Wednesday Routine

It's Wednesday, it's the middle of the week and it didn't feel out of the ordinary from the get-go. I mean even when taking a shower this morning instead of last night, Johnnie and I have become pretty efficient at getting breakfast and getting him to school by 7:45. When I do that, I'm home before 8 AM. I did shove an IS Team Meeting today at 9 AM so we could have just the one instead of having 2, simply because Kennedy was out for the last couple of days. That means I had to do back-to-back meeting with 2 of my teams before lunch. Despite my early week panic, everything seemed to be in control and all was good. As far as the rest of the day, it seemed like I pushed a REPLAY button. That meant you could find me grilling some pork chops at the barbecue at lunchtime. And it was a nice, warm, late summery kind of day. That's about as good a win moment I could file away as any. If there was a recurring memory of this past summer it would be me grilling something in the barbecue on a warm middle of the day. Anyway it seemed so far away from lunch at the FRB cafeteria with the regular crew that I used to do for years. I wonder how the old characters are. Mark. Jose. The guys that used to prepare my lunch every day. I hope they are doing ok. It does not look like we will be back at the FRB even in 2022, or at least not me, based on the Board Meeting yesterday. Today we had another meeting in the afternoon, this time to plan for the Town Hall next week. Nothing out of the ordinary for me since it is back to the all-hands webinar format. I get to play Arnel the DJ. And I still don't know how that came about really. Just my ham self coming out I guess. Anyway, the meeting was just to get people to get their content in and coordinate. After that meeting I officially shut down for the day. And I got caught up with my steps, and watched some of the stuff from the Lakers Media Day. NBA season coming up. Dodgers winding down, Lakers winding up. As it should be. As i walked around the block I envisioned myself already being the millionaire that I am and still doing the same things really. I'm ok with that. Which means I get to pick up Johnnie at 5. When I got to the school I found him in the yard practicing dribbling. Boy he really is picking up on this basketball stuff. I couldn't be happier. THIS I can teach him. I wonder if he can sustain the interest?

When I asked him to write about his day he wrote all about basketball too. And actually created a story board on how the morning went. I feel pretty good that at least now he can write something on command. And tonight we gave Panda Express a break. I made us both pizzas. We went to the store and got some Boboli. And he got a pepperoni pizza and I made myself pepperoni and pineapple. I will say that I got upset at him for not eating ANY of the lunch I made. I mean I baked the chocolate croissant myself! He didn't eat that, nor the string cheese. And just had a few bites of the strawberry. What in the heck does he eat? I got frustrated and yelled at him that he has to eat something. And I made him eat the string cheese before I made him the pizza, making it clear he wasn't going to eat anything if he didn't eat that. I had to remind myself that these meal battles are not uncommon at all. And that I did not need to bully him into eating stuff. I know I shouldn't force him to eat. But I can't be a short order cook either. I just have to keep trying without losing it like I did tonight. I mean he had tears in his eyes while he ate the string cheese for god's sake. There's no need for that. Fortunately, Johnnie always checks in and make sure everything is ok. And although he ended  up eating his pizza and then watching Wild Kratts, and I ended up in front of the computer, he kept checking in and telling me stuff and he was even playing games with me and joking around. That's when I know everything is ok. And to conclude, we ALWAYS ALWAYS signal bedtime by me carrying him on my shoulders to the bathroom to brush his teeth. See pic. It's a nightly thing that has been going on since I moved to this apartment. When we do that as part of the bedtime routine, we both know all is well. I went to sleep early myself. I hadn't slept well in the last few days even though there really wasn't anything that was causing me stress. At least not consciously. Now below the surface? We will see...