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.