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.