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.

Holiday Cheer and the FRB

I woke up this morning and I already knew it wasn't going to be an ordinary Friday. I only had one meeting today but I also had cleared my schedule this afternoon so I could throw a holiday lunch for my teams. Boy, gone are the days when I only had to deal with a few people about that. Now I actually have 10 people on all 3 teams and I booked a table at El Cholo downtown so we could celebrate. Hey, last year we were in the middle of a surge with no vaccine just yet. This year, though the omicron variant is starting to surge as well, most of us are already fully vaccinated and not really as concerned. The absence of the concern is why we are getting the fastbreak to come back to the office at the FRB. And which is why I am there this morning. I wanted to check out what needed to be moved. I almost forgot how to badge in and get in to the parking lot LOL. It was familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.  I also needed to get out of my own office and move my stuff to my "new" office which is Gloria's old office at the PAC. No more window <sigh> and I already felt claustrophobic in there. But hey, maybe I won't even have to think about occupying it at all huh? Anyway, taking my stuff down from the old office was really a non-event until I started taking Johnnie's pictures down. I moved into this office I believe in 2016 or 2017 so I had been here for a while. I took a pic of what this would have been on a Friday pre-pandemic with my feet up and everything LOL LOL. Anyway before I knew it, it was already 1 PM and time to walk over to the restaurant which was by the Staples Center. Since Faith had shown up today at the FRB as well I invited her to our holiday lunch. If this was a pre-pandemic Friday for sure we would have gone out somewhere to eat, foodies that both she and I are. Anyway I posted pics from the restaurant. I also had to announce that Kennedy was leaving and so this turned out to be a goodbye party as well.  He still simply wants to get reverted to part-time status, at least until I can find a replacement for him. Knowing our history with Victor, I am not so sure I could pull that one off. We'll see... In the meantime, at least for today we had a good time and we had a great lunch I thought...

As soon as lunch got done, I went back to the FRB simply to pick up my bag and go on home. It was a Friday after all. I would have been real happy to spend Friday night watching the new season of the Witcher but I got a phone call from Johnnie, fresh off his last day of school <see pic> asking if I could come over for dinner. I know Lisa was already tired and simply needed someone to watch him. Which I was very glad to do, even if I had to be at Lisa's house to do it. 

It's ok. I didn't eat all that much. I was still full from lunch <hey if I'm going to drop $400, may as well eat up right?> and I had eaten leftover spaghetti from last night too. As it was I  ended up washing dinner dishes anyway and since Lisa knocked off I gave Johnnie his shower and tucked him in bed. 2nd time I'm doing that at Lisa's house in less than a week. I love you my Kid Bug (a change from Little Bug at Johnnie's request). I'll see you tomorrow. And I had to stop and think thoughts of gratitude for a very good day.

Memories from 2014

A little time travelling today. Seven years ago we were implementing EPIC. And we brought home Johnnie that Monday <pic of the meeting with FeiFei at the IAC that Friday before>. It was a period of time that changed my life obviously both at work and at home. A seismic shift such as it were. I just went back to remember...

A Day At the Zoo

Today is 11/11. Veterans Day such as it were and Johnnie has no school today. Which meant no need to get up real early and push to get out the door by 7:40. We still had breakfast from McDonald's. And for me Thursdays have now become back-to-back meeting days with the IS Team, the EHR Support team and then a project meeting on roster management. All went pretty well and by 11:30 I pronounced to Johnnie that we could leave for the ZOO! It turned out to be a warm day today. Like mid-80s warm. And so despite leaving later than usual, getting the tix printed at Staples then stopping for a couple of fried chicken wings and water since it was so close to lunchtime already, AND THEN hitting traffic on the 5 North, we got to the zoo before 1 PM. Clearly we weren't the only ones that had that idea today. There were lots of people there. I had memories of the last couple of times we went to the zoo Johnnie and I. It was before the pandemic obviously. And it was during late summer. Though it felt like late summer today. The difference was that there weren't that many food places open. And those that were obviously were configured for covid social distancing and so the lines were long. I had to stop us for food around 2 PM because I was starving. And then we waited almost a half hour to order and get our food. But despite all these discomforts, I remember thinking this morning that i hope we have another bonding day Johnnie and I. And all in all we did I think. Johnnie was satisfied he got to see all the animals he got to see. He wanted to keep his ticket too. Aww, is my little bug growing a sentimental side? To me it felt like that day I played golf on a Thursday at Roosevelt. It was just as hot, I started the activity right after the 11 AM meeting then as well and it took just as long since I got home by 4 PM that day. And at the end of the day, Johnnie was tired and knocked off for a good 2 hours after that. I'm just going to post pictures of the day:

Fun Halloween-y Saturday

I'm at Lisa's at 7:40 to pick up Johnnie, or at least I thought it was that time. I was still half-asleep because I stayed up until 3:30 AM watching Roswell. I'm still wondering why I did that? It's not as if it was THAT compelling. Still I knew I was going to be tired all day now and I was going to need to find a brief stretch to find a way to take a nap knowing full well I had Johnnie for the entire day, possibly until late depending on how late Lisa decided to stay at work. We spent the morning shopping actually. At Target. Carter's. Trader Joe's. Johnnie had this list that he wanted to get done. He picked that up from his mom for sure. Included in this list was to get a neon fish and a new goldfish from Allan's pet store. This kid...Still we managed to do all shopping, half of which was for Lisa BTW and by the time we got done, we simply picked up Panda Express lunch and were back in the house before noon. THAT was when I was able to steal about a half hour while Johnnie watched the Wild Kratts. Afterwards, he reminded me I promised to take him to the fair. We passed a Halloween Pumpkin patch right across the street from Trader Joe's. So close to the apartment we could have walked to it. It seemed like a great idea to pass away the afternoon, especially after I finally got my nap in. What I did NOT expect was that it became an actual M&M afternoon. And I'm simply going to let the pictures tell the story. We had so much fun, including the life lesson on the rock climbing wall when I kept telling him to look up and he made it all the way up. He was so tired he knocked off on the way to the pet store. I simply turned around and let him sleep. And made us pizza. Lisa for her part called late and it was like a Thursday night actually. She was glad he was sleeping. I ended up dropping him off around 7:45 when he woke up and when he got a full pizza in. We had a great afternoon Johnnie and I. We ended up having a Halloween together after all!

Just when I thought I was out... I get pulled back IN

How long has it been since I used to go to Lisa's office to do payroll and admin stuff on Saturdays?! I mean I did that for many years. And when we got Johnnie, I cut that down to going there at lunchtime and then working the afternoon. I still drove Lisa to work all those Saturdays. But it has obviously been a while.  At some point I stopped going altogether and ceded all duties to Nikki and Lisa. I think that was early 2018 already so I would say it has been almost 4 years since I have been in Lisa's office in any capacity other than a patient or visitor picking up Johnnie. But then a favor is a favor and I will tell you I'm more anxious to do a good job here than I am with my talk next week.  And so dutifully, as if we were still married, I brought breakfast for all and then got a very quick introduction and went over the front desk script. Fortunately for Lisa, I AM really familiar with Open Dental and so I didn't have any qualms looking up schedules and due balances and all that stuff. And of course everyone is depending on me to get lunch. Just when I thought I was out... they PULL ME BACK IN!!! And so I posted pictures of the day, it told more of the story. To be honest, it was a real easy day actually and I think I did just fine. I saw that Lisa had comandeered Angie to do some of the previous manager work she used to do. So really she's ok from where I was standing. We had a pretty good lunch, patient flowed, procedures were done, money was collected. Bim-bam-boom, Johnnie and I were out before 3 PM!

It did not escape me that I won't be seeing Johnnie for the next 3 days. In fact, I need to get my head into conference mode starting tonight. But Lisa did not pick up Johnnie until 8 PM and really I didn't mind. I milked every second I had with Johnnie today. Told him how great a job he did at Lisa's office taking patient's temperature and giving them hand sanitizer. Such an awesom kid we have. We even got to play some baseball outside, it being such a nice warm day and all. After Lisa picked him up and I basically didn't get back into work mode. I got a lot done while I was at Lisa's though.  And so my Tech Council presentation is pretty much all done too. I'm good to go.

Greg's Goodbye Party

So what do I do my first Saturday with no Johnnie and no Lisa? Well go on over to her house of course LOL. And I took Claire with me too.  I wanted to wash all my bulk items and what better washer to use than Lisa's huge washer instead of going to the laundromat?! The last time I did that was about 3 months ago I think. It's time. And I decided to do one of my big pillows and all of Claire's towels to boot. Of course I wanted her in a controlled environment so I set up barriers so she stays in an area I could easily track. The one thing I noticed is that I am far more worried about her now than I am with Johnnie.  Great. No wonder I'm feeling a little bit of anxiety being alone with this dog?! Anyway I posted a pic of me folding Lisa's clothes. Yep, those would be Lisa's clothes. She left them in the dryer and then left a text asking one of us (me or Courtney) to put them away. Lisa just being Lisa. I had to do it because I needed to use the dryer obviously! Anyway I didn't get to the house until well past 9 AM. I had to have some breakfast first didn't I? And so I made myself nice and comfortable since I knew it would take at least a couple of hours to do the laundry. It's actually like being in a laundromat since this isn't my house but at least I could watch TV. And I could get some food to eat too. It gave me memories of that last summer before I left his house when they were in Hawaii. I had the place all to myself then too. I didn't like being alone in this house. I'm much more comfortable in my small apartment. While I was here I was mulling over numbers to see if I had enough to retire on this year and then I started to think about July 2013. That would be the time I pretty much had a schedule all to myself. I had just been let go by USC at the end of June that year. And I just got an offer from QueensCare and I was waiting on an offer from UCLA. And USC was still paying me which they would for the next 2 1/2 months still. I did not need to work. But work I did. I chose QueensCare and here I am 8 years later almost to the day actually. It was great to start something new. Lisa and I had just visited her uncle in Vegas, Lisa and I played golf, I ran a lot but back then I needed to go back to a job. Same place I was 7 years before that in 2006 when USC Dentistry let me go too. But that July in 2006 turned out to be the best time I've ever had and the best time with Lisa. So see? Not all Julys turned out to be like 2018. Most of them were plenty good actually. Anyway I spent the morning just relaxing at Lisa's couch, even watching Wolfblood which I found on her amazon Prime video account. Had me a nice fish sandwich from Burger King too only interrupted by Scott driving by, and leaving his present for Greg for tonight. He wasn't coming citing a danger to his wife with the Covid Delta variant picking up a head of steam in LA> though those of us that are vaccinated really aren't all that worried. 

Anyway that was the event of the day, Greg's goodbye party at Industry Hills. For some reason though the afternoon seemed to compress. I was getting this and that, puppy food for Claire, my golf clubs at Lisa's and pretty soon it was already almost 4 PM! The party started at 5 PM! And I knew without a doubt I would hit some kind of traffic. Still I got to the venue at 5:30 PM which really wasn't so bad. A lot of folks were there already. Of course the only ones I would know were Chris and Mandy and they would not get there until well past 6 PM. They must have hit the same wall of traffic from the westside as I did. Only my familiarity with the area got me there without relatively little stress. I mean it was like driving to my mom's house, which of course is just a few miles away. As far as the party, they really went all out. They had sushi for hor's doeuvres. Free drinks until the dinner got started (and then I paid $5 for a coke!!). I mean this thing was legit!! We were seated at a table with all of Greg's folks that he played golf with although really it was already enough to simply catch up with Chris and Mandy. I hadn't talked to Mandy since before the divorce actually. Their son Connor was not even one the last time we saw them. Now here we were, he's 3 turning 4 and Johnnie is turning 7 in a few months! Time sure passes. It was really good to catch up with them and I was very glad that I came, if not to hear Greg speak - according to his wife, as much as he ever had in 18 years of marriage. She is social and gregarious and a fitness instructor, and they as a couple would fit into one of those questions like: how did THEY ever get together? WHo knew?! The party had a full entertainment slate too. A comedian. A singer. and dancing. We made it to 9 PM with the comedian and then I started to worry about Claire all alone at home at night. And so I begged my leave. As did Chris and Mandy who had a sitter to worry about.  It was a really nice party and when I got home, Claire was doing just fine. Or so I thought...

Anniversary

3 years ago before I moved out of Lisa's Maplewood house and i filmed myself traipsing through the lush backyard grass that I tended myself only because I knew (a) I wasn't going to get to do that anymore (b) that grass would be replaced sooner or later and I wanted to remember it.  The first video was of that day. The video below that, almost exactly 3 years later. Lisa had replaced the grass, it is lush again finally. And so I filmed myself traipsing through the grass too. No commentary there. Just an anniversary of sorts. And just to remind myself. Never say never. You just never know... All it takes... is a little time.