First Rainstorm of the Season

So today SoCal was hit with an atmospheric river, which means rain all day and lots of it. It's not like I haven't done rain for my Monday routine just that the first rains of the season takes getting used to. No more shorts, no more summer gear. Still with the steps though even if I have to do it indoors. And certainly no pics today of a beautiful sun rising while I take my morning walk. Instead its me in my rain gear and umbrella while I walk to Marie Callender's to get my lunch. Why am I even walking out in the rain? Because I wanted to get the exercise regardless. I mean I have all this water-resistant footgear don't I? What's a little rain? So this being a Monday, I had steps to do, and had some meditation to focus on to start the work week.  I thought about all the wins to look forward to this week and was happy to see my schedule was not NEARLY as full as last week. I could finally breathe out finally? Not today though. I had all these HRSA reports and the bi-weekly survey due. Which is what I focused on all day pretty much. I mean I did have timecards to do as well but I had those finished by last Friday. Other than that, I think I'm going to focus on self-care this week. After all, it picks right back up with Town Hall week next week. In the middle of the day I did get a call from Lisa asking me to pick up Johnnie since it's piano practice day in Pasadena and she was sure she wasn't getting back until well past 5 PM. And then since she made plans after, we agreed I should just take Johnnie for hand-off. And she agreed to drop off Claire in the afternoon too. Cool. We won't have to deal with hand-off at all tonight. I am all for that of course! By mid-afternoon I started feeling a little lethargic... and I was thinkiing it was probably the roast turkey I had for lunch. And so I almost knocked off in the afternoon, only to be jarred awake by my phone and some pings from work. Hey, it IS Monday after all isn't it? By the time I was ready to pick up Johnnie, it was 5:30 PM. I had finished my reports and surveys and the rain had actually stopped. As in the sun was actually starting to peek out of the heavy clouds. And I had gotten to 14,000 steps already. Was it already a week ago that I was walking up and down the conference ballroom while I practiced my talk in my head? And I ended up walking up and down Las Vegas Blvd looking for some place to eat? Boy time sure flies fast. 

Johnnie was sure surprised to see me pick him up. All that time I spent picking up his rain boots and apparently they were too big. Sigh. At least the SeeKaiRun shoes still fit. He was layered and up and obviously wasn't cold but he was sniffling when we got home. And he threw off all his layers and started doing Johnnie stuff. Whatever he was doing though, he managed to look for me in the bedroom while I was continuing to do some work. And he managed to keep me apprised of everything he was working on, whether it was a new drawing, some creature from the Wild Kratts he was trying to recreate, and even a story he was storting to build. I love that Johnnie is independent like that, especially after I loaded him up with 3 bowl fulls of penne pasta in chicken broth. I managed to fill myself up too, making a sort-of stew with taco meat and veggies and then dumping a can of Campbells Steak-and-Vegetables soup. That stuff over rice was perfect for dinner. I didn't feel like wandering around outdoors even though the rain had pretty much abated by this evening. I still felt really sluggish at the end of the day although i felt that it was pretty much the 15,000+ steps that made me feel like that. Last week I reminded myself that I had 2 days of high resting-heart-rate activity in the beginning of the week while I was in Vegas. I mean i was at 280 active minutes by Tuesday! But I know I was pretty much on adrenaline that entire time and now I think I'm still coming down from that experience actually. But I was very much feeling good about bonding time with Johnnie this evening as I said even while I kept myself in front of my computer. The kid sought me out anyway and managed to keep me involved in whatever he was doing. I so value that. And he also managed to keep me involved in whatever he was watching before he went to bed. And then of course he ends his day with "Universe, no dreams please". I wonder if he really IS afraid of his own dreams?! Doesn't he know one day that those same dreams will be at his command? I tried to induce my own dreams by going to the couch and laying there with some binaural beats playing when Johnnie fell asleep. All I managed to do was knock off to sleep much earlier than I had the past 10 days. That's good too. I will be well rested tomorrow...