Routines Routines

I know I know, I really wanted to get back to routine today. Much as I would like to pin that on Johnnie and how it benefits him mostly, that isn't true. It benefits me too as I very much prefer routine. You might even term that as b-o-r-i-n-g. I don't care. And so I was very comfortable with Johnnie getting breakfast at McDonald's drive-thru, eating it with Coyote Peterson, AND then out the door by 7:40 to get to the line to get in. Hey if anything, we are NEVER late. And we wouldn't be today. Those things that happened to Lisa on Monday isn't something I tolerate, let alone allow to happen. The result is Johnnie walking in with Brooklyn AND her sister Bailey while it was still a bit foggy out. See the mist on the pic. And the drop-off itself took all of a few minutes and I'm home by 7:51, doing steps early because I never know how the day is going to go. Actually, today I do know. We have another Town Hall tomorrow morning - for the FRB this time and I have to have yet another presentation for all of 5 minutes. Still, I do already have my material all down, all I have to do is finalize it. And I have all day to do that. In the meantime, I do realize that today is the last day of November. Can you believe Christmas is about 3 weeks away? And we have just one more month until the end of the year? I gave myself a soft target of the end of the year to decide if I want to retire or not. Am I comfortable with the amount of money I have already amassed to retire on for the rest of my life? The thing was I wanted to have over $1M combined in all of my 401K accounts in order to do that comfortably in my mind. Right now, I'm at about $835K and so if that is the deciding factor, then I can't retire on 12/31. Of course, If I can add $170K before then, well... I am also reminding myself that I have another $78K in cash already stashed off, which should carry me for a year if worse came to worse. Now to turn THAT into something much larger... Can I do a BHAG and turn that 50x into $3.5M? After taxes I'm left with a cool $2.1M. And YES I CAN retire off of that for sure LOL. Ahh, numbers dancing in my head. 

I chilled for the rest of the morning after meeting with my team for the first time in more than a week. By then the morning mist had given way to the warm sun though the ground was still visibly wet. And I even went to barbecue the chicken I bought this past weekend. It was then that I realized that of all the meats, I didn't like the way I barbecued chicken! Steak-fine. Pork chops-great. Italian sausage-fantastic. But chicken? Maybe I just don't do it well. Or I simply prefer something else. I did eat it for lunch, the chicken that I grilled and I ate it alonside soba noddles to make it Asian-like. But I was left with dissatisfaction, and later on for dinner, I made it up by making myself impromptu pot roast. That's because Johnnie requested penne pasta with chicken noodle broth. AND since we were at Ralphs anyway, asked for some chicken wings. He ate 2 of those to augment his chicken noodle dinner. And then I bought pre-made pot roast and augmented THAT with celery and carrots. Perfectly fine roast over rice. By then I had also given Claire a bath, which I did after lunch. I had it in my mind that she was going to try to sleep next to Johnnie since he had already decided he was going to start sleeping on the couch instead of on the same bed with me. And that is perfectly fine. Look at him doing just that. He even asked to go to sleep early, which meant he had HAD a pretty good day. After all, it was also basketball day today and he was excited to tell me that most of his friends from last session was in this session as well. And so with that, he was probably already tired. Tired enough to go to sleep by 8:30!! Wow. Seeing him sleeping softly like that tells me that all is good in the world. And there is nothing I could ever worry about in my work world that Johnnie's well-being could not overcome. As it was I had nothing to worry about. So much so that it was so early I decided to keep binging on the Blacklist. Binging through Season 8 until almost midnight. Watching Raymond Redidngton blur the lines of morality and ethics choices and a code of conduct. Watching Liz infuriatingly keep trying to get answers. I think about Johnnie and his curiosity. Does HE have all the answers he needs about himself and his birth parents? I hope so. I sure do. For now, coming home from a fun day at school is enough. Enough for him. Enough for me.

Back To Work Monday

Man it is so difficult to head back to work on a Monday after a long weekend, and especially in my case, a almost an entire week off. Did I actually get R&R while I was not working? That's debatable considering I had to spend time with Silvia who was also here on vacation, and then the amusement parks I took Johnnie too.  Still it wasn't like I was working so that's a good thing. And then I reminded myself that my trek to work was actually getting up and going to the kitchen to get tea and then going back to the bedroom to my desk LOL. Then again Monday morning drama came in the form of Lisa calling at 8:15 right at the time marker between being on time and being late. She couldn't get the Daily pass she says... even though I got up specifically at 6:15 AM just to create one to send to her. Apparently Johnnie had thrown the dog down the stairs and Lisa was furious and had to stop and have a talk with Johnnie. Me being ME I would have said we WILL be talking about it after school since I also want to make sure he gets there on time. Just Lisa being Lisa. I do agree that he needs to be disciplined about not being too rough with Claire as I myself have observed that behavior from him. And he already knows it is not acceptable. This morning I tweaked my routine a little. Instead of walking around the neighborhood to get a start on a 15,000+ steps day, I decided I'd simply do aerobics in the living room while I was learning about some more cryptocurrency stuff. I do have to get the basics down on staking as I do not want Bud to come see me and be disappointed that I know less than I let on. Also the act of watching the basics gets me ever so closer to actually taking action. By mid-morning, it had warmed up considerably again and I got myself a nice turkey lunch from Marie Callenders and got my steps to 8000+ to boot. 

I was hoping it would get me primed to actually do work in the afternoon, but honestly there wasn't any that was tagged as urgent. And so I just kicked back on my couch.  And so I was willing to let the afternoon cruise into evening and simply waited for the time to pick up Johnnie from Lisa's house. By the time I headed over there it was nearly 7 PM. I figured I'd give Lisa no reason to feel rushed over spending any more time with Johnnie. I will admit that all her talk about how she felt a little depressed Friday night stayed on my mind. That was the night we stayed in San Diego and had a blast at Legoland for the day. Could there be a time when we would invite her to hang out with us? Maybe in the future. But not now. Besides, didn't I include her with our movie night on Saturday? Anyway tonight's hand-off was relatively uneventful and after I did the El Pollo Loco drive-thru and ate my dinner it was already almost 8 PM! By this time there seemed to be no more need to have any more discussion with Johnnie about how he plays with Claire. He didn't rough house with her more than usual. He did do so with me but I will admit I didn't mind it in the least. And so I let him watch his Wild Kratts, let him do his job sheets, and tried to plan what lunch I was going to send him off with tomorrow. One thing I can be absolutely certain about. We are NOT going to be late tomorrow. Tonight Johnnie actually declared that he was ready for bed by 8:30 PM. Wow. Early night for him tonight. I wonder if he needed extra sleep because he got up too soon this morning?  Eh. that hardly seems to matter does it? He also declared that he was going to sleep on the couch from now on. That's going to be ok for a while but now I really do have to think about getting us moved some place with a bedroom for him. And so it was that it wasn't even 9 PM yet but he was already prepped for bed, brushed and flossed, and it took all of 3 minutes before I heard him breathing softly. he was already fast asleep. All is good.

Golf Sunday End of LONG Weekend

So this morning we're at Roosevelt Golf Course with a 9 AM tee time. Just Scott and I of course and I have a feeling it will be that way from now on. And that is ok. In fact, I already have it in my mind I will probably need to get used to playing as a single at some point LOL. Hey I'm just glad to still be able to keep up the Sunday routine. This morning I got to the golf course about 20 minutes early and I simply brought my clubs up and sat on the dining porch by the putting green <the food place hadn't opened yet> and I just sat there watching some of the foursomes before us tee off. Looks like slow going for the ones that I saw. And that means it's going to be a slow game again. I remember the last time Scott and I played with that uber slow fivesome that was more interested in talking and doing verbal horseplay with each other than actually playing golf. I put out the energy that it wasn't going to be as bad as that today. And that I was going to enjoy playing. And so it was that I swatted my first shot off the tee 200+ yards down the fairway, then chippped my next shot on the green. And nearly made my birdie putt before settling for a par on the first hole! That would be the 3rd time in 3 weeks that I have gotten a par on the very first hole! Now to work on sustaining that energy throughout the course. It was funny how we were matched up today. There was the Asian guy who drove his shots far but way more inconsistently than even myself. And he had a bit of a temper/control issue as well. And then there were the other 2 guys we were paired with. Just out on the course more in the mold of those guys I talked about that played slow. But since 3 of us weren't slow, they had to keep up.  And we still had our share of banter throughout the game. In the mold of "everything is me pushed out". I filed all their information away to review later on, sort of as a barometer of where my mind was at and where my thoughts were focused on. After I shot a bogey 5 on Hole 2 I was feeling good about myself, as I seem to have rediscovered my 5-wood to get myself 150 yards or so. I hit the trees on the short Hole 3 but still managed a decent 5, and even though I didn't hit the ball well off the tee on Hole 4, which supposedly was my favorite hole, I still managed to get near the green after 3 shots. I 3-putted from there to a 7. And when my 2nd shot on the next hole landed in the sand, I was in danger of letting my game go awry. I shot a 7 there too. So how I pulled myself together from there I don't really even know LOL. What I did was go bogey-par-bogey-bogey on the last 4 holes, all with great first tee shots. The 5-wood off the tee on Hole 7 was especially satisfying because I haven't had a good first tee shot off that hole in a while.  I just got myself in rhythm was the difference. Focused on my breathing and breathing out to release tension before every shot. And so my tee shots were relaxed and in rhythm. Gee. That is the formula isn't it? And so it was that i actually had a good game for the 2nd week in a row. There is hope yet LOL LOL. It was noon by the time we got done. Despite all the slowness in front of us, we made it out in 3 hours and that's ok. Since it was lunch time already I decided to stop at Sidewalk Grill to get myself a koubideh kabob for lunch. And gulped down a huge Coke too. It had gotten really hot again and though November is already closing out, I am not complaining about the warmish temperatures. It was 1 PM by the time I got home and I was ready to shut down for the rest of the day. I tried to take a nap but found myself lazily channel surfing and taking sneak peeks at the Rams game <which they lost>. I did catch up on the latest Marvel series: Hawkeye. Got the first 2 episodes in. Sort of a how-things-came-to-be episodes. And then I got the rest of my laundry done. My week long vacation is over. And it was a very eventual one. Knott's Berry farm, Legoland, Cayton Children's Museum all in the same week. And Sing 2 to boot. AND I did manage to keep my steps log and active minutes on track as if I weren't on vacation. All keeping up with weekly averages. Caught up on the journal too. The only thing I didn't do was my groceries. Ahh. I can do that tomorrow. And I went back to binging on the Blacklist until after midnight. Sigh. I guess I need Johnnie around to get long hours of sleep huh... I miss that kid too. Hope he had a good day today. Ready for a reset tomorrow.

Home and Then Sing 2

So I didn't really make any plans today but we spent a 2nd night at the hotel anyway.  Johnnie thought the sleep arrangements were very cozy and I really did think he had a great couple of night's sleep. I know I did even though I was so tired from yesterday, I would have dropped to snooze no matter where I was. I just figured we would do our usual Saturday just hanging out. Except that we're also in the middle of our trip back home. So we took our time getting showered and ready and packed up and we still went to McDonald's to get breakfast, though this time using the kiosk made it much MUCH faster to get our food. I wanted to stop at the outlets too but it wouldn't open until 10 AM. No matter, plenty of other outlets to go to on the way back. As it were we stopped at the one in Orange. They had a Columbia store there, and a Carter's, and a Gap Kids too so you see where my head was at. Nothing for me obviously but I did manage to get some rain gear for Johnnie for $30. Not that it even looks like it's going to rain any time soon. It was another warm day out today in fact. By the time we got going again it was nearly 11 AM. And by the time we were in the vicinity of home, by LAX it was nearly noon already. And so we made a pit stop at Panda Express Marina del Rey and brought lunch to the apartment. And so we were home by lunchtime enjoying Johnnie's teriyaki chicken and my fried rice and chicken breast. It was a nice, quick jaunt to San Diego I felt, but it also felt good to be home again.  And you know Johnnie, the second he made it through my door it's on with the Wild Kratts Creature Adventures, especially since he discovered the earliest episodes from the 90s. I mean they were showing really old computers with those big keyboards and big box monitors still. But I will admit to feeling a bit of nostalgia myself even seeing the old gear. And so this turned into just a regular Saturday... until Lisa called around 2 PM checking in on where we were at. I'm sure she misses Johnnie even though we were only gone for a couple of days. Today Johnnie had it in his mind he wanted to watch a pre-screening of the movie Sing 2 which isn't supposed to open until Christmas. Except for a one-time showing tonight. Or course he has to ask for mom's permission for that one since I am due to hand him off later on.Lisa proceeds to let me know that Michael Villanueva was coming for dinner. I compromised by asking her to invite him to come along to see the movie. And maybe we could even all get dinner afterwards.  This we got an agreement on for all concerned. And so I sprung for the tickets and Johnnie was all happy that he gets to see the movie early! One thing about this kid, I told him we could see the movie but only if his mom agrees and he already had it in his mind from early this morning that we were going to see the movie anyway.  So Johnnie and I finally went over to Lisa's around 4 PM and Michael was already there.  And so we all had an in-theater movie experience together. I'm sure this was Lisa's first in a while. Heck I'm sure it was her first actual movie in a while too LOL LOL. Johnnie and I of course had seen Shang Chi at the movie theaters already. As far as the movie went it was actually very good. It did not disappoint Johnnie to be sure. Having U2's Bono play one of the characters was a treat.  It would have been nice to grab a dinner out after the movie. But this time it was Johnnie that started acting up about wanting to go home and have his chicken noodle soup. And this time Lisa had to talk to him about behaving. I wouldn't have discussed anything. We would have eaten something there. We compromised by eating Baja Fresh, which I hadn't done in a while either and I had myself a shrimp burrito and we all had dinner at Lisa's house. A modified movie-and-dinner night as it was. Still it was something different and by 8:30 I was starting to fade. Hey, it had been a long LONG weekend already. And I wanted to actually rest up for golf Sunday tomorrow. So drop off all done with a little activity on the side, I went home and watched UCLA crush Cal to finish 8-4 for the regular season. Were they disappointing this year? Sometimes. But I would take 8-4 for ANY year for UCLA football let's not kid ourselves. They had a good year with a bowl game coming up.

A Day At Legoland

We ended up going to Legoland today. Got there at 9 AM before it was even open to the General Public. When we rode the boat ride, we were the very first guests to ride for the day. We did 3 rides before it was even 10 AM. For sure we got our money's worth today. We were there until 4 PM and then we went to Grace's house so the cousins could say hi to each other. Pictures are worth a thousand words and so I'm posting the pictures here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TC8Xn46lgABRV5QvsBjQLh6KbK7ZAZAbyZyAGKVBks8/edit?usp=sharing

Thanksgiving

So this year we were headed to Newport Beach for Thanksgiving to spend it with Bud and Diana and whoever Elam was there. I spent the morning packing Johnnie and I for San Diego and Legoland tomorrow, deciding that we should just go right to San Diego from Newport Beach tonight. And that also included getting the car washed as it was horribly dirty. And so with breakfast, the car wash, and Johnnie getting Grandpa Bud's present all ready, that pretty much took the bulk of the morning. It was another beautiful warm day and the sidewalks were littered with leaves from last night's winds. And Marie Callender's a couple of blocks from me was absolutely crowded with folks getting their last second pies for dinner or lunch tonight such as it were. In the meantime, before I dive into the events of today later... I quietly sat and thought about what I was thankful for. I'm thankful that I get to play and roughhouse with my son the way we did when he first woke up this morning. That I get to hear him squealing with laughter. I'm grateful that I have much more money than I will ever need, that dropping a couple of hundred bucks for Knott's Berry Farm, another bundle for Legoland, and another $300 for hotel room near Legoland is something I don't even think twice about and does not even affect me in the least. I'm grateful for my health, even in the middle of sniffles and a head cold. Hey it's the first cold I have gotten since early 2020. Nearly 2 years. I'm grateful I can even log 11,000+ steps a day like I have the entire year 2021 so far. Best of all I am grateful I've been around people I care about and who care about me all week long. Never a substitute for that.

And so it was that Lisa came by at 2:30 PM so we could all go together. And she brought Johnnie his tie-dyed DIY shirt so we could all go tie-dyed LOL. And the rest can be told in the pictures below. Scenes from Thanksgiving 2021. A far cry from last year's version might I say. And one MORE thing to be thankful for...

Johnnie and i took off around 9:00 PM tonight headed for San Diego. And we got to Motel 6 by 10:00 PM. No time at all we were both tucked in bed and asleep ready for a full day tomorrow...

Silvia's Last Day

So today was Silvia's last day and Lisa is supposed to be dropping her off at the airport for a 9 PM flight back to Paris tonight. She was supposed to see the Kederians in the morning but I told her that if she got back by lunch, we could go for a goodbye lunch or something. I didn't think it was any big deal since Johnnie and I are just hanging around the house and actually just resting from yesterday's Knott's Berry Farm adventure. I had picked up a head cold either from Johnnie or Gayane and I'm a little congested and my throat is a little sore from all the phlegm. And so I thought I would just chill and rest for the day. But Silvia called around 11 AM that she was actually at the house and taking me up on the lunch thing. And so, I got Johnnie all readied up and picked up Silvia and headed to the Third Street Promenade. I figured that would be the place where we could have choices of restaurants. And we actually ended up at Cheesecake Factory. We had done this with Silvia once before at the same Cheesecake Factory some 4, maybe 5 years ago when she was here. And she remembered it. As it was we ate outside at the patio, had a nice view of Broadway and Third, had some really good food, lots of chicken for Silvia and we ended up having a pretty nice lunch actually. And then afterwards, since the Cayton Children's Museum was right next door, and Silvia had actually found it last weekend, we went ahead and did an hour or so for the kids. And so her last day turned out to be a pretty eventful one after all. We dropped her off, hugged her goodbye and finally off we went home so I could get my nap. No trips anywhere tonight as I remember being stuck on the 10 Freeway one year when we went to Elaine's house. No food for the hungry either like many night-before-thanksgivings of year's past. It was just me and Johnnie, some penne pasta for him and beef broccoli for me. We have the rest of the weekend to do still... But in the meantime, here are the pics from today as it really was the highlight of the day...

Knotts Berry Farm

It bugged me Silvia saying it was her dream to see Disneyland just one time. Sigh. Oh well. She should have caught Lisa back in the day, back in 2013 when she came for the first time to see her and Lisa took her around to see everything in San Diego. She should have thrown in Disneyland then. Today we all have to settle for Knotts Berry Farm because I couldn't get any reservations. Oh well, the Universe must have had a reason. Anyway Johnnie was still excited to go. And we started with breakfast at Elysee, got to Knotts around 11 AM, with Johnnie regaling us with singalongs of everything I had on my playlist the entire drive there. As for the park itself, I thought we would be spending a great deal of time at Camp Snoopy. That turned out to be wrong as Johnnie wanted to go to Ghost Town instead, not really realizing all the big rides were there. That he wasn't going to ride obviously. Still the one thing that stuck out today was the LINES. The shortest wait we had was about 45 minutes. And lunch would have turned into a super fiasco if not for Silvia pulling out her handicap card. Turned a 2 hour wait into a 25 minute wait. And I was grateful. Anyway, I'm going to let pictures tell the story. It was 5:10 and already dark when we got back to the westside. I stopped to get Panda Express for Johnnie at Sawtelle, then headed us off to Crimson for dinner. Lisa came home early from work with another distress story. It turned out to be a long day. But certainly, one for the memory book.

Thanksgiving Week

So it was going to be a short week to begin with but then I threw in vacation days for all 3 days prior to Thanksgiving so I could have the week off. I did this of course anticipating that Johnnie and I would be hanging out in Disneyworld Florida. But since that fell apart, I kept the days off anyway. I figured I'd still have some Johnnie time whether just us or with Silvia Tuesday and Wednesday. But today it felt just like a regular workday. And in fact, since I was reminded to do timesheets this morning and I didn't do them this last weekend. I ended up working a bit anyway. And when I headed out to do steps this morning, then it really did feel like a regular workday. I got the first 5000 steps done before breakfast and I actually fixed me a nice omelette as a reward. And then I realized while checking my email that I still had the HRSA survey to do. It is due tomorrow but why not just get it done today so I actually DO get a day off tomorrow without thinking about work. After all, I also discovered I had a problem. I promised Silvia we'd be going to Disneyland tomorrow. I even had Dexter buy his ticket and everything. But when I tried to get the required reservation for tomorrow, it was way WAY too late to get one. As in, the next open reservation was January 2022! Uh-oh. I immediately sent word to Dexter hoping he could help but... no go. And so I had to think about a Plan B. That would be Knott's Berry farm instead. I was SO disappointed.  You know how I hate disappointing people too.  But here's where I just have to shrug my shoulders and say it is what it is. Maybe there was something inside of me that simply did NOT want to spend $500 tomorrow though I saw how quickly I was willing to drop $600 for a Laker game when Johnnie was crying about not getting to go to the Clippers game with Lisa. Anyway, if I had any illusions that I'd knock off that HRSA report before lunch, that was dashed when I didn't even bother to download my data until after lunch. I was very firmly in vacation mode though clearly I was working. And so it was that I ended up getting my stuff done but not until well past 3 PM, and then got myself in the vicinity of 15000 steps. Then and only then did I reach out to contact Lisa for Johnnie hand-off.  

Lisa being Lisa, I was pretty much ready for anything and I was mildly surprised that all that turned out to be was that I was going to bring El Pollo Loco for dinner for everyone, including Dexter, including Courtney. No problemo. 10-piece meal deal it was! I was ok with all that of course, Silvia being around and being hosted. I was happy to have dinner with all. At the very least, it would finalize plans for tomorrow morning for myself, Dexter, and Silvia. Dexter, for his part, brought all kinds of Filipino desserts. Dexter being Dexter. And normally I would have jumped all over the buko pie, the bibingka. He mentioned it was fresh off someone coming off some plane. I was simply glad we had dessert. And so we got to catch up again... after all, I hadn't really seen Silvia since Friday night. That quickie drop-off of the dog last Saturday did not count as all that got me was a hug with Johnnie. And speaking of which, through all that, Johnnie played with the dog, played with some new Lego pieces, ate his pasta. It was like he and I were just waiting for everyone to get done with the socializing so we could go back to my apartment and on with the routine. And as it were, Lisa provided us with an out as she started socializing with a neighbor while bringing in her trash bins. Brought Gayane with her. And so with that, we didn't have to wait for her. Off we went home Johnnie, myself, and Claire. I swear I don't even remember her giving Claire a bath anymore. she stunk so bad. Clearly, Lisa was depending on me to do so <give her a bath> smh smh. I didn't care about any of that, it was time for prep for tomorrow at least for me mentally and emotionally. It is one thing when it's just Johnnie and I going around the park by ourselves. Quite another with Silvia AND baby Gayane. And anyway Johnnie is 3 years older from the time we went he and i back in the day. He could barely make some of the rides then. Not anymore. Hey I might not have really gotten time away from work but I will recover and at least my vacation will start tomorrow. It has to. We'll be at Knotts Berry Farm and I will otherwise be incommunicado.

Sunday Golf

It feels like there is yet another hold on fall as it turned out to be another summery day today. And believe me I am absolutely not complaining. We were at Penmar this morning and though it was just Scott and I, I looked forward to having a good game and yet another opportunity to deprogram my golf bad habits. While having breakfast this morning I just had it in my mind that i was simply going to enjoy today no matter how I did out on the course. I keep telling myself the formula. Relax, keep my heart rate down and not to get myself rushed. Block out the anxiety. It's just play. And I tell myself that week after week after week. That I still haven't gotten that down is testament to how dug in my existing patterns are. And how much I need to do in order to dig them up and let them go. Actually today, somehow I was able to overcome just enough to have a decent game actually. Starting the first hole with a par is always a good thing, even if it took me 3 shots to get to the green. The key obviously is to get close to the hole on that 3rd shot. Which I did and so the par putt was easy. I reminded myself that I started last week at Harbor with a par too. And that hole was considerably harder than this one. The key is to maintain the consistency. Just hit the ball straight and not to worry so much about the distance. In the meantime I settled into some kind of groove. I know this because I felt myself being present with the moment. Noticing the monarch butterfly flying around on the short Hole 3, immediately thinking about what Johnnie would have to say about seeing one. I felt the warmth of the sun on my face all day, which turned into some sweat by Hole 6. It was cool how Scott and I were trying to encourage each other all game. I mean really, there is absolutely NO reason we couldn't shoot bogey golf on this course. And Scott actually hit 4 bogeys in a row until he ran into some trouble on Hole 5. I was wildly inconsistent. But at least I had 2 pars out of the first 4 holes. And then I hit 2 straight 6s on Hole 6 and 7. And then got a par again on Hole 8. I'd say 3 pars would be minimum competency on this course LOL LOL. But 3 pars is still 3 pars and despite being inconsistent, I couldn't really say I played all that badly either. In the end I felt good about my game and I felt great that I got out to play on such a nice day. And THEN I brought home the usual salmon kabob from Crimson for lunch too. All in all more than just a pretty good morning. I didn't feel like doing anything the rest of the day. And usually I wouldn't even think of Johnnie and Lisa today but I was thinking they were probably doing something with Silvia and I made myself available mentally should Lisa call and present an opportunity to hang out with them. Turned out she never did which was ok too.If yesterday was all about R&R then I would say that today was more of the same after golf. AFter all I have all next week off, all 3 days before Thanksgiving anyway. And even though I still have responsibilities for work... like doing my team payroll and submitting COVID vaccination reports <HRSA> no way was I intending to get them done today. Not on the weekend where I have the week off. Instead I continued to be as in the moment as I could. I noticed the leaves falling on my block, how warm it remained until late and even the evening chill did not necessitate the need to change from shorts. I did grocery shopping too... this time the Trader Joe's run. And I ate Asian beef and onion over rice, the packaged meal from the Japanese market. AND to cap my Sunday evening, to finish my weekend I turned again to the ongoing travails and adventures of Raymond Reddington and Liz Keen in the Blacklist. I remember around the time I'm watching late, I would usually watch Person of Interest. I guess I'm bound to watch something late at night. Still I am looking forward to next week. Thanksgiving week. And I still have to lock in all kinds of stuff I planned to do... Disneyland. Legoland. San Diego. A hotel perhaps? 

UnRoutine Me Time

So as per agreement, Lisa and Johnnie and guests were headed to Pasadena this morning which meant that it would be a waste of time to try to go over and hang out with them for breakfast as per Saturday routine. And so last night I accepted that I wouldn't be seeing Johnnie today which would be the first Saturday in a while, since summer anyway when they were in Maui. And that's ok. It simply meant I got time for ME to do all the other "stuff". For a split second there I thought how things might have been different had Johnnie and I been on our way to Disneyworld Florida today as per my original plan. And then again ascribing to the premise that everything is ME pushed out, I think I need to figure out how I myself derailed that with some other-than-conscious thinking on my part. Did I NOT want to make the trip? Hmmm... And then I heard from Lisa first thing anyway while they were on their way to Pasadena. Turned out they left Claire the dog and she was asking if I could look in on her. Well of course she was. And of course I said I would... not like I had anything better to do anyway. What I did was go over to her house right around lunchtime and pick up the dog and took her to my apartment. And while I was over there I helped myself to some leftovers from last night. There was plenty of mac-and-cheese, plenty of Panda Express and no one ate the chicken I don't think. And so I ended up having a pretty good lunch from my own hand. And then off I went home for the rest of the day. I would end up bringing the dog  back around 9:30 PM and by then I figured even if they didn't get back until well past midnight, then at least the dog wouldn't be alone but for just a couple of hours. And as it were they got there about the same time as I did, and I ended up seeing Johnnie anyway, if just for about 5 minutes. That he was awake was somewhat surprising. I  dropped the dog off and gave Johnnie a big hug as I know tomorrow I really wouldn't be seeing him and they were actually planning to spend most of the day with Dexter anyway.  It was all good. I went home and finished my steps and at least got myself to 10,000+ I had padded steps earlier in the week so no need to push real hard and then I kept binging on the Blacklist. And by now I'm up to Season 5... 

I spent the afternoon actually watching the UCLA-USC football game. This year it didn't really feel too meaningful although the 2 programs are clearly on different arcs this year. USC is in total disarray and might end up having its worst season in a while, certainly in more than 20 years. UCLA was having its best season in a while, certainly since the Mora years 7 - 8 years ago. Back then I have clear memories of celebrating UCLA wins while we were in Vancouver over Thanksgiving weekend, and then while having lunch with Jessie and Henry and crew somewhere in LA. Coach Chip Kelly hadn't had a winning season in 4 years. And so you could say it was sweet to see them hang 62 points on USC today at the Coliseum. I can remember going to the game during the Pete Caroll-Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush years when they hung 66 points on a hapless Karl Dorrell led UCLA team. Man I was quiet while everyone in my row was badgering me and I was seething inside. Seething quietly. Well this.is.payback. Came 15 years later but it did come. And it clinched a winning season for the Bruins in 5 years. And if they win their bowl game, they might actually finish with 8 or 9 wins this year. If you would have told me that at the beginning of the season, I would have happily said yes I'd take it. It's gonna be a good day tomorrow. No commiserating with Scott about another UCLA loss, not this time.  And so I might not have gotten as much ME time or the kind of ME time that I thought. But I did get some R&R in and that works just fine with me.

A Reunion

If it's Friday before Thanksgiving week and the Friday of Tech Council week, then it should be a TANK FRIDAY. I had every intention NOT to do anything for work today. I was going to have a leisurely breakfast, watch some shows on TV, peruse my usual complement of YouTube videos on trading and manifestation and then later on in the evening, we planned a barbecue at Lisa's house. At first it was just me and Dexter but now apparently Henry and his pregnant wife are coming to. And so it has turned into a bit of a reunion of sorts. But before all that, there was still today.  I still needed to do a little work, if not to do payroll timesheets, to answer whatever and whoever would be pinging me today. I could sense my own irritation every time I got a ping. "What do they want NOW" I could hear myself say. I was especially irritated when Rody the former Communications Manager, now Director of Development waited too long to track my FCC telehealth application for $250K that was about to get denied. It annoyed me that he sort of expected to talk to Eloisa, it irritated me that he wanted me to do some following-up. I felt like telling him to do his damn job. They're paying him more money now aren't they? I am not going to hand hold him, not for this one. Someone fucked up on my application and he took over that responsibility.  But hey this being Friday, the day did go by pretty quickly and soon it was to think about Friday night already.

I got to Lisa's house by 5:30, with 4 steaks and about 6 chicken breasts, courtesy of a sale at Ralphs (for the chicken). Of course they weren't back yet from Lisa's office or whatever it was they were doing this afternoon. I figured I could at least start doing prep work. Get the barbecue warmed up anyway. I started peppering up the steaks and cutting up the zucchini and then Dexter showed up. He brought drinks and dessert. And he started to help with the cooking of the meats. This whole scene had a degree of familiarity. How many times had we done this before? It was nearly 6 PM when Lisa and friends came home, and of course Johnnie was fast asleep. I at least got the chicken and veggies ready and then Henry and his wife came along.  They brought mac-and-cheese and veggies too. I was happy to see him as I missed more than 3 years of news about him. He had gotten married, they had moved, and now they're about to be parents for the first time in just a little over a month. Exciting time for them I'm sure. I don't think they have any idea how much their lives will change in that time. But then again who can be adequately prepared really. After all, we got told to pick up Johnnie on a Friday for that Monday 2 days later. We had nothing, no crib, no anything. And we got ready that weekend LOL. Fun memories. Anyway we all got to sit down over some nice steaks and we got to do more reminiscing. After all, there was a time when Henry went with us EVERYWHERE. Heck he even sat Johnnie for us every once in a while at the Westwood apartment. And it didn't seem all that long ago that we would be pushing Johnnie around in his cart at one of the many soccer games I used to attend. I was a fixture at those games then. Boy, time sure does fly. One day I was pushing him around the soccer field as a baby, and then in a flash we're having a parent-teacher conference with Johnnie's first grade teacher. Anyway Henry went with us to Paris, to Italy, to Greece. Lisa called him her little brother. WEll, Little Brother has grown up apparently and I'm glad for him that he seems happy. Happy for them both actually. I stuck around for a while. Longer than I usually do anyway. Johnnie in the meantime, was asleep until I was almost getting ready to leave.  And then when he woke up he started to stir around and start being his usual energetic self. But by then I was already on my way out and I just gave him a hug goodbye. It WAS nice to see Henry after all this time. It is always nice to see Dexter under any circumstance and it was special to get us all together like this. And I have to give kudos to Lisa for that. She's in her element when getting people together even though that wasn't exactly her original intent or idea nor is she particularly good at getting all the details done anyway like... the cooking. Lucky for her I enjoy doing that and I was happy to feed everyone. And so it turned out that tonight's version of Friday night wasn't exactly like most others. But it was a pretty good one just the same.  And as Lisa says, I mostly need to get urged to do some socializing. And this one fit the bill exactly.

Can We NOT Have Any Lisa Drama?

This being the Thursday and the day after Tech Council Meeting, I expected it to be a chill day. And actually the only thing on the docket today would be the Parent Teacher conference with Johnnie's teacher Ms Hwang at 1 PM. Unfortunately gone are the days when I would spend today at the CCALAC HIT Roundtable and sort of waste the day away. But hey I would sort of waste the morning until the CCALAC meeting at noon anyway and so today can sort of be structured the same way. I grabbed lunch at Chipotle so I wouldn't be hungry because who knows what happens after the meeting. I told Silvia I would take she and Gayane to Penmar Park playground until I had to pick up Johnnie from school. So first things first: the parent teacher conference. Already Lisa was dealing with drama. She needed Silvia to drop off her medicine but of course Silvia was not too expedient about it. And so Lisa cut it close with the 1 PM meeting. But as it were, we managed to have an uneventful meeting. It was good to hear that Johnnie had started to behave better after he realized Ms Hwang talked to us about him and there were no more behavior issues since. AND it warmed my heart to hear Ms Hwang say that Johnnie is one of her highest performing students and that he got along with everybody. He only needed to focus a little more on not making careless mistakes. He only made a couple of them but hey look at Lisa and I being perfectionists wanting Johnnie to get 100% score on everything. I guess we'll just have to settle for 95% for now. And so meeting over and successful I made a quick stop at Burger King. I figured I needed a snack and threw in a chicken sandwich for Silvia.

LISA's DRAMA And so I went to Lisa's house to meet up with Silvia. First she wasn't there when I got there. She got back 10 minutes later obviously from another Target run LOL. And then she needed to put Gayane to sleep. I was confused of course... how were we going to go to the park to play if she were asleep. So I just figured I'd show her all the entertainment stuff Lisa had access to and didn't know how to show Silvia. And so I did. Showed her all the stuff on Amazon Prime, on Netflix, on Disney Plus. Why she would be sitting home bored at any time I'll never know. We never did make it to Penmar. Because 4 PM snuck up on us pretty quick and that was the time I was going to pick up Johnnie. And I still had to go back to the apartment to gather up Johnnie's stuff and pack up the dog. My mission was to drop off Johnnie at Lisa's house and supposedly Lisa's parents were going to take her home. I guess I'm not staying long tonight. By the time I picked up Johnnie it was already starting to get dark and I at least wanted to make sure Johnnie had a good dinner. And so off we went to Mitsuwa to get him some udon and tempura shrimp. By the time we made it back to Lisa's house it was already 5 PM. Boy did the time go didn't it? I stuck around long enough to make sure Johnnie had his dinner and then off I went home. It was Thursday night after all and to me this WAS the Johnnie hand-off. Until I got home and realized that once again I forgot to pack Fuzzy. Sigh. And then Lisa called. It turned out that her parents weren't going to be able to come until it was already almost 8 PM at the earliest. Shocking. She needed a ride home since Silvia had her truck and wasn't picking up her phone. Lisa's phone no less LOL. I was ok giving her a ride, but for some reason she wanted to wait for a bit. She wanted to do some more work. It was like she wanted to prolong her own agony. I would get another phone call 20 minutes later. This time from Silvia. Apparently Lisa finally got through and who was there with Silvia? Courtney. Lisa asked Courtney for a ride and Courtney said NO she couldn't because she had another long drive to look forward to. Silvia didn't want to pack up the kids, not if I could pick up Lisa. And so yet again I come to the rescue. I gave Lisa a ride home, she got there by 7:30 PM and Johnnie had already gotten showered. See? Eezy peezy. Now we all to hear about how disappointed Lisa was with Courtney. Never a shortage of drama with Lisa and her orbit isn't there? I told Silvia I'd bring her DUnkin' donuts in the morning and that I looked forward to comning back tomorrow night for a steak barbecue. I went to my boring apartment and my boring life, at least compared to some. And I couldn't be any happier that that was the case.

Finally Getting To See Silvia

Today was a busy day for me. And not because of that Little Guy with the now missing front tooth again <see pic>. Thank God it came out under Lisa's watch. And now I don't have to worry about it. I do have to worry about 4 meetings today starting from 9 AM on and on and on and on. Just as soon as I dropped Johnnie off, I made myself breakfast and hunkered down for the day. It turned out I didn't even have time to take a shower. First meeting was with the Data Team, which took 20 minutes and then what used to be the Communications Meeting now reconvened and repurposed and otherwise resurrected. I had a ton of material from the upcoming Tech Council Meeting of course and I just gave an overview of the activities of my 3 teams. I took long enough that I was given a 2-minute warning after a while. And then I had to cancel the EHR Team Meeting simply because I needed to work on other stuff. And then finally the Tech Council Meeting. Unlike the last couple of meetings I actually almost had a full complement for this meeting, which only meant that Marina and Eloisa and Dr Liao all attended. And so as it were, the last 2 meetings lasted barely a half hour. But today, it took all of 30 minutes just to talk about the stuff from the IS Team... which was the very first page of my presentation. It was clear I was going to need to cut myself off after a bit. The thing was that I was not anxious, nor did I feel any urgency. In fact, I was pretty calm and actually got to discuss lots of stuff and presented my information in such a way that engaged those that needed to participate. Well how about that. I ended up having a pretty good meeting anyway. And one that lasted the entire hour such as it were. And of course when I got done with it, came the big sigh of relief. One more month of the Tech Council Meeting all done and I think I can sort of chill for the rest of the week. And since I have time off most of next week, that means I am actually pretty much done until after THANKSGIVING. How about that?! I picked up Johnnie from school, and then we both picked up dinner at Panda Express. It was shaping to be another quiet evening. Until...

Johnnie was already done with dinner when we got a call from Lisa. She wanted to talk about tomorrow's Parent-Teacher conference although we had already planned that a while back. And then reluctantly, I asked her if she wanted us to go over to her house to see Silvia. She then told me Dexter was already on the way bringing pizza. Why can't she just have invited us to come for dinner early on? She is SO weird in that regard. And so we headed over to her house and finally we got to see Silvia and Gayane. It had been 3 years since I saw them, the summer I moved out of Maplewood and settled in to the apartment. And of course Johnnie is now much bigger and now there is Gayane. Lisa came home finally with Dexter in tow, because... why not? All he wanted to do was to hang out with Silvia as well. I had it in my mind that we were going to stick around until about 8;30, which would get us back into Johnnie's bedtime routine. And so the scene this evening was reminiscent of the last time they came over. For once there was food, and I can only imagine how bored Silvia had been all day waiting for Lisa to do something, which of course she doesn't really want to do. Still, Silvia talked about shopping which was not surprising considering she spends most of her time doing that anytime she visits. Hours and hours at Target, or Ross, or any other retail store. She talked about getting ProBiotics which is not so available in France. It was nice to see Gayane, who to me looked very much like Quentin. I can remember Johnnie was her age when we first brought him to France. And now look at the two of them?! Of course we all knew it would only be a matter of time before Lisa started to conk out on the couch. The difference also was now the dog has to be taken into account as she is grabbing at anything she can chew on, including the baby's pacifier LOL LOL. Anyway we all caught up a bit and then talked about getting together again on Friday night for a barbecue at Lisa's. And then Johnnie and i headed back. It was 8:30 and it was time for Johnnie to get ready for bed. It was clear that he was back to his usual self and Silvia commented that she was relieved that Johnnie eats as normal.  I guess everyone that sees what he eats around Lisa thinks that huh?! LOL. Tonight, though Johnnie was sad. He found out that Lisa went to the basketball game last night and he cried because he thought it wasn't fair that he wasn't included. Great Lisa. Break him again. I knew he was still emotional because he cried when I told Claire she couldn't sleep next to him on the couch. ??? Why would he be sad about that? Great. Now I have another mess to clean up...

Catching up

It felt like a day of catching up today. Johnnie catching up on sleep, and possibly needing another catch-up day with nothing out of the ordinary. That's what I'm good at. Keeping the routine. Still, a morning text from Lisa asking about how Johnnie was, and presumably thinking he needed to stay home from school, got a late reply simply because, well, we had already shifted back into OUR routine. And that meant getting up at 7 like usual on a school day and going to school. He was sniffly when he woke up and he was coughing some, but I decided he was not nearly sick enough to stay home. And he was not contagious either if he had his mask on. I mean look at the pic I took later on in the day. Does this kid look sick to you? Without saying it out loud, the simple act of transiting Johnnie to and from in the car with some sense of urgency simply got him yesterday I thought. And God knows what they fed him. But today he seemed very much ok. He ate his usual McDonald's eggs and sausage AND pancakes with no fanfare, which was the telltale sign to me that he was just fine. In the meantime, after the Johnnie drop-off I realized full well that I still had to finish my content for tomorrow's Communications Meeting AND Technology Council Meeting. And I was confident I had plenty of other-than-usual material to discuss. I just had to make sure they made it to my presentation is all. And since MY routine included walking in the morning though not quite to 5000 steps like I would on a Monday, I was still able to rack up 3000 steps pretty easily. And after that I did some catching up on my own. And I needed to not only do my presentation but also wipe out a backlog of almost 600 emails I neglected to read and take action on from the last 3 weeks! How did I let it get to that big of a backlog? Did last round of TownHalls really take that much out of me? Yes it did take a lot of energy to to those things to be sure. But then again I just simply went back into procrastinate mode didn't I? And now hear I am reading email after email, the majority of which were easily delete-able, but then again some that needed attention. Most notably I had gotten behind on my invoice approval stuff and I will get no help there from the Finance Department who are still intent on doing things from the 90s. Anyway, getting my email backlog down to less than 60 by mid-afternoon was a big accomplishment I felt. And by the time I was going to pick up Johnnie I had pronounced myself done with my presentation content as well. See? I got stuff accomplished after all. It did cross my mind that eventually I should make contact with Silvia knowing full well that leaving her alone with Lisa just the two of them is a recipe for unhappiness for both parties LOL LOL. But not tonight. Apparently Lisa had scored a couple of tickets to the Clippers game and the seats were in the Tom Gordon range too so we're not making contact tonight. Tonight it would simply be getting Johnnie back to full strength and getting me some rest for tomorrow. I mean look at the pic of Johnnie and the dog at each other, Claire doing her fake angry bark but no bite and Johnnie unable to restrain himself from attacking back full out. Still picking him up meant hearing about his day with basketball and I'm yet again glad he gets to play with the other kids in that venue since they are not allowed to play in the play structure again for what reason I have no idea. Tonight Johnnie simply wanted some of the Trader Joe's pizza that he spotted was already in my freezer. Hey that works for me... I could easily make myself some spaghetti bolognese. And so tonight became stay-at-home night. Complete with a bath for Claire and everything. Considering Johnnie's state when they dropped him off last night, that was just fine for me. I laugh... it's like they bring him to me damaged and I nurse him back to full strength with just a few hours of sleep. Hey it' s not magic. Feed him because he gets hungry a lot. Let him sleep when he gets tired. Pretty simple. And that would work for me as well. I felt I got caught up today. I know how it is when Lisa gets wiggy about not getting her notes done. I did the same for my work today. And at the end of the day, I'm all good again.

A Tired Monday

I woke up this morning already tired because I had stayed up binge watching the Blacklist. Still. Why I do that I'm disappointed in myself. But at least it got me to stay "put" and do some morning meditation first thing. This week is Tech Council Meeting week so right away I knew today and tomorrow would be dedicated to doing my presentation for that. And despite being tired I still saw no reason why I couldn't keep up doing 15,000+ steps Monday today. I sort of flipped the activity this morning, which was to say I had breakfast first. Centered on my meditation, enjoyed my Earl Grey hot tea and THEN finally headed out for a walk. By this time it was already closer to 10 AM and I did the circuit going to BofA and then around Sepulveda and back and actually did make 5000+ steps and 40 active mninutes by the time I got back to the apartment. Hey it WAS a nice still-unusually-not-cold morning. And the streets were fairly empty (see pic). I did some "I'm a millionaire" mantras too. BTW I also know full well I am more than 90% of the way there already which puts a smile on my face. So tired or not, I was on track anyway. And I felt ok. Of course, every time I put something calming on YouTube, I had the urge to close my eyes and at one point actually did so and did a 15 minute powernap. Hey that's all I needed as it turned out to get re-energized. And I did another 3500 steps picking up lunch at Marie Callender's. French dip with onion rings. Mmmm. By now I have this routine to finish my Tech Council Presentation. And as it turned out the Communications Meeting is earlier that morning so I could present snippets of that as well. But it was Monday and I was getting pinged left and right actually. So much so that my plan of finishing the presentation by tonight did not actually pan out. By the time it was dark and closer to 6 PM, I had done 14,000+ steps and 110+ active minutes so at least THAT can be out of the way. And then I sort of waited for Lisa's call for the Johnnie pick-up.

It was too much to ask for this to be a routine pick up though and really I don't know why I would have thought that. Silvia is in town <though I have yet to hear from Lisa> and I'm sure Lisa had made some last minute plans, just as I'm sure she simply didn't think to tell me about them. Lisa being Lisa. For me it is a reminder that "everything is me pushed out" and then somehow all this reflects my own energy. An energy of impatience. An energy of irritation. I needed to be irritated at something I suppose. Why not Lisa doing the very things she does so often. I drove over to her house since she wasn't answering her calls. It was probable that she was in Pasadena. It was also likely that she picked up Johnnie early and went there. It was 7 PM by the time I heard from them that they were, in fact, in Pasadena. And that Johnnie was not feeling well. Surprise there. Highly likely that he had stayed up with mom and Silvia and apparently he has now slept for the last few hours. gee when did THAT happen last? The last time he stayed up with Lisa was what. And I picked him up sick the next day Friday. Smh. I had no doubt he was not sick at all. I had every belief that he was simply catching up from being tired. Fucking Lisa smh. They would not actually drop him off until more than an hour later, close to 8:30. Of course they dangled around doing stuff. I just vented and raged to myself, cussing Lisa out internally about how thoughtless she was and how she NEVER thinks about my feelings and what I'm doing. By the time they got to my apartment, none of all this stuff that I was thinking was expressed obviously. I suppose it didn't need to be. But the fact that I was whisking Johnnie in to my building without any clothes on because he had apparently thrown up on them was already a bunch of weirdness. And then the fact that he asked for penned and chicken soup immediately was also not a surprise. He eventually caught up with the Monday routine he was used to, which was to eat up, dessert included. And then he pooped some bad stuff out, presumably breakfast from this morning.  And then I let him stay up for just a tad longer. He was still asleep by 10 PM anyway. I will let him catch up on sleep then. Because he wasn't sick at all. Was he tired? Obviously. As I was. I needed to catch up on sleep too. We all did, Johnnie, myself, and even Claire the dog.  Now we're going to get back to routine...

A Summery Golf Sunday

It was hard to believe that we are in the middle of November today, especially when I'm out on the golf course and it is in the mid-80s.  That's right, the mid-80s. It felt like the middle of July and midway through the 9 holes I was wishing I had brought some water. We were at Harbor too which meant a couple of really long holes and lots of walking. It didn't help that I barely had 4 hours of sleep last night, because I was binging on another cable TV series, this time the Blacklist. Maybe it was the story line about Lizzy the protagonist trying to adopt from the very first few episodes and then 2 seasons later, getting pregnant herself and trying to put the baby up for adoption. Of course that is a storyline that is near and dear to my heart. Still, probably shouldn't have stayed up until 1 in the morning watching though. It didn't affect my tee shots I will say that. On the very first hole I swatted the ball 220 yards straight down the middle and then dribbled a 6-iron right on the green from 110 yards out. And actually made my par putt! Wow. A par on the very first hole. I tried to fight off my usual comment..."hey I made my par, I can go home now". And then I focused on my nemesis 2nd hole. And after 2 shots, I was 150 out. Looking good. Until I yanked my iron way left like I am prone to do. And chipped it under th hole. At least I didn't have a blow up hole to follow my par. And then I swatted my tee shot again long and straight on the next hole. I was doing that all day. But I also started to miss on my fairway iron shots and started doing that all day as well. Sigh. And it turned out that the par on Hole 1 would be my last hurrah at a good hole all day. I can't even say I was bad on the 2nd shots because truthfully, I was fine with those too. But my approach to the green was also consistently bad and I started whiffing again right from 120 yards and in. Same old program. I have GOT to figure this thing out! And by the 9th hole the heat started getting to me. After all, it was now in the high 80s!! Still it turned out to be a good day and the people we were paired with were very nice. And it was a way better experience than it was last week at Roosevelt. I will take THAT as the win today.

I stopped at In-N-Out on the way back. The one on Sepulveda and although busy, it was not nearly as busy as the one in Redondo Beach or the one in my own backyard in Culver City. As in I barely waited 5 minutes to get my food. I downed my Coke first thing, wolfed down my double double and I was actually home right around 1 PM. I wanted to take a nap in the afternoon but somehow I found myself cleaning the apartment! Wow. Where did I find THIS energy? Maybe it was because I knew Silvia was flying in today and she may eventually come to see the apartment again. It has to be clean for that doesn't it? I did the kitchen last Friday I know. But the bathroom needed cleaning and I had 4 light bulbs were out and had to be replaced all over the house! And so I did find the energy somehow, cleaned the toilet, got on my hands and knees and did the bathroom floors, did the living room. Johnnie will be disappointed that I didn't clean up with him. For some reason he actually WANTS to do that as a dad-son activity! It was already dark and past 6 PM when I got done. I never even got to the bedroom but at least I also got my laundry done. We talked about me possibly going over to Lisa's to do dinner with Silvia but by 6:30 I still hadn't heard from them and so I figured they just had other plans or maybe Silvia was too tired. Jet lag you know. I just went out and got me some Pad See Iw from House of Thai Taste. And did my grocery shopping. The place sure looked different when all the light bulbs are working LOL LOL. Nice and bright. I just chilled the rest of Sunday evening on my couch. Caught up on my journal. Regardless of what did or didn't happen, it was a pretty good weekend. And a nice and quiet week that was.

A Different Saturday

So yesterday I agreed to let Johnnie work with Lisa at her office this morning. It is MY time with him but I also got to spend last night with him already so I thought it was ok for mom and Johnnie to hang out even though I knew full well she would be too busy to give him any attention whatsoever. Still she got him ready, packed him a huge lunch and tried to keep him occupied. How do I know this? Because I was supposed to come at 11:30 AM to pick him up. When Lisa saw me she seemed surprised. I don't know why. The last words I literally said to her last night as I left was "see you tomorrow at lunchtime". It turned out that she talked to her mom and that she was coming to hang out with Johnnie for the afternoon. WTF?! Now I'm feeling hijacked again. Whenever I feel like Lisa finally starts to factor me in to her decisions regarding Johnnie, she reverts back to forgetting and making plans as if I don't exist. As for Johnnie he was clearly bored and the second he saw me he immediately started to pack up his stuff and said he was glad to be going back to the apartment. THAT took Lisa by surprise and we were already almost in my car already before Lisa called to let me know her mom was already on her way.  We had to turn right around and you should have seen the look of disappointment on Johnnie's face. I had to tell him what was going on and that he had to play nice with Mama Vicky for the afternoon.  In the meantime, I prepped his penne pasta lunch in chicken noodle soup. Hey if I don't get to spend the usual Saturday with him, whatever time I get is fine. 4 minutes, 40 minutes 4 hours. And I got to see that big smile now missing the tooth that had been loose for more than a week now. Seeing that smile and suddenly I'm no longer irritated with Lisa's antics. And then I went on home hopefully to come back later on when Lisa is done at work so I could watch Johnnie while she finishes her notes like she usually would on Saturdays.  I grabbed a double chicken tostada salad for lunch and then knocked off for a while. And a while turned into an hour and a half. And when I woke up I get a call from Johnnie asking me to come back to the office so I could participate in a birthday cake celebration with his mom and Mama Vicky.  Which meant it was also time to pick him up. I get to spend even more time with my son after all. I hung around for the cake and some of Johnnie's green tea (LOL) and then off we went home... after a detour at Panda Express for his dinner for later. After all it was already close to 5 PM.

Immediately Johnnie asked to change to shorts and turned on Wild Kratts. This is HIS normal Saturday LOL.

I can't tell you how much it warmed my heart that when Lisa tried to tell Johnnie earlier that they had talked about how this Saturday was going to be different, he said "but I always spend Saturdays with my dad". Well of course he does. Doesn't Lisa know how quickly Johnnie can get bored sometimes? And what did I get? The pic I posted of many a familiar Saturday with Johnnie on my couch hanging out with me on it too. Of course the relative peace of that moment didn't last all that long, especially with a high-energy Johnnie wanting to wrestle around.  It used to be fun and even funny when he was a lot younger and a lot smaller. Now he can actually hurt you some especially when he got a straight kick right on my face. Maybe I can wait just a little bit longer for him to get bigger. And stronger. We were still playing around in the corner of the street when Lisa came by to pick him up. I fully realize that after tomorrow their Lisa's life will be somewhat upended when Silvia comes in from Paris.  How I am to be involved I'm not really sure and neither one of us knows quite frankly. All I do know is that i'm playing golf tomorrow morning. And watching UCLA finally become bowl eligible for the first time since the Jim Mora era tonight by getting to 6 wins. I reflected a bit on the events of today and how unroutine it turned out to be. By not having to pick up Johnnie first thing I was actually able to spend a couple of hours meditating this morning and actually doing some self-hypnosis to dig up some more older emotional blocks and subconscious resistances regarding wealth and success. Turns out there may have been more inadvertent programming that got installed when I was really young. Some stuff I remembered acutally turned into A-HA moments. I detailed some of these revelations in an earlier post. And so maybe I should be grateful that I did get some ME TIME after all. This Saturday may not have looked like the usual Saturday Johnnie and I are used to, but it turned out just fine just the same.