Happy New Year

Ahh a new year and it's time to evaluate and reset. I thought I had the entire day to do this really, considering I did not make any plans at all today and I knew Lisa and Johnnie were hanging out either in Laguna Beach with her brother, or up in the mountains somewhere. Either way I was already mentally prepared to not see Johnnie this entire weekend and that was ok, since next week is back to the normal routine for all of us.  I actually started to put my finances together for the year and already caught up with my journal entries so that all I had to do was to create a new journal for this 2022. I felt good that I took another step closer to my financial goals at least.  And that I stayed healthy, covid-free and worked from home the entire year. And although I didn't feel comfortable enough to retire this year, I know I'm close. And so with that all that already done, I took a look at the pillow Johnnie uses when he sleeps on my couch. And I thought I needed to get it washed ASAP. And so I left a message for Lisa asking to use her washing machine, never expecting her to be home even. Turned out mom and son were home. And asked me to join them for breakfast while I brought over what needed to be washed. I decided to take the opportunity to do all my sheets then, since it had been months since they were washed. At the same time, I got a ping from Fed letting me know they were taking my mom out to dinner tonight and that they would love me to join them. That I can do too. And so out of nowhere I suddenly had plans for today LOL. I went to Lisa's to do my bulky stuff wash and she was making herself and Johnnie brunch. It was nearly noon. As long as Johnnie wasn't starving that was ok. And although I already had breakfast, I wasn't going to start another fight over a damn meal so I sat and had another breakfast, with sourdough toast and a couple of eggs. And already I thought it was nice that I got to see Johnnie for New Year's Day. It is sort of my way of reversing the shit that happened over Christmas Eve and not getting to see him on Christmas Day. And since I was already there, Lisa wanted to practice piano and so I got to really hang out with Johnnie for at least another hour. I actually did leave by 1:30 though because Lisa got pinged by her dad and he and her mom were coming over at 2 PM. Hey that's fine. I got a load of bulky laundry done and got to see Johnnie. It was perfect. 

So the message I got from Fed was that they were going to Salo Salo restaurant at 5:30 PM. Plenty of time to still chill for the afternoon I thought. Then again in a blink of an eye it seemed, I needed to head out to West Covina already. You never know what traffic is like Eastbound, though it IS New Year's Day right? As it turned out there wasn't all that much traffic, though it still took me about 40 minutes to get to my mom's house. There didn't seem to be anyone home although to be fair, I never rang the doorbell either. I figured I'd just go where everyone else was, and so I went to the restaurant too. I did this a couple of times in fact and then finally when I walked up to the restaurant, everyone was already there. It had been a while since I last saw Fed and Reena and the kids. April 2017. Man Johnnie was not even 3 years old yet. Hey he's older and so were the kids too. Anton is taller than me now and already in college. Sofia is graduating high school and talked about going to UBC in Vancouver. They even asked me if I could be her emergency contact. I gushed all over Vancouver of course. Anyway, we caught up and had a pretty good Filipino dinner. And I even posted a pic of the toron dessert. I remember those days my first year at QueensCare all the way back in 2013 when I even used to QueensCare van to transport them from LAX. These days, they've been to the US so many times, they already have their own friends here. And so they don't really hang out with us all that much. And that is perfectly ok. Which is why I chose to come tonight so I could at least get to see them this visit. Who knows when and if I need their help once Johnnie and I go to the Philippines ourselves? And THAT for sure is on the timeline. I don't know when really. Probably when Johnnie also visits China for the first time.  And so it was that I got to catch up with MY own family and I would mention this would be a heck of a lot more facetime from me than the last couple of years already. Heck I can't remember the last time I saw my mom on back-to-back weeks! And the food of course was filling, if not the healthiest, it was still pretty good. By the time I got home it was already almost 9 PM.  I was so full and had eaten more than I usually do anyway. I sort of just lay on the couch and let my thoughts drift until I was going in and out of sleep already. I reminded myself I really did need sleep tonight. First golf game of 2022 is tomorrow. Wouldn't want to be late for that...