Conclusion of Town Hall Week

Quietly I missed that yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. Not that I ever made a big deal out of it, other than maybe eating a lot more guacamole. Funny, that would have been totally ok for me to eat these days. Today is the last day of Town Hall Week and I looked forward to concluding it at our Echo Park location and then the brunch afterwards to de-brief. Without Johnnie and Claire, I aimed to leave the house at 7:30 to get to Echo Park early and still I almost didn't leave until it was 7:45 just a few minutes more than when I would usually leave when I dropped Johnnie off all week. As it were, I got to the location almost a full 10 minutes before the Town hall started so that was a great start. The Echo Park crew is always an enthusiastic bunch although I don't think Hollywood's energy yesterday could be beaten. Still, I eased through my presentation and by 9:20, it was all done eezy-peezy and it was already on to the brunch at HOME restaurant on Hillhurst close to the Hollywood location. I have fondness for this area of course since I would remember walking up and down Hillhurst when I first started at the Hollywood location. And of course there's Alcove a block away, which is an old favorite. This was where we would hang out back in the day with Lisa when we would play golf at Roosevelt. Seems so long ago. But we never ate at HOME. Today the streak is broken. It was definitely highly regarded on Yelp. And actually it didn't disappoint. I had a California omelette <remembering my Hacienda Golf Club breakfasts way WAY back in the day> and today I ate bacon for the first time in more than 2 months. First time I'm eating real meat. Although as portions went, it wasn't really all that much. Everything else was within the norm of what I would usually eat these days.  It was all good. And I got complimented for my presentations all week long. I will admit, the ham in me thinks it's fun to do and I do have some showman in me. But nobody sees that I have to decompress afterwards. Today I didn't get back until almost 1 PM. I went to Lisa's house, picked up Claire and then went back to my apartment having officially concluded my week of work.

Or not? I actually almost forgot i had a data request meeting at 3 PM. And the funny thing was I did manage to knock off for a good hour long nap and woke up just in time for that meeting.  It wasn't anything I didn't know already and in fact, I was surprised it even went a half hour. And after that I decided to get started on timecards early. I am NOT going to work on those damn things this weekend. When I looked up it was already 5 PM. Time to pick up Johnnie from school. When I picked him up he had band-aids all over his elbow. And he said there were some on his hip too. Turned out he got pushed in playground and took a hard fall. He doesn't even know who pushed who. Just a boy being a boy at the playground I guess. Nothing broken, all good. By tomorrow, those scratches will be scabbing already. Since Lisa is working today, and I hadn't heard from her by then I knew she would be working until late, which was fine by me. Johnnie and I shared dinner <chicken broth penne AND a couple of chicken drumsticks from Ralphs>. I made my tuna melt vegan wrap. Even the wrap was vegan. And it was pretty good too. That and some channa masala and I was full. Of course Johnnie had to watch his pokemon. But he also got going on a Prodigy app on his computer. Turns out he has these competitions on this thing with other kids at school. I had to buy him a membership so he could play the advanced stuff. I thought it was $75 for the year well spent. In a little over 5 weeks, it will be summer again and I will need to figure out what to do with him on a daily basis if he isn't at camp. Lisa finally did come by at 8:30 so tired she was yawning. I'm sure she didn't eat much either. How she lets herself get broken down to this point is beyond me. She now has no energy to spend any time with Johnnie. But.. it is her turn and much as Johnnie would have loved to keep doing his prodigy game, he gets to have an early evening instead.  We made plans to coordinate for tomorrow morning. It's Dexter's birthday and we're going over to his sister's to help him celebrate. It's all good. Town Hall week went well, I got done everything I needed to get done. And now I have the weekend.