Hijacked Into A Different Saturday

So I had it in my mind that maybe I would take Johnnie to Universal Studios today for his birthday. It would be perfect because I wouldn't need to have him back by 5 PM at the earliest. I even got to Lisa's early hoping to get to breakfast early and we can get to Hollywood before 9 AM. As soon as I got there, though Lisa punctured the air out of that balloon. She asked me to bring Johnnie by her office at 10:30 AM so she could clean his teeth. Great. That takes care of that. I simply took it as it wasn't meant for us to go to Universal today. And that's ok. I guess I'm glad I didn't purchase the tickets online when I got up first thing this morning. So what to do until 10:30? Well there's breakfast clearly. And he hadn't had a shower yet. So we went to the apartment, into the shower he jumped after which I gelled up his hair <result pic posted here> and then he ate his usual McDonald's Deluxe. While watching Octonauts. To Johnnie it was just like another Saturday at least until it was time to go to Lisa's office. And so we get there and I was fully expecting Johnnie to get a cleaning done. Of course you're never really sure with Lisa aren't you. There was also a possibility that she simply wanted to invite Johnnie to come hang out with Stacie who is manning the front desk on an emergency basis. From what I observed at least the old holdovers were still helping Lisa hold the fort. That would be Angie who was doing her best to help Stacie, and Carmen who at least knew everything going on with the office. It really didn't feel like total bedlam to me, although I still wondered what we were doing there. I mean Lisa was in the middle of a procedure. How was she going to work on Johnnie? Was it her quirky way of inviting us to lunch? After waiting a while I decided I wasn't going to get totally hijacked. I took Johnnie for a walk to Panda Express to at least get him his lunch. I did this because the Panini Grill order had already come and it was already 11 AM and I wasn't sure what Johnnie was going to eat.  At least Lisa did find time to work on Johnnie and by 11:35, everyone had started to trickle to the break room to get lunch. And as it turned out Johnnie and I did join everyone for lunch. Not like it was in the past mind you. It was a much smaller group today. But hey I appreciated the free lunch! I appreciated the ground beef kabob, and the chicken kabob and the lentil soup. I guess I won't be eating this for lunch tomorrow LOL. Johnnie and I headed on home and because we both ate pretty big lunches, dad and son could be found dozing off soon after on the couch. Not complaining about that one for a Saturday afternoon. I figured I'd have Johnnie until at least 5 PM or dinner time depending on how late Lisa wanted to push it for this Saturday. Although we didn't make it to Universal Studios today obviously we could still play basketball or baseball at Mar Vista. And since it was so hot I even floated the idea of going swimming with Johnnie. But for some reason he was still doing his afraid-of-the-water thing, which I truly don't understand. Something was triggering some irrational fear and I was actually going to just let it go today. Until Johnnie really ramped up his whining and crying about it. And THAT triggered ME. I got angry and yelled at Johnnie to immediately  get into his shorts. NOW we're going swimming no matter what he says and does. And so I think dealing my anger just totally overwhelmed whatever feelings of fear he had. He stopped thinking about it, made it ok with himself. And you can see in the pic he had no issues at all doing the fetch-the-stone-from-the-bottom thing, starting with the big jacuzzi and then going on to the big pool. I made him do a few laps too. There was absolutely no issue whatsoever and Johnnie did the rock thing no problem. Which is why I get so confused why he doesn't like doing it. Was it because the pool wasn't heated? I mean it was really hot out too. Anyway he seemed just fine that he did it and even asked me if he did good. Ok so he did it merely to please me. I guess I'll take that. I gave him several rewards too. Joe Joe's. Fritos. Ice cream. Gave him extra noodles for dinner. It was 5 PM and so he got to eat with me. And despite me yelling at him about swimming I think he was doing just fine. Of course by 7 PM and Lisa still hadn't called I already knew that she had gone over the cliff again. And so I had to mentally and emotionally prepare and reminded myself to simply shield myself emotionally and to let Lisa simply be Lisa. I called her before 7:30 and that call confirmed Lisa had already gone over the dark side. One question from her mouth summed it up: "Why couldn't you have supported me in the past so I wouldn't have to deal with all this alone?" I refrained from reminding her that being alone and free from ME was her wish. And that helping her with anything was not something she welcomed. Lisa being Lisa. When she finally did come there was no dramatic interchange. I told Johnnie to hug his mom when he got to the truck. Which was exactly what he did and which kept Lisa from blowing up at me. I told them I'd see them Monday and simply walked off. THAT is the best we could do anymore. Today was not the Saturday I envisioned. But there was plenty to be thankful about.  It was more about the avoidance of negative things than the manifestation of good ones. Still I did not let the negative take control and that by itself is a good thing.