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.