longer works for him and no longer works for Cedars-Sinai. I'm going to miss that ritual too. But again, nothing lasts forever. I needed to go to bed earlier than usual today because of golf tomorrow. Now THAT is one ritual I'm going to try to keep going as long as I can. It's now 13 years and counting and has gone through many iterations in terms of partners. Or maybe I'm just being a little sentimental because we're about to lose one when Greg leaves in a month. Hopefully we can find someone who will stick. In the meantime, I spent my Saturday night watching Indian Summer... that camping movie I used to usher in the summer season with by watching it on Memorial Day weekend back in the day. One of MY personal rituals.  Took a couple of weeks longer but this ritual continues for at least this year. It is all good.

Friday Surprises

Yes I put up a video of me dancing/exercising this morning. It is a Friday after all and I was taking a break from -gasp- working! And I was very much in an 80s kind of mood. I mean "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is still one of my old faves. Besides I still needed to get some steps/exercise in didn't I? What was I taking a break from? I committed to getting my department goals documented and sent to HR today. And this year I have 2 departments, soon to be 3 and so I had to do a little more detail for the Data Analytics side of the house. It wasn't like there was urgency though. I managed to get it all done by lunchtime. Maybe it was because there was no thoughts of the dog Claire or Johnnie crowding my mind today. In fact I did not expect to see them until first thing tomorrow morning when Lisa takes off for work. Still I did find myself sending Lisa a ping after lunch. That's when I discovered that Goldie the beta was lying lifeless at the bottom of the fish bowl. Awww?! What happened? I will admint he had not been as spirited as usual after the last bowl cleaning that I did a couple of weeks ago. But he was just fine I thought.  I had no idea he was in some life-threatening kind of situation. I'm bummed. Now what to do? Do I throw him in the trash? Flush him down the toilet? Sounds so ignominious. What do I tell Johnnie? Do I tell him at all? I mean I could just as easily get another fish later on don't I? I figured I at least needed to tell Lisa. And the response was pretty nonchalant. In fact, it appeared they didn't go to Pasadena to do her piano lessons... and therefore she invited me to come over for dinner to help me "grieve". Me? I thought I was trying to figure out how to tell Johnnie. Though I do say I spent the last year--and-the-half with this fish, all through the pandemic. I can't believe I did something - whatever it was - that might have contributed to his demise. I mean it wasn't like I left him boiling in his fishbowl like Lisa did to the last beta we owned at Lindbrook. I decided I would just bring him to Lisa's house, fish bowl and all and maybe we could do some sort of goodbye. OK OK I was hoping we could bury him. 

What I did not expect was the mortified reaction of Lisa when she saw the dead fish in a plastic sandwich bag. I mean she put on gloves and everything. I mean it's a fish. If I were preparing fish for a meal I wouldn't be putting on gloves. Either way the fish was dead. Johnnie actually handled it very maturely. He just wanted to bury Goldie in the backyard. Made him a PLUS (cross), not having any idea what that cross was about. <Hmmm... are we raising him to be an atheist? Certainly if the cross isn't attributed to JC then he doesn't have any Christian beliefs does he?> He wrote some very touching words on the cross, then said goodbye. And that was that. I was invited over because of course Lisa had lots of food to cook but did not feel like cooking anything. And so it was that I made stir fry out of shaved beef, broccolini, and snow peas. I mean it was pretty damn good too if I do say so myself. And very healthy. And I made Johnnie his regular penne pasta in chicken broth. So we had a family Friday dinner as it were and I knew full well I wasn't invited over to just cook, Lisa also wanted some piano time while I watched Johnnie and I was happy to grant her that. Johnnie and I basically spent an hour and a half watching music videos. I think it's great that you could keep him occupied simply watching YouTube videos of his favorite songs, of which he has a pretty extensive portfolio now. I mean I get a kick out of listening him sing Elton John's "I'm still Standing" word for word. Who would have thought that?! And when I discovered SING 2 is coming after Thanksgiving, well of course we had to watch the trailer didn't we?! Lisa got done by 8:30. I went on home knowing I was going to be back before 7:30 AM tomorrow morning. It's all good.  I crashed watching Carnival Row again. Something about that Victorian dystopia that appeals to me. Maybe it was the love story? Anyway Friday ended with me knowing I accomplished what I wanted to do work-wise this week.  The fish thing was a bit of a curveball but I think we handled it just fine. I'm happy the weekend is here.

Summery Thursday

I just love summer. It's 8:30 in the evening and it's still light out. In fact, the sun is barely setting and it is still warm. Love it Love it Love it. Never mind that I am making this observation driving home from Lisa's house as I drop Johnnie off there for the 2nd week in a row, all to support Lisa coming home early to play the piano. And not that she couldn't pick up Johnnie but who's bugging? It is simply way too beautiful a day that I enjoyed today to worry about anything at all. I remind myself that summer has brought about some of the biggest transformations and changes (and not really pleasant ones) in my life. No need to go any further than leaving USC Stevens in June 2013. Or leaving the Maplewood house for good in July 2018.  And even before that leaving USC June 2006. But I am also remiss if I don't remind myself that following those events came amazing transformations. July 2006 right after leaving USC happened to be the best time of my life (that was the Lisa summer). And then of course July 2013 I started at QueensCare the place that provided me with HOME. And then after leaving Maplewood, I reinvented myself and I am definitely not complaining. And so merely picking up Johnnie today, and then walking with him and the dog to Starbucks afterwards to get an afternoon snack, I have nothing to complain about at all. Just look at the smile on Johnnie's face that you can't even see while peeking out of the mask he made at camp today. It is all you can ask for I tell you. And so if I can remember today merely for the appreciation of the onset of another summer, then so be it. I was thinking the other day how unfair it was that Lisa gets to take Johnnie to Maui and I have to stay home and take care of her dog. But then again aren't days like today all I need to relax and recharge? After all, it wasn't like I worked all that hard today LOL. In fact, I was supposed to do my department goals because they are due tomorrow. Well, let's just say I got to open last year's goals at least. And when I read them... for both my departments no less I was sure I could finish the thing in a couple of hours MAX. Eh, I felt unmotivated to do it today. And that was what I appreciated. The ability to NOT have to push myself to do it today and choose to enjoy the summer afternoon instead. And so not even the phone call from Lisa from her house asking me to hand Johnnie and Claire off there rolled right off my back. Not even discovering that Michael Villanueva was over listening to her play the piano (meaning she could have EASILY come over to pick Johnnie and Claire up after all) bothered me. And finally, not even discovering that Johnnie had forgotten Claire at my apartment yet again, necessitating a SECOND trip to Lisa's house tonight, moved an emotional needle. It was on my way home from that second trip did I gaze at the sunset sky with contentment and gratitude. If every summer day was like this, I wouldn't mind at all. And so I went home, cleaned up the house a little and then chilled the rest of the evening away on the couch. It was a very nice day.

This Being Summer and All

This being summer and all, I had to post a pic of me at the barbecue area making myself some lunch. Yes lunch. 3 nice thick pieces of pork chops. Dexter helped me rediscover how easily those things were to barbecue and how flavorful they were when done right. And so this was something I did last week and for the 2nd Wednesday in a row, I'm barbecuing pork chops for lunch. I needed the sustenance too, because that Kennedy stuck me with 2 meetings back to back this afternoon starting at 12:30 and ending at 3 PM right around the time I need to pick up Johnnie. Which means the morning is pretty compressed. And with my Data Team meeting at 9:30, really all I had was a 2 hour window to get my steps in, walk the dog, and cook my lunch. But I am not complaining. I am not complaining one bit. At LEAST I get to be at home walking the dog and making my lunch :) And if that becomes the routine of summer, how can I complain? And even with all the meetings that went on today, they actually flowed, and as far as the one with Salesforce, there was even the good news of being granted 10 free seats/licenses at a cost of $5800. That's $5800 I just saved the company on THE best CRM platform on the planet. Of course that means when we do add on then there is going to be cost there. Kind of like back when I started and I thought implementing EPIC was a pipe dream. Well here we are aren't we. And I'm about to take over the support of the damn thing all over again LOL. Anyway all was good and the pork chops actually turned out BETTER than I thought.  And I had so much there was more than enough for dinner tonight if I chose to. The one thing I got reminded on that I hadn't done was that department goals are due this week and funny but I don't even remember what those were LOL. Looks like I'm going to have to pull stuff out of my ass again. But then again I also remember working my butt off to get the ones done for Data Analytics in 2018. Right before the team got reassigned from me and assigned to Emma. I cringe thinking about 2018 and I realize I need to do some clearing about that time in my life. And I am also aware that I need to be more intentional about the path I'm going now otherwise I might get bumped again like I did that year. I am going to reverse that emotional course and just feel gratitude of having a nice quiet summer day at home. And reminding myself of what is truly important. I reminded myself of a YouTube clip I found of Esther Hicks talking about how to check in on your feelings 200-300 times a day. If it feels good, feel more of the same. If not, let them go and be intentional about finding something that does feel good. With that, I felt good about all the meetings today, and then went on to pick up Johnnie. 

The cool thing about the summer camp experience for him so far is that he gets to do stuff and make something every single day. Just look at the pic I posted. He made a butterfly, a fish, a cap, AND a bracelet. There is NO WAY i could have gotten him to do such things last year on my own! I look at the pic and can't help but feel good that my little boy is growing up to be a cute and handsome little kid. Dirty shirt and all, but hey that means he had fun right? Of course while trying to anchor myself to good feelings, I knew the Universe would test me. It's like I'm being asked, can you sustain feeling good if I throw some yuk stuff at you? And there is where practice comes in doesn't it? I felt myself getting irritated at the dog of all things. Not at the traffic, not at what I perceive to be the indifference and thoughtlessness of some people although that too is a practice I need to sustain. But the dog just not following where I am pulling her. THAT irritated me? So much so I was less than gentle when I gave her a bath tonight. In retrospect I don't know why I got irritated.  I didn't focus I guess. I let my emotions run amuck like I sometimes tend to do. Fortunately I didn't direct any of the negative ones toward Johnnie. Maybe it was because he was so focused on the songs from SING 2016 and singing along with them. That too was cute. In the end I at least got the dog's bath done and got her dried up before she went to bed. I could sense she knew I was mad at her earlier. I knew I needed to just blow off steam even when I went to bed. Blow off some of that negative emotion buildup.  I was restless and couldn't get to sleep immediately like usual. I let Johnnie fall asleep and then snuck back to the living room. And watched an episode of Loki. Of all things that seemed to calm me down. Strange. I thought about what triggered impatience and irritation? It may not be any one thing. It could be any one of a dozen things that knocked me off from what I wanted to do, knock me off routine.  But at least I recognized it. And I'll take that.  I'll take whatever I can do to get back to center. 

A Chill Kind of Tuesday

Another Tuesday, another start of my mid-week my turn with Johnnie routine, starting with dropping him off at Penmar Camp. By now he's pretty much settled into the camp and for sure he is nowhere near the child that used to call me from camp 2 years ago. Already he knows all the camp counselors by name and just like he does with his regular school classmates he has gotten together a mental dossier of the kids he plays with. Oh yes, that one has long hair and looks like a girl but he's a boy. Oh yes that one is good at basketball. Hey I'm even GLAD he's trying out basketball. Glad he's trying out anything! In the meantime, I suddenly got busy yet again tracking down some numbers for some report. In my mind I know I've thrown Shilpa off the deep end of the pool but she's more than held her own, and I have to remind myself it took the better part of almost a year before Lam got to where he was totally independent. I did my IS Team Meeting and then got busy  working. Yesterday, I basically laid out what I wanted to get done this week, which was mostly everything about department goals and individual goals. All of them Performance Evaluation related. It is that time of year after all. But by lunchtime, whatever motivation I had to do stuff shifted and pretty radically too.  I had it in my mind all of a sudden that this was a great time to get the haircut I didn't get this past weekend. And so early afternoon after lunchtime would find me at Supercuts on Sepulveda getting a haircut! Yep a haircut in the middle of the week!  I had no appointment, just walked in and got one.  After which, I went to La Salsa next door and had me a couple of tacos. It is Taco Tuesday after all, why not augment a pretty skimpy lunch. Besides, his morning, I had a nice power walk around Penmar Park to get me to 3000 steps first thing. So you see, this was already not like a  typical work day on a typical work week. I told myself that I had worked pretty hard yesterday. And I actually flashed to this morning's IS Team Meeting. A meeting where I basically yelled at my team because I felt like they were doing this cruise control mode thing. I wanted a little action, a little movement on the network stuff from Noriel, the phone stuff from Nelson, and that damn Larry was looking at me like he had never done a software update in his life. I totally blew up over that one! I did apologize afterwards for all the colorful language I used. I just needed them to UP THEIR ENERGY was all. 

By the time I got Johnnie I had already called it a day work-wise although I was still getting pings here and there on TEAMS chat. It had gotten so warm that Johnnie actually suggested we go on over to the pool. It was a notion that got squished only because I wanted to make sure he had his late late lunch and by the time he got done with his penne noodles in chicken broth, he didn't feel like going to the pool anymore. And why not? Why not just hang around the couch playing with Claire? Look at the pic... it's like he has a blanket over him. That dog is really growing some pretty thick fur. Besides I had ice cream and cookies on the ready for him. Why NOT just watch some more videos? And today actually he asked to watch Llama Llama videos. Now those are things he hadn't watched in a really long time. It gave me a chance to work on other stuff while he watched those videos and he naturally figures out stuff he wanted to put on paper, like a drawing or a design or something, which he will naturally gift to his mom on Thursday. Two weeks into the summer break and we're already way different from last year where I had to figure out stuff for him to do, stuff for him to learn, anything I could that would occupy his time. Not so hard this year. He always comes back with something he made at the Penmar camp. And then before long it was already time to head to Panda Express to pick up dinner. Of course I had my shrimp ready to cook and put over chow mein for MY dinner. It was a chill evening tonight, and that is absolutely not a bad thing. Hey, it's summer. It's supposed to be a lot more relaxed, loose, and carefree. And that applies to me too obviously. I remind myself that last year I was dealing with the Bells Palsy thing that came up out of nowhere. Glad not to have any such things going on this year. Very very glad.

Summer Solstice and An Unexpected Johnnie Pickup

I was expecting to be totally busy today. So much so I was already talking myself into being ok about breaking my 15,000+ steps on a Monday that I kept up through all of 2021 thus far. I was ok that I did that for 6 months!. Why might this streak get broken today? Because I was due at the East Third facility for a meeting first thing. As in 8 AM first thing. MAN! I don't think I remember EVER attending a meeting this early at QueensCare in 7+ years! And certainly not before the pandemic. But there I was getting ready at 7 AM to head out. And then right after that I was the Business Continuity Meeting and then a Zoom webinar test meeting. Back-to-back-to-back. I figured I'd just hang out at East Third all morning.  Of course with all those meetings, what won't happen is my usual walk routine. Still I could get to 11,000 fairly easily so I didn't feel too bad. Good soldier that I am, I did do the 8:30 AM meeting and to my huge surprise, it actually got done by 9:50!  I thought I'd stick around but not if I had 40 minutes. I figured THAT was plenty of time to get home. And I did just that. Made it back to my apartment with 10 minutes to spare! And so I did the Business Continuity Meeting from home, and then the Zoom webinar thing right after that. The difference was that since I was already home and since I had shed the corporate attire, I started my walk routine AND actually got 48 active minutes in after lunch. And then the second surprise of the day came: Lisa called asking me to pick up Johnnie from camp and if I could watch the dog. She's on her way to see her brother Joah at the rehab facility and see how he's doing. Of course I'd do it.  Just gets me to see Johnnie earlier than I thought today.  And so she came over around 1:30, I had just finished lunch from Subway and all was good. 

SURPRISES ALL AROUND Johnnie was pretty surprised to me when I picked him up. I was pretty surprised myself. Even more so that I had gotten pretty caught up with the 15,000+ steps regimen today. As in I'm going to make it pretty easily after almost talking myself out of it at the beginning of the day. And I had gotten all my work done too. And so Johnnie immediately asked for lunch and immediately turned on the TV himself to watch the Wild Kratts. I imagine this is a treat for him, especially after Lisa told me that she and Johnnie had gotten into a TIFF over watching Trolls World Tour. I'm sure she just couldn't get it working and I'm sure Johnnie could have himself LOL. She got frustrated and that was that.  So she called when she was about a half hour away and talked about possibly having dinner together all 3 of us. I didn't like that prospect since I'm probably going to have to cook something at her house that Johnnie and I could eat. And so I suggested sushi at Oops. She talked about playing soccer too but that's not until 7;15 PM. I'm sure if she got to my apartment by 5 PM we would have plenty of time. And plenty of time we did have as she picked up Johnnie by 5:15. Just about the time I would usually give him dinner too. And so it was that the 3 of us... or should I say 4 since Claire came along too ended up at Oops having dinner tonight. That alone would be a cause for celebration as I didn't have to cook for myself either. And since it was Father's Day yesterday, I mentally chalked this dinner up to our belated Father's Day dinner albeit it actually was something truly spontaneous. Lisa got her healthy meal and I got some great seafood baked salmon rolls. And Johnnie got a great udon meal AND mochi for dessert.  A win-win-win I thought. And Lisa even volunteered to drive to her house, pick up Johnnie's shirt for tomorrow's camp and drive us back. I'm sure Johnnie loved that his mom and dad got to have dinner together with him as well. And when we got back to the apartment, we immediately shifted to Monday night mode. That meant cooking Trader JOe's chocolate chip cookies, that meant breaking out the trampoline so Johnnie could play, that meant a lot more Wild Kratts for the evening, which I did not mind at all.  I reflected on Lisa and how she deflects feeling bad about stuff going on with her family. What is going on with Joah is no small deal. For me it is close to a marriage breaker. And I did urge Lisa to go simply because she is still a bit of an outsider and still the person closest to Joah that is not really connected to her parents. To me they had always been the problem. And I was happy to provide Lisa with a nice, stabilizing moment tonight, which is what I had always tried to do anyway. It was all good. And then I reflected that today was actually the longest day of the year. And that is now officially SUMMER! This was a good way to bring in summer. And it is already looking to be better than last year.

Happy Father's Day For Me

So today is Father's Day and although it is golf Sunday and not my day to see Johnnie, the fact that I already got to see him and have some quality time with him yesterday was enough of a  Father's Day present for me. In the meantime all I wanted to do was have the usual Sunday golf morning and today tee off is at Roosevelt Golf Course. It was yet another day to work on my focus as I realize more and more that the reason I fade is that I start to get tired and/or lose my focus. And that is the time to simply re-focus. It is one of the most important skills I need to learn in order to manifest the outcomes that I want. I reminded myself that it isn't at all about visualizing how my shots are going to go although that too is important. It's about feeling nice and relaxed and feeling good about the shot the moment I make the shot. While blocking out all the internal crap about how many different ways I can screw up the shot. The first tee at Roosevelt always dictates how the day is going to go. Most of the time. This time I hit a nice drive but shanked it left towards the fence. It took 3 shots and I was still well past the hole and past the green. A miracle long putt gave me a bogey on this hole. Not bad after 2 straight not-so-good fairway shots. And that, in fact, dictated how the game would go. I had some amazing shots from the tee. None better than the blast on Hole 8 that went straight and got to the flag on the dogleg right. It was about as perfect a first shot as someone could do. Similar tee shots on Hole 2, Hole 4, and Hole 5 underscored how well I hit the ball off the tee. If only I could have matched that on the fairway. Like Hole 1, I hit the 2nd ball back into the trees on Hole 2. Whiffed the 2nd shot on the fairway on Hole 4, Hit the trees again on Hole 5. Clearly, a program was in play here. The one about not getting 2 good shots in a row. I finally did get a par on Hole 7 though. And all in all it wasn't like I played badly. In fact, I had bogeys on Hole 4,7, and 8 to go with that par. Anyway it was a pretty nice day and I couldn't complain about spending my Father's Day out on the golf course.

After the game I knew it would take a while to get home. It always does coming from Roosevelt. Usually I would pick something up from IN-N-Out on Highland and Sunset. I didn't feel like dealing with a line today. And so I decided to stop at the Sidewalk Grill, that Mediterranean cafe on Vermont that I used to have lunch at way back in the day when I worked at the MOB the first year I worked at QueensCare. That was in 2013. It seems so long ago. I hadn't eaten here in such a long time... and certainly not during the pandemic. I ordered grilled salmon and rice and lentil soup just like I would at Crimson on any other Sunday. They had bigger salmon pieces here. And the lentil was brown, not yellow. I think I like Sidewalk Grill better in fact. But I had a similar lunch like I would if I got it from Crimson.  And so for the rest of the afternoon, I watched the Dodgers win again, I watched the Clippers lose Game 1 again in the Western Conference finals, bemoaning the fact that they were there instead of the Lakers. And later on I would see the Atlanta Hawks punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals by upsetting Philadelphia. Boy, all the favorites have already gotten knocked out. Strange season. I didn't want to do much the rest of the day. I did look at a whole bunch of past entries in my journal. Hey it is Father's Day. I could look at all things about being Johnnie's dad from years past. Oh, and I did watch the movie Fatherhood which was about a widowed single dad played by Kevin Hart of all people. Being a dad is simply one of the biggest privileges a guy can ever have. I look at Johnnie's baby pictures from back in the day and it's hard to believe how much he has grown up to now. And he has a lot more growing up to do. And I can't help but think of all these things that have happened in the past 6 1/2 years of his life there have been lots of ups and downs to be sure. Heck I got divorced didn't I? But having the privilege of being Johnnie's dad? That's the best deal I've ever gotten. I may not always get it right. But I will always love my little Bug no matter what and that will carry me through anything. And something I will forever be grateful for. Happy Father's Day to ME!!!

Lazy Saturday

So I slept in this morning until 8 AM. Ahhh that felt good. Leisurely made myself some tea. And some of my bacon and cream cheese and tomato on Hawaiian bagel. I didn't think i was expected to pick up Johnnie until 9 AM. Heck the last time we did exactly the same thing and they had already eaten breakfast. Not falling for that again. Until of course Lisa calls to ask me if I still wanted breakfast. I can never get her mindset right. Why of course today she would want to reach out to see if I wanted breakfast. Why of course today would be the anomaly day that she would remember to ask me LOL LOL There is a small part of me - a very VERY small part of me that thinks she's doing this because she remembers it is Father's Day tomorrow. But then again I'm not falling for that too. Why would she remember? And even if she did why would she do anything? Last year in fact I did something for HER. I helped her wash her car. On Father's Day. Of course I did LOL Anyway I was grateful Lisa managed to make me breakfast although while talking to her about things, the thing about money crept up again. Something about dealing with money with her just puts both of us on the defensive. AND Lisa was visibly disturbed when she talked about her brother Joah. I guess he's in rehab right now and not doing well at all. As in they have him on propofol. That would be the opioid that killed Michael Jackson. The thing that I did want Lisa to focus on this morning was that she is finally getting her first Covid vaccine shot. It's about time.  She of all people I know remains vulnerable. And so I was happy to get Johnnie out of her hair for the morning so he and I could at least hang out. That would BE my Father's Day present. That I got to spend this morning with my son. Not much more a dad can ask for. And what did we do? I posted a pic of him making his latest invention while watching Emily's wonder lab. And then we went and got lunch and ate at Panda Express Sawtelle. Bought an ice cream sandwich pack at Ralphs which he devoured quickly. Which is to say we didn't really do a whole lot. I was feeling really really lazy today. Like I could have slept the rest of the morning too. Maybe my body is just sort of recuperating from the week? Whatever it was I was happy to return Johnnie by 1:30 though when we got to Lisa's house, she too was upstairs taking a nap. I thought maybe it was the Pfizer dose 1 shot. But then again I don't remember any effects from that first Covid shot from anybody. She mentioned something about catching up on notes while I kept on watching Johnnie, and I think that's just her way of making sure I didn't just jet 0ut like I usually do when I drop him off.

Anyway Johnnie and i went upstairs and while I was talking to Lisa, I told her that I wanted to take a nap downstairs. She asked why I don't just pull up next to her. It wasn't anything emotional or physical or anything remotely close to that. Johnnie was on the bed and so was the dog. And she just wanted us all to be on the same bed. It's what she does. But I will admit it felt strange. I will admit to being uncomfortable, though said discomfort was not enough to keep me from knocking off for a bit. I thought it was funny that whenever Johnnie mentioned stuff we did... like having ice cream together today or making stuff, Lisa clearly felt left out. She even commented that she felt like she was just an occupier of this house that I just happened to drop off my son at. I couldn't verbalize that yeah this is what divorce is. She IS merely the occupier of this house that I happen to drop Johnnie off at. And she is not invited to do things with us not because we don't want her there. It's because SHE chose that. She gets to do her things with Johnnie... like the Hawaii trip coming up in a few weeks where she gets him for 3 whole weeks. And I get my time with him as well, mostly during the week. I can't believe she actually doesn't see it that way. Anyway,  I napped for about 25 minutes and  when I woke up Lisa and Johnnie had already gone downstairs and was in the middle of another project.  Her mom had bought her a PEMF pad and she supposedly needed my help to put it together. The prospect of putting this thing together clearly overwhelmed her and she started getting really annoyed. But she kept on anyway. I think she was simply upset because of her brother Joah. I mean she complained about this thing but she kept on trying to put it together anyway didn't she? Apparently while at rehab he was exhibiting such erratic behavior that according to Lisa's mom that was the reason why he had been put on propofol. That perplexed me. How do you take a person who is already trying to get off substance abuse and then knock him out with heavy duty opioids? I don't understand that at all. Still she managed to put the PEMF blanket together and even had us try it. And that was my cue that she was much better from the vaccine shot and time for me to exit stage front and center. I hugged and kissed Johnnie and off I went home.  I had a couple of new movies to watch. The new Mark Wahlberg movie INFINITE, which had an interesting premise. And dinner tonight was from Marie Callenders. Beef shepherds pie with salad and an apple pie. And cornbread too. Worked for me! It was actually pretty darn good too. And so it was that I had myself a lazy Saturday with some time with Johnnie. That was all I could ask for and I am grateful for the day.

A Pretty Good Friday

So Lisa asked me to take Johnnie to Penmar camp this morning. Of course I would oblige, especially since the timing is not that far off from what has been our usual routine this past week. That means I go to Lisa's house armed with McDonald's breakfast for Johnnie. He should be done right around 8 AM and we're already not even 5 minutes away from Penmar. It was no trouble at all. Of course Lisa had some asks which was really more like asking me to do things the way she would do them. She asked if we could walk there, and asked if we could bring Claire. I didn't really say anything, which really meant that if I'm doing this, we're doing it my way. While walking is a good idea especially since it would give me a chance to log steps, I didn't really feel like walking Claire. I wanted to drop Johnnie off and be done with it. Sorry Claire, but your momma Lisa isn't going to be gone all that long... you can stay in her house until she gets back. In the meantime, drop-off was uneventful. Johnnie got to wear what he wanted today and was the first person there in fact. And I still did log some steps. I stuck around Penmar Park for a little bit and did some Power Walking. The difference between what I did and what Lisa asked? I did it on MY terms. And I was home by 8:30 having some tea and taking a shower. I mean I made myself some eggs while I was at Lisa's so I didn't have to eat much. I figured since she had over 2 dozen eggs in her fridge she wouldn't mind me eating a couple. OBTW, they're still coming over for Johnnie's swim class later around 3:30. Day is far from over.

I actually did have a meeting to do this morning, testing the webinar function of Zoom. But I got that done in about 20 minutes and so I had the rest of the day to do whatever. Hey, it IS Juneteenth today. Starting next year this would be a federal holiday. You will excuse me if I'm not busting my ass working. I kinda just goofed around on the internet like I would if it were a Friday and I was at the office, only today I was actually waiting around for Johnnie to come over the swimming pool to do his lesson. A couple of weeks ago he finally showed he was getting comfortable getting underwater and all we needed to do is to build on that. And he pretty much did the same today, the only difference was Lisa did come and brought him today. Last time she had to work. Not so today.  And so she too got some swimming in. Talk about taking full advantage that I had a swimming pool right? LOL. Johnnie was now showing that he could go the length of the pool with no problem, and so I think it is mission accomplished in terms of getting him to learn how to swim. He definitely can swim now. He just needs to get more comfortable going to the bottom of the pool and staying there until he needs to breathe. That will come I'm sure.  After the lesson it was already 4:30 and Johnnie complained that he was hungry. I'm sure he had to miss his usual lunch routine. I gave Lisa a pack of udon and they were off. At first they invited me to come over for dinner, but Lisa was too hungry herself. Predictably, they went home to eat. Why wouldn't they? Lisa wanted to wait for Courtney but given that may be not until 7 Pm or even much later, that was not going to fly. Certainly I was NOT going to wait until then to eat. Although... I did start watching episodes of MANIFEST until I got though the 3rd season. Who knew it actually did get better! Although it also did get cancelled in the middle of a cliffhanger. Hope Netflix picks it up. It was a little later by the time I decided on what dinner to get tonight. I decided to get ramen from Daikokuya right next to Panda Express on Sawtelle. It was strange being there on a Friday night when it was already dark. But then again look at the dish I ordered, even in takeout mode. It was sooo good. I hadn't had pork ramen in a really long time. I hadn't had restaurant grade gyoza in a really long time either. And their gyoza was supposed to be really really good. It was not only good, it was really rich. So much so I was full just on the gyoza. Bottom line was that I had a much better dinner experience tonight than if I had gotten some KFC fried chicken LOL. Needless to say I was really full and with having eaten late, I didn't want to go to bed early. And so I kept on watching TV until I finally knocked off on the couch around 1 AM. I figured I didn't need to be at Lisa's tomorrow to hang out with JOhnnie until 9 AM. I'm just going to sleep in for my Saturday morning. At least it's already the weekend. I'm all good!

Last Day with Johnnie For the Week (?)

So this being a Thursday and a day after Tech Council Meeting Day, and an HIT Roundtable Meeting Day at that, I remembered that meeting would be the sole focus of the day. It was kind of like a tank day even. The meeting would be done by 2 but I would go shopping at Macy's. Or how about shopping at the Gap Factory on Hill? How many times had I done that? Not any more LOL. In fact these days I'm in shorts and T shirt as I drop Johnnie off at camp Penmar. That's about as presentable as I am going to be this summer. Johnnie seems to be doing well picking up on the new routine. I don't think I could say the same of Claire. Look at the pic of her just clutching at Johnnie's vans shoes (that he didn't wear today). It was like she still had to be close to him somehow. AS for me, with a team meeting and a 2-hour CCALAC meeting today, that pretty much constituted my work day. The CCALAC meeting did last 2 hours even as we ran out of stuff to talk about since it was just the chairs and CCALAC staff that attended the meeting. Oh well. And Myself and Donny got asked to serve as co-chairs again for the next year, because no one else volunteered to run. I see I have to help figure out topics that would increase engagement. The OCHIN meeting right after that was uneventful too, and I would venture to say Eloisa is actually encouraging me to change things up a bit by having internal meetings BEFORE this one as this one would be more of a "what can we sell you next" kind of meeting. Anyway I picked up Johnnie a bit early today which was just as soon as the OCHIM meeting got done just so I could get him his late lunch by 3 PM and we could still get to dinner by 5-ish, anticipating of course that perhaps Lisa would be early for the 2nd week in a row. AND I still did a wash load since he was supposed to wear his camp shirt tomorrow. I wouldn't find out until way later that Fridays they don't have to wear the camp shirts. DAMN IT! Still I'm glad Johnnie is in a creative mood when he comes home and you can see from the pic that we he gets engrossed with something, he's really into it. A budding engineer such as it were. My plan went right on cue for the most part. We got Panda Express at 5 PM and we were home well before 5:30. Of course keeping on her never-the-same-pick-up Thursday, Lisa did not have an early pick up today. What I would find out later on was that she did finish early but elected to go home to take a nap. And when I called her not only did she ask if I could simply drive Johnnie to her house, but she also needed a favor tomorrow as she is going to a doctor's appointment early. Now I have to come by and get Johnnie and drop him off at camp. Actually that I didn't mind so much. She asked me to come by at 7:45 and that would be the time Johnnie is finishing his breakfast normally anyway. Of course I had to listen for a little while about Lisa's latest affliction, which is a bout of UTI. I've lost track of how many times she has had that. Anyway, another Thursday night hand-off all done and then I went on home to clean up. Not so much to do this time around. My apartment is still fairly clean from this past weekend's cleaning round.  And so that gave me the opportunity to crash and watch Episode 2 of the latest offering from the Marvel MCU: Loki. And then I reminded myself I still had to be up early in the morning. No Day passes to print anymore but I still need to lock up a tee time at 6 AM for Harbor. It's all good. The weekend approaches.

Tech Council Meeting Day

And so we have another Tech Council Meeting day today. But before any of that, there is Johnnie drop-off at Penmar Camp. The only bug I have about this camp is that they are supposed to wear camp shirts and they gave him TWO. Which means I have to wash those dirty shirts in the middle of the week so he has something to wear. And they're just a tad larger than even I would get him to wear. Still, if that is the only complaint I have then I will happily take it. I was glad to hear him talk about a couple of the kids at camp afterwards, which means he is getting to meet them at least, and playing with them. I don't think there's going to be bouts of homesickness this time around. Anyway I still had the Minutes of last month's meeting and the agenda to do plus the Data Analytics Team Meeting in the morning. The first 2 I got done even before I got started with the team meeting. I did realize though that I did bring up a couple of things at the last meeting but I never got around to following up. I'm starting to do that more often, wait until the last second for a bunch of things. At least the powers that be hadn't really noticed and I suspect they weren't all that eager to get going with the homework items I brought up last time. Funny about this group, Barbara in particular seems to focus on the minutae, or at least things that a CEO should simply delegate for people like me to look into. Case in point I brought up the list of the heaviest users for TEAMS and Sharepoint. A couple of temps came up on TEAMS which basically drew a yellow flag for everyone. Sharepoint was even worse as the most active user by more than 20000 activities was a person whose last month was this month. Admittedly, that would have drawn a yellow flag for me as well and so I had to spend time with how I would be handling warnings of this nature in the future. It couldn't be that I would have just said, I will pass it on if we find that there is inappropriate activity going on, as this one  inevitably is about. Yes the person might be leaving, but then again, that is probably a good reason why they would be moving files and deleting them from the original location. I will admit to being irritated a bit by what I perceive to be misguided attention. Then of course I did bring up what was going to happen with the EHR team that I am about to take over. I asked because I didn't know. I was soliciting opinion. None came really. I guess it's one more team I have to straighten out. 

We weren't done after the Tech Council Meeting, there was the OCHIN quarterly meeting afterwards. And so by the time these meetings were done and I went off to get Johnnie it was already 3:30. Fortunately they do give the kids a snack at that time and so you see the pic with him clutching and munching a bag of potato chips. And then when he got to the apartment he was his bouncy self. Literally. He got on the trampoline and was sweating again in no time. I didn't care really. I was glad  he had something to occupy his attention. I was tired after that last meeting. It was breathe out time and I didn't really have much energy to keep up with Johnnie. Which is why I'm thankful for the Wild Kratts his latest binge show. He can learn about all the creatures he wants while I mentally focus on other stuff. Actually tonight for me there wasn't much other stuff to focus on. I was mentally done by late afternoon and so the focus was simply on getting us dinner (of course at Panda Express) and getting my steps in. Yesterday, I hadn't even passed 2600 by late afternoon which reminded me times in the past when I still worked at the FRB and wouldn't really leave my desk much until the later part of the day. Same yesterday. And I still managed to breeze past 11,000+ steps and get almost 60 active minutes in. If I weren't doing that I was happy to just crash on the couch and watch whatever Johnnie was watching. That is, until 7 PM when it was time to give the dog his once a week bath in my place. She is much more comfortable getting a bath from me these days. And her hair is much longer than even a month ago which meant that it would take longer to dry. But dry it did, and when it did, she smelled so nice. I tried a new sleep configuration actually, with her sleeping on the old futon I don't use anymore next to Johnnie on his side of the bed. At least she isn't looking up every single time I move. Anyway it was a decent Tech Council Meeting today and it was a good day. Another one under my belt...

Another New New Routine

And so we get started with Johnnie's summer of 2021. Actually it got started yesterday, today is just me refreshing my morning routine to account for dropping Johnnie off at Penmar camp. Today is also the day California and Los Angeles specifically for me reopens again. What does that mean? Supposedly we don't have to wear masks anymore generally or social distance if we've been vaccinated, which is now the majority of people in LA and California. But there are venues were masks are still required, like schools and summer camps. Hence Johnnie is still donning his mask as am I when I dropped him off this morning. It was a tad different than last time we did this here a couple of years ago. For starters, he knows at least one other person in camp already, that would be Simon who used to live in the next door house on Maplewood. And there didn't seem to be a whole lot of kids there. A dozen or so kids is smaller than his kinder class. What I hope he experiences in this camp is to meet new friends and play play play his heart away. And discover new things. The drop-off itself was a non-event really. Check-in, temp check, eezy peezy just like at school. And although it is obviously farther than Mar Vista Elementary, it's not THAT much farther and I'm home in 10 minutes. I dropped him off at 8:15 this morning and so I was home before 8:30. I did my IS Team Meeting and then put my head down and worked worked worked the rest of the day. I obviously had my Technology Council presentation to do and I wanted to be done before the end of the day. I still had to formulate what I wanted to present and I think I wanted to spend some time talking about the EHR team and what that would be like to executive leadership. I don't know what their priorities are really, or what they should be. And I wanted to be right upfront that THAT by itself would be a work in progress. Anyway I just chugged along and got into a rhythm and even managed to make myself a nice ground pork yakisoba lunch. I know I know I really am getting tired of cooking every single day but I had all this food in the fridge...what am I supposed to do?! I keep saying it's not the cooking but washing the dishes afterwards that bugs, but hey I just slogged along today. Anyway I kept on working and I got a whole lot done.

 

So picking up Johnnie in the afternoon served as sort of a break. I was ALMOST completely done with my presentation actually. I know it has a template-y kind of feel for it and you never know what the level of interest is really. My job was just to let the higher-ups know what's going on, especially now that I have 3 departments under me. Harder to do that. But I brushed these thoughts off as I see Johnnie running to me with a dirty shirt and sweat gleaming off his brow. That means he had fun! And that is all  a parent could ask LOL. I was sort of hoping he would at least eat lunch there but no he didn't. He waited until I picked him up. Lucky for both of us I had some of those turkey ravioli things ready to heat. And then on to his real routine, which is watching the Wild Kratts. Today he wanted to crank out the trampoline. It had been stored in my clothes closet since the fall. I guess he's going to be really active again this summer, which I can't argue with. Especially since he had it going on with his drawing and writing anyway. He really does a good job of putting ideas on paper. Listen to his discourse that I posted. And so as it turned out the new routine wasn't really all that different from the school routine, other than we left for drop-off a full half hour later than school. And in the evening, he went to sleep easily... a sure sign that he had had a full day. All good.