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.