Busiest Day Of the Week

As I noted in the title, today shaped up to be the busiest work day of the week. So much so I contemplated dropping Johnnie off and try to make it to the FRB by 8:30 for the Communications Meeting. It was a meeting I was supposed to be hosting. Then I figured why get all worked up and stressed when I can easily run the meeting from the comfort of my bedroom. And so I did drop Johnnie off but lingered once again to watch he and classmate James play and do their kid things before going in to the classroom. Watching them never gets old. And then I went home, made myself some Earl Grey tea and settled in to do the meeting. The meeting actually lasted more than an hour. Closer to an hour 45 minutes actually and my presentation went by uneventfully. I think it was more like it went way over the heads of everyone. That's how far ahead I am with some of the stuff I do. I did manage to give my usual lecture on cybersecurity. And then right after the meeting was a project meeting with DemandBlue and the Salesforce Grants project. I am taking a hands on with this one because there seems to be an ongoing disconnect with the project leader Greg and Barbara. If I have to hear yet one more time about how unimpressed she is with him I don't really know what I can do. I DO AGREE WITH HER let's not forget but like all projects, it will take my experience to help guide the workflow builds. All vendors will simply do what you say without actually looking at the quickest most effficient way to handle those workflows. That's my job I guess. And as it were, that meeting went by pretty quickly and uneventfully too. Hey what can I say?! I am trying to diffuse my own ego and egoic tendencies and remind myself that all I'm doing is solving problems. I also remind myself that there are likely no end to these flow of issues and problems and that in time, my own value becomes diluted as people get used to my work. Or the work that I do that isn't readily seen such as it were. But then again, isn't that simply a story I tell myself? That I don't get acknowledged enough? But what would have to happen for me to be acknowledged? And what would happen when I do? Those are better questions aren't they?

At least I felt like I already accomplished much before it was even lunchtime. And I did reward myself with some of those Trader Joe's thanksgiving style quesadillas and yellow lentil soup. And I ate that while watching the latest episode of WILLOW, the series of focus on Disney Plus right now. I didn't pick up Johnnie until it was nearly 4:30 PM and though already getting dark, it wasn't nearly as late as I used to pick him up back in TK. Tonight I gave him the option of picking where we would try to steer Lisa for dinner. Yes we're still headed to her office even though we don't do Spanish class on Wednesdays anymore simply because it had become part of the routine too. I know we went through a stretch there where it was not at all something we enjoyed doing because Lisa would simply be stuck in a negative loop that even dinner with us had started to become a negative experience. But lately she has started to do better ever since she got struck down by COVID. And Johnnie suggested we do the Dominos/Maria's double double that we did a few weeks ago. That would be getting a Domino's pizza for Johnnie, and then getting minestrone soup for Lisa with that rosemary bread we all like, and getting a chicken marsala for me. It's so much easier to simply order online and pick everything up and then bring all the food to Lisa's office. I think it's a win-win-win. We don't have to wait for her, she can obsess about her work all she wants and if we have to wait, then we can tide ourselves over with a piece of pizza in the meantime until she is ready to sit with us. Besides, it really doesn't take a whole lot of time to pick up either, even with the usual early evening traffic on Pico Blvd. So tonight, we actually had a pretty pleasant dinner. Lisa seemed in better balance, and though we can never truly get away from her office tasks, she still did sit with us and have our meal together, which is the entire point of coming to her office anyway. And so she got to see Johnnie, we did our share with Lisa thing, and we went on home by 7 PM still. A decent time that gave Johnnie plenty of time to watch any one of his favorite shows for more than an hour. I still got him to bed by 8:30. He has gotten sniffly since we let him stay up late Sunday night. And although I don't think he's really sick, he is fighting off a low grade infection. Still it felt good to be on the downward arc for the rest of the week. And it is now just about 10 days until Christmas...