Quietly the last day of April

Man it seemed like April came and went quickly. And boy did we have a doozy of the last couple of weeks of it too. After yesterday's festivities, today seemed mundane and routine. Lisa was working so I picked up Johnnie and Claire at 7:30 AM. Gave him a shower right there at Lisa's house before we took off and dropped Claire off at my apartment. And then off we went to breakfast. Still feeling very much generous and riding a high from Johnnie's performance yesterday, I asked him where he would like to go for breakfast. And of course he prodded us to Elysee. Why not? And this morning, not only did we get our usual sausage and scrambled eggs, and OJ and croissant, that turned out to be all for him! I ordered myself an omelette too. Why not? It's like we're celebrating right? This morning I felt like having a spinach, tomato, mushroom omelette. And it was very very good too. And so it was that we had a nice breakfast and then we did food grocery shopping. First at Trader Joe's Westwood. Hadn't shopped there in a bit. It was while there when I felt a blip. I felt a sudden tightening around my neck and shoulders. If I didn't know what was going on I might have panicked. And that was exactly what it was. A sort of panic attack. A major dose of anxiety coming up from the depths of my other-than-conscious. Hmmm. Could it be all the morphic field subliminals bringing all this stuff up to the surface? My ego-self fighting back for it's life perhaps? Most definitely a program trying to do so I think. This time I was able to shrug it off and breathe it out and it was over just like that. Which is why I knew it was something in my head. We went from Trader Joe's  to Sprouts, just so Johnnie could pick out his favorite chocolate bunnies for next week's lunch series. And then finally a stop at Ralphs so we could pick up some ice cream. All these stops I framed to Johnnie like we were picking up something that he liked. But at the end of the stops, we had done full grocery shopping. Awesome! I was fully aware that today's agenda was that I was supposed to bring Johnnie to Lisa's office at 2:30. Some art thing she and Johnnie are going to mid-afternoon. Kid's finger-painting I thought it was. I agreed of course, even though it would cut short my time with Johnnie by a good 4 hours at least. Hey anything to get Lisa out of that office is always good. Besides, I had spent quite a bit more time with Johnnie this week already. And he had already spent a great deal of time cooped up in my apartment. Anything to get him outside is always good. 

And so for lunch we did one more thing together. That would be a reprise of lunch at the Century City mall. It's a win-win. Johnnie gets Panda Express, I get Big fish Little fish tuna poke, and we get to enjoy walking around outdoors. Then no one can say I cooped him up in the apartment watching TV all day long. AND that would make up for handing him off to Lisa early today. Which I did. On time. Dutifully at 2:30 PM. Johnnie was excited because he knew he had a thing to go to though he had no idea what or where. Lisa's Aunt Gail and her daughter Ana were there, Lisa's last patients of the day. And it was nice to see them again, if only for a minute or so LOL. I went back to the apartment and chilled on the couch watching some of the NFL draft the rest of the afternoon. I I was perfectly fine just lazying the rest of the day away. Hey, I knew I had quite a bit to do next week so I could relax today. By 5 PM, I got up to try a new recipe. I read somewhere where kidney beans are actually even better than garbanzo beans or chickpeas. And so I was going to make chili. Yes, chili. How hard could it be? Kidney beans, a little canned tomatoes, and my Beyond meat crumbles. And a hodge lodge of seasonings I could try. Can anyone say cumin and coriander LOL?! It actually did turn out pretty good too. I was looking forward to watching SOMETHING on Netflix and enjoying my newfound recipe. When Lisa called. They had come back from the art thing in Santa Monica. I still had Claire since Lisa didn't really want to bring her. And so I was supposed to hand the dog off at some point. Lisa actually invited me to dinner. And with her I knew it wasn't just going to be dinner, it was hey, spend the evening with us. I was perfectly fine with that. I get to make up the time with Johnnie at least. I wolfed down most of my vegan chili and YES it was absolutely pretty good. Something to replicate for later. And then headed over to Lisa's. When I got there she was cooking some whitefish over rice <did I tell her I don't eat any carbs anymore? LOL> and she had Brussel sprouts cooking too. And some ramen for Johnnie. Johnnie I didn't care about. He could have missed dinner for all I care, he had eaten so much for breakfast and lunch. This was a bit of a treat, Lisa no doubt feeling good about having seen Johnnie's performance too I'm sure. She sort of put down her own cooking, but I thought the fish was fine. And I ate a little of the rice. An amount that I' sure couldn't hurt. After all, I did also eat some sushi last Wednesday. After the meal of course we were going to play some kind of board game. And of course Johnnie would break out the popcorn we had bought earlier. THERE was the rub for me. I didn't have to eat any of that popcorn. But I did. And that was ok I guess LOL. Hey I can cheat every once in a while right? Anyway tonight we played dominoes. And wouldn't you know I did not win one game. Lisa won 2, Johnnie won 2. What the **eff?  Used to be I would win every one of these games! What happened? Is it indifference? LOL. Anyway Lisa got her family time and so did Johnnie and that was all that mattered. And so it was that today was the last day of April, and not that I wanted to see April go, but boy was it a heck of a month. It started with getting my physical at Forward, and seeing how my numbers were really really good, except for 1: the PSA which then dominated my attention the rest of the month. And then there was the trip to San Diego for Johnnie and I. Then all of Johnnie's school stuff, the Living Animal Museum AND the Spring Show. Yes it was some month alright. One to remember. 

The Song Performance

I remember in the movie Splash, where Allen (Tom Hanks), ... I want to have a kid and watch him play a tooth in a school play. Turns out that was something I looked forward to as well.  And today one of those moments came to life. I hate to sound melodramatic, but this is what it's all about for me. Yeah, yeah, I have a pretty good job and all but I don't wake up in the morning to go to work. If anything, even before the pandemic, it was all about getting to raise Johnnie for the next several years or so. To get to watch him do stuff like today. His first grade class had a song performance, part of a half hour show. I hoped to God he would recover from Covid so he could do this. And now it's here. I am fairly sure I'm more excited about it than he is LOL. He seemed so nonchalant about it when he performed it for me. He had it nailed down pat. As far as the logistics of the event, I walked to the school, Lisa came late. I saved a seat for her but she didn't see it I guess. She sat in the back with Brooklyn's parents. I wanted to sit near the front because I wanted to have a good view in order to record the performance with my iPad. And wouldn't you know I didn't end up doing that? First of all the performances: the first one was the Third Graders, who sang a Korean folk song. Which was pretty impressive. Followed up by an American folksong. Nice parallel there. Then the 4th Graders sang, with guitars and xylophones and percussion instruments. Pretty good. And THEN the First Graders sang. Johnnie's class. Johnnie was Speaker 6 in terms of introducing their performance. They sang 2 songs: Alexander's Ragtime BAND and The Lullaby of Broadway. That Johnnie now knows a couple of Broadway and vaudeville songs in full is pretty damn impressive. What was NOT impressive was that I totally missed recording Johnnie's talk. I wasn't paying attention and thought i turned it on, but didn't. And then on the first song, my position was not good at all as Johnnie's teacher Ms Hwang sat right in front of Johnnie and I couldn't even record him. I couldn't see him. Finally I got the third song recorded. Sigh. At least I got something. And they did so good! JOHNNIE DID SO WELL! As for me I was so happy to have seen the performance. I was re-watching WHILE I was walking home in fact. Now to edit it and send it out. 

In the meantime I was fully aware it was Thursday and after the performance, I had to see if I needed to do some work on anything. Then again by the time I walked back it was already lunchtime. I decided to go to Santa Monica Veggie Grill and give another shot at getting a Beyond Burger. Unlike Tuesday, today's attempt was far more successful. Maybe I was in a high vibration is why. And it was pretty good. Not lost on me was that it was a very nice day out today. I was back by 12:30 it was so easy. Earlier in the week, Johnnie headed home by 12:30 empty handed because I couldn't find a parking spot. Today there were a whole bunch of them in fact.  What a difference a couple of days made. Anyway I spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling. No need to work on steps since I had already done all that walking. And it WAS Friday after all. I picked up Johnnie by 5 PM. He had already changed. I gave him the option of picking whatever he wanted to have for dinner as a reward. All he wanted was some tofu and miso soup. W-ha-t? Hey a promise is a promise. And so I went to Mitsuwa, got the ingredients and made him his tofu dinner. Lisa called fairly early to coordinate picking him up. It was 7 PM by this time and I just drove Johnnie and Claire to Lisa's house. Look at the pic I took. I thought Johnnie had a big day and knocked it out of the park with his class performance. Here he is acting like nothing happened. All he was interested in was his Pokemon cards. Kids. Anyway, Lisa wanted to chill and play a board game with us. The Mousetrap game that was already on the dining room table. And so we played a few rounds and then I headed on home. Lisa simply wanted to have a family night it would seem. Hey I'm very agreeable tonight. How can I not be after Johnnie's day. He might not have thought it was a big deal. I did. And I was very much the proud dad today.

Did I Just...

I started this morning doing 3000 steps, about 20 active minutes. Then took Claire from Lisa's hands <a good sign that this happened at 8:00 AM... it means they were plenty on time> I am EXCITED to go to Johnnie's Show later on this morning. So much so, I cut my meditation excercise shorter than usual, as in I just sat on the couch and listened to morphic fields and 45 minutes later, I hopped in the shower. Funny thing I noticed while I put my clothes on though. My pants seemed a lot bigger than usual. As in the waist was at least a couple of inches larger. There was so much room I had to take a pic. I tried on another pair of pants. Same thing. WOW! Did I just go all the way back down to the 32-inch waist that I had more than a decade ago? It felt even smaller than that even. Double WOW. I mean I knew I had dropped from 180 lbs to 166 a month ago when I last got checked up at Forward. But I didn't really feel my clothes loosened up then. Now I do. And I am truly down to a normal 120/75 Blood Pressure. Man, I really did need to just watch what i ate anymore didn't I? I just couldn't eat any more garbage the way I did. Certainly I cut down on sugar to almost nothing. And carbs too. That alone likely was as instrumental in the body change than anything. Now to work on tightening up my muscles too. And besides the way I look, I simply feel better these days. I feel lighter and with a little more energy than before. I mean I walked a lot already, that's for sure. But now it's like I'm more of a furnace and when I exercise, I could feel something burn for sure. Good job Arnel. Good job. Now maybe I need to get different pants...

Go-Go-Go Thursday

So yesterday we got the email that Johnnie has to come dressed in his Friday attire for rehearsal today. How am I supposed to get Johnnie to keep his clothes clean for the day so I won't have to wash it tomorrow? The answer. It's impossible. I will HAVE to wash it when he comes home later on. Oh well. Still i will admit my kid looks pretty good in his dress whites doesn't he? I will admit it was pretty cool walking up to the gate and seeing all these other kids dressed the same way. Almost feels like it's a private school doesn't it? Now if only I can get Johnnie to keep his shirt tucked in... As soon as I got home I realized I had another day of back-to-back-to-back meetings and so I swigged down my celery/apple juice and got started with my work day. IS Team Meeting at 9 AM. EHR support team meeting at 10. And you knew these guys were going to take the entire hour. And then Dennis my boss at 11. That one didn't take long at all. Gave me just about enough time to make my lunch. Today, it's a mashup of stir-fry veggies, cabbage and onions really and then some of the Beyond Meat crumbles for protein and then chana masala on top of the mix. It tasted interestingly good in fact. And I cooked all that with Alexa in the background. And got everything cooked up by 11:30. And so I actually had more than a decent lunch before my 12-2 meeting, which was the HIT meeting. Usually that meeting has only me and a couple of other people talking mostly and I'm trying to get other people to participate. There were some new people on the call today but they didn't talk much. My buddy Mendy Kaye sure did though. Now COO at another Health Center, he sure flexed his voice muscles, particularly with the LANES people. I'm not going to tell anyone that he was Doing me the whole time and I was feeding him answers. Still the meeting was fairly productive I thought and we got done by 2 PM on the dot.

And after THAT meeting, I pronounced my work day over LOL. Outside I went almost immediately and started to catch up on my steps for the day. It was a pretty mild day out, hence the long sleeves but it was still nice for a late April afternoon. I still so love walking around my neighborhood. THIS neighborhood. I was thinking of some way to still live here in one of those condos down my block. Hey I'll add that to my list eh? As far as the prostate stuff, I will admit it's slow going but then again to me if I am to ascribe to the belief that symptoms are merely my body trying to communicate with me, then I have to keep listening and make sure I'm getting the right message. It's simply my Higher Self making me look and listen harder I think. Or maybe not harder but in a more focused way. The answers are there. I keep looking. By the time I got back it was already close to 4 PM. Of course I had to pick up Johnnie at 4:30 to make Spanish class at 5 PM. When I did pick him up, I was almost horrified to see that he didn't change out of his dress whites! Damn. Of course they were dirty. Right at the shirt edges too. Immediately when we got home I threw the clothes in the wash. He WILL have clean clothes for tomorrow's show. And then he did his Spanish class. Animals and numbers today. While he did that I made myself salmon for dinner and made Johnnie penne chicken noodle AND a half a pizza. I was trying to get all this stuff done because I knew Lisa would be picking him up early-ish tonight. And so she did as it turned out. Right around 6:45. She hadn't seen Johnnie in a week. Claire too. I figured I'd do her a favor by giving her a bath. She was starting to smell. And so I handed off a happy child and a clean dog. We're all good. I'll see Claire again first thing. And Johnnie? I can't wait until tomorrow's show.

Johnnie Back To Routine

I was more relieved than anything to do Wednesday routine today. Get up early, Johnnie already awake and no doubt excited to get back to it. Get him showered and dressed, drive thru at McDonalds, get him going with breakfast and then get his lunch ready. I was happy driving him to school, walking him to the gate, catching up with Brooklyn and Bailey and letting them know Johnnie is back. I knew when I got back I would have a ton of meetings waiting for me. As in Back-to-back-to-back meetings but that was OK. Even that seemed more routine-like than coming up with stuff to do for Johnnie. It's always about making sure he's not in front of the TV more than a couple of hours at a time, if that. In the meantime, I have that High-Impact Leadership thing going on at 9, the Town Hall Roadshow prep <man, is it next week already??> and then my Data Team Meeting right after the other. Did I say I needed today as a rest day? Fat chance. Actually the HIMP meeting was interesting because it got deeply personal. We were supposed to talk about - to whatever comfort level we had - how are growing up environment was in terms of talking about difficult issues. That was a simple answer for me. We didn't talk about difficult issues. We just didn't. Everything felt swept under the rug. Everything felt like it was up to the adults to talk about it. Money wasn't talked about, how our day at school was not talked about. It was like, my mom and my dad went to work, we went to school, they came home around 6-ish. My dad would cook most of the time and then... blank. I don't remember. We watched TV I think. And when I was old enough to work, I took a job at 16 and don't remember spending much time around the dinner table. That and generally feeling a lack of attention from being the middle child, and that's how I got to be who I am I guess. I am definitely not treating this as something of a coincidence. Somehow, my other-than-conscious needs this to be brought to my attention. At some level, the central theme for the meeting was how we handle conflict now. I would say not until I became a dad myself did I really even care. Now I see things from the lens of bringing up Johnnie and I definitely want to create safe space for him so we CAN have a discussion. I don't want to shield him from the world, I want him well-equipped to handle whatever comes his way. And so we DO have to have those discussions. Stuff me and my parents never had.  All the while forgiving them AND forgiving myself for that past. It's ok. I don't need their validation anymore. I only need to validate myself. Pretty deep for a Leadership meeting huh?! And then some bit of drama for the Data Team Meeting where Shilpa was expressing a lot of frustration about James again not being responsive at all. I've given up on that guy. In my mind, let's just do what we do and forget about him. Better that way I think. I know I know. I should just fire his ass. But part of the legacy I inherited didn't I? Finally lunch time came and I was finally able to kick my feet up and pretend that I'm relaxing and enjoying the sun outside. Before I knew it, it was already time to pick up Johnnie...

So today being Wednesday I still agreed to bring Johnnie to Lisa's office and do his Spanish class there. The last time she saw him was almost a week ago Thursday. A week ago we did the Spanish class and then dinner at Panda Express and Sea Salt. Tonight we won't be doing that. I snuck in some Panda Express already for his lunch and he did eat it. We did do the class though and Johnnie continued to do just fine. Afterwards, it was Johnnie who suggested that we go to Oops for dinner. Why not? We only fought about it the last time we ate here LOL LOL! This time no such friction. Just a regular family dinner the 3 of us have that is now seemingly the routine for Wednesday nights. Used to be it was Japanese food when we went to Cornerstone a couple of years ago. Seems so long ago now. It was perfectly benign. You could almost say it was boringly pleasant LOL. Lisa of course missed Johnnie as I would have and kept on hugging him and kissing him. But I could tell Johnnie wanted to go with dad, he wasn't done with his time with me and took full advantage with MORE Pokemon and Dragon Riders videos. I was pretty caught up with steps at this point so there wasn't much left to do except chill. And later on when Johnnie fell asleep, watch MAYANS on FX. A good Wednesday it turned out to be. And now we squarely look ahead to Johnnie's Spring Show on Friday...

Finally Johnnie is Cleared to Return to School

I was anxious for Johnnie this morning. Anxious for him to take the COVID test and hopefully it comes out negative so he can go back to school tomorrow. I was going to wait until mid-morning to make sure. But first I had to prepare Johnnie in case it was positive. I told him that if it was, then he would have to keep staying with me until the weekend which means he would miss his Spring Sing on Friday. "that's ok, DAD' he said. Someone else will have to be speaker 6 and we have to tell Ms. Williamson, he said. After he said that, I just thought to myself he just HAS to test negative. We went to McDonald's to prepare for the other direction. After all, it IS Tuesday. Normally we would be going to McDonald's to get his breakfast. And he ate it as if he were going to school today. As it were, we get a call from Lisa during breakfast. The School District had called her asking about the test. What? Boy, they are serious about this stuff aren't they? I waited until Johnnie finished his breakfast. I tested myself I was so anxious. NEGATIVE. All this time being exposed to Johnnie and I never got the bug. Anyway I tested Johnnie again. And all I will say is that I uploaded his NEGATIVE test result. And by mid-morning, I got an email saying he was cleared to return to school. YES! He gets to do his Friday show. He gets to see his friends again. And I get to return to some semblance of normalcy. Don't get me wrong. I loved that I have had Johnnie for the last 5 days. Actually, considering I had to pick him back up on Thursday night, I have had him for 8 days now. So much for not having had him for 24 hours. Counting Spring Break, I have certainly made up time with him haven't I? He is definitely in play mode almost 100% around me when he's well. He keeps saying, he wants to wrestle me all over again. I sometimes have to balance that with a little restraint since I know he's not like that with Lisa, but I also hope he's not like that with other kids too. He's no longer little. He can actually hurt someone if he's not careful. Especially since he has a penchant for going full out 100% all the time.

So now we both realize this is his last day of semi-vacation. And I didn't even let him watch TV until after lunchtime. I made him do EPIC books all morning long, just like we did when he was doing online classes for kindergarten. And then when he finished 5 books, and a whole bunch of 3rd grade math exercises, only then did I let him go back to watching Pokemon and his Dragon Riders show. And we got food out today too. For the third day in a row, we got him chicken strips from Jack-in-the-box for lunch. And then for dinner we got him some teriyaki chicken from Panda Express. Hey, it's Tuesday after all.  In the meantime, I still had to work and do my meetings. Since I wasn't at the Employee celebration it was the first time some people are seeing me since last week. But I managed to cruise through the day. I did some morphic fields stuff too though not 3 times today like I did the past couple of days. I had a feeling I needed to take my foot off the gas and that was ok. I still did my 11,000 steps. After a slow start I still managed 70 active minutes. I just thought I'd let my body settle a bit and see how I felt this evening. Not that I felt sick or anything, I simply wanted to see if there were any effects that my body wanted to communicate with me. Something I needed to do more of or something I needed to do less of. All in all, I did most of my audio stuff in the evening before I went to bed. In the meantime, I tried to enjoy Johnnie's last full day with me while laid up by Covid. After today it's back to school for him and back to the old routine with Lisa starting Thursday.  Just look at him and Claire tussling with each other on my brand new couch! I must say Johnnie IS enjoying that huge bed of his now. I woke up to him last night having rotated 45 degrees in the bed. But it's so big, it didn't matter. He started tussling with me too and I must admit I missed his physicality. He did too and wouldn't stop tussling both with me and the dog. That's the Johnnie we know. Happy, playful, and very much all smiles no matter what he's doing. It might have been adverse circumstances this past weekend. But I still wouldn't trade it for much.

Not Exactly A Usual Monday

If this were a normal Monday, I'd get up early, get Lisa Johnnie's Daily Pass, do some meditation and then do my morning walk to 5000 steps. But of course this isn't a usual Monday. In this different reality, I woke up with Johnnie still asleep on the couch. First thought I had was that Johnnie will be sleeping on that couch for the last time. That's because the new sofa sleeper is coming today! Second thought I had was that I hope he tests negative today. Yes I was anxious to test him for Covid again. After all, it has been 3 days. I know, I know, it's probably a little too soon. But the boy shows absolutely no symptoms.  Clearly the dad is simply anxious. And when I break that down, it's just that I don't want Johnnie to miss Spring Sing on Friday. I really really wish that he goes. So I did test him this morning. My heart sank. He tested positive still. That's what I get for being too anxious. Sigh. Officially though, he has to get tested tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, THAT will come out negative. In the meantime, I did some meditation to clear my anxieties and stuff. If everything is in the mind, I need some work to do. And since Johnnie is with me this morning, I am DETERMINED to still do 5000+ steps by 10 AM, just so I can make 15,000 steps today. Having Johnnie with me shouldn't affect that. Besides, I have those 2 activities going on in the morning around the couch. Better to get it done early. And so it was that right after I took Claire out to poop and pee, I did my walk. Johnnie was still asleep. It was the perfect time. And so before it was even 7:30, I got to 5000 steps and 61 Active Minutes. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. And I still got meditation and morphic field audios done too. All before breakfast. I did my celery juice, made Johnnie his sourdough and bacon and THEN we took a shower. And we were ready for the day, all before 8:30 AM. Ready for what today you say? Well I do have timecards to do, though really I got all those done by then. I had HRSA Survey due but that was done yesterday too. First thing is to wait for the guys to pick up the couch. Still I do have to say it's cool to still be working from home and I am grateful for that. How else could I have had a chance to look after Johnnie AND oversee the old couch being taken and a new one being delivered? I would have had to take the day off normally. Errands Day I would have had to call it. 

That couch served me well if I do say so myself. The first thing I bought when I realized I was moving out of Maplewood. I spent many a time sleeping on that couch while watching TV. But I needed to get a sleeper couch for Johnnie since he's getting bigger and I don't want to share beds anymore. And so I got the same exact couch, but WITH a sleeper. It cost me $220 to get the old couch hauled away too. Since we were on the first floor and I had already moved the couch towards the door, it was an eezy-peezy move. Took all of 10 minutes. And then the robo-vacuum cleaner cleaned where it used to be. Even Johnnie hugged the couch goodbye and waved to it as the guys who came to get it were wheeling it out to their truck outside.  Next up? The new couch. That came around lunchtime. Another eezy-peezy move actually. I paid for the guys to assemble it, which meant simply putting the wooden feet on. I know I know, I did pay another $110 to get that done, but really why not? The thing was I didn't realize the sleeper was so huge. Look at the pic with Johnnie on it later on before he went to bed! It's as big as my bed. And takes up most of the living room. But now JOhnnie has a bed. And he even started marking the area as his room. He even put up a sign signifying as much LOL.  And so there we have it, new big purchases all done. And I still have more than $40K in the checking account. In CASH! YES! The rest of the day Johnnie did EPIC books. We reverted back to when he was home schooling during last year's pandemic and he was doing online classes. I forget sometimes that really it has only been a year since they went back to school in person. A year ago I was still picking him up at lunchtime with a sign LOL. Today I really REALLY wish he were back in school. He is bouncing off walls when he gets bored. I can't play with him physically, or at least I'm not supposed to lest I pick the virus up. But there's no chance of that. Not in my mind. As I said he is asymptomatic.  I don't want him watching TV all day either. So I have to work to keep him occupied. And still do my job. But it is a Monday and most of my work had been done already.  I just had to answer emails and posts and such. AND I am happy to report that by the end of the evening, I was at 15,400 steps AND 145 active minutes. Just like last week. I didn't let being with Johnnie affect me. And Lisa even called to check in and she sounded as rested as she had ever been actually. Talk about getting my time with Johnnie. It's like he's on vacation with me LOL. We did our usual things still. Chicken strips from Jack-in-the-box at lunch, spaghetti and pizza for him for dinner. Spaghetti for me too, but lentil spaghetti and Beyond meat meatballs LOL. And for me, a whole lot of listening to morphic fields. At least this gets me to research what the best ones are for me and the sequence in which to listen to them. I was tired when I went to bed. Could be those audios working on my subconscious right? We'll see about results. First result I want to see immediately? A negative Johnnie covid test tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

No Golf Sunday

I had already cancelled golf last Friday just as soon as I knew Johnnie would be quarantining with me. Eh it's Sunday anyway. Johnnie I'm sure is used to sleeping in and waking up God knows whenever. This morning I let him sleep in and HE woke me up at 7 AM. What to do with this kid all day? Sadly, I can't really do anything fun outside, or at least anywhere where there is a lot of people. Though by my observation there is nothing wrong with this kid. He woke up with a 'Good Morning Dad!' Hey that's something I don't hear at all on a Sunday morning. This morning I played it hour by hour. First breakfast. He asked for a croissant. Luckily I did have one and I buttered it up, gave him the last of the strawberries AND a couple of pieces of bacon. And voila: breakfast. For me, I decided to take a break from the juice routine and instead made myself a couple of eggs scrambled. AND a hot green tea just for kicks. Just to do something different. And then instead of getting Johnnie glued in front of the TV, I made him read some books on EPIC, the platform we got used to last year when he was doing kindergarten online. I mean I myself got used to Cat Ninja and the Bright Family. That used to be my go-to when I needed to kill an hour at least. And so it was that Johnnie spent the morning with Cat Ninja while I... I, pretty much lazied around on my bed doing morphic fields and working on my subconscious. By all accounts, that and the image cycling by Bengston would be the most effective ways I could manifest what I want. Mind you the fact that I'm sitting up in bed on my new MacAir doing internal work is ALREADY some kind of manifestation I think. The routine was obviously to go golfing but somehow I'm thinking right here right now is as much a part of a grand plan that I got to work out in my favor. When Johnnie got bored of Cat Ninja, I let him go back to Dragon Riders. And we checked in on his mom via FaceTime. You can't say I don't think of her. If it were me, I would be missing Johnnie terribly. But from what I observed, it seemed like she was preoccupied with some project. Or maybe some conversation. And although she was happy to see Johnnie, it didn't seem like she missed him that badly. In fact, it felt like she welcomed a Sunday away from Johnnie too. Funny how that worked out LOL.

What WAS missing, what we WERE missing was a perfectly beautiful April Sunday outside. It was warm but not too warm, at least not after mid-day. I decided Johnnie and i had had enough of getting cooped up inside. So we went to the Century City mall, not only to pick up his Panda Express lunch, but also because I had purchased some shorts from Old Navy and to save on shipping, I did a pick-up-at-store thing at the mall. EEzy-peezy we were in and out of there inside of 30 minutes really. And back home where Johnnie ate his teriyaki chicken and I made myself a piece of salmon. AND a cauliflower crust pizza with cheese alternative. And pineapple. I'm really getting the hang of this vegan/pescatarian way of eating. Not quite 2 months yet and it already feels like I can sustain it for a while. What I don't like is that I have to cook more which means I have to wash dishes more too. Maybe I should be putting my dishwasher to better use huh? Anyway I spent the entire afternoon lazing around my bed. Not that it would have been any different had I played golf this morning, I would have just been lazing in front of the TV on my couch instead. But this time I kept up with the subconscious work and we will see what happens after a few days of this. I still did manage to watch the Dodger game on my iPad so you see it wasn't like I didn't have access to the usual entertainment. Just that I also had to have an eye and an ear on what Johnnie was doing in the living room. He went from Dragon Riders, back to Pokemon. I'm not sure the Pokemon thing is any more positive than Dragon Riders actually. Humans and non-humans navigating a world of superpowers. I guess that's really no different than the Avengers isn't it LOL. Anyway by late afternoon it started to feel no different than a regular week day with Johnnie. Dinner: penne pasta in chicken noodle broth. More fish for me. More Pokemon for Johnnie until it was time to get him to bed. In the middle of the afternoon, his new pajama bottom came which meant he no longer had to do the way-too-short pajamas he had been wearing for more than a year.  And his black pants came too. I am determined to get him to do Spring Sing. All good. When he went to bed, I stayed up. Doing more subconscious stuff. And doing work. Yep, work. the HRSA survey. Timecards. A different reality starts tomorrow. One with my job at QueensCare still in it. And that's ok. For a while longer.

All Day All Johnnie

So I realized that Johnnie will be with me for the entire weekend and then some. I don't think I've ever had him for an entire weekend, certainly not without a block of time leaving him with Lisa. Funny Lisa reminded me last night that I am finally getting a chance to spend more than 24 hours with him at some point. Some chance. First he's got COVID so I can't really be near him. It's like he has to stay in the living room and I'm in the bedroom. We can't go anywhere and do anything so that's a whole lot of fun <sarcasm> AND until this morning we didn't even have much food in the house. I finally had to take Johnnie to Ralphs with me, and made him stay in the car. In the meantime, Johnnie was already much better last night and so after a nice, long sleep he's even better this morning. A double check of his temp clears him at 98.9 and I made him Lisa's Sourdough bread for breakfast, augmented with strawberries and a couple of pieces of bacon. He ate it all too. That is the indicator that he is feeling much much better. I must say that if that is what was going to happen, Johnnie being down for.24 hours but very much fine afterwards, I would have been ok with that. No wonder my mom exposed me to all these bugs that my brother Mike got so we could be sick together. Get it over with and then you're good to go from then on. Kind of like when Johnnie passes the COVID test next, he will be exempt from those weekly tests anymore. And I won't have to worry about him ever contracting it.  He's got natural antibodies now. In the meantime, what do I do with this kid? I can't touch him. I could barely get him to brush and floss his teeth last night without getting too close. I wash my hands every time I'm near him. Or at least immediately engage a hand sanitizer LOL. That's the way it's going to be all weekend I'm afraid. Still, by mid-morning it was clear that he was going to be fine for the duration of the quarantine. My problem would be how he would not be bouncing off walls considering he is going to be limited in terms of range and activities. He has to stay indoors as much as possible. ALTHOUGH, by mid-morning he had requested a lunch of penne pasta in chicken noodle broth. And then not even an hour after, requested a second lunch. He's just fine to be sure. And what 2nd lunch did he request? Jack-in-the-box chicken strips. I thought it was perfectly fine to head out and get that one. I mean, we're only going through the drive-thru. That should be harmless. By afternoon he had shifted from old Winnie the Pooh episodes to Pokemon and then to his Dragon Riders. I stayed in front of my computer in the bedroom going through a whole host of morphic fields videos.

It was funny that I ended up reading about people frustrated that manifestation is not working for them. All I can say is that for sure WE are all different. What works for one, may not necessarily work for another. It all depends on the volume that is their consciousness and individual awareness. and of course we are all different in that way. One may have to work on releasing all kinds of negative layers first. Other people, not so much. I liken it to a computer program. The program won't work if the OS is not clean. Or at least it might run slow or be extremely limited. For me, the only thing that hasn't looked like it has worked in a very short period of time is the prostate stuff. Although I will say I probably had neglected it for a couple of decades and therefore I need to really dig into what 'program' or 'pattern'  has gotten itself stuck. And that part may take a little bit of time and consistent work in order to get released. It's like this rubber band being forced to go a different pull and then going back to the pull it has been used to all this past time. It may take a bunch of times before it gets molded into a new form. There is also the collective consciousness surrounding what is expected from "aging". I may have been guilty of buying into all that early on and I even remember a long time ago way WAY back when my inexperience brought about anxiety that led to some dysfunction. Talk about bad programming. I had to work through all that. Who knows if that stuff left some residue.I know there is some limitation I need to work still through regarding money and my experience with losing it and going bankrupt. And to me, THAT is the work that is required. And I am happy to do THAT work. By the time dinner came around I finally realized that this sort of turned out to be kind of like a weekday with Johnnie, not a Saturday. Normally, I'd have an hour with him in the morning and then I get the rest of the weekend to myself. Not so this weekend. And despite the situation, the day went by kind of quickly actually. We still did do some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and at Ralphs too. The rest of the day was quiet. Until I made Johnnie his pizza for dinner and made me my fish and made me shiratake noodle fettuccini and Beyond meatballs. Hard to believe that those noodles barely have any carbs in them. And so it was that it felt like a weekday still when I stayed in my room in front of my computer while Johnnie stayed in his "room" aka the living room quarantining the rest of the day. I hope he's not too bored. As for me the only different thing is that I'm not able to watch MY TV shows while he's on watching Pikachu. And that's ok. I actually spent the evening re-doing my iTunes collection on my phone. Even Johnnie says it has gotten too old, too stale. Heck I've had the same songs since the time I moved in on my own. That's almost 4 years. Those songs HAVE gotten a bit old. So I replaced a whole bunch of them. Let's see how this works. AND THEN I worked on some morphic field videos too. Maybe I just discovered a new protocol for manifestation right? That would be TOO COOL!

Johnnie Quarantine Day 1

With Johnnie getting COVID, everything obviously changes. So much for my day at the Employee party. I am now quarantined with Johnnie at home for at least the weekend. First I needed to check if I was good. And I got myself tested. NEGATIVE. I'm all good. Next was to make sure Johnnie had at least something to eat when he woke up. The thing about today was that I'm usually depleted of supplies for him and I had no fruit, almost no milk left, no bread. I did have some oatmeal leftover from over a month ago the last time he sort of had the stomach flu and threw up all over my bathroom. He ate a little and then when I played him some Sapien Medicine stuff (specific to viruses and even the C-virus) he fell right back asleep. I wanted to hug my boy so bad, but I knew I had better be careful. I put all kinds of hand sanitizers all over just so I can make sure to keep somewhat sterile. And then I went on to the business of notifying the school. I knew it was going to be a big-ish deal. We would always get these memos from Principal Choe about someone testing positive. Who knew today it would be Johnnie. With notifying the school came having the District call me to ask for details, presumably so they can contact trace. It turned out that Johnnie would sleep through the entire morning and that's a good thing. His body needs to heal. In the meantime, i guess I get to... WORK LOL.  Stuff I need to get caught up with anyway. I literally have nothing else to do. Well, except to line up some morphic energy audios to listen to. These are the new things I discovered. I've been doing binaural beats and isochronic tones for years but this is different in terms of energetics. This is all about channeling energies and transmitting them through sound waves. I just started learning about them and doing them and we will see how they work. I would certainly love to unlock whatever I need to in order to make these healing frequencies work on my supposedly enlarged prostate. Anyway, Johnnie would wake up around lunchtime and naturally he's a hungry. But clearly not 100% just yet. I gave him some penne chicken broth and a soft boiled egg. Hopefully he holds that down. And then I told him it was ok to simply watched videos for the rest of the afternoon. The first step is to make sure he is getting better. So far so good. He hadn't broken 99 on the thermometer all day and I had been checking while he was asleep. So at least he doesn't have a fever. In the meantime, I also started to play with my new MAC. Not only do I need to get used to the thing, there are a lot of new programs I get to check out. Still not quite a Windows computer, but to simply be plugged in to the QC network and the environment I built, it is plenty adequate. I bet it can even connect to EPIC. Also in the spirit of NOTHING HAPPENS AT RANDOM and EVERYTHING IS ME PUSHED OUT, I have to mull over Johnnie and Covid. Why him and why now? On the surface I could just say Lisa was clearly once again focused on dis-ease and so that would be an easy mirror. And then again there is my dynamic with her. I became aware that the ego-control aspect within me got activated yet again. I wanted him to be at school tomorrow so I could go to the employee party. Lisa seemed to be going the opposite direction... as in he should stay home never mind what I had planned. She wins. Johnnie got COVID. No doubt about what to do then. And then I asked myself... is it really about who wins and who loses? Maybe I need to learn to put my controlling Self aside and just go with the flow. After all, I also 'wished' to bond more with Johnnie didn't I? I'm going to bond with him now that is FOR SURE. The earliest he could go back to school is Wednesday. He is stuck with me until then. Because Lisa is clearly deathly afraid of catching COVID. Not for her health mind you, it's because she would have to miss work. She wanted to bring by some Soud Dough bread Grandma Vicky brought for Johnnie. And she basically just handed it to me and was outta there. She at least got to talk to Johnnie over the phone. By the evening, he had improved pretty dramatically. He was hungry again. Asked me to go to Jack in the Box to get chicken strips. Asked for spaghetti too. NOW THAT is my Johnnie. And he started to get a little more bouncy. He was not 100% but much MUCH better. Already you could hardly tell he had been sick the previous 24 hours. It was like he got the 24-hr flu is all. And I am SO RELIEVED and GRATEFUL. Nothing worse than watching your child while he is sick. He is back to his babbling self, talking about Pokemon and Dragons and all kinds of other stuff. Ah my Johnnie. The pic is one of him drinking some of my green tea. He is now into Pokemon videos and that's what he did all evening. And so it was that i got to stay home all day and watch my son. And wished that all at QueensCare had a good time at the party that i missed. In the meantime, I'm doing ok. I am doing well. Maybe I'll focus on some learnings I need to catch up on these next few days...

Johnnie Gets Covid

Except we never got to do the Spanish lesson. I had to cancel it. STAR had called me and Lisa and let us know Johnnie had complained of a big headache and so Lisa picked him up early. I was all set to bring Johnnie's computer over for the Spanish class but when I got there, Johnnie was asleep. And Lisa had sent me a text that I missed that I needed to cancel Spanish class because Johnnie was sick. I was skeptical of course since I knew Johnnie had thrown up this morning and he woke up early and so I was thinking all he needed was a nap. To that end, I did cancel Spanish class. And then I went on home. I was irritated because if Johnnie has to stay home tomorrow, then I won't get to go to the employee party. And Lisa was clearly leaning that way. She herself was dealing with yet another yeast or bacterial something that the doctors couldn't figure out but it was clearly bugging her. Better for me to deal with that and if I have to pick up Johnnie tomorrow, then so be it. Until 6:30 PM when I got another call from Lisa. This one was a DOOZY. She tested Johnnie for COVID. It came back positive. DAMN. She asked if he could stay and quarantine with me since she does not want to catch it. And so I picked up Johnnie and Claire and took them to my apartment. I was in a bit of shock I'm not going to lie. Damn.

Johnnie's Living Animal Museum presentation

Today was a big day in my mind, at least in the morning. First we finally get to Johnnie's Living Animal museum day in his classroom. This is a huge deal because it's the first time we're actually seeing his classroom. I mean we never got to see his kindergarten classroom ever. Yet one more step toward normalcy. I was so excited I got to the line at the door in front of the kinder play yard before 9 AM.  I was the first one there and well before Lisa got there. She did get there on time though and we both were the first ones through the door at Room 7. Of course we would go to Johnnie's table first. They were put in pairs or groups of 3. YOu can see Johnnie's group in the picture. Overall he did fine though I must admit I was a bit overwhelmed to actually listen to him. The fact that he got up, got it done, did his speech, and did it over and over for all the other parents was plenty good enough for me. I was SO proud of him. I'm not even going to mention that he had thrown up this morning and I thought it was a case of nerves in fact. He got up really REALLY early and couldn't sleep beyond 6 AM in the morning. Of course there were other kids too. Notably, Brooklyn came as a monarch butterfly. What a pair: a pangolin and a monarch butterfly LOL. And I took the opportunity to look up the other kids that Johnnie talks about. There's Aviv of course who is destined to be a bit of a troublemaker later on in life, though he is an intelligent kid by all accounts too. There's Ford who Johnnie got tangled with and had the hand abrasion for a few weeks. Boys being boys I guess. All in all it was a quick 15 minutes, but it was a very much treasured 15 minutes, at least for me. And then afterwards, I dropped Claire off to Lisa's house. She had a very chill day with no plans today and I urged to just bask in having nothing to do. I know I would. Today I actually cancelled all my team meetings, just so I WOULD have nothing to do. Instead I headed over to the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade and right to the Apple store. Today I bought my Mac Air M1 laptop. Cost me $1100. I had already earmarked my tax refund for such a purchase. And I told myself that if I'm going to enjoy being a millionaire I had also be used to making such larger purchases. Especially if I have plenty of money and those purchases don't even make a dent in my finances. AND I was looking for a laptop anyway. Finally the old Thinkpad from USC stevens days gave out. I mean I did have it for almost 8 years! It was time for a new one and I mean I new one that I owned for myself. I was very pleased with the purchase. The thing is snappy. I don't think I'm going to have any more computer problems moving forward. After all I have to start designing my life without any QueensCare gear don't I LOL. Speaking of which I needed to start getting ready for the Employee party tomorrow and to that end I did have one meeting to go to. That would be the Leadership Check-in at 3 PM, the last meeting of the day and of the week. I participated at least and then looked forward to picking up Johnnie and doing his Spanish lesson at Lisa's house.

Technology Council Meeting Day

Used to be the Tech Council Meeting Day I would be a little bit stressed. You never know what the C's are going to throw at you. Until I simply resolved to be ok with that. That I'm never going to know what they're going to throw at me and that I have to be comfortable that who I am and what I know is enough. More than enough. By now, after almost 9 years I think I have earned that. And so with that in the back of my head, I treated today about as stress-free as I could. Which is why I posted Johnnie pics still on this post. Nothing like watching a kid play and run with almost no care in the world. That is what I'm modelling today. I'm just going to be me. As it were, I dropped Johnnie off and walked right into a meeting: the Communications Meeting which I ended up being the first one up. All I do for this meeting is talk about snippets - and I mean very small snippets from the Tech Council Presentation in another few hours.  One thing about being the first up is that it means you're also done early. And I could tank off and do other stuff for the rest of the hour while everyone else talks about their stuff. Group energy this morning isn't quite as high, which is kind of a good sign for my own meeting later on. Not likely it goes more than an hour if it's like this meeting. The funny thing was that since my meeting doesn't start until 2 PM anymore I actually had time to lounge around and watch the Season Premiere of the Mayans MC. A brown version of Sons of Anarchy to be sure. I wasn't really all that into SOA, but for whatever reason I'm much more into Mayans and the story of EZ "Ezekiel". So much so I almost made it into the 2nd episode of the 2-part season premiere before I realized that it was almost GO TIME for the Tech Council Meeting. As it were I was pretty relaxed and I'm pretty sure it showed. My ego was not engaged and I was just floating information. They all can decide what happens if it goes that way. Otherwise, I'm just doing my thing. And so it was that I really didn't have all that much to talk about. Not more than an hour anyway and even while we digressed some, we still got done before the hour was up. People had questions still, but nothing that I couldn't handle really. And so I had the rest of the afternoon free until it was time to pick up Johnnie. 

So tonight we were supposed to go to Lisa's office to reprise doing Johnnie's Spanish class there and then go to dinner afterwards. So more pictures of Johnnie's day really. He did so well with the Spanish class I thought. It's like I could almost see neural pathways getting created already so he will never have a problem with it later on in life. Kinda like I was brought up knowing that Tagalog sounded like Spanish so lots of Spanish I can already understand. The neural pathways were already there. For once Lisa wasn't in the middle of some crisis or some drama and so she actually managed to attend the class with Johnnie right from the beginning. And I think she was just as impressed as I was at how much material Johnnie got to cover in just today. So we got done and we reprised what we did 2 weeks ago too. That was getting Johnnie's dinner first at Panda Express and then getting Lisa's and my dinner at SeaSalt poke across the way at what used to be the Olympic Collection. I agreed to do this because it was good for Lisa to get out of the office and actually have dinner with Johnnie. It keeps the pattern of crap going on in her office neutralized. Or at least interrupted. AND she gets to have a decent meal to boot. Never mind that it cost me almost $30 for all of us. Small price to pay for a little bit of harmony. I hope that can put to bed all this shit Lisa goes through every time she has to shell out a little bit of money. She never sees how much people shell out on her LOL. Least alone ME! Anyway we all had a decent dinner and then off we went our separate directions, Lisa home early for once and me and Johnnie back to the apartment. We still had a lot to do tonight. It is FINALLY Johnnie's classroom Living Animal Museum day tomorrow and I can't wait to see how Johnnie does with his pangolin exhibit. But tonight I had to fix it up so he doesn't lose most of his scales. That's the beauty of it you know. Those scales I mean. I could hardly get Johnnie to stand still while I fixed parts of his costume. But afterwards I was confident it would hold up tomorrow.  This is going to be great! And so Johnnie went to sleep ready for his big day. As did his dad.

Benefits of Remote Work

The great thing about still working remotely is that I can actually WORK remotely. And still get other stuff done. This morning, that means getting up, getting Johnnie showered and readied and dropped off at school. By 7:50 might I add. And then I stopped at Whole Foods to get breakfast. Same carrot/celery/apple/orange juice I used to get there for $7.75 BEFORE I bought my own juicer. It's been less than a couple of weeks and that thing has already paid for itself. But today I couldn't go home after dropping Johnnie off. That's because I had an appointment to get maintenance work done with my car. The maintenance light came on this past weekend and so I brought it in for what I thought was just an oil change.  Instead, what they found was similar to what Santa Monica Honda found when I last brought it in way back in August. I didn't do most of what they pointed out at the time. I wasn't ready to spend $700. 8 months later, I didn't care as much. All they did was change the oil, a lot of the other fluids, and a tire that had a nail in it. And I still spent $700.  Cost of maintenance I guess. Heck the oil change alone would have already cost me $80. In the meantime, while they did the work, I stuck around the lounge and worked. I answered emails, TEAMS posts, and even started to solve a problem with one of the important PowerBI dashboards. THAT is the beauty of remote work.  I can work WHILE my car is getting maintenance work done. And when it got done around 11:00 I just drove back home with lunch from Sprouts. I even got a chance to work out what I was going to do with a sleeper sofa for Johnnie and how to get the sofa I have now disposed of.  And so by the time I got done with lunch, I pretty felt like I had a lot accomplished. I was already pretty much all done with my Communications Meeting and Tech Council presentation material already so I'm good to go with those. I had time to do almost a 2-mile walk and get my steps in before it was time to pick up Johnnie from STAR. 

I always say that some really good quality time with Johnnie makes up for a ton of crap I have to deal with. Wasn't it just a week ago that we spend the day at the San Diego Wild Animal Safari Park? Man time flies. Last week we were up 400 ft on a hot air balloon. Today... Then again, sometimes that kid tests my patience. I am doing better with that but sometimes I lose it. Sometimes I lose it... WITH Johnnie. For the most part, he's a happy kid and a good little boy. Look at the pic of him cleaning up after himself with his Panda Express dinner on the floor. And then sometimes he is just so energetic that he forgets himself and gets out of control. He's not a wee little kid anymore. Today while we were horseplaying he swung his head back and head butted me in the nose. It hurt. And I saw red. I got angry. I screamed at him to go into the room and stay there. And of course he started to cry. I was hot and he was going to hear it. Fortunately, I did calm down after a few minutes and I was able to talk to him dad-to-son and give him a learning lesson without yelling, without hitting, without anything.  Instead I made him write 4 sentences on the incident and how sorry he was. That would be the second picture on the post. That was HIS punishment. No TV until I was satisfied with whatever he wrote. I think he did learn his lesson though I worry still that he might get just as rough with another kid. I mean that head-butt really hurt. He needs to understand that he can control himself and that is what I'm going to need to help him with. He goes full out with everything he does. Running, throwing, hitting. And he's a pretty good athlete already.  Gone was the kid who was one of the smallest tykes in his class.  Who knew my kid would be the one the teachers would tell not to play so rough. Wait until he gets even bigger and I can't horseplay with him anymore LOL. In the meantime, incident over, punishment over, Johnnie discovers Pokemon videos on the web. Great. That would be the next video group he will have interest in. We went from Octonauts to Wild Kratts to Dragon REscue Riders to now Pokemon. I think that just about covers it LOL. As for me, I had a nice piece of salmon for dinner, nice green tea to wind down with and actually had a pretty chill evening for myself. I realize that I've gotten so caught up with methodologies. Processes to heal myself, processes for this, processes for that. The most important process though is to learn to listen to my Intuition, my Inner Guidance, my Higher Self. And this I'm still a work in progress. Tonight after I put Johnnie to bed, I did go online and purchase the new sofa. By Monday he won't have to sleep on a sofa anymore, he'll have something closer to a real bed. Now what else is on my imaging list?

Start of Another Week

All that time spent on the couch yesterday afternoon just looking at internal work video after internal work video and I'm almost getting lost since I keep finding new ones to do. I think I'm going to have to do some curating pretty soon and categorizing so that I can settle on some kind of regimen. OR I can just say f** it and do what feels right and what feels good. On that note, I woke up pretty refreshed this morning although I noted I did get up a couple of times last night to pee and the metric I'm going to use to feel healthy is that I don't have to get up at night to pee and when I do get up, pee comes out nice and free and strong without any feeling of pause. In the meantime I did settle on some nice meditation this morning and got out and about to do the Monday morning walk before 8 AM. Halfway through, Lisa dropped by and dropped off the dog and supposedly she is already pooping solid and feeling much better. I had really good energy this morning and by 8:30 I had 5000+ steps AND 50 active minutes. FEels like 15000 steps and 140 active minutes should be a breeze today. Not that those were the goals, but those have been the marks I've hit over the last few Mondays. Why not keep it going. It was also a nice day out first thing and the selfie I took verifies and acknowledges that. I looked forward to another sort of short week, since we're having the Employee Celebration on Friday. AND I look forward to seeing Johnnie's class for the first time while he does his animal project on Thursday.  AND while I'm image cycling, I so look forward to retiring off dividends where I don't have to work anymore, at least not if I choose not to. TO that end, I did some affirmations that it is OK not to have to trade my time for money anymore. It is perfectly fine to have my money work for me and that I pay myself the same net salary I get now. All I need do is accept and allow it and the getting to the critical mass in order to be able to do that will be clear. This thought was further strengthened watching a Kevin O'Leary video (Mr Nice Guy from Shark Tank), the guy I like least on that panel and he's talking about living within your means, and saving and investing and that is precisely what my plan had been anyway. He's also talking a lot about BITCOIN and CRYPTO. Hmmm. Could THAT be the path I need to work on and learn. Lots to learn to be sure.

In the meantime, I still had work to do. I also took to heart a video from Jeffrey Allen. Transition now to making your job your hobby and your hobby your primary means of income. But I still need to put time into this "hobby". Just not all of my time. I need to focus. And today I worked on my presentation for Communications Meeting AND Tech Council Meeting on Wednesday. And tried to get caught up with a lot of pending stuff I let go last week. Hey I was on vacation. Even a vendor that texted me about something due got under my skin. That is the part I need to work on. No REACTING. That's just the Universe testing my resolve. I did more meditation right around lunch time and I knocked off from theta to a nice nap that lasted an entire hour. I'm not complaining about that at all.  In fact, a couple of more videos has me focused on the premise that everything starts from thought, and the observer is the point of causality and reality, then is it that easy to simply observe my own health in order to get to that point? That's the idea isn't it.  Anyway, I was  pretty centered for the rest of the day until Lisa came to pick up Claire around 4:15. It was her day off yet she worked. She didn't see patients but she did dental stuff WITH patients at specialists, including her dad. Yeah, she worked. No wonder she's yawning and looked tired. At least she was back in time to pick up Johnnie. I went over there after my dinner though all I had was the chana stuff. I would pick up a Beyond Burger from Carl's Jr later on and ate that without the bread. Still had a lot of mayo though. Gotta figure out what to do about that. Otherwise it was just like the Veggie Grill Beyond Burger I had last week. And filled me up just fine. I picked up Johnnie at the Santa Monica field and by then it was already almost 8:30 PM. I had to let him watch Dragon Riders though, just so he could have some semblance of routine. And it was still 9:15 when I packed him up for bed and kissed him goodnight. I didn't go right off to sleep myself. I watched an episode of The ENDGAME. I don't know what about that show has suckered me into watching. But now it just lulled me to sleep. Thought I'd do that instead of listening to frequencies this evening. And I was out shortly. 

Easter Sunday

Already this is not a typical Easter Sunday. Whereas before there would usually be some kind of festivities at Lisa's house, this year there is none. Not really sure why but I am not going to question it either. Never mind that I booked us at Penmar in anticipation that I would have to be at Lisa's house by lunchtime. Last year, Johnnie's brothers came. The years before that, it was Varsha and Sharon and Balwan. But alas, the latter is now in Ireland and Johnnie's brother's? I'm told Lisa is celebrating Easter NEXT Sunday. Great. Still, there is golf to play today and so I'm not too broken up about it at all. Besides, it's a nice day out and I get to try on my NEW New Balance shoes. And with new socks to boot LOL. And I can work on my focus exercises and not get myself too rushed when I play. First hole, nice tee shot, terrible second shot but I'm on in 3.  Misses a long putt, settled for a bogey. 2nd Hole, nice tee shot, second shot hits the trees, I do a 7. 3rd hole - the EASIEST hole that I can not seem to land on the green off the tee in forever. Except today. I hit a nice 6-iron that landed 20 feet from the hole. Who dat? I missed the birdie putt, but got my par. NOW I can breathe easy. I got a 6 on Hole 4, a bogey on Hole 5. And on the long Hole 6, I was actually already 120 yards from the pin after 2 shots. But I messed around and finished with a 6. On Hole 7, I had a decent shot off the tee, and BLASTED my 2nd shot within 20 yards of the hole. I got a par on that hole. So already I got my requisite 2 pars today. Which signifies that I played decently. We were paired up today with a couple who we played with before. And a single woman who hit the ball pretty hard. Reminded me of Lisa and Mandy that way. I wonder if we could get her to play with us again?? LOL.  I didn't really pay attention to how Scott played. But he seemed to play his usual ok game. I know he had at least one par.  And so it was that we at least got to play today, and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. And we got done by 11 too. I went home and made me a shrimp salad for lunch. Why spend $20 on salmon at Crimson? Especially when I have all this food I brought home from Sprouts yesterday?! I did have a breakfast shake from Robek's this morning. But the shrimp salad and some of the Indian kidney bean and tamarind package did just fine as a side dish. I coulda shoulda taken a nap after lunch. Instead I did a whole bunch of videos. AND watched the Dodgers game. The boys swept the Reds today. It would have been NBA play-off watch time but alas the Lakers did not make it. And they will spend the summer in embarassment to be sure. But hey we're still basking in the RAMS Super Bowl win. In this town it isn't enough to win. YOU gotta win it all! Anyway today's lessons and learnings started with Morphic fields. I know I'm getting more down the rabbit hole with energetic technologies and systems but how can I doubt even my own results? My resting heart rate is back down to 62 today. That's athlete level. Just because I changed my diet 6 weeks ago? And most of my numbers are back to normal? If that is all it takes, why does not everyone do this? Am I to become one of the champions of this different lifestyle? Especially as we age? Then again, who says we even have to age? LOL. There are already frequencies and attunement videos all over the place about sirtuins and stem cells that can be stimulated. Heck I even saw a Tony Robbins video about it. He is 64 and claims to have the biological age of 51. Why not me? Well, first I gotta address my urinary system. Not that I now believe there is a serious problem, but it's like my blood pressure. It was high but now very much controlled and almost back below average even. I know i have to do the same with my prostate PSA numbers and that I will do, hence all the focus on frequencies and energetic modalities. And then, this being Sunday and all, I have to look back to the week that was. My favorite moments: the HOT AIR balloon ride at the San Diego Zoo with Johnnie. Visiting my sister. Johnnie having pizza and pasta 3 days in a row. A sushi Friday night with Lisa at her office. Not so favorite moments? Claire pooping in my apartment. Grrr. Still, it was a very good Spring Break week. And I was glad I got to spend all that time with Johnnie.

Another Johnnie Day

Today is another Lisa work day, and it does feel like she has been working all week. Lucky for her, it's Johnnie's Spring Break so no issues there. Today though is just a usual Lisa work Saturday but I'm not going to pick up Johnnie and Claire this morning. That's because I have a 7:30 AM dental cleaning appointment myself at Lisa's office. And so I have to get up early anyway and I shaved and showered to boot. Might as well get myself cleaned up right? As far as the cleaning itself, I was definitely due and it felt good to know Sandy my hygienist gave me a clean bill of oral health. And then proceeded to give me a pretty good cleaning. My mouth is good to go. At some point during the cleaning I heard the dog barking and I heard Johnnie's voice. It would seem mom and son got the office a little after 8 AM. I was done by 8:30 and so off we went to the apartment to drop Claire off. Lisa told me she had pooped diarrhea all over her floor and to be careful. What the heck did she feed her now? Anyway I dropped her off anyway, creating barriers so that if she DID poop inside, she could only do it in a very confined space. And then off we went to Elysee to ahve breakfast Johnnie and I. Of course someone over there recognized him. It was one of the behind-the-counter staff who had been there for a while. She remembered seeing Johnnie as a baby and told him that.  And he's here eating the same old thing (see picture). Only this time, he ate most of what I ordered. I ate some of the eggs but I had already juiced me up some celery apple so I was fine. The next thing on the agenda was to get a replacement charger for my Fitbit. It would seem that I had left mine at the hotel in San Diego. Along with my container of shampoo. So much for not leaving anything behind. Oh well, we headed off to Target to get a replacement. But they were out too. And Best Buy wasn't open yet. I guess I get to buy it at Amazon. Hopefully it will get here by tomorrow. I have enough juice in my Fitbit until then I think. It will have to work. What I did get from Amazon today, was an impulse buy from last week. New Balance golf shoes and golf socks to match. Hey why not indulge every once in a while? I have plenty of money don't I? Besides, I'm tired of wearing my Vessi's on the golf course. Last on the agenda this morning was a trip to Sprouts. This new eating pattern I have adopted is more suited to getting fruits, vegetables, and plant-based foods. All found at Sprouts. And so I bought $80 worth of stuff. Not that I even ate any of it for lunch anyway. For that Johnnie and I went to the Century City mall, just like 2 weeks ago. I got Johnnie his usual Panda Express, and I got me some salmon poke from Big Fish Little Fish. Already a pretty good morning when we headed back home. I wish I could have taken a nap like i wanted. But Johnnie was simply too energized and when that kid is in the middle of something, he wants to make sure you are part of the experience. And so I was. Whether it was talking dragons, or swordplay or watching Dragon Riders, I had to be there. And he knew I didn't have to work today either. And that's ok. I reflected on the fact that I have had Johnnie everyday almost for the full day since Tuesday. That's 5 straight days and that hasn't happened in a while. And I'm glad. Lisa gets him tomorrow of course but I was still happy that I got Johnnie for pretty much his entire Spring/Easter break. Even though I was starting to tire myself. I do wonder how single parents do it without a partner to hand off to.  I knew Lisa was going to work until at least 6 PM so Johnnie got pizza and pasta for the 3rd day in a row. I got shrimp over pasta myself. Chickpea pasta that is. Lisa called around 7 PM asking to get a respite and a little time for piano. And so I didn't drop Johnnie off until it was almost 8 PM. By that time, Lisa thought she needed some new dog food since apparently the culprit for Claire's diarrhea was some new dog food that her mom had bought her. Hmmm. And so we did something different. We needed to buy dog food obviously. And so we went to Ralphs Santa Monica to pick it up. And also some breakfast stuff for mom and son since she apparently didn't have any food in the house.  I mean here i am doing a lot of grocery shopping specifically so that Johnnie would have something to eat always. Not Lisa. Those things are not that high on her priority list I guess. Still I bought her stuff for her and when they didn't have the dog food we needed at that Ralphs, I dropped off Lisa and Johnnie and then went to MY Ralphs on National. THERE they had the dog food we wanted to get. And so obviously I bought it and since it was barely 9 PM I just delivered it to Lisa's. And walked in on mom and son making hot chocolate and playing a game of Pokemon. And so it was that I concluded my evening joining them. And even though I now avoid sugar, I still had a little hot cocoa and a little bread and jam just to be sociable. A tiny bit of an outlier from my usual food intake these days isn't going to hurt. And I got to spend my last day with Johnnie with a family event. Lisa didn't plan anything for Easter Sunday tomorrow at her house so this was nice.  My week with Johnnie was done pretty much. And I reflected on how good of a week it turned out to be.