Today is the last day of February, and a Monday the first day of a new work week to boot. I am getting increased awareness that I am getting distracted way too much and getting pulled from things I need to focus on. And in order to pull myself back to center I did more meditation, more frequencies (alpha) and more affirmations on stuff I thought had worked in the past. And I started all this when I woke up at 6 AM in the morning this morning. I reinforced whatever I could about using thoughts and vibraion and energy rather than using direct action. I reminded myself that I know action is necessary, but it has to be preceeded by focus and clarity first. This morning I meditated on experiencing a balanced, harmonious week aheadwhere the outcomes I want come to me with ease and that are in my favor. I know this has already started to work as I saw my resting heart rate go down to 68 this morning. It has not been that low since October of last year and before that, about a year ago already. Maybe it's just a pattern but that let's me know I am having less anxious thoughts which is always a good thing. I also headed out and did my morning walk first thing and I noticed it wasn't as cold out this morning. That's always a good thing. It's probably going to warm up for the next couple of days. I did a new route this morning, walking down Federal and then looping back which gave me a quick 2400 steps. Now I know which route to do if I want to walk a quick mile. Before 8:30 AM I had done 5000 steps to the tune of 44 active minutes, I had eaten breakfast AND I had taken a shower. See? Eezy peezy. Then and only then did I start on work stuff. It IS Monday of payroll week after all so I had to make sure all my tmecards were approved. It is also HRSA survey report week, which means I had to update all my COVID dashboards. I spent the morning building my databases. And then I took a break and walked to Marie Callenders to pick up a tuna melt for my lunch. Ate it right by the fountain enjoying a nice, beautiful day that had warmed up considerably by then. As in it was easily in the mid-70s. In keeping myself aware of the inner tug of war going on, I did all my work stuff AND was fully aware a couple of spirituality-energy based events were going on online. The Shift Network had its HEALING SUMMIT going on and I did watch a couple of presentations. The TAPPING WORLD SUMMIT was going on as well, and both had plenty of material I wanted to watch. But in the end, I focused on image cycling and I knew full well I had not done that correctly, at least to the point were I could be getting consistent results. Thank God I had run into a presentation by Dr David Snyder who was an NLP expert, but who swore by the Image Cycling Process for manifestation and energy work. He is how I found out about the Bengston stuff anyway. And so it was that I actually had a pretty EASY afternoon, just like I imagined. With all the prep work done in the morning, it took a half hour to do the HRSA survey, where it once took up an entire afternoon to complete. And by 5 PM I had already done 13000 steps and more than 120 active minutes. I could have stopped then actually. And I felt really good. By then I had also walked to El Pollo Loco and gotten my dinner early using a $6 coupon to get a chicken tostada salad. Why wait to pick up Johnnie before I got MY dinner? Turns out I'm glad I did. Because when I picked up Johnnie at 6:30, they were barely sitting down to eat. Lisa offered me some steak and spinach that she had cooked up. Pretty good too. I mean this was the first time I am seeing her eat red meat in a while. And I was grateful she offered me some. This whole week was a fun day at school for Johnnie. Today was crazy socks day, and the rest of the week had different themes going on as well. By 7:15 PM, dad and son were at home on the couch chillin', symbolized by Johnnie's crazy socks next to my torn up jeans. Just easy relaxin'. I woke up focused on manifesting calm and relative ease today. And wouldn't you know I got just that. Pretty damn good.
We haven't played the Altadena course in a while. Months I would say. I don't know why really other than before, Chris used to not like playing there. But he hasn't played with us in months too. Me being the sentimental sap that I am, I do remember the Altadena course was the only one open during the first year of the pandemic and therefore we played there practically every weekend for a while. And so I was actually looking forward to today's game as familiar as I am with the course. Not that THAT would help my game any LOL LOL. Actually, I wanted to see if the patterns would continue, that is to hit the ball well off the tee and then get to within 100 yards of the green and then proceed to somehow not do as well from that short a distance. First off, it was another beautiful Sunday and it had gotten even warmer today. And also, it was just Scott and I that played. We didn't get paired up with anyone, which assured me we were going to get done quickly. That was always the attraction with Altadena. if we got started around 9, We would sometimes get done by 11 even. And so it was that we had a 9 AM tee time today. To cut a long story short, the pattern of myself hitting well off the tee did continue. As in I had a pretty good tee shot every single hole except the short Hole 6. I would have a shitty tee shot on the shortest hole on the course. That too is a pattern from Penmar I think. When I almost had a par on the first hole I thought I would have a good game. And I followed that with another bogey on the 2nd hole too. Third hole I was in the sand in 2 but on the green in 3 and then 3-putted for a 6. THAT is the pattern I needed to work on. Finally on the longest Hole 4 I had a whiff right after a nice drive. THAT is a pattern too. Still I was within 120 yards in 3. And then 2 short chips later I turned a bogey into a 7. It was at this time that I felt a little low on energy. How is that? I think I was in a relaxed state waking up I noticed my brainwaves were still fairly low on the drive to the course. As in I felt tired. But then again that could simply be because I binge-watched TV until past 1 AM last night isn't it? Hole 5 was the most typical hole. A nice long drive, a nice follow-up just on the fringe. And then I blew the chip well past the hole into the back fringe. And then rolled the next shot past the hole again. It could have would have should have been a par. I settled for a 6. At least I had a nice hole on 8 with a bogey. I did not have any pars today. And I really didn't play that badly. Just another Sunday eh? At least it was a nice one. And we were done by 11:15. On my way home I decided to get off the freeway downtown. I figured if I felt like having salmon kabobs for lunch, why not get them from Panini Grill downtown? It would cost just as much as Crimson in Santa Monica, with more food. And so it was that the excursion downtown took a little more time since there was actually traffic right in downtown. At least I got to shop at Ralphs across the street from Panini while I waited for my lunch. And I was home by 12:15 anyway. The rest of Sunday I alternated between the couch and an attempt at a nap, and cleaning up finally. Actually I did get my kitchen floors done but not much more than that and that's OK. I did manage to make myself dinner before that... a nice cilantro and lime chicken breast from Ralphs that was on sale for less than $5! I was probably fine eating just that and more cucumber salad. But then I had a hankering to clean out my fridge and make those cook-it-yourself croissants that had been sitting in there for months. Together with the tomato basil soup that had also been sitting in the pantry for a couple of months too. And so I had soup and croissant as well. Plenty of food tonight. And got to clean stuff out as well. It was a nice Sunday and all in all a quietly calm weekend. Which I would take any time.
Lisa asked me to come by at 9:30 AM today so I could watch Johnnie while she went to Pilates. I was only happy to get even another hour watching Johnnie on her day off. They're headed to another birthday party later on so this morning was all I was going to get. And I was determined to make it plenty enough. I didn't choose to have breakfast with them mainly because I just wanted to have my breakfast the way I wanted it and it was an opportunity for Lisa I felt to do her thing with Johnnie. I figured that she keeps complaining about not being mom enough. Well, this is her chance to experience that alone bonding time with him that I have come to cherish so much, and that I hope to experience agian this morning.Of course one look at Johnnie's painted nails and you know what mom and son did last night. He painted her toe nails and then painted his own green and red. I don't know how I feel about this. I want to claim to be progressive and say ah, this is some meaningless thing. I want to be able to say this has nothing to do with someone ending up gay later on in life, not that I would care about that if Johnnie ended up that way. I'm pretty sure he's all testosterone right about now anyway. And so I reminded myself: You don't really have to do anything with him. Just make up something on the fly and turn it into a game. That's how he rolls. Look at his picture I posted of him turning electric toothbrush heads into his unicorn horns. That's how naturally funny my kid is. This morning, I gave him his shower, got him dressed and after Lisa left, he even declined to watch anything on TV. And that was ok. Instead, we kept finding songs on Alexa that he could sing to. I was surprised that he had put practically the whole Encanto album on his favorites. I didn't even think he liked the movie. And then after that he fished for the party balloons hidden in the highest hiding place in the piano room and blew up his own balloons to play with Claire the dog. And then we played balloon volleyball, Johnnie with his ruler hitting it, and me using just my feet. Let me tell you, that wasn't an easy thing for me. In fact, it got me a little bit of a workout. And we ended up playing until Lisa came home a little past 11 AM. You see? Nothing special. But I am pretty sure Johnnie had fun. And with that I went on home and concluded my time with my son for the weekend. I gave a silent "Thank You" to Lisa for giving me a chance for another chunk of time with him this morning. And then off I went to do the grocery shopping rounds. First Whole Foods, then Trader Joe's. I wanted to save Ralphs until tomorrow, for last so whatever I buy, which is really Johnnie's lunch stuff will be fresh as possible. That said I ended up going to Ralphs anyway. For lunch I figured I'd eat something I hadn't eaten in a while. FISH. Too much beef for me in the last couple of weeks so I did a fried swai lunch with the cucumber and tomato salad and rice. And it turned out to be really really good. I spent the next couple of hours lazing around on the couch. And then I forced myself up and got myself to at least clean the toilet. That hadn't been done in at least 3 weeks so it was due. There was still residue of Johnnie's vomit on the bottom of the bowl on the outside so it was not a quick thing to do. But afterwards, I felt it was clean enough so you could eat off it. Now the rest of the apartment... NO it turned out that I didn't actually get to clean the rest of the apartment at all today even though the kitchen floors specifically sure needed it. I just felt too lazy. And I allowed myself to be that today. I didn't do anything consequential either. I think that was the point. Lisa said she and Johnnie were having a lazy day today, well I'm going to have a lazy day too. Even if I had to take yet one more trip to her house in the afternoon since she wasn't sure she had turned the stove off. She delegated that to Johnnie and she was actually not sure he did it. So while they were at the birthday party, i went over there to check. Turned out that Johnnie did turn all the stove burners off. I wasn't doing anything but watching TV anyway. I went from watching Vikings Valhalla yesterday to watching a new movie on Hulu about a girl trapped in a rest stop where killers were hiding an abducted child. It would have been ok except that the protagonist really over-acted too much. Still I had to watch something while I ate dinner right? And what was for dinner? I figured I'd continue the fish theme for lunch and headed out to Baja Fresh in Marina del Rey to get some fish tacos. I got 3 of them to be exact. Didn't expect to be paying $22 but at least I convinced myself THAT was healthier than KFC. And they did turn out to be pretty good too. I ended up binge watching until well past 1 AM tonight. Hadn't done that in a while. Hopefully I won't be too tired for golf tomorrow. But hey, it's Saturday right?
Maybe it was having to "live" at Lisa's house for a week while my apartment bathroom was getting done. Maybe it was my washer not spinning properly last weekend. Maybe it was having to do an 8 AM meeting this morning with the Coleman Associates group about the Dramatic Performance Improvement project at work. Maybe it was a need for more clarity. Maybe it was a tug from the past. Maybe it was all of these things. Anyway just as soon as I got done with that rah rah meeting with the Coleman people, just as soon as Lisa dropped off Claire with me for the day, I packed off all my dirty clothes in the hamper, my towels and headed right back to Lisa's house. Ok, maybe in the back of my mind I was thinking that the spin cycle in my washer isn't working right. Maybe the idea of taking a shower at her house seemed like a good idea. I had it in my mind that this morning I was going to do a couple of loads of laundry at Lisa's AND get a shower in and still be done with all that before noon. I thought that KNOWING that if there was one teeny tiny thing out of place, Lisa is likely to find out and make some comment or blame me for something. Doggone it I did it anyway. I put in my usual load which really was mostly Johnnie's dirty-ass clothes from the week, and then took a shower in Johnnie's bathroom. Something about this shower, or maybe it's the shower cream Lisa has in there. It makes you feel like you are scrubbed clean and your skin is devoid of whatever oily residue it had boy. I mean I felt clean. And then of course the clothes took almost 2 hours to wash simply because that's how long the wash cycles on her machine are. I did get the normal load all dried. I figured I'd just take my towels and get them in my own dryer. Because I was going to leave at noon or as close to it as possible. And I did just that. It kind of felt like how it would feel if I were still living here I guess in the here and now. The gardeners were over mowing the lawn, the dog kept as close to me as possible. And I was home by 12:10. I had to wipe EVERYTHING down of course but that was just fine with me. I was never here LOL.
In the meantime, though I did get a couple of pings from work, it is still Friday and I was not pushing hard, not in the least. I actually got some nice meditation in first thing this morning before I was even fully awake. I think this is where I get derailed actually. I get caught up in the day to day. I get distracted by other things going on. After all there is a full-on invasion going on in the Ukraine courtesy of Russia right now. And it would be really easy to get sucked in to all the news going on. <Instead of focusing on peace for the situation mentally and emotionally> It would also be easy to get sucked in to what's going on with Dexter. As I did call him to check on him today and got more info about his health scare and what is going on. It sounded like he really had major surgery. I mean isn't it major surgery when they have to cut off part of your colon? And you have to poop from a bag as a result? More to come when we talk more after he comes home from the hospital I think. But I also need to make sure I don't get pulled from thoughts of my own good health. I give in too much to thoughts of illness and demise as it is. <instead of focusing on perfect health and commanding my cells to work perfectly>. And then of course there is Johnnie, who I have to pick up from school today. That is a distraction I welcome wholeheartedly as I completely accept and embrace being his dad even 100% of the time. If I were completely self-sufficient enough financially to retire and that were my ONLY job I would welcome it. Tonight I picked him up, brought him home and although Lisa made overtures about having a pizza night tonight, I knew better. I gave him his dinner and held out on mine until the last second. That is, I didn't eat just in case, until 7 PM. Then I made my beef-spinach dish. Lesson learned. Gotta have something ready to go for me too. And true enough it would be nearly 8:30 when Lisa called to let us know she was finally coming home. Nothing new for Johnnie or I. At least we got to hang out for a couple of hours on this Friday. I mean all I really need is that smile in the picture I posted. That toothless smile makes ME smile any time. Raises my vibration almost instantly. And still I was home before 9 PM. AND THEN I gave in to the last distraction. I binge-watched Vikings Valhalla on Netflix. Kind of the sequel to the wildly successful Vikings series. This was just as interesting I thought. Kind of gives one a handle on the early history of England. It was close to 1 PM when I finished all 7 episodes. And finally went to bed. Hey, it's Friday. It's the weekend. And I gave thanks that this week turned out to be a pretty light one. I'll take that any time. How do I know I had a pretty calm week? My body told me. My resting heart rate hit 69 today which is the lowest it had been this year, certainly since before Thanksgiving. And my Sleep Score was over 70 all week long too, the first time I had done that in I can't even remember. Which meant I had the least stressful week I have had in a long time. And that is always a very good thing. And something to be grateful for to be sure.
I was hoping this would be a quiet Thursday. But Thursdays being the way they have been of late, I knew I would spend the morning in 2 team meetings already. And then I was supposed to go to the FRB to meet with Barbara about the furniture in the IS space. Why is that so hard to draw out? Is it because the architects do nothing but generic spaces? Don't these architects have any idea what an IT work area looks like? Either way, I prepared to go downtown, even having lunch at El Pollo Loco down the street from my apartment before going there. It was a good thing that I did. Barbara texted me right in the middle of lunch telling me her back was bugging her and she didn't need to be in anyway. I guess no meeting at the FRB then and that is very very good. Other than the team meetings the day turned out to be fairly quiet actually. Smooth like butter just like the BTS song. I posted the video of Johnnie dancing to it on FB, noting that I had no idea who BTS was. It was kind of true. I heard of the song in some Verizon commercial or something but I didn't know these pop stars were global?! So much so they have a song with Coldplay?? I guess I stopped being hip a while back. And with Johnnie able to repeat ANYTHING he hears practically word for word and note for note, well you get the picture. I mean how did he even learn some of the dance stuff? The cool thing was that it gave he and I something to do while waiting for Lisa to pick him up. She is now going to Pasadena on Thursdays to do her piano lesson and so no early pick up anyway.
In the meantime, there was still stuff going on around me. Russia just invaded Ukraine and in the general scheme of things, I wonder how that affects the universal energetic? Or is it just something to divert attention yet again? Of course there is still COVID but that is slowly winding down too. This week LAUSD pulled its mask mandates for the kids outdoors and I must say it was very VERY WELCOME to see parents dropping off their kids without masks on for BOTH parents and kids. It has been a long, LONG time since we've all been able to do that hasn't it? By Friday, LA County will also match the CDC guideline of no more masks indoors if you're vaccinated. Funny that when I went to lunch, this one guest at El Pollo Loco was asked for her vax card, didn't have one so she quietly took her food to go and then she sat down and ate anyway. No one was going to go to the dining room and force her out. Not really. By now I don't really care anymore as we slowly shift from dealing from a pandemic to an endemic. I'm still not planning on working at the office though. The life I built centered around picking up Johnnie at school isn't something I want to change. And then the BONDING time after school is, of course, priceless. An hour worth of time like me and johnnie filming him doing BTS songs is worth EVERYTHING. And so by the time I drove Johnnie to Lisa's it was already 8 PM. And that was fine. She can take over now. We had had a pretty good evening already.
I spent some time this morning meditating on Dexter and sending him healing energy. No Dex, I am not ready to stop being your friend just yet. I'm not sure why this is happening in my consciousness, maybe a reminder to use my "powers" on those closest to me. Yes I know, that should include Lisa. I also know I need to get myself to the point where nothing she does would bother me anymore, even if she is totally aware of that. That is, that I merely ignore her drama. In the meantime, it is Hump Day and it had gotten colder today than yesterday even. As in it was in the 50s and cold. Look at the kids on their way to school this morning. That would be Brooklyn and Bailey with Johnnie. Brooklyn had slipped a note in Johnnie's book bag yesterday. The note said simply "I love you Johnnie". Awww. I would hope that Johnnie appreciates it and shows that appreciation. This week LAUSD pulled its mask mandate outdoors for the kids. So at least they can see their faces while outside. I bought Johnnie a lanyard yesterday so he could carry his mask all the time. REally he's so used to it, he didn't care. He still wanted to wear his mask. And that's ok. Today, on my walk in the morning, I continued to try to hold myself in a space of gratitude, in the energy of perfect health even while some around me are not experiencing that. I still claim it for myself. Perfect Health. Perfect Abundance. I held myself in a space of gratitude for getting 3000 steps done first thing. For making myself my bagel, bacon and cream cheese with tomato breakfast. For sitting down and enjoying my Earl Grey hot tea. For finishing my Data Team Meeting after a mere 15 minutes. For taking Claire for a walk and enjoying the outdoor crispy cold sunshine. It did get a bit warmer, though not by much. I still managed to head out at lunchtime to get a tri-tip lunch at Ralphs. Kind of the new go-to lunch out in the middle of the week. Might as well enjoy these forays out of the house since I can.
The afternoon was more of the same in terms of work. I kind of got caught up trying to learn. or re-learn Dentrix which I had not done in a really long time. Heck it took me a half hour just to install the client software and load the database, let alone run a report or two. This stuff I am not going to miss I don't think. Barbara's projects I am REALLY not going to miss. It feels like she is trying to keep herself as occupied as possible. And really that is not a bad thing. But the intranet redesign? Waste of time. The Salesforce Grants Management? Probably overblown but hey I was trying to get Salesforce in the organization wasn't I? I was fully aware that there were feelings of impatience welling up in me. And I need to deal with those to be sure. But maybe, all I really cared about was picking up Johnnie at 5 PM and then making us pizza for dinner. I bought the Boboli this afternoon and although I tried my hand at doing a different pizza dough the last couple of times, this was far tastier. I only did pizza so I could also heat up Trader Joe's pizza that Lisa made me take home with me for Johnnie's leftovers. She made a big to-do about him eating it at some point this week. So this way he could do just that. But today Johnnie was actually hyper engaged. He made himself a kite using just colored paper and the cardboard roll from an empty paper towel roll. He made himself a storyboard. And you can see in the picture we took together how goofy a mood he was in. And in the vein of "we chance upon the oddest things", we somehow watched a Disney half hour clip from 1958 about Paul Bunyan. I know Johnnie had heard of Paul Bunyan from one of his classes at least. But he didn't see the Disney version with a song and everything. Heck I remembered it from when I was a kid myself. Who knew we watched Disney stuff when i was growing up in the Philippines?! So it turned out to be a far quieter evening tonight than last night. No calls to Dexter <I will call him tomorrow>, no calls from Lisa <ditto I will see her tomorrow for hand-off night> At least I got my 5 minutes of M&Ms (Magic Moments) with Johnnie tonight. Made up for anything else today and that is a very good thing.
I woke up this morning thinking that it is 2-2-22. I'm thinking that has to mean something in terms of the energy in the Universe right? I keep reading where encountering repeating numbers means a message from the Universe. What does that mean when the world is aware of those repeating numbers? For me this morning, on a local level, it is merely a crisp, blustery Tuesday and the cold was a direct opposite of the summery Super Bowl week. Still, the sun was out so how could I complain? Especially the contrast was from all the stuff happening a week ago, a quiet Tuesday would be most welcome. My schedule was mostly empty all week, which is rare. And although I did have to catch up on a bunch of stuff, I found myself on the couch just chilling until it was time for my IS Team Meeting. And then after that meeting, I was right back on the couch watching YouTube videos. The outcomes I wish to manifest have not changed. But I'm also becoming less concerned with taking action, particularly because last week seems to have made me aware that there were still things I needed to shed. Attitudes. Energies. Old programs. It was like the Universe was trying to verify if I truly wished to be what I said I wanted to be. "Do you really want to take care of Johnnie all of the time? Let's see how you do with a few days of vomiting and pooping LOL LOL. And so I had to respond with a "Yes I do". Hey I'm just fine taking care of him. It's adding Lisa to that mix that makes it challenging. Today she sent me an email regarding a free Spanish lesson that is part of a program that she wants Johnnie to do. Apparently it was Feifei's idea because she is enrolling HER sons in the program. I'm all for Johnnie learning Spanish of course. But not because it is a way to get him academically ahead. We had a discussion about it this weekend Lisa and I. Feifei of course is raising her kids the strict Asian way, with academics being the focus. I had to tell Lisa that I was also brought up in that mold and that it was not something that really helped me in the long run. Yes I got good grades. But at what cost? I believe I paid the price socially and emotionally since I was in a grade with kids 2 years older than I was. And so when I got the email from Lisa with information about the Zoom class for Johnnie, I reluctantly replied to the school. We'll see how he likes it.
And so the day went by pretty quickly actually. And after lazing around in the morning i did manage to get myself kick-started and got work done in the afternoon. At least some of the work that was the minimum necessary for me not to have to think about work at least. Did the minutes to the Tech Council Meeting in fact. That meeting had the energy that people thought there was not enough discussion. In my mind, people discuss too much and with just a little bit more information, merely get in the way. Or is that simply me getting impatient with anything having to do with my job again? I keep telling myself, if I have to position myself where I could quit, then I'm going to need to provide myself with an income stream don't I? One that matches what I am getting right now. THAT is still the outcome I am trying to manifest. And I still find myself mired in old habits and distractions galore. This afternoon, it is that Spanish class I let Johnnie take which I had scheduled soon after we had gotten home. That class turned out to be not so easy at all. It would have been a challenge... for ME! Let alone my 7-year old who got a ton of material thrown his way in just 50 minutes. Still Johnnie was a gamer and counted to 70, did the days of the week, did some words and phrases. I'm pretty sure some of that would stick though I don't know how much during this first go-round. Again we will have to see. The biggest distraction, though not a true distraction was a text from Lisa regarding Dexter. He apparently had to be rushed to the ER for emergency surgery yesterday for a ruptured pancreas. WTF??!! Sheila, his sister forwarded his room info to Lisa who texted it to me. And I tried and tried to call until I got through. Dexter was loopy when I spoke to him. But at least I DID speak to him. At least he was alive and recovering. Kind of puts our stomach escapades from this past week into perspective doesn't it? I was glad he was at least recovering. And I'm glad I got to speak to him. We didn't talk much. I wanted him to go on resting. We will talk more later on in the week. The day was not so uneventful after all...
Today is supposed to be a holiday. President's Day actually... unless your organization decides to not have the day off and choose another day instead like QueensCare did. I woke up in holiday day off mode and had no intentions of pushing hard today at all. Last year it was actually like a work Monday and I didn't do anything other than catch up. I suspect today will be like that as well. When I focused on the week coming up I also reflected on last week and realized that I had just made it through a pretty challenging week. I was having issues physically (eye and stomach), of course Johnnie was having his stomach issues and also Lisa was having stomach issues and the stress of having to make up work in the later part of the week. And it was also Tech Council meeting week. But I made it through ok and this week I do NOT expect anything remotely as stressful. And so this being a Monday, I'm out and about at 8 AM doing my morning walk. The goal as always on a Monday morning is to get to 5000 steps by 10 AM. I was also looking forward to a nice long hot shower since I hadn't showered since Friday really. I know I must be a bit gamey by now. Of course who would call me at 8:45 but Johnnie asking me to come over for breakfast. It wasn't totally unexpected. At least HE has the day off and I was pretty sure I was going to need to watch him for a bit. How long that "bit" was Lisa would tell me. But now he's asking me to come over already and Lisa had to call back to clarify that she was actually good until 9:45. Needless to say, NOW I am feeling a bit of urgency to get going. And although Johnnie asked me to have breakfast with them, I knew full well I better have something on my own right here in my apartment. And so all of a sudden I had to compress my shower, my breakfast, and getting dressed to get to Lisa's house by 9:30. oh well, so much for a leisurely Monday morning. At least I DID get my 5000 steps in by then. Isn't it funny, Lisa only yells and screams and does her crazy woman thing when I'm around. I only get stressed whenever I have to integrate into Lisa's plans no matter what those plans are. Shocking. In the meantime, I was only all too happy to get Johnnie and Claire until 3 PM today. That means we have an extra 4 hours together today and so I don't have to feel like I'm totally in work mode. I mean you can't help but be in a hybrid mode when Johnnie is around you. Look at him in the pic I posted already goofing off with my shoes, a bag of goldfish snacks and whatever art he was already working on. That's Johnnie. And so that also affected lunch. I got him chicken strips from Jack-in-the-box, which meant I got to have Jack-in-th-box for lunch for me as well. And that was fine. I still felt like taking a nap all morning, but I was also pretty sure that was simply me having the LAZIES still, rather than dealing with some bug. As it was I did get to "work" a little. Responded to all posts and chats, even did a meeting where I committed to doing cybersecurity training in May. Felt just like a usual work Monday actually. I expected Lisa to get Johnnie by 3 PM, which she mentioned this morning. This was when she was waxing dramatic about trying to be a good mom, trying to spend time with Johnnie bleh bleh bleh. How could I do the YODA thing on her? Stop trying I wanted to say. Just do it. You want to spend time with him, it is simply a matter of deciding. For me, I know I left him alone for a good chunk of time today. But I still managed to pay attention to him and even watched Cat-In-The-Hat with him for a little bit. It's not about what you do with Johnnie, it's that you do stuff with him whatever it may be. That is all Johnnie wants. And so I was a little disappointed for Lisa when 3 PM came and no phone call, 4 PM came and no phone call. When it was close to 5 PM I reached out and asked if we could bring her dinner. What was important to Lisa at this point was that Johnnie come to her soccer game tonight. I was ok with that even though it isn't something I look forward to participating in anymore. For me, it's simply a part of past history. And if Lisa wants Johnnie there, I'm there simply to take him home with me. And so it was that I got sushi from Whole Foods for Lisa, teriyaki salmon for me, and Panda Express for Johnnie. And then we ate dinner together. And then I brought Claire to my house, met mom and son at the game and watched the first half. Some of the players from before still say hi to me. There was Paul, there was Jen. But after the half, it was Lisa that actually told Johnnie it was ok to go home with dad. Perhaps she realized that I wasn't engaging with the players. Of course I wasn't. I was just there to watch not to socialize. And so we went on home and went on with our Monday night. I ended up having the entire day with Johnnie really. And I was glad for that.
So today our tee time is not until 10:50. That's because I booked it at Harbor Golf Course. Both Scott and I wanted to break away from the monotony of Penmar and Roosevelt and do something different. I do remember just a year ago that Altadena was still in the rotation and I want to play there too next week perhaps. Of course a year ago, Greg was still playing with us. Still, as Scott put it, "not giving up on Sunday golf no matter who I play with". Which is pretty much my attitude as well. Today we were paired up with an older couple and an Asian guy about my age. He hit the ball long. I simply wanted to make it without bugging about being hungry LOL. To cut a long story short, my tee shots were inconsistent today. But my subsequent second shots were pretty damn good and i hit a couple of long bombs from the fairway. The one thing that was different was that I wore my RAMS Super Bowl Tshirt that I got yesterday and right away I got high-fives as I was walking off the first tee. From golfers on the 9th green! I did not focus as I should have on the first hole though and almost did a blow-up hole right off the bat. That isn't good. I did hit my best tee shot all day right on Hole 2. Went 200+ yards and straight. Too bad I blew THAT by whiffing on 2 straight balls on the fairway before getting a hold of my swing and getting the ball down to the green. For another 7!. Hole 3 I yanked my tee shot way left. Reminds me of a bad swing that ends up on the street. But I recovered with a bomb from there right in the middle of the fairway with 150 yards to go. After 3 shots I was right in front of the green on the fringe 40 yards away. And proceeded to take 4 shots from there. How did I screw that up and not get a par. The worst was the longest Hole 5. I hit a bomb from the tee, sprayed right to get within 140 yards. And hit a hybrid right on the green. On in 3 on one of the longest holes. All I had to do was 2-putt for a par. And I didn't do it. I 3-putt for a bogey and kicked myself for doing so. On the next hole, I was on in 2 again. But it was a 3-par and I missed the par putt. Another bogey. And so it was that the rest of the holes played like that in some degree of variation. Bad tee shot, but a great recovery into the fairway already close to the hole. And then take too many shots putting it in. Really, it was my putting game that was real suspect today. Sigh. Oh well. At least we had another pretty decent game on a nice day and I got 10,000 steps in already before I even made it to lunch. I stopped at IN-N-Out El Segundo to do that. I don't think my stomach is 100% recovered just yet. Oh it wasn't bugging me. And I wasn't pooping badly or feeling nauseous anymore. But I didn't feel like eating a lot either. Which is not normal for me. It was well past 2:30 when I got home. I didn't mind the late start, especially since I was still home by mid-afternoon. If that is all I can get at Harbor then so be it. I was thinking to myself that I really could be thinking about President's Day tomorrow. We used to get the day off, but now we swapped it out for birthday day off so in fact, I AM working tomorrow. Or at least I have a meeting scheduled anyway. I figured I could catch up on a lot of stuff. And I fully expect to have Johnnie for a good part of the day since I do remember Lisa is out and about on Mondays. Probably needs to catch up on her notes too. As for me for the rest of the afternoon, I got a huge case of the LAZIES. Like I did not feel like doing anything other than to crash on the couch and be Mr. Couch Potato guy the rest of Sunday. I watched the Scarlet Pimpernel, a movie from the early 80s! I watched the Count of Monte Cristo with James Caviezel before he started taking on weird antagonist roles like in Deja Vu. I did manage to get out and finish grocery shopping. And I did manage to heat up some chicken from Trader Joe's for dinner. But I went right back to the couch after that. It wasn't lost on me that February is moving very quickly. As in we're already moving into the last part of the month next week. Man does time fly or what??
As expected I went to Lisa's house to pick up Johnnie and Claire this morning and it was as if last night's screaming fit from Lisa didn't happen. Apparently, mom, son, and dog all took a bath after I left. Which was what should have happened already in the first place. What I do know is that all that screaming fit stuff only happens when I am around I'm pretty sure. I don't know whether it is a comfort level that Lisa has that she could do that apparently only with me. Either way, I don't like it. And this morning, Lisa apparently is sticking with the "mom and son having breakfast together" thing. Although Johnnie also declared that he was having TWO breakfasts this morning, one with his mom and the other with me. THAT'S my boy. As we headed to my apartment, I "de-briefed" with Johnnie to make sure he knows what is and isn't appropriate about last night. He did say Lisa apologized <though not to me> and that he knows if he felt anger the same way he needed to do his count-routine. That is, count to 10 in English, Spanish, and Korean. I was satisfied Lisa did minimal mental and emotional damage, though I'm also sure the more she does this, the more Johnnie will realize that his mom has these odd behaviors. I hope Lisa realizes that she is walking the same path as her mom and she will NOT want her son thinking she is a kook later on in life when he is older, like she and her siblings think about their mom. And so breakfast this morning was at Elysee., which was pretty cool. It was a nice day out and we enjoyed the eggs, sausage, and the croissant. And fresh-squeezed OJ. And then we went to Target to pick up some lunch stuff for him for next week before heading back home. I had it in my mind that we were going to get dad-and-son SuperBowl RAMS T-shirts today but not from Target. Might as well get the real thing from Dick's Sporting Goods in El Segundo. And so I let Johnnie watch Octonauts for a couple of hours until it was time to go for lunch. I also figured to let Johnnie catch up on TV. Ok maybe I did that as sort of a payback to Lisa not allowing him to watch stuff last night while I was trying to rest on the couch. And so we went to Panda Express when it was time and we went to the one in Marina del Rey. I figured we'd go from there to El Segundo since we were already on the way. We drove from Marina del Rey up Lincoln Blvd alongside LAX. Not only did Johnnie love it when we were going fast around that Lincoln Blvd stretch by LMU where there were 4 lanes. He rolled down his window and put his hands outside and played with the airflow. And then we we reached LAX, of course there were at least 2 planes that were touching down right above us. It felt like we were racing those planes actually. And Johnnie whooped "WHEEE!" as if we were winning. I gotta say it sounded like a whole lot of nothing. Just mere moments of joy and glee. But it put a smile on my face too. Moments like these easily erases the half hour of crap from last night. And then we went to Dick's Sporting goods. We bought our T-shirts (see pic), had Johnnie try a 20-inch bike which will be the next purchase for me, and I got some golf balls for tomorrow. A very productive trip. And then on the ride home, Johnnie fell asleep. Reminds me of many a Saturday when he was a lot younger when I would drive around to make sure he was asleep right after lunch. No need for that anymore. In fact, as soon as we got back home he woke right back up. And went right back to watching Octonauts. We were actually in and out still. We got some dough and cheese so we could make pizza for dinner. Half cheese, and half pepperoni and pineapple. Turned out a little chewy since I tried the same dough I did last week for Super Bowl. Maybe best to go back to Boboli I think. Still, Johnnie put away 3 large pieces and then took a big poop. Solid poop. Thumbs up! He HAS recovered from his stomach issues from earlier in the week! I fully expected Lisa to stay at work until late just like yesterday. And so for dessert, Johnnie and I went through Starbucks drive-through to get him some chocolate pops. THAT was when Lisa called letting me know she was on her way home. It was 7:30 PM. That's good. Not that late. We went back to the apartment, packed up Claire and off we went to Lisa's house for Saturday night drop-off. I didn't linger tonight. Why tempt fate? No need for any triggered screaming on Lisa's part. I would much rather do what I did, which was to go home and watch some 90s movies on Hulu. I watched Phenomenon with John Travolta. After finishing Quills. I felt like we had a good day Johnnie and I, which more than made up for all the drama from last night. And I felt really REALLY good about that.
I woke up this morning and I knew I wasn't feeling 100%. Couldn't put my finger on it really, other than it wasn't COVID. I didn't have fever, any of the bronchial symptoms. I just felt off with my stomach. Yeah Johnnie and Lisa probably did have a bug. And they probably passed it on to me. Fortunately, it WAS a Friday and so I can tank it today. I was barely half-awake when Lisa called to drop off Claire actually. I had to put on pants, go outside and do the dog hand-off. But I went back to my apartment and lay on the couch and closed my eyes and almost fell back asleep. I'm dealing with some sort of bug I'm pretty sure. But at least I managed to accomplish one thing this morning. I gave myself a haircut. My hair had looked out of control for more than a week. I know I could have easily gone to Supercuts, but I remembered how I WAS giving myself my own haircuts before all of them opened and I wasn't doing a bad job. Save me $30 anyway right? In the end I did a pretty ok job actually. Shorter than what Supercuts would have done, and I'm sure there are patches were hair is not that even. But you really couldn't tell. At least I couldn't and I was happy with my own effort. With that what I noticed was that I was not hungry at all. I did have my usual breakfast but even THAT felt different. Like I didn't really feel like eating it. And when I started to walk over to El Pollo Loco to get lunch there, I simply didn't feel the energy to go and turned around. Instead I took the car to Chipotle and got lunch there. it didn't make a difference. I didn't feel like eating that either. At least I didn't have diarrhea and at least I didn't feel like vomiting though I felt slightly nauseous all day. But me not eating anything or not WANTING to eat anything? That's when I know SOMETHING IS WRONG. I figured I could simply sleep through the afternoon until it was time to pick up Johnnie and then muster up whatever energy I could to keep him occupied until Lisa comes to get him. I'm just going to chalk this day off to a simple off-day. I did manage to have a moment of gratitude when I realized it was payday today and when I got my rent relief settlement from my building for the time I was not able to be in my unit. All in all I got almost $1000 in rent relief. And so perhaps that was the best outcome for that at least financially. $1000 in order to also put up with being at Lisa's for more than a week? I don't know. That still stands at 50-50 anymore.
I picked up Johnnie at 5 PM and he yelled real loud "DAD! DAD!" when he saw me. Can't beat the feeling of that I must say. He was in his PJs today because his class voted to have a pajama party. The pic I took of him in his pajamas with his FUZZY is simply classic. I was fully prepared to do a replica of last night as now I was starting to feel a little better. I still hadn't eaten since breakfast really and I think that doing that has stemmed the tide some. On our way to Panda Express, Lisa called and said she was already on her way home. She still wasn't feeling well. Great. We're BOTH not feeling well. I was still ok to keep Johnnie for as long as possible but she mentioned missing him and missing Claire the dog and so I diverted us to her house. I guess Johnnie gets chicken noodle soup tonight. And of course since Lisa was already in bed when we got there, guess who gets to make it? Not that I cared, it's just that I know Lisa has already worked too much this week, more than she usually does and no good thing results from this. I was right. Johnnie got his dinner with no issues and then since I felt like I was falling asleep, I went to the couch to close my eyes and turned on Tumble Leaf for Johnnie. Actually I got him working on his computer first and then after about an hour of that I put on the TV. I didn't think it would be a problem. I was WRONG. At some point Lisa came down and while making herself her dinner, she started complaining about how she can't stand the TV being on because it does a number on her when she is hearing a drill all day. Oh it does a number alright, it always has from the days I used to watch it. Only this time it was a full-on trigger. As in she started screaming and yelling like she did on Christmas Eve. Went upstairs slammed the door, came back down. She may have been yelling at me. Honestly, I didn't feel well enough to give a shit. And that's exactly what I responded with. "I'm not feeling well and I simply don't want to deal with your bullshit right now". I washed our dishes, told her I was coming back in the morning. And said goodbye to Johnnie. He had that look of "Please save me DAD.": Damn. But I had to let him stay with her. The only reason I brought him back early was because she said she missed him. Me? I'm fully aware she only does this screaming fit bullshit with me. And so I had to leave. I was not feeling all that well anyway. But I couldn't sleep either. All that negative energy from Lisa kind of sticks with you for a bit. So I watched TV, watched QUILLS on Hulu. I forgot that there were a whole lot of A-list actors in that movie! I even went and got a filet-of-fish sandwich at 10 PM. My stomach was growling. I thought I was hungry. I was wrong. It was just growling. Oh well, just another Lisa episode. Lisa being Lisa. So disappointing she is. I energetically blocked off her energy from myself and Johnnie and hoped that would be enough. It was midnight when I finally knocked off to sleep.
It used to be that the Thursday after Tech Council Meeting Day is always a chill day particularly the one with the CCALAC HIT Roundtable meeting. But today somehow, what with the IS Team Meeting, the EHR Team Meeting and my meeting with Dennis <where BTW we had to de-brief about James and the UDS Report>, and THEN the CCALAC meeting there was no sauntering in whenever I felt like it and simply waiting for 11:30 to leave for that off-site CCALAC meeting anymore. I guess it goes to show how much busier I had gotten I suppose. Today I barely had time to go get myself lunch. As it was I hurried the EHR meeting so I would have a 20-minute window for me go to Ralphs, get some fried chicken and cole slaw and have something to eat WHILE doing the CCALAC meeting. And I had to present some Data Analytics stuff too. Although I didn't really feel any pressure for that one. The pressure was squarely on getting lunch and once I did that I was fine. And actually, the meeting went better than expected, not the usual one-two maybe three at best participation from a group of 11-15 max. The cybersecurity tabletop exercise went pretty well I thought and I'm glad Candice thought it up. Anyway when THAT meeting was done, it was 2 PM and THEN I felt I could call it a day. Felt like I could call it a week in fact. After all, there is supposed to be a 3-day weekend coming up only we <my company> elected not to celebrate it in order to replace it with a birthday day off. I still would prefer the Monday off. After all, it was a timemarker of sorts. It's the last long weekend for a while. Until Memorial Day in fact and I liked having it in the bank. Not that I plan on pushing hard this Monday anyway. This being a Thursday, and considering all the stuff Johnnie went through at the beginning of the week, i was simply more than HAPPY he made it through the week without missing school and even better, seemingly recovered from his stomach issues. Just look at the pic of him walking over when I picked him up after school. Can't say that now THAT is my favorite time of the day. And then off we went to Mitsuwa right after where Johnnie put away his huge bowl of udon. Yep, I think his stomach is just fine anymore. Me, on the other hand, started to feel not so hungry tonight. Uh-oh... did that bug that Johnnie had and that Lisa had earlier in the week finally get to me? Ahh, I just shrugged that thought off. You look at Johnnie in the pic at Mitsuwa and you knew he was already in "play" mode. Which I let him stay in for the rest of the evening. With Lisa having to work today because a couple of her doctors called in sick, who knows what kind of mood SHE would be in. Probably back to those dreaded Thursdays when she would be just in the most foul of moods. We didn't hear from her at 7:30 and candidly I did not expect to. By 8:30 I just started packing Johnnie and the dog up and drove back to Lisa's house. By this time, it would be safe to start Johnnie's bedtime routine at Lisa's house anyway. And so I started his shower and in the middle of all that, Lisa called and before we were even done with that, Lisa finally did come home. It was almost 9 PM already. At least she wasn't in that bad of a mood and so I decided I'd take the going when the going is good and headed on out. Hand-off complete, made it through the week, all is good.
The day was already set to be different when Johnnie did his vomiting thing at 3 AM in the morning. I was all set to keep him home today and so I let him sleep in. And I let myself sleep in too. As in it was 7:30 AM already by the time I woke up. Hey, I did say I was up until 4 AM in the morning cleaning the stinky mess in the bathroom right? Johnnie woke up around 7:40, right around the time we would usually leave for school. And he declared that he was ready to go. W-h-a-t? He actually ASKED to go to school! Uh-oh. I dashed him through the shower and got him cleaned up and dressed up. I put a croissant in his lunch box. And as for breakfast? There was no way I was going to give him food this morning anyway. Not after that gastric explosion just hours before. And then I hustled us out of the house. I got to the school at 8:05. And I got him through the gate before 8:10. This was the closest we had ever gotten to being late. I mean I got him showered, clothed, and at the gate in 16 minutes! I was pretty amazed. And so now I could focus on my work day. I was done with my Tech Council presentation as of last night so there really wasn't anything to focus on or worry about. Just some strands of worry from some pings from Eloisa from earlier in the week regarding IS Security and a couple of other projects. Worry only because I really didn't know what she wanted exactly. And candidly, I didn't really care. What I cared about this morning was watching the LA RAMS victory parade going on downtown. Wow. This was the first victory parade the CITY has seen since the Kings in 2014. And before that, the Lakers in 2009 and 2010. That seems SO long ago. And so it was cool to see LA's newest heroes: Matthew Stafford. Cooper Kupp. Aaron Donald. Take their well-deserved places in LA championship lore.
As far as the Tech Council Meeting itself, it went well over an hour. Closer to 90 minutes really. I guess gone are the days when I would have no material longer than 30 minutes huh? No more of those meetings when I would have to find stuff out of my ass to talk about for an hour. And Eloisa specifically asked if we could have more than an hour for this meeting. Never mind that I still didn't think it was necessary. I think we spend too much time talking. And that is because the leaders spend so little time with my information that they get confused. I am not unilaterally deciding anything. My job is to present information and for them to do THEIR jobs and do something with it. Why we still get stuck on the basic stuff is I guess simply something I have to continue to deal with. Anyway the meeting was done by 2:45, after which I just chilled until it was time to pick up Johnnie from school. For the second day in a row, I went and got him early, for fear that he was pooping or vomiting or something. But I didn't hear from the school and that is always good. And when I picked him up, he declared that he was hungry. I got him dinner from Panda Express but I really needed to curtail his food intake. Which means no more desserts and snacks which comprise of half of his food intake at night. There is no way he's going to unload his stomach in my bathroom again. As it was he didn't poop at home, and he actually made ME a hot tea, which he tested and liked for himself! And I was only all too happy to have him watch TV for most of the evening. No need to worry about Lisa coming home and looking over our shoulders LOL LOL. I think we'll be ok tonight, even as I station a trash receptacle near the couch in case we have a repeat of last night. When Johnnie declared that he was looking forward to waking up early so he could have pancakes and sausage, at least I know he was feeling much much better. And that makes me feel better myself.
It is 3:33 in the morning. I had just finished cleaning almost the entire bathroom. Johnnie had woken up in the middle of the night and ejected the contents of his entire stomach. All the chicken noodle penne he ate last night at dinner. He intended to do it in the toilet I know that. But he missed. And so now there was vomit EVERYWHERE. The floor. The toilet. The walls. The doors. EVERYWHERE. And it stunk up so bad I had to wear an N95 mask to clean it up. First, I made sure Johnnie was ok. All I heard was him saying "I'm sorry Dad, I'm sorry". My mouth said, "That's ok Bug, we'll just clean it up and we'll clean you up". My brain said "You'd better be sorry. This is totally disgusting!!!". Man, I almost vomited myself cleaning the whole stuff up it smelled so bad. And I had to do it first because there was no escaping vomit everywhere. And then I had to get him in the shower and clean us both up. Even when he was a baby and did disgusting poops and vomits all over, I think this would probably be his worst throw-up episode EVER. Simply because of the sheer volume and the size of the mess. I mean I literally had to clean the entire bathroom. Took an entire roll of paper towels to do it. And then I had to walk outside in the cold to throw the whole thing out that I had collected in the garbage bag in the building's trash chute. Not going to stink up my kitchen too with all that mess. THEN I had to brush out Johnnie's mouth of course. Poor thing. THEN I had to make sure he went back to sleep. Stayed with him and held him and let him drift to sleep. Finally when I heard him breathing softly and slowly, I went back to bed. It was 3:33 in the morning... I had a flitting memory of a story my mom would always talk about, which was me having a really bad tummy ache right around the time I was Johnnie's age. She took a taxi to take me to the emergency room. And I proceeded to vomit the entire contents of my stomach right there in the back seat of the taxi, to my mom's utter embarassment. I felt instantly better of course according to my mom, and I didn't have to go to the hospital after all. I went to sleep thinking is this karma or what??
This day started out strange and stayed that way. Tuesday routine called for a Johnnie shower then McDonald's for breakfast. And we did both. But Johnnie was not hungry at all. In fact he was complaining about a stomach ache. Uh-oh. Does a stomach ache warrant Johnnie staying home from school? My gut says not so fast. True enough, he declared he needed to poop, and proceeded to eject whatever he had eaten from the night before. Immediately he declared he was much better and that he was perfectly fine to go to school. Now my worry of course was that he would poop in his pants AT school, since he had already done so while at home. How can you tell a 7-yr old to hold his poop? Still, I dropped him off to school and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't get a call at some point during the day. Turned out that I did get a call, but not from Mar Vista Elementary. I got a call from Lisa. Apparently SHE had stayed home from work with exactly the same symptoms as Johnnie. Her stomach was unsettled and she had diarrhea. Uh-oh. What the heck did mom and son eat anyway? They may both have the same intestinal infection. Also turned out all she wanted was for me to drop off the dog since she was all alone in the house and needed something to hug I guess. Easy enough for me to drop off Claire. It gave me just about enough distraction anyway since I - now WE, as in my boss - was waiting for the UDS data to get finished going through the audit and comment process so we could submit it. That damn James STILL hasn't finished doing his stuff and it is due TODAY. At least he did respond to my emails today and I don't think I can pass along any more urgency than I already have. That guy just beats to his own tune is all and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Except to back him up in the future. Next time I will take more control. I know I know that IS counter-productive. Today I am giving in to that egoic need to control. Along with my other darker side negative tendencies. That is the only explanation I have as to why Johnnie is going through physical stuff right now on my watch, as apparently Lisa is as well. All one big gigantic distraction. Even the weather tooka different turn today, reversing the streak of warm days. It actually drizzled a little this morning. That's just what I wanted. Johnnie is not 100% AND it's raining, and I'm grumping over the UDS submission. A perfect time to try to reverse everything... in my head. By 2 PM, James actually did finish the Data Audits and an hour later, the UDS report was submitted. YAY! A huge thing off our collective shoulders. And I noted I hadn't heard anything from the school which means Johnnie had hung in there for the day. I decided to pick him up earlier than usual in fact. As in 4 PM early. As soon as we got home he pooped again and I noticed he had pooped a little on his underwear. Oh well, his pants were their usual dirty anyway. Just one more thing to soak I guess. The thing was that he seemed to be hungry. He declared that he wanted chicken noodle penne for dinner and I cooked the usual amount, which was enough for 3 bowls. He ended up eating just that: 3 bowls of penne noodles in chicken noodle broth. I on the other hand ended up eating a salad and a Trader Joe's cheeseburger burrito in my freezer for my dinner. I was fully aware that usually we would be eating Panda Express this evening, but I was just glad Johnnie didn't have a full on diarrhea event at school. I am thinking he will be much better by tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I still had work to do. After all, it is Tech Council Meeting week, though this time I just wanted the thing to be over. I had plenty of material. I was sure I had an hour's worth. So I really wasn't all that worried about it. I went to bed fairly early. That is to say I didn't stay up past 11 PM doing work stuff. We will see about tomorrow...
Ahh to get up early and immediately head to my couch to watch TV. Yes that is how I wish to spend my Monday. Watching the sports talking heads and sports pundits recap the Super Bowl last night. Normally I wouldn't care. This time OF COURSE I do! The RAMS won! The RAMS won! They now join the Lakers and Dodgers as having won titles in the last couple of years! City of LA. City of Champions. Ok I didn't do that ALL morning. In fact, I got out of the house and took a walk to Mar Vista Elementary, hoping to get there right around the time I thought Lisa and Johnnie would. Then I would take the dog. I gotta get out and do my morning walk anyway. And then by the time I got there I remembered, it wasn't Monday that I get the dog, it is Friday. Sigh. Oh well at least I got my steps in. Today is supposed to be one of the busy Mondays too. It is HRSA report day, and I did not finish those reports yesterday like I planned. Gotta do them today. And then of course tomorrow is submission day for UDS. And wouldn't you know that damn James didn't finish his Data Audits on Friday like we had talked about that morning? Boy that irritates me. What the heck is he doing? Needless to say I got busier than I thought today. Oh sure I still stopped and watched the pundits. I mean how often do the RAMS win the Super Bowl? We've only been waiting for this FOREVER. And I did manage to step out and get myself a tuna melt for lunch from Marie Callenders, making sure I enjoyed the midday sun. It's supposed to get cooler tomorrow. But that's tomorrow. Today, I'm going to continue to enjoy the great weather. And so it was that I kept shuttling between my computer and my TV all afternoon long. And also a quick break to get to 10,000 steps before 4 PM. By the time I finished my reports, it was already getting dark. I remembered last week that I was somehow annoyed that Lisa didn't pick up Johnnie at 5 PM. Why did I do that? It was her turn, her responsibility and I should have trusted her to get it done. Am I displaying the same distrust of James today not finishing up the UDS report? Hey, the difference is that MY BOSS is on my ass about getting it done too. I did get a ping from him midday that he was still working on the updates. I guess there were 18 Data Audits pending from Friday. The difference is that this time it is Dennis pushing the button, not Art who was content to do practically everything himself. Now James just looks bad. Except that he is dragging me down with him. I am SURE he is doing exactly the same things he does, since he has been UDS for at least the last 6 years. Just now there are different people looking. Anyway I placed my trust in the Universe and I know we will somehow be done by tomorrow. In the meantime it was JOhnnie pick up night. And might I add it is also Valentine's Day though today that didn't really mean much to a single dad not-dating-anyone guy like me LOL. I do remember I made a big deal out of today when I would bring a single rose for every woman in Lisa's office. I did that for many years. Can't say that I miss it now, especially since my heart really isn't in it anymore. I picked Johnnie up right after I got my El Pollo Loco dinner and mom and son were quietly doing stuff on the couch. He had already eaten. Nothing special tonight, just picking up Johnnie. Boy I truly am over it aren't I? However, I did note that Johnnie should have given Brooklyn a Valentine. And so I made him make one when we got home. And I sent it via email. Lisa and I may have had our time and that may be dead now, but there is still a lot of love out there and I want to make sure Johnnie experiences it to the fullest. Even at 7 years old LOL. Look at the Valentine he made! One thing though, he started pooping diarrhea tonight. Uh-oh. Didn't he get over that over the weekend? He started last Saturday, but Lisa said his stomach had calmed down by yesterday. What is going on tonight? I shrugged it off as just some minor intestinal thing most likely. And I was fairly sure he would be ok by tomorrow. After all, the second he ejected everything he felt 100% better he said. I think he will be ok. We shall see in the morning...
And so today is Super Bowl Sunday and usually I only have casual interest at best, and definitely more interested in hanging out with people to watch the game. Until the Rams are involved. 3 years ago they made it to the big game playing those New England Patriots. I must say I was nervous as heck and although the Rams played, they were the new kids on the block and got outclassed by the GOAT Tom Brady. Well guess what... they made it to the big game again and this time it is THEY who are favored. It is their opponent the Bengals who are the young upstarts. AND the game is on the Rams home turf. Our very own Sofi Stadium. But before the game starts at 3 PM today, there is still plenty of time for golf. And Scott and I are at Penmar this morning. We were paired up with an older couple and a young guy who claimed he was new to the game. I played so atrociously the last time I played here. It was the morning after that big fire above my unit and so I probably was tired. That fire turned out to be a huge inconvenience, what with me having to vacate my unit for a week. I still have to think about what I was focusing on to make that event or circumstance get pushed out somehow. But not today. I did feel like I regained my mojo at Roosevelt last week. And so when I hit my first tee shot pretty long but it ended in the sand trap on the right I knew I was already off and I needed to make an adjustment. I NEVER hit it to the right. It means I am missing the ball. Needless to say, I didn't get my usual par on the first hole. In fact, I hit a 7. And I hit another 7 on the next hole after I deposited my first shot to the right again. At least I hit a 4 bogey on the short Hole 3 even though I hit my tee shot way short on the fairway. Finally on Hole 5 which is not an easy hole, I hit my tee shot straight and right on the green. On in 1! Too bad I lost my focus yet again and took 4 putts to make it in. How did I blow that par?? I finally did get my tee shot mojo back though because I blasted them from this point forward. I hit a 6 on Hole 7, a 4 on Hole 8 and made a long putt to finish with a 6 on Hole 9. No I did not score that well. But I at least hit enough good shots to feel better about my play today as compared to my play 2 weeks ago. AND it was a warm day out to boot. For lunch I decided to get the special at Ralphs which I usually do on a Wednesday. I had a ribeye. I did it only so I could get my grocery shopping finished, including whatever food I was going to eat for the Super Bowl game involving the Rams that I would be too nervous to watch. Yes I know how ridiculous that sounds.
As it was I immersed myself in work while the game started. After all, I had HRSA reports to do, timecards to approve, and it's Tech Council Meeting week next week. Yes I had to distract myself from the temptation of looking up how the Rams were doing. I did get a little snippet that the Rams were leading at halftime. Ok. That's good. But I accidentally went to a website that showed that the Rams were behind by a score early in the 3rd quarter. Uh-oh. I guess they aren't blowing out the Bengals huh? I will admit it got me nervous. But then again I remembered that I already put it out there that I wanted to experience the outcome of a RAMS superbowl win. So much so I "sacrificed" the Lakers game against Golden State last night. And the UCLA basketball game against USC. Both losses for the teams I rooted for. Finally I made myself a homemade pizza for dinner and waited. And waited. And waited. By 7 PM I figured the game would be done. And it turned out the Rams were behind by 4 but were driving to score in the Cincinnati redzone. There were 2:30 minutes to go. I dare not put the game on. Finally I heard some screaming in the units outside. I figured out that they were watching the game. I figured out that they were RAMS fans. I finally had to look on ESPN. The RAMS had taken the lead! But the Bengals had one more shot. Until all-world DTackle Aaron Donald snuffed it out with a sack. And there it was: the RAMS had won. They are the Super Bowl CHAMPS! YES! YES! YES! No more work now. NOW I have to watch all the replays of the highlights and the plays that I missed all night. Turned out that it was a heck of a game!
