Friday Before Christmas Weekend

It's the Friday before Christmas weekend and although the norm is usually me getting up early, booking a tee time for the Sunday 10 days from today and then waiting for Lisa to drop off Claire on her way to work, this is obviously turned upside down because Johnnie is already with me this morning. At this writing I don't have a clue what Lisa is planning for this weekend so it could be that I won't see Johnnie again until Monday night. And so my plan was to simply be present with him as much of the day as possible today. Lisa also mentioned she was going to be done from work early so there was a chance she would come by to pick up Johnnie by mid-afternoon And so for the second day in a row, Johnnie and I would find ourselves at iHop Sepulveda having breakfast, he with his Silver 5 plate and me with my spinach, mushroom and cheese omelette. There were a lot more people at the restaurant today than yesterday morning and it's almost like people are starting to take off for Christmas weekend. Meaning that a chunk of the population is taking off work today. Not me. Not when I didn't need to. I could still hang out with Johnnie and still do whatever meetings I had today. And there were a couple in fact.  Barbara asked me to for sure be present at the Salesforce meeting this morning and so I was. <Note I would get into a bit of a scrap with Rafeal later on about some reports that he is requesting. I didn't want to have to pay for stuff that could done outside of Salesforce, and in my mind he's just simply replicating what he is used to doing, not really seeing what an electronic workflow looks like. most of the QueensCare folks are that way I suppose. And I had to fight not to let my ego do its react thing. I will simply ask Barbara next week.> By lunchtime I was starting to check out. And by 3 PM, I started to prep for Johnnie's Spanish class. I had talked to Lisa right before and although she WAS already headed home from her early day, she didn't feel well and was ok with me keeping Johnnie until 5:30 PM tonight. Which is to say, regular Friday drop-off. By then we had spent the day together anyway and although we really didn't do anything special, we still had a pretty good day. And even though there are definitely times when he pushes the envelope of his playful, nischievous, laughing self and I find myself scolding him, those times dont last for more than just moments. And honestly, I would not have it, or him, any other way I love that he is playful, goofy, and easy to laugh and leaning towards the smart-ass side at least with me. Later on while we were having dinner at Lisa's, she commented out loud how Johnnie had started to grow up to be this cute kid. If you look at the ifrst picture I posted, I not-so-suddenly became aware of how much he has grown up from a similar picture from 4 years ago. When DID he start growing into a very handsome young kid? And so that's all to say that we did make to Lisa's by 5:30 PM and she was keen on eating the leftover food she had in her fridge, including leftover rice and chicken strips. Actually it was Johnnie that prepped and started cooking the strips, while I cooked green beans and onions. Lisa was complaining about being tired and maybe being sick again. We all know how shot her immune system is. And I was mentally prepared to eat whatever at Lisa's. You have to do EXACTLY that, even be prepared not to eat at all since Lisa has this scarcity mentality with regards to food. Tonight we had chicken and rice and green beans and everything turned out just fine. Of course I would have to wash the dishes. That was already implicitly implied. And I guess that's ok. After dinner, Lisa disappeared into her toilet for what seemed like almost 20 minutes, apparently having to dump something she had eaten today. Hope it wasn't the chicken she just ate. She did prepare that herself after all, so can't be blaming me as some sort of trigger mechanism for her. That's ok. While Lisa was discharging in the bathroom, Johnnie and I got to horseplay some more. Fat chance that we would be able to watch something on TV wouldn't it? Usually Lisa would steer us towards some kind of board game. I didn't really feel like playing any board games just then. For once I did tell her the truth. That I wanted to go home and watch the Lakers game. Besides, I'm supposed to be coming back tomorrow morning and watch Johnnie while Lisa wrote up her notes. And so I made it back to my own apartment by 8 PM. Where I just crashed on the couch and I was watching the RECRUIT all over again. I binge watched that thing and finished all episodes by mid-week. And by the time I dragged myself to bed night, it was already well past nidnight. This is what is difficult when Johnnie is not around. And that's ok. Gotta get used to less restful sleep when my Little Bug is not around. Or at least learn how to optimally sleep.