A Spontaneous Playdate

So Johnnie already told me yesterday he wanted to go to the office with me today. Not that I planned on going in really, but if Johnnie is coming with, then today would be nice because there won't be any one in the office, except my team actually. I could do all my morning meetings from there and then hang out with Johnnie for a leisurely lunch downtown. The last time I took him to the office, he was just 4 years old, well before the pandemic. That was more than 3 years ago. I doubt if he even remembers what the office looks like, although I was actually surprised he remembered the lunch we had at the cafeteria. Those were the days of Mark the cook of course. And so here we are headed downtown right after breakfast and in the pic here we were at the FRB Conference room. I did my full meeting that turned out to be in person because all my team was there in the new IS Room. Johnnie was in the corner cubicle watching his videos. After the meeting I got a text from Lisa. Apparently, Brooklyn and Bailey were at Playa Vista Sports Park and Blair wanted to know if we were free to go over there. I was planning on having a nice, leisurely lunch with Johnnie right here downtown, and knowing me probably doing the cafeteria thing all over again. Having Johnnie and Brooklyn see each other again after not having seen one another for a couple of months is DEFINITELY the better idea, albeit it's just a couple of days before school starts again. And so we packed up after my EHR Team Meeting and headed off to Playa Vista Park. You should have seen the look on Brooklyn's face when she saw Johnnie. No one had told her he was coming and so it was a total surprise. And so the two of them spent the next few hours playing together and hanging out. Since I hadn't done anything about lunch, I went to Whole Foods and got us both a pizza and got the kids chocolate chip cookies, and lemonade and water. After all it IS a hot day out there. But it was actually pleasant in the shade. It was almost 3 PM by the time we headed home and I only did that because I thought I had a phone call at 3 PM. Turned out I didn't. But at least the kids got to spend a whole lot of time together today. And we're all ready to start school next week. At least we were already home for Johnnie's Spanish class. And while he was doing class, I did the BACK To SCHOOL Zoom videoconference with Principal Choe of Mar Vista. Mostly newbies were on the call and they had questions that reminded me of Lisa and I when Johnnie was starting TK 3 years ago. Anyway Johnnie and I had a full evening after his class. We went to Panda Express to get dinner, and we ate over there for a change. And then we went home and Johnnie wanted to jump in the hot tub. Especially after he discovered I actually kept the bath tub toys he had since he was 3-4 years old. He could then play sink-or-float all over again. And while he was in the tub, I did my steps routine. I must have looked funny waving my arms vigorously in place, just so I could bring my heart rate up. I was barely at 10 active minutes when I got to 5000 steps. But laugh all you want about me waving my arms vigorously but it did the trick. I ended up with almost 12000 steps aNd 78 active minutes. That meant that I did more than an hour active minutes simply walking around the hot tub while Johnnie was playing his games. By the time he was ready to get out of the tub he was nice, clean, relaxed, and as far as I was concerned, ready to get picked up by Lisa. She didn't come until it was 8:45 PM tonight and that was ok. We didn't chic chat much since I already agreed to come to her house tomorrow before 8 AM so I could drop Johnnie off for the last day of camp. AND go to my own dental appointment right after it at 8:30 AM. Anyway it turned out to be a long day. And I was tired. And I fell asleep on the couch. But it was a pretty good day too. For both Johnnie and I.