the Laker Game and Another Lisa Drama

Today is Wednesday and I wanted more like yesterday's routine-like day. But of course I knew that was not to be already since we're going to the LAKERS pre-season game tonight. And by me, I mean myself and Johnnie and Lisa and our guests Cecille and Silvia and Gayane. I got the tickets just last week at a significant discount from what they would have cost had this been a regular season game. As in I paid $35 for some pretty good seats in the 2nd level midway up. So I was excited. I was excited and hopeful that Johnnie would get to see LeBron and Anthony Davis play so he can say he had seen them play in person. AND of course this would be the second dad-and-son pro sports event we would get to watch together in just the last couple of weeks! So I was excited from the get-go. But of course I still had to go through the regular day. That would be dropping Johnnie off at school and then hanging out at the FRB through the early afternoon. Something about staying with him until the bell rings and his teacher comes out to get the class makes me feel like a parent. I know I could simply just walk him to the gate like last year when we weren't allowed inside. But I think that's the point. Now that we're allowed inside, I am sure as heck not going to take it for granted. Besides, it's a hoot to watch the kids run around and be kids again. Be yelled at for running around too much or climbing stuff they shouldn't be climbing. Kids stuff. When one gets older, one always wishes they were a kid again. Johnnie's age. And so I got home, put on some work clothes and off I went to the FRB. There really was not much need for me to be there other than to show my face. Particularly since neither Eloisa or Barbara were there today. But at least I did my Data Team Meeting from there, AND I got to do reps at the gym. Still feeling strong. AND I did have lunch with the Finance folks though I really don't want to keep doing that. I would have much rather ate out like last week. But I didn't want to be anti-social when invited. Besides, it was Filipino Heritage day at the Cafeteria. Might as well try some of that Filipino food they were offering today. What I ate really was more like beef stew. And that was perfectly fine. By the time I went home it was already close to 3 PM. I made a detour at Jack-In-the-Box to pick up chicken strips for Johnnie to snack on, knowing full well we wouldn't get to Crypto.com arena until close to game time at 7 PM.

And why is that you might ask? That's because we still have to pick up Lisa. And we know by now the chances of her getting done with all her work by 5 PM and then us taking off at that time was pretty slim at best. Johnnie didn't even have to do the usual Spanish class at 5 PM since his teacher called off the class today. When we got to Lisa's office, Cecille and Silvia were already there and Dexter came shortly thereafter. But of course Lisa was still seeing a patient. And then when she got done, she had to make a phone call. Why she had to do that is beyond me. Beyond all of us really. Because we ended up having to wait for her. And wait for her. And wait for her. Until the girls decided they needed to get something to eat because they were hungry. Heck I was hungry. But at least I ate 2 tacos from Jack-In-the-Box that I got same time as I got Johnnie's chicken strips. Which he did eat to tide him over until later on. I was concerned because the traffic looked really bad on Olympic going East. Which does not bode well for the freeway. I mean I knew we were going to hit traffic. But I was hoping it wouldn't be so bad anyway. As it was by the time Lisa finally got ready to leave, I had lost 80% of my patience and I was ready to blow. It was already 7 PM!! But I simply grumbled my emotions away. <Why did she even have to come I could be heard muttering?> We ended up split tingup with the girls all driving together in Lisa's truck and me and Dexter driving together. I showed him all the weaving and ducking tricks I do when I deal with this traffic in the morning and we got to DTLA by 7:30. We still had to walk to the arena though and one look at one of the TV billboards showed the 1st quarter was already done. Boy am I glad this was a preseason game. If this was a real game and I missed the first quarter of a ticket I probably would have paid over $100 for I'd be PISSED. We would find out later that Lisa had gotten so frustrated she almost pulled over and left her car. Gee when did she ever do that?? At least the seats were good and lo and behold, Johnnie did get to see LeBron and AD both play in person. He excitedly told his mom about the game.The game went by pretty quickly and Lisa did at least watch the game, albeit with Gayane sometimes from the railing below. At this point, you simply leave her alone and steer clear from any negative emotions. As I said, the important thing today for me was that Johnnie got to watch the Lakers. Lisa's bullshit was not unexpected and literally since it had been 3 days since Sunday <Johnnie's birthday party and Silvia's arrival>, it was extremely likely that she'd blow up about something.The trick is not to let it affect you. Difficult I know. But do-able. And so game got over and we were home inside of 25 minutes after the long walk back. I walked so much today I checked the Fitbit and saw I had done 15,000+ steps today. Commendable! It was nearly 11 PM when Johnnie went to bed. I felt bad about that. But we did get to do an NBA game together. Something we wouldn't forget. No foolishness Lisa does can undo that. And that is a very good thing.

Thursday's Lesson

Today's lesson: EMBRACE YOUR FEELINGS. All of them. Even the negative ones. Negative circumstances points out where our definitions are off. I would need to remember that way later. Fist things first the drop-off to school this morning was highlighted by Johnnie bringing in his TREASURE BOX. It was not due until tomorrow but he was already done so I made him take it early. Also started rehearsing what he was going to say. I loved seeing all the other kids buzzing over the box and Johnnie starting to show off some of the contents. Today being a Thursday, I already knew I had a full meeting morning. Still I felt like the brunt of the work week was behind me so when Dennis called off the last meeting, I already shifted to CRUISE CONTROL. That meant relaxing on the couch, listening to some gentle meditation and this time I actually visualized ridding myself of negative energy, whatever negative energy was stuck in my energy and physical body. And I had quite a bit of twitching happening which meant something was working. Boy did it work as I would find out later on. That also meant watching the latest episode of SEE on AppleTV and the latest episode of ANDOR. Between those 2 shows and the new Quantum Leap reboot on Mondays, you could say my SCI-Fy watchlist is no longer empty. Needless to say, the afternoon all but zipped by and pretty soon it was already time to pick up Johnnie at school. Spanish class at 5 PM. Got supplemental materials printed and everything. And he did just fine. He did the class, I made him spaghetti and a special request (from him). He wanted to go retro with Italian sausage we used to get from Whole Foods. Expensive those things were, but really really good and so I decided to have it for my dinner as well. Was it already almost 3 years ago when we started BBQing sausage and he would eat it outside? I think he DOES have fond memories of that time. That was before the pandemic. Anyway we had dinner, he went on to doing whatever play stuff he does (look at the structure I posted him trying to build) and all we had to do was wait for Lisa to call to pick him up. We waited. and waited. and waited. Just like last night. She finally called to check in at 8 PM and said she was nowhere close to being done. And had her usual litany of whining and complaining about how things suck. THERE's the negative energy that needed to come out. Because it couldn't have been just Lisa. If negativity points to places where our definitions are off from that which is peace, love, abundance, harmony, joy, then BOY something is off for me. By 9:15 PM I tucked Johnnie into bed. Usually I would drive to her house. Not tonight. And when she finally called at 9:45 I told her he was already asleep. In my apartment. That lit a match like I knew it would. She got pissed and ranted and raved. Yelled that my life is so much easier because I don't face nearly as much difficulty as she does <Like...who the fuck cares? Doesn't she realize EVERYTHING is all about choices? Can't she choose to come home? At least she doesn't have to manufacture excuses to leave meetings early> I was in no mood to listen to her tonight. She yelled, I yelled back. Outside the apartment because I didn't wake Johnnie up. Only my neighbors LOL... Fucking Lisa. It all ended with me yelling a big FUCK YOU at her and hanging up. And when she called back I did not answer. She can stew all night for all I care. THIS is the negative shit I needed to feel and release I think. Hurricane Lisa fucking up my peace and harmony yet again. I did remember that my key is getting myself back on balance. I did that by putting on some frequencies to clear and center. And went to sleep. 

QueensCare Leadership

Today was going to be meeting day all day long. First there is a Strategic Retreat in the morning for four hours at the FRB and then another 4 hours Leadership Summit for QueensCare with lunch after that. I didn't know how I was going to sneak out to get Johnnie at 4:30 PM for his Spanish class. Fortunately, it was his teacher that asked if we could move today's class, as if the Universe was intervening to make the day easier for me. No need to rush home after the last meeting. As it was I dropped him off at the gate at 7:55 and still made it on time for the 8:30 AM meeting. Yes it did feel like the Universe was making things go my way today. As far as the meeting themselves, the Strategic Retreat was already different because Eloisa's style of leadership is much more inclusive and input-driven than Barbara's was. Yes, Barbara would ask for opinions but no one offered any. It was like the leadership she had was not really conditioned to provide that level of input. Certainly I didn't feel like contributing any. This morning I did.It was all about the business decisions the Health Centers were needing to make. And it was already a welcome thing to acknowledge that past goal-setting exercises were no more than working backwards from a desired point and simply settling on a number as if from thin air. At least Eloisa wanted to engage us to find a methodology. I liked that. And then after this meeting, which at least had some follow-up items to be discussed at the next Director's meeting, we went on to the Leadership meeting. I remember the last one I was starting my new eating patterns way back in April. Today I have at least settled on not too extreme. Meaning I am eating meat again. And right before lunch I actually got a nice work out in too at the FRB gym, just like I do on Wednesdays. And for lunch it was a nice roast chicken with raspberry dressing on a salad. Worked for me. We actually did some icebreaker exercises too. The first one being how to get some random materials to create something that would keep an egg from breaking when dropped from about 6 ft. My team leader didn't get many materials. But we did manage to get the egg in a balloon and then get THAT in another balloon. Too bad our egg broke though, after I was sure our minimalist stragegy was going to work. Oh well. The rest of the afternoon was spent on QueensCare history, which made me feel more connected to the mission. ANd then on financials for both Q and QHC. Funny that I was looking at the corporate structure of QueensCare and all the parent companies and intertwining LLCs and i was thinking this was how rich people do it. No wonder lawyers play prominently. Hope it didn't look like one of Trump's organizations was all I could think of. Anyway I did get through the entire day pretty much sitting on my ass. And i still managed to get 5000 steps in by the time I headed home. And I was still able to get home before 5 PM, just in time to pick up Johnnie. I had let Lisa know there was no Spanish class today so we would just simply be going by her office at 5:30 PM to have dinner. The plan was to finish Johnnie's Family Treasure Chest project tonight all together. A nice thought for a family night. Except that Lisa booked an interview with a dentist candidate. Perfectly understandable since she had been looking for more than a week now. She told us to just get some food and she would call us when she got done. I do not like that level of uncertainty coming from Lisa. More often than not I simply get left having my time hostaged. We went to get Johnnie Panda Express teriyaki chicken and rice, and then got Lisa and me some tostada salads from El Pollo Loco. And then already almost 6:30 PM, we simply went to Lisa's backyard to have dinner there. We tried to wait for her. 7 PM. Then 7:30. Then 8 PM. I got tired of waiting so Johnnie and I simply finished the assignment without her. And when she called, it was already nearly 8:30 PM. We were already heading back to my apartment. See? My time got hostaged again. Lisa being Lisa. At least she was in a good mood when she called. Apparently her dentist interview went very well. She even said it was sweet that we went to her house and waited for her with food. Yeah it was sweet alright. I just shook my head and took Johnnie and Claire back to the apartment. The trick is not to show Johnnie how disappointed I was. So I focused on the treasure chest that we brought back to the apartment with us. That he's going to take to his school tomorrow. I was very much excited about that. And so was Johnnie. We made some flags too for all the countries he has cultural connections too. 6 countries in all. Pretty impressive really. I got to bed early again. It had been a long day. But the tough part of the week is behind me. And I am ready to cruise the rest of September away.

Sky Zone

Today was definitely all about the birthday party for Rose Starr, Johnnie's classmate and neighbor right down the street on Rosewood. We got the invite a couple of weeks ago and I will admit I was hesitant to go. Not because we didn't know them, not really. I mean I remember in Kindergarten, Johnnie and Rose had a play date at Penmar Park and I got along plenty with Patrick, Rose's dad.  The hesitancy was all about not knowing anyone else and not knowing what to do with myself. Johnnie will be just fine regardless. These are his classmates after all and he has at least 4 classmates that he knew well on the guest list. Still, I remind myself it's all for Johnnie, not me. And for Rose and I will suck it up, put on my big boy pants and take him to the party. Besides, it's at Sky Zone in Van Nuys and I found out later it is actually a trampoline park. How fun would that be for Johnnie! And so this  being a Lisa work Saturday, I planned to pick Johnnie up first thing. Except that I was texted first thing by Lisa's office too. An opening in the Hygiene schedule just came up and Claudia wanted to know if I wanted to come in for my cleaning. Those openings being rare, I jumped at the chance. Plenty of time to do that and then go to the party afterwards. When I got to Lisa's house, Johnnie was still asleep and Claire right next to him in the living room sofa. I guess they had played in the sand and Lisa said both boy and dog were too dirty to sleep in the bed upstairs. Why that makes a difference with sleeping on the sofa is beyond me but who am I to question. Lisa just stated both needed a bath, meaning I should give both a bath. That, I was happy to do. In fact, all 3 of us took a shower in the lower bathroom. Much easier to do it there than at my apartment. All 3 o f us getting cleaned up therefore, I headed us to my apartment with McDonald's breakfast in hand. Now all of a sudden my morning was compressed. And I was so glad I did my grocery shopping yesterday already. I went to Lisa's office at 10:30, Kristin Wong did my cleaning as we traded stories about the kiddos, and I was glad to have nice and clean teeth again. And now I could focus totally on the afternoon and the Rose birthday party. What made me feel better was that Johnnie actually had a present for Rose all ready to go, hand-wrapped and everything. Then I don't feel anything was inappropriate. In fact, now I was mentally prepared to spend the afternoon with the kiddos. 

There was just one thing I did not account for. The party started at 1:00 PM. And I didn't know that they were going to do the trampoline activity first before food and that actually meant 1:30-2:30PM.  Which meant that we wouldn't be eating until 2:30 at the earliest. I didn't think about that one. Not so much for Johnnie. He's used to skipping lunch just to do more activities. I was thinking more about me and how hungry I was going to get. Could I suck it up until 2:30 PM? I decided not to. Just as soon as the kiddos started with all the trampolining and jumping around, I snuck out and grabbed me a pizza at the food place inside. I wolfed down half very very quickly and got me and Johnnie some water. And then I joined the rest of the parents. I will say it's kind of cool to see Johnnie with his friends again. And there were at least a half dozen kids from his class there. Look at the pic of him and his friend Caleb doing battle in the balance beam. SO much fun! I will say that a half hour in, all my hesitancy and social anxiety went away. I can do this. And everything was already fine. The Starrs were great hosts and I myself thought this was a great idea for maybe even Johnnie's birthday. The kids got stuck playing air hockey actually and although I didn't bring any cash for any of the other games and they weren't providing any at the check-in places, that's actually not bad that they weren't doing mostly games, after all, the trampolining was what was paid for. Afterwards, the kids had pizza and the adults let them sit with each other and i sat with David and Ana, Alanna's parents and we talked about golf the whole time LOL. See? I do just fine socially! It was almost 4 PM by the time we got home. With the pizza, I ate the rest of my tuna salad as soon as I got home. I was more tired than usual, and I thought it was hilarious that it was ME that was tired simply watching Johnnie play. All in all, Johnnie had a great time which was all I could ask for and he wasn't even all that tired really. In fact, he wanted to take out MY mini-trampoline so he could keep bouncing some more.  I parked him in front of his usual slate of videos and waited for Lisa to call to pick him up. I didn't really talk to her much when I got my cleaning done today simply because she was busy and we really did need to go. Still it was a surprise that we didn't hear from Lisa until it was almost 8 PM and she was back to her dark Self energy, you know the why-do-i-do-this, why-am-I-alive energy. I already knew I had to disengage quickly and not feed into it or she will suck me into it. If I could even not have any interaction at all that would be ideal. But I still had to get Johnnie home. I toyed with the idea of letting him sleep in my apartment for the night. Instead, I waited until 10 PM to bring him home. No need for him to sleep early tonight, he can sleep in all he wants tomorrow. And as it was he actually waited for her to come home before actually going to sleep. I waited too, for which I was rewarded with an interrogation about brushing Johnnie's teeth and Claire's teeth. For which I responded that I did both. She wasn't interested in teeth. She was interested in picking a fight. That's the only way her dark energy could process. To actually let myself sink into it is how it gains energy. And so I went home and tried to clear my thoughts and clean up that energy as best as I could. And fortunately, I went to sleep easily. It was a long day. But other than the Lisa blip, it was a fun, frivolous, happy day actually. And I hold on to THAT energy as long as I can.

Golf At Harbor + No Breakthrough At All

So today we head us out to Harbor Park again for golf. I had fallen asleep on the couch last night and I woke up at 6 AM still in my shorts from yesterday. I remember thinking I didn't brush my teeth! That broke a streak that has gone on for years! Why was I so tired? Could it be those morphic fields, particularly the subliminal I custom made for myself about bringing in $3M this year? I amplified it with a morphic field booster. And immediately felt tired within a half hour. That's why I knocked off so quickly and for so long althoug my Fitbit said I only had 5 hours worth of sleep. Still tee time wasn't until 9:40 so I had plenty of time to get juice from Whole Foods, even supplement that with eggs. After all, I did say I was going to need to consume more calories to get my weight up just a tad. I mean look at the pic I posted of me hitting on Hole 8?! My shorts are literally falling off my ass! Anyway I remember thinking Harbor was the last time the old foursome of me, Scott, Greg, and Chris played and that was a year ago around this time. I even have a pic of us. Seems so long ago now. These days it's just me and Scott and to be honest, it's enough. All I wanted to do is to practice manifesting a good golf game. I didn't try to get in my head like the last time we played here. I want to practice my focus. That' s what I need to work on I think, and not just at golf. I lose focus way too much. Today's game did not start well. A pop-up that barely went 100 yards, but still in the fairway. And then a second shot that went wide right into the other fairway. Oh my. No I was not focused the right way. In retrospect I should have done a reset right there and work on how to do THAT effectively. Because at that point I was just reacting, trying not to get embarrassed. The rescue shot was decent. And the subsequent chip got me near the hole. But the putt turned out to be too long. And so I started with a 6. I had a much better tee shot on the 2nd hole, and an even better next 2 shots. That's the key is to string good shots together. On this hole I was on the fringe with a long putt after 3 shots, which was pretty good for me on this hole. And then I lost focus and took 3 putts to make it. The third hole was ok. Tee shot got out there 175 yards. 2hd shot a whiff but not too bad off to the right I got to the green in 4 and proceed to 3-putt again. After 3 holes I'm not doing too bad. No blow-up holes. But those whiffs on the fairway are really hurting my game. To that point, I should have focused on what I did right on Hole 2... except for the putting of course. Hole 4 was ok. Another whiff to the left this time on the 2nd shot. I should have recognized the pattern and made an adjustment. Same with Hole 5. Decent tee shot, whiff on the 2nd shot. Hole 6 was terrible. Bad whiff off the tee after whacking the first tee shot OB into the lake. I did manage to get on in 3 close to the pin. But missed the putt. FINALLY on Hole 7, I belted the tee shot 225 yards straight down the middle. I mean I was 100 yards from the hole. But missed the 2nd shot.Those 2nd shots were in my head at this point. I clanked the tee shot on the short hole 8, got near the pin on the 2nd shot and just didn't care at that point. My focus was gone. On the last hole I was urging Scott and I to end the game with a good hole. Neither one of us had had a par up to this point. Scott did have 3 bogeys though. I piped the tee shot again, 225 yards down and straight. And again I whiffed from there. Man it is painful to remember and write down. I just never adjusted. Lesson recorded. The game was characterized by me hitting a few good shots. But not enough to have a decent game today. Change the program, I heard myself say. Change the program. Sigh.

On the drive home I got a call from Lisa. Apparently the visit to FeiFei got cancelled. FeiFei and Tony tested positive for COVID. I felt so bad for Johnnie, he was so looking forward to seeing his brothers again. And so when Lisa invited me to fireworks show with Blair and Bailey later on and added that she was making lunch at 2 PM (2 PM??? WTF?!), I said I'd come over. My ENTIRE motivation was that I wanted to help Johnnie maybe feel not so bad for missing out. And so I stopped at Carl's Jr on the way home for my lunch, ate a Beyond Burger - with the bun - AND with onion rings  I was noting this morning that perhaps I lost too much weight and maybe I need to gain some back. And so I didn't have to be that strict on carbs. Sugar yes, but maybe I can let myself eat some carbs every now and again. I went to the store to pick up fried chicken for Johnnie AND some shrimp to make for Lisa. When I got there they were cleaning up the Johnnie's 'garage'. Uh-oh. Never good when Lisa is in clean-up mode. She is trying to regain control. She asked me to cook up the shrimp. And spinach. And tofu and green beans. And then she started on a rampage of negativity with me. AGAIN. 2nd time in 2 days. I snapped her out of it yesterday. I was in that good of a state. Today, not so much. Maybe it was the golf and I was still in my own head. Maybe this entire interaction was 'created' by my focus on patience and anger management this morning with a morphic field on the way to the golf course. Instead, I attracted circumstances where my patience and anger management was tested. How do I flip that so I do NOT have to get tested? Do aforemations? What If? Or is it as simple as focusing more on what I want instead of bringing on what I don't want? In real time, I was in react mode when Lisa attacked the way I cut banana bread *absolutely she did that*, when she got irritated that I left the dishwasher brush in the sink *do you know that's the dirtiest part of the house she said*, when I used the wrong pan to stir fry the shrimp *this was my egg pan now it's destroyed*, and finally when we sat down to eat *if you're unhappy I will give you the out that you can leave*, and then she went to the couch and tried to take a nap. What just happened? I came here to try to cheer up Johnnie. But not at the cost of letting him watch his mom go agro on me, yet again. So much for the breakthrough from yesterday, she's still all fucked up. As she lay on the couch, I did the dishes and then when I heard her stirring about when I got done, I simply left. No need to absorb any more negative shit from her. I had better things to do. I felt bad for Johnnie. I mean he's stuck with her for the next few days and HOPEFULLY she can remember to watch her state around him. I went back to my peaceful Sunday on the couch. It was still a nice day after all. Thoughts of Lisa lingered through the rest of Sunday but that's simply emotional residue. I did my subconscious cleaning and clearing to hopefully get rid of the gunk. And at least I still have tomorrow off. I'm all good about that.

Narcissist Alert

 

So this morning I knew Lisa was in the middle of her own shit again last night, something I more than likely triggered. And it was 50-50 whether she would still be in the same space this morning. She will either have forgotten about it... OR ... I would still be on her shit space somehow. And so I spent time to put energetic shields around myself this morning and then headed off to pick up Johnnie. True enough Lisa was still being Lisa. Only this time she told me she was upset with me. The trigger was asking her for money for the dog's groomer that I am taking her to this morning. And apparently telling her that I'm clocking out and handing off Johnnie. Stuff I said is STILL triggering her. And so I put up this video as a remembrance that it would be impossible for me to treat her like I would treat anyone. She IS a narcissist and I AM the target she has chosen for her anger. I will always be. And so the best thing I could do when she is picking a fight is not to engage. Not to give her rage any power.  Hard to do because my own ego keeps coming up trying to win the argument. That is the work I need to keep doing on myself. 

Key things to say: I AM SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY.

or. I GUESS I HAVE TO ACCEPT HOW YOU FEEL.

YOUR ANGER IS NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY.

I DON'T THINK I WANT TO ARGUE ABOUT THIS ANYMORE.

Johnnie's Insight; Lisa Being Lisa

I keep telling Lisa that one hour of being fully present with Johnnie makes up for an entire week of grit from the day-to-day stuff we have to deal with what with work and work-related stresses. This morning I'm at her house at 7:30 to pick up Johnnie and almost immediately, Lisa hijacks my morning. One look in her fridge and she is off. She's packing all this food she has not cooked in a week and within 5 minutes, has practically declared that I should go cook it. Of course I thought she was just giving all this food for me to cook for myself. After all, with this new eating pattern I've established for myself for nearly a month now, I welcome all the veggies, the onion, she even gave me half a dozen eggs. And then came the rub. She was expecting me to cook them... FOR HER!! My mistake. Of course I live to serve her HA HA HA. And then in the middle of telling me HOW to fix these vegetables that now I am to cook for her, she got really annoyed and said she was overwhelmed because she was afraid of how I was going to end up cooking the vegetables. It was as clear an example of Lisa terrified of losing control as any. And of ME taking control. But before she could generate into a screaming fit, it was Johnnie...little Johnnie... that sensed she was about to lose it and immediately launched himself into our tension and said "No Yelling".  Maybe it was his voice that snapped Lisa out of it and she went on and about and packed the vegetables again. Drama averted, even if it did take me agreeing to cook those damn vegetables for her. Which I'm going to end up doing this morning just like it was me making those Thanksgiving turkey lunches for her office. So much for our usual morning Johnnie and I. Later on Johnnie would return the favor to me. We were driving home from Target, someone cut me off or was going too slow and I yelled at the driver. Johnnie said..."There is something my parents have in common. They both yell." Man did my heart sink after he said that.  Whether i disagreed with him or not, I DO KNOW kids say what they mean and they do not lie. If that is what he observes, then there has truth in it. It is definitely something I need to work on.

Still today is still my Saturday with Johnnie regardless if Lisa hijacked my morning. And our  lunch too come to think of it. She actually mentioned this morning that we should stop by her office for lunch since her Aunt Gail has a procedure to get done. Of course it's a request I need to fulfill as I always had when I was still married to her. Why I do it now is beyond me I think. And so not only did I cook Lisa's veggies, I took Johnnie and Claire over to her office as well. I had to make a stop at the Century City mall so I could pick up lunch for Johnnie and myself at least. His usual Panda Express lunch and me some tuna poke from Big Fish Little Fish for the second day in a row. Yes it costs $13 but it's a pretty good lunch actually. And when we got to her office, what do we find? Lisa eating lunch already from their usual Panini Cafe takeout. WTF happened to all the food I cooked? What happened to Aunt Gail? Johnnie and I stuck around to have lunch while Lisa had a snap office meeting about hiring a new hygienist. We were an afterthought. Inside, I was shaking my head and just thought it was simply Lisa being Lisa. Unbelievable that I fall for it every single time.  Just as unbelievable that she continues to do it. Every. single. time. At least we had a decent lunch and then off we went back home. And as if to rub it in, I get a text and a call from Dexter while Johnnie and I were out at Target this afternoon. HE was at Lisa's office because his sister was getting a cleaning. Unbelievable. I could have stuck around and caught up with him. But nope, it would seem Lisa didn't have any idea either.  Oh well at least we got to talk to each other for the first time in weeks. Apparently he is now walking around with a bag in which he poops. Yuk. Poor guy. Why can I not do some energy healing on him? Finally when we got home, Johnnie and I got to go back to our Saturday routine. Look at the gif I put up 9f Johnnie with his latest construction project. He kept talking about building this grand structure to augment Claire's cardboard doghouse. I was glad he had something to occupy him for the afternoon. I mean it took him that long to erect it, and less than 3 minutes to take it down later on.  Of course it didn't really work because Claire didn't actually take to the structure and wouldn't even be tempted by the dog food inside. Oh well.  By 5 PM I had made Johnnie a pizza for his dinner and I had heated up some chickpeas in tomato sauce for mine.  And today Lisa did not stick around until almost 10 PM at her office either. She called around and 7 PM actually came to pick up Johnnie.  She even made an invite about us eating the very veggies I cooked for her. HOW does she do that when she KNOWS Johnnie and I eat dinner around 5 no matter what. We do not wait for her. I almost felt bad. So Saturday with Johnnie was done and what did I do? I binge watched. Bridgerton this time. These period pieces get to me too don't they. So much so it was well past midnight when I stopped watching. Damn. So much for a rested Sunday morning golf.