Day 3 at Westlake North

So with yesterday's morning jaunt to Eagle Rock, I would have thought that the hard part was out of the way. Turned out this morning's hop to Westlake North was just as bad. That's because there was NO parking at all at the Health Center. I had to park at a street across from the main street right near Belmont High School. Talk about a loopback to the past.  There was a homeless person throwing all his trash around right by where I thought I could park. I didn't want to park there. But there was one more spot on the street a couple of cars away. That was it. Fortunately, I was able to get there 10 minutes earlier than usual because I didn't stay on Vermont the whole way. I went the USC route through Union. Man all this routes had me transporting back to the past somehow. This was the route I would take from USC to Lisa's old apartment at the Orsini. LOL. Anyway I did manage to get to the Town Hall on time although I couldn't really stuff my face first because we got started the second I walked through the door.  The best part of these Town Halls of course is Porto's. And I even posted a pic of the spread from yesterday at Eagle Rock. Westlake North is just as small as Eagle Rock really but the difference with the audience was night and day. They were simply much more engaged this morning, although maybe we were better too as speakers. I did my gift card giveaways and even got to use my "I love my job and it's not just something I go to, it's something I get to do" from Ernie Johnson quote. Anyway the Town hall went great and then I had to stick around through the rest of the morning because the QueensCare TownHall on Zoom followed shortly. That one clearly had a way different feel since Barbara was running it and time was very strictly rationed with the speakers. Still I did my 5 minute deal and finally all was done for the day. 

It turned out though that I would stick around a lot longer than the Town Hall. I decided to stop at Gus's down the street from the Health Center because (1) I saw Larry was eating some barbecue from it (2) I saw Eloisa, Lupe, and Emma walking that direction. Eh, why not just get lunch there. It was past noon already anyway. And so it was that Eloisa bought everyone lunch <thank you boss!> and I got a free hamburger and fries and coke for lunch which was a pretty good deal. It was actually very nice to break bread with some of my teammates, something we hadn't done much of since the pandemic. If anything, it helps humanize us all when we say our stories, when we talk about our kids, our friends, and anything non-work related.  The only thing was that I was worried that Claire had been left alone for that long. As in since 8 AM this morning. Almost 5 hours. But when I got home she was sitting quietly in the bedroom patiently waiting for someone to come home. I rewarded her by giving her a bath this afternoon. Not only did she smell much much better afterwards, now she can actually jump up on the couch and hang out with us. With only Hollywood and E3 left the rest of the week I could at least let out a bit of a breath this afternoon. I was a bit concerned that an email came through saying we were going to meet up at 8 AM tomorrow morning (the speakers). There's no way I make that. Heck I'm barely showing my Daily Pass at that time. I'll simply do the best I can.  I picked up Johnnie at school and then it was off to Panda Express this evening. That worked for me too since I brought back some rice and veggies and simply added on some of the shaved beef for protein. A fine dinner it was indeed. And then after dinner Johnnie did his parade of snacks and desserts. But tonight it was different. He wanted to watch a movie and he wanted some popcorn too. SO I put on SING and he watched that with said popcorn (see pic). I was in "chill mode" myself and it had been a while since the both of us had seen that movie anyway. Besides, the new Sing 2 is coming out in December with pretty much the same cast of characters. Johnnie enjoyed the popcorn and then so did I, which made me full and bloated for the evening. Hey at least it was a chill Wednesday midweek night. And tomorrow being Thursday, I am looking very much forward to the end of the week...