Last Day of November

As busy and hectic as October was, November turned out to be quite a bit more chill. So much so that today's last day of the month seemed to have come up just as quietly. When I think of October, so much stuff went on that it would be difficult to focus on even any one weekend. It wasn't like absolutely nothing went on in November. After all, the month was all about Thanksgiving. And I did make it to a Laker game. And Johnnie did have not one but TWO birthday parties he attended. And of course there was that annual Veteran's Day off that was spent at the LA Zoo for the 2nd year in a row. There was Lisa's birthday, and Lisa's COVID 19 illness too which we will end the month with. And now we can turn our full attention to the Christmas holidays. It was FRB day today as well with a big meeting with all the Directors yet again. But you couldn't help but see all the activity that was missing from the last couple of years when we weren't even allowed to be at the FRB physically. There are at least some doors that are decorated. The Christmas tree is being put up in the lobby like it used to be year after year and we are all even looking forward to getting together again for the White Elephant melee in a couple of weeks. Of course some people that we're used to seeing won't be there. Art and his barbecued meatballs won't be and I know I will miss him. Still, it's all about bringing the best of your own participation and going full out right? And hanging out with the team? Today all the Directors did meet for another strategy meeting just with Ops and yet again we get Starlette's Mobile idea crammed down our throats it felt like. I had to be the one that asked the question we were ALL thinking in our heads? How can we staff this damn thing if we can barely staff our Health Center? Starlette went on and on about charters and other high level shit that is all flowery crap about something we don't even know what service we're going to offer. All we know is whatever it is, it isn't going to involve providers so we're down to what... screening? I still don't know what that does about putting our name in front of the community. It feels like we're going to get our name in front of the Mexican consulate is all. Anyway the damn meeting lasted 2 1/2 hours. I was so rushed afterwards I barely had time to wolf down pasta and chicken from the FRB Cafeteria before doing my Data Team Meeting. And then going home right after that. I was not going to stick around past 2 PM that's for sure. But hey at least I felt like I did more in 2 hours than I did in the last 2 days!

So I went home and went into chill mode and realized that the thing I've watched Wednesdays the last couple of months had already ended. That would be the Star Wars series Andor of course. Fortunately, Disney had a replacement. That would be the new series reboot of Willow. I remember the original one with Val Kilmer and Joanna Whalley back in 1988. I liked it then actually. But now the baby who is supposed to grow into a sorceress with immense power has grown up not even knowing who she really is. A true Hero's Journey isn't it? For me, my afternoon would be pretty simply all about picking up Johnnie and then deciding if we were going to bring dinner to Lisa. That would be the preferable option of course since I didn't think she'd have a lot of energy on her first day back to work in a couple of weeks and still not really having fully recovered from COVID. I figured she wouldn't be staying late. She even talked about possibly playing soccer though I was highly skeptical of that last one. What we did end up doing was ordering pizza from Domino's on Pico, and then ordering minestrone soup and my favorite chicken marsala from Maria's which was literally right down the block from each other. I ordered at 5:20. Picked up the pizza at 5:30. And then the Italian food at 5:40. And we were at Lisa's office before it was even 6 PM. Of course there was traffic to deal with. This is the westside after all. But somehow without having to wait for Lisa, this whole exercise seemed eezy-peezy. True enough, Lisa was out of gas when we got there. And she labored to even stay and have dinner with us. Hey at least I knew she had eaten soup and even if she would go home and go right to sleep, which would have been the prudent thing to do, I know she'd do so with a decent full stomach. And of course Johnnie and I were full too. THIS was way way better than hanging around waiting for her to do whatever she did and watch her just sizzle in her own negative state. And then not really feel like having dinner with us after. This way, I actually thought we enjoyed our time together the 3 of us. Johnnie and i went home and I got to watch TWO opening episodes of the new Willow series. It was as ideal a Wednesday evening as it got. And the best way to end the month of November.