The Lunch at Brooklyn's

So Lisa told me on very short notice yesterday that Brooklyn's mom invited she and Johnnie to come over for a small Christmas get-together today. I assumed I was invited too and told Lisa I wanted to go. To which, she had no objection to whatsoever. In my mind, when it came to Brooklyn and her family, it was already implied that I was invited. I see far more of Brooklyn and Bailey getting dropped off in the mornings at the school gate by her grandmother. It was me that took Johnnie to pizza the day of his actual birthday WITH Brooklyn and her mom. So for me there is actually a comfort level with this family and  I kind of surprised myself actually at the enthusiasm I showed about going. Hey it's Saturday and Johnnie and I are supposed to be hanging out today anyway aren't we? It was supposed to be a lunch at noon which gave me plenty of time to lollygag around MY house for a Saturday morning without any sense of urgency whatsoever. I got up, made myself some hot tea and Hawaiian bagel breakfast and watched some YouTube videos. And even had time to clean my toilet which I hadn't done in a couple of weeks. These days the apartment is cleaned in sections, and I get to the dirtiest  parts first. Or should I say visibly dirty LOL LOL.  And so I got to Lisa's house at 11:45 and Lisa was barely done taking a shower. Usually I'd be twitching mentally about being late but today, without that sense of urgency whatsoever I didn't care when we got there. We were definitely not late at all actually and when you go somewhere where you get the feeling that you're expected, it's all good. Very cool even. Besides Brooklyn, and Bailey there were a couple of other kids there already playing with some put-together-and-paint stuff and so Johnnie immediately joined them and launched into build mode. And then he wnet into play mode and would stay at that "setting" for the rest of the day.  The cool thing about the backyard of Brooklyn's grandmother's house was that there was a mini gym out there with monkey bars and  a mini rock wall and everything. The kids had a blast. Look at the pics I took of him hanging out with Brooklyn. They are pretty cute together I will admit. And so is little Bailey. In the meantime, Lisa and I did manage to socialize with the other adults that were there, particularly with Blair <Brooklyn's mom> and Michel <Brooklyn's grandmother>. We kind of went indoors because it had gotten warm out. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. And Lisa and I were winterized, with sweaters and everything. I mean it  had been really cold all week. Which was why kept going inside LOL. Who knew it would warm up a bit today?!  They had plenty of food to be sure. We had turkey and stuffing and meatballs and lots of chips and dip. I will say that for the 2nd day in a row I had a really huge lunch, which is the earmark of the holiday season.  Hang out with friends, eat a lot. It didn't happen last year, it wasn't allowed. We were all doing the celebrate from the curb thing. Actual get-togethers are very much welcome this year. And then later on when Lisa got a call from the hair groomer that Claire was done with her haircut, of course she had to go get her and bring the dog to the party. Last time at Brooklyn's birthday party, the dog was pretty much a huge hit and so this time why would it be any different LOL? <see pic> The dog certainly did not want for attention. And even got a nice walk around the block in with several people from the party in tow. By the time we left the party it was well past 4 PM. And both Lisa and I were yawning. I could have used a nap at this point and I would have loved to go on home to do so. But Lisa sort of asked but didn't actually ask if I could stick around and watch Johnnie while SHE took a nap. Oh well, she gets to go first. At least I got a whole bunch of steps in while I was waiting for Johnnie's pizza to cook. Yes, by this time it was already dinner time for Johnnie, especially since he didn't really eat a whole lot of lunch. REally just a bunch of grapes and strawberries and crackers. In other words, his usual lunch LOL LOL. And so I basically made Johnnie 2 Trader Joe's pizza for dinner and by the time he got done, so did Lisa's nap. As soon as she came back down, out I went on home. I was tired too. Remember I need immediate downtime when winding down from social situations. I made a pit stop at Mitsuwa to get my dinner as well. Pork katsu curry over rice. Something that would heat me up on a cold night like tonight. And I spent the rest of Saturday night binge watching the Witcher on Netflix. And I thought it was pretty good actually.  And by the time I got too tired to keep my eyes open I merely reminded myself that I am in full on holiday mode already a week before Christmas. And the get-together's that I had already gone to, even in this time of a continuing pandemic, I felt grateful that I'm getting to celebrate it with other people and that this year is already way WAY better than last.

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...

D-Day: My Conference Presentation

So it's finally here, the day I'm presenting. I felt ok and ready considering I had gone over at least the first 10 minutes more than just a few times rehearsing it in my head and out loud.  My presentation was right after lunch and I am surprised that I'm pretty relaxed this morning considering I had other stuff on my mind. I had to pack, check out, and figure out a way to lug my extra clothes around. Oh and there was breakfast. Eloisa warned me last night that the breakfast wasn't any good and so I went to Starbucks and got breakfast there. The line was pretty long too. I guess I wasn't the only one that had the idea. Anyway, I made it to the 8:30 keynote (where Eloisa spoke for about 5 mins BTW). I enjoyed the session and I like it when the speakers are uplifting and high-energy. Maybe I need to incorporate some things for MY speech right?  And then for the rest of the morning I sort of just walked around the vendor expo still rehearsing my speech. I did run into Eloisa and Marina at the cafe and I sat down with them to have lunch. Funny that that simple chance encounter enabled me to work out some work stuff. (a) the incident from a few weeks back regarding Daisy and how I cut off Barbara just to stop the barrage on Daisy. I explained that I was trying to protect my teammate. Simple as that. Eloisa understood. Marina? Not so much LOL. And then Marina and I managed to handle the data stuff that I was holding up. All that in a half hour. I didn't eat much. I couldn't. I was starting to get into pre-game mode... 

So I'm going to cut to the end of the day. My presentation went really REALLY well I thought. Better than I expected. The email from Philip the NACHC coordinator said it all. We rocked it. Knocked it out of the park. People were engaged, asked a lot of questions and I was actually approached by a few people afterwards asking more questions. A couple said it was the best presentation of the conference so far. Small sample size I get it. And it's only the first day. AND any positive feedback is always great. No negative feedback either. All in all I think my audience was over 75 people. Pretty decent I thought. Better than the CCALAC conference anyway. Anyway as soon as my talk was over, I changed into my civvies and headed to the airport to fly home. I got a text from Eloisa too telling me how well I did and that she appreciated my candor at lunch today. All in all I felt really really good about how I did. And then when I got to the airport I realized I was a full 2 hours early. And so finally the adrenaline started coming down and I started to feel tired and all I wanted to do was sit and close my eyes. Reflection will come later.  And finally I started to feel hungry. I wolfed down a fish sandwich from Burger King and some onion rings and in a little while I was finally headed home. The flight was less than an hour. So just enough time to ascend the descend really. I told Lisa this morning that I wasn't going to need a ride since I took my car. It would end up costing me $80 actually but that's ok. Also I had parked a full 2 terminals away yesterday morning. I sure got my steps today. To the tune of 12,000+ already and 133 active minutes. I am already close to the 280 benchmark 2 days into the week! When I landed I started to shift myself into back-home mode. Which means I have to pick up Johnnie and think about the rest of the week. I still have 2 days of presentations to go after all. I made a pit stop at Panda Express Marina del Rey because I still felt a little hungry and i didn't want to stop for tacos. Actually I did at Taco Bell Westchester but the drive thru line was really long. I got to Lisa's by 8:20 and when I walked through the door Johnnie practically jump hugged me! I gotta tell ya... I had a really good presentation today but the moment Johnnie yelled "Dad" with a big hug was an even better feeling! And so we started my watch... I was so tired. And we were all in bed not much later than right after we walked through my door. A very VERY awesome day.

Throwaway Day 2021 version

So I woke up this morning, and with no Johnnie in the house I figured I'd get to focus stuff I wouldn't be able to if her were around, that's how much attention he commands. But then again after breathing out from that easy Tech Council Meeting yesterday I had one more work-related project to finish. That would be the 5 Performance Evaluations I needed to finish by tomorrow. Plenty of time I told myself. No need for urgency at all I said. If I were still working at the FRB, today would usually be HIT Roundtable meeting Thursday which meant I would hang out until noon, walk to CCALAC do the 2 hour meeting and then chill the rest of the day. It's a throwaway day. How many times would I go to Macy's after the CCALAC meeting and browse clothes and then take my time walking back to FRB? Of course, working from home made today very different. I actually did get started with the performance evaluations but I only did the scores. I still needed to write up the narratives. And that is what takes time. Of course I still get stuck watching YouTube videos and these days, I'm consuming whatever I can about retirement and investment. After all I'm already up to nearly $900K in investable assets. The goal now is to prepare for retirement AND to line up and lock in my investment strategies. With a year's worth of savings and potentially enough to live off of dividends the rest of my life. The fact that I've gotten here already is HUGE CAUSE to BE TREMENDOUSLY GRATEFUL. Considering that is already less than 10% of all Americans. AND my car is now mine and fully paid for. I posted the title to it since it came in the mail today. ANOTHER HUGE THING TO BE THANKFUL FOR. That would be the 2nd time in my life I have owned my own vehicle outright. Damn I miss that Acura. It would still be running today if that darn Sandra didn't wreck it. But what about the picture above it? That would be me walking home after getting my lunch at Ralphs. I got myself one of those sweet tomato basil soups reminiscent of the soup from Champagne back in the day. I wonder why I miss that place so much? Lots of lunches there after golf at Penmar on many a summer Sunday to be sure. And that was pre-Johnnie LOL. Now of course it is closed as it has been for a while. I also got myself some fried chicken... since I didn't want to cook anything. Hey for $3, it is a DEAL. So instead of the CCALAC meeting, it's eating fried chicken and watching whatever nonsensical thing is going on in the world. Such as people still not getting vaccinated. Unbelievable that the numbers are pretty black and white... Everyone that is still catching COVID is unvaccinated. Sure there are cases among those that are, but they are either symptomatic or at worst showing mild symptoms. Anyway you can only shake your head at the idiocy of some people. Same idiocy I'm trying to build some patience for. Maybe it's about being ok that some people do STUPID STUPID things. And that you find some compassion for them anyway. Anyway lunch was followed with a nap for almost an hour. It registered only 22 minutes on Fitbit but hey a mid-day nap is ALWAYS good. The rest of the day just sort of went quietly. I did get half my performance evals done. And with no Johnnie hand-off tonight, it was pretty uneventful. Boring even. Hey what do you want for a throwaway day??