Johnnie Back In School

I think I looked forward to Johnnie going back to school more than Johnnie himself. I didn't think it mattered to him any more or any less. It mattered to me only because or a program I have ingrained in me. You show up for school/work/whatever no matter what. I know it didn't really matter with his schoolwork because his reading and math levels are already higher than first grade. He does need to work on his writing though so I am going to focus on that from now on. But even there he isn't behind. What I value most from him being in school is the social interactions. The thing I don't like about home schooling is precisely that... the lack of social interaction and not much of a chance to interact with kids their own age. I want him growing up with friends early on and that social skills are just as important, if not more, than academic skills. I was behind on that when I first came to the US obviously. And for whatever reason, I don't think Lisa was taught those social skills either. I sort of see this as our chance to break this one cycle anyway. And so it was cool that we got to the line early this morning and it was Brooklyn that came over and immediately told Johnnie he was missed and that he had the same injury almost on the same spot on her hand as Johnnie did when he rubbed his hand a bit raw playing on the monkey bars. And so with that the school drop-off was uneventful and off I went doing my spate of meetings this morning. First my IS Team Meeting, then a one-on-one with my boss Dennis, then the EHR TEam Meeting. Why so many meetings today? Because it happens to be my last day or work this week. Yep, I am taking tomorrow off for my birthday and I do not plan to even look at my email. The meeting with my boss Dennis happened to be my Performance Eval meeting too. And that discussion lasted all of 3 minutes. I scored myself 3.25. He scored me 3.34. Nothing to talk about then.  Not if he scored me higher than I scored myself. That means I get a raise. Cool! And with Lisa coming off my healthcare deduction, that makes it an even bigger raise. Something to be grateful for to be sure. I thought that Lisa thing was going to be a problem. She took care of it herself. See? Nothing to worry about.

So why do I have a picture of Johnnie with a doctor's office-issued mask on? Because I took him to Cedars-Sinai Urgent Care yet again right after I picked him up from school. I got an email from Mar Vista admin that the LAUSD Director of Nursing was not accepting my doctor's note because it was not an in-person visit. And because the doctor who signed off was not from CA. And so I needed to get a doctor's note from Cedars-Sinai. The visit itself was much quicker than the one from last Monday. Turned out his swab was used to test for Covid, not for varicella anyway and so they would have asked me to come in to get another lab swab. Which was moot by now because the doctor did deem that his spots had crusted over, meaning it WAS safe for him to go back to school. At least now I had another doctor's note that the school would accept.  As it was, Johnnie's return was pretty much a non-event per Johnnie's account. Since we were already in Playa Vista, Johnnie had it in his mind that he wanted udon from Mitsuwa for dinner tonight. Works for me, I could get me some pork katsu over rice for MY dinner. By this time I realized that the work day was over. My long LONG weekday had started! YES! Only one thing left tonight, which was the Johnnie hand-off. Not a slamdunk considering last week's emotional explosion. You just never know with Lisa and so tonight I was mentally and emotionally prepared for anything. I was thinking that since I had the day off tomorrow and so did Johnnie, but since Lisa was seeing patients, I figured I would get to see Johnnie and maybe I was even thinking we could hit the batting cages for real. That idea went up in smoke the second I asked what Lisa was doing tomorrow and if she needed me to watch Johnnie. The answer was a quick NO. She had other plans. She wanted Johnnie to hang out with her at her office. Poor Johnnie. I know that's not what he wanted to do. But she's under Lisa's watch now so I just kept my mouth shut. And I just hugged him goodbye. And then took a walk around the neighborhood in the evening light. Oh well, I get a day off tomorrow from everything I guess. That's actually a good good thing...