Happy Birthday to me. I looked at my last couple of birthdays which were of course during the height of the pandemic still. I didn't really do anything special. In fact, if there was anything that marked my birthdays during the pandemic, it was that I had to attend to a Johnnie medical issue. Last year of course was when he came down with smallpox right when school started. And so basically I just hung out with him at home. Funny how it would be like that this year again. Although you can see him mugging out and singing me Happy Birthday in the video what happened today was that I had to pick him up from school early. The Office called me and let me know he was coughing a lot and was saying he didn't feel well. Of course I had to go get him. And I already knew that somehow Lisa is going to link this to HER illness or whatever illness she is experiencing now. She stayed home the last couple of days due to a bad cold. And I believe that's what Johnnie has too. I thought it started out ok this morning although he did have a diarrhea poop, which was what happened last year when he got smallpox and when he got COVID. In the back of my mind, I was hoping he would make it through the day. And he almost did at that. He went from energetic playing as usual when I dropped him off in the morning <see pic> to coughing every couple of minutes when I got him from school. It was already 1:30 and he had an hour left before school was done anyway. I got him to nap off the rest of the afternoon and hopefully he would be feeling ok enough to do Spanish class. In the meantime, the original plan was to drop him off after Spanish class and to go on my first date with Candace Uyehara in Torrance. In the middle of the afternoon, she texted me that she wasn't going to be in Torrance after all, she would be in Irvine. So the date got called off. Man, my birthday is falling apart wasn't it? Then again, compared to the past couple of years, it really was just another day wasn't it? Just that I did get pings from friends and fam. Karl exchanging texts. Gina in Santa Rosa one of my oldest friends from the General Dynamics days exchanging texts. And Jorge even surprising me with a phone call first thing this morning telling me he wanted to take me to lunch since he is in the area. I said SURE with my usual 'we'll see if you actually follow through' thought pattern. Same SURE I gave to Karl when he said we should get together. People get busy and I get that. I'm not going to get suckered anymore from all those years expecting to do something different with Lisa and then her doing nothing at all to mark the day. I remember one year I had to WALK all the way to Crimson from her office just to celebrate myself at the end of a long work day at her office. I was all set to make myself a nice steak or something different like that for dinner. Maybe go to the Century City mall and catch a movie too. After all, my work week was done. I got Johnnie through Spanish class and dropped him off at Lisa's. And then I got a call from Jorge again. He's still right down the street. And this time he was on his way to Lisa's. So he could take me to dinner he says. I love that my friends assume I nothing going on in my life that I could do spontaneous things. They are right of course but who's checking LOL. And so it was that we had a really good conversation and a nice catch-up at Oops over sushi and sashimi. And I got myself celebrated for my birthday properly after all. THANK YOU JORGE. Thank YOU Universe. It turned out to be a nice birthday at that. Upon further reflection, I got to be DAD, which was all I wanted to do. And I got to be A FRIEND, which I appreciated a great deal. AND I got to appreciate where I am in the here and now. What else do I need?
sp;last couple of birthdays which were of course during the height of the pandemic still. I didn't really do anything special. In fact, if there was anything that marked my birthdays during the pandemic, it was that I had to attend to a Johnnie medical issue. Last year of course was when he came down with smallpox right when school started. And so basically I just hung out with him at home. Funny how it would be like that this year again. Although you can see him mugging out and singing me Happy Birthday in the video what happened today was that I had to pick him up from school early. The Office called me and let me know he was coughing a lot and was saying he didn't feel well. Of course I had to go get him. And I already knew that somehow Lisa is going to link this to HER illness or whatever illness she is experiencing now. She stayed home the last couple of days due to a bad cold. And I believe that's what Johnnie has too. I thought it started out ok this morning although he did have a diarrhea poop, which was what happened last year when he got smallpox and when he got COVID. In the back of my mind, I was hoping he would make it through the day. And he almost did at that. He went from energetic playing as usual when I dropped him off in the morning <see pic> to coughing every couple of minutes when I got him from school. It was already 1:30 and he had an hour left before school was done anyway. I got him to nap off the rest of the afternoon and hopefully he would be feeling ok enough to do Spanish class. In the meantime, the original plan was to drop him off after Spanish class and to go on my first date with Candace Uyehara in Torrance. In the middle of the afternoon, she texted me that she wasn't going to be in Torrance after all, she would be in Irvine. So the date got called off. Man, my birthday is falling apart wasn't it? Then again, compared to the past couple of years, it really was just another day wasn't it? Just that I did get pings from friends and fam. Karl exchanging texts. Gina in Santa Rosa one of my oldest friends from the General Dynamics days exchanging texts. And Jorge even surprising me with a phone call first thing this morning telling me he wanted to take me to lunch since he is in the area. I said SURE with my usual 'we'll see if you actually follow through' thought pattern. Same SURE I gave to Karl when he said we should get together. People get busy and I get that. I'm not going to get suckered anymore from all those years expecting to do something different with Lisa and then her doing nothing at all to mark the day. I remember one year I had to WALK all the way to Crimson from her office just to celebrate myself at the end of a long work day at her office. I was all set to make myself a nice steak or something different like that for dinner. Maybe go to the Century City mall and catch a movie too. After all, my work week was done. I got Johnnie through Spanish class and dropped him off at Lisa's. And then I got a call from Jorge again. He's still right down the street. And this time he was on his way to Lisa's. So he could take me to dinner he says. I love that my friends assume I nothing going on in my life that I could do spontaneous things. They are right of course but who's checking LOL. And so it was that we had a really good conversation and a nice catch-up at Oops over sushi and sashimi. And I got myself celebrated for my birthday properly after all. THANK YOU JORGE. Thank YOU Universe. It turned out to be a nice birthday at that. Upon further reflection, I got to be DAD, which was all I wanted to do. And I got to be A FRIEND, which I appreciated a great deal. AND I got to appreciate where I am in the here and now. What else do I need?
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