Lingering Negative Energy

So yesterday I had mentioned off-energy I sensed first thing. Today that seemed to manifest physically again, this time in the form of a scratchy throat. Although, I am not so sure it wasn't because I had a fan blowing in my face all night long while listening to some healing chamber acoustics. Either way I needed to get going early this morning because I'm scheduled to be at Westlake North to babysit yet again, for at least the morning. I had scheduled an install for Frontier fiber this afternoon mainly because it seemed much cheaper than Spectrum. We shall see. Promised to be a un-routinely busy Monday though. For some reason Marina scheduled me to babysit Westlake North today AND tomorrow. I'm not so sure I'm as unbothered as I let on about that. At best, it's a pain in the ass to be driving down to K-town in the morning. And so I started the day with a walk around the neighborhood if just to get my bearings and to get centered. Besides, no reason why I shouldn't shoot for the usual 15000 steps Monday especially since I pulled it off last week already and it was the busiest work Monday I had had in quite a while. And I was running well behind into the afternoon in terms of the number of steps. And still I made 15,000. No excuse for today then. And so it was that I headed off to the Health Center after my walk and after a shower and it took only an hour for the day to be turned on its head. That's when a Frontier installer called me to let me know he's in front of my building. W-h-a-t? I thought the install was this afternoon!! I did not want to miss this chance so I told him to wait and I hurried back home. Fortunately traffic wasn't as bad as I thought and I actually got there in 24 minutes.  And then I would find out that he needed to get in to the MPOE room. But of course the leasing office is closed and there is no one around with a key. Sigh. And so I now have to reschedule the install. Double sigh. I rushed all the way home for nothing it turned out. Oh well, at least I could have some home-made lunch at my apartment. I made my tuna salad and had a healthy sandwich. Only to find out i was still hungry. So I stopped at BK down the block from the clinic on the way back... because of course I had to come all the way back. I left my computer there.  I got a fish sandwich and went on with the day. At least I got a scheduled meeting in, tried to answer some staff questions and I went home by 4 PM.  By then it had gotten considerably warmer. Also by then I had gotten to 8000 steps.

Time Travelling. How did I do that you asK? By doing static steps in the Manager's office. That is to move my arms vigorously while barely moving my feet up and down. This action actually does speed up my heart rate to the point where I'm 120 bpm+. Good enough to get me to 70 active minutes by that time as well. One thing I did notice when driving home today was driving through Hoover and the USC area which reminded me of the route I used to take to go from USC to Lisa's old apartment at the Orsini back in the day. As in circa 2006. The early days is what I call those and I still fondly recall July - Aug 2006 as one of the happiest time periods of my life. I remember around this time in 2006 when Lisa got her first dental job and I got rehired by USC at USC Stevens and we celebrated having to return to work. Same energy as Johnnie returning to school last week. Funny thing. I prefer those pleasant memories CLEARLY to July 2018 when I left Maplewood or the energy of leaving Lindbrook August 2016. I still need to do some clearing on those every now and again. But at least there ARE those pleasant memories to override the not-so-pleasant ones. Maybe THAT is one reason I'm being made to spend time here at Westlake North. Despite the clusterfuck that was this morning, I at least got that internet install rescheduled to next week and at the end of the day, I was able to clear away the negative residue of whatever was bugging me at the beginning of the day. Of course there was the Johnnie pick-up and today mom and son was not in the middle of some scheduled something or other.  Sometimes I will admit I'm still torn between picking up Johnnie as fast as I could OR indulging Lisa's attempts to be social and spend time. Today it was checking out her new ADT system. Which wasn't really totally working yet. But I knew she saw my impatience at having to stick around. Hey at least I didn't say anything didn't I? I tried to be respectful. But I had lots to do. Still gotta bake cookies for Johnnie. Boil eggs for the week. And of course I knew Johnnie wanted to go to my apartment already. It's our time together now. And he underscored that by giving me a massage actually (see pic). Of course I had to give him one too. And that made me realize that I was tired tonight. More tired than usual, and not from the steps either. I needed some sleep I think. Nice, healing sleep. I went to bed same time as Johnnie did. He needed the rest too I think. I don't even know what they did the last couple of days. But I KNOW he needed it. We're all good.

Fab Four Reunion Plus One

Today is a Lisa work Saturday but like the last work Saturday Lisa is seeing a friend as her last appointment meaning there are plans right after.  But today since that friend is Yadira, of course Dexter wants to come and be part of whatever they plan. And so that means I have to be included too right? I even offered to pick up Dexter and drive him back home which would make it a 4-way trip for me. But I didn't mind. At least not today. Anyway Lisa just asked us to meet them at her office at 12:30 and we would do something from there. As for Johnnie and I, it really was simply the usual Saturday routine. Except that when I got to Lisa's house, he was still asleep. Mom and son must have stayed up until late last night. Which was fine. It's the weekend after all. Lisa took off and left me with a grocery list since her fridge was completely empty. To be fair, it was I that suggested me getting her stuff to tide them over until at least Monday. And to be clear, I was thinking about Johnnie really. I didn't him to be stuck without any food. And so I was happy to bring at least eggs and milk and pasta over. I was going to go to the grocery store already anyway. First we started with a shower Johnnie and I, which would make it the 2nd consecutive day I'm showering there at Lisa's. And then when we got all done, we went to have dad-son breakfast at Elysee. No matter what happens today, we get that under our belt and we're already good to go. We then went on the grocery shopping spree. First stop was Target to pick up stuff for Johnnie's lunch for next week. Then a stop at Sprouts to pick up vegetables for Lisa. After all, if you're going to get veggies, then Sprouts is the place to go. And then we dropped my groceries off at the apartment and then went back to Lisa's to wait for Dexter. I asked him to go there first since we were going to be there anyway.  And he came before noon actually. I told him about the 12:3o meet-up and he immediately asked if we could stop somewhere first to get a snack or something. How he knows Lisa well. That 12:30 is probably going to turn into 1:30 PM simply because we're going to have to wait for her.  And so I took him to Campos Tacos right down the street where I got my nachos on Friday. Today Dexter got himself a couple of chicken tacos. And got me a carne asada taco for good measure. And so we were both satisfied that even if Lisa holds us all time hostage, we'll be ok for a while.

How TRUE all that turned out to be! Yadira got done with her appointment at 12:30 but as usual we had to wait for Lisa to close out her day. And although we did manage to do some catching up <after all, we hadn't seen Yadira in more than a year> we were all HUNGRY, including Johnnie who usually eats right at noon when he is with me. By the time we left Lisa's office it was already close to 2 PM. At least I had already picked where to go . It was either Sunnin Lebanese or Hop Li. Between the dietary requirements of Dexter, which was different than Lisa's, and then of course it has to be somewhere where Johnnie could have rice and chicken, which was why I narrowed the choices down to those two. Lisa picked Sunnin from there, which turned out to be an excellent choice. We hadn't eaten at Sunnin since before the pandemic more than 2 years ago! I remember the last time we ate here with Sam Plotkin and family it was after one of Lisa's soccer Sunday games. And Johnnie would fall asleep. That was closer to more than 3 years ago then. Anyway this was as close to a reunion as the four of us <me, Dexter, Yadira, and Lisa> had gotten in some time. And our dynamic as a foursome is certainly very unique. Yadira has no qualms about calling Lisa out in such a way that makes Lisa almost deferential. I certainly wouldn't be able to get away from talking to Lisa the way she does, not without an immediate fight at least. And even today Lisa did her dispute routine... which is to say she finds a way to dispute something that I say as if she was fact-checking me, or at least trying to catch me in some sort of inaccuracy.  Usually I don't say anything. But in the presence of this foursome, I did. And said it strongly. As I said different context when the four of us are together. Usually we would talk about some current event that Lisa has no idea is going on and we would have to explain SAID current event and its implications. Today we even went back in time and brought up stuff from a trip we all took to Sedona and the Grand Canyon many years ago on a Thanksgiving weekend, even before that week was earmarked for a trip to Maui for many a Thanksgiving. To say we all have history together is an understatement. But it was good to share a meal together at least. And to underscore how this context was different, it was LISA that even paid for it, and I'm sure we'll all be billed after. But her tone was sure different from the last meal we had to split with Dexter's sister and brother-in-law. Heck we got into a fight over that one, which again underscores the difference in context. Anyway Yadira took off after the meal. I was so full. I had ouzo with lamb and if I didn't have anything for dinner, that would have been just fine I actually ended up having just a salad. It was all I would want and I chilled to watching reruns of stuff and also doing some healing audios. It turned out to be a way different Saturday, mainly because of the company. But it was still a pretty good Saturday at that. And most of all, I loved that I got to spend some time with Johnnie. THAT covers everything else. 

Lots of Energy On The First Day Of the Month

I had a lot of energy to start the day. Maybe it's because I had really good sleep for the 3rd day in a row. And I found myself doing LOTS of things I don't usually do today. I noticed I was more engaged than usual at the weekly morning HIMP (High Impact Management Program) call. I mean I'm not shy by any means when it came to sharing but it even felt like I had a lot to say this morning LOL. And then when we were talking about leaving THANK YOU notes for people I was inspired to drive down to the FRB this morning to leave one for Larry. Anonymously. Somewhat of a social experiment to see how he would react later LOL. I thought that I had a half hour between meetings - the HIMP meeting and the Data Team Meeting at 10:30 and so I decided to see if I could get down there in less than a half hour. I even took 5 minutes to walk Claire to let her poop and pee before I took off. And guess what? I got there with 5 minutes to spare! I even got to do Sheng's 90-day review in person! Doing that, leaving the card for Larry and doing my meeting it was already mission accomplished. But since I was already at the FRB, and the FRB having a very nice weight room, I decided to do some resistance training: a bunch of sets on the free weights and the pull down rope. And so I got a pretty nice workout in too. AND since I was already downtown, I decided to hang around and have lunch down there. I mean when was the last time I had lunch at Panini Grill? Used to be one of the go-to lunch places. And so it was that today, I had some nice salmon kabobs and a salad and an iced tea. Came with a whole ton of rice too but I didn't eat that part. And so I had a good meal and then I took a nostalgic look at Grand and 9th. How many times did I used to walk this intersection for the past 8 years? I noticed how warm it had gotten too. It's the first day of June and we're still at that time gap between the USC graduation and the UCLA graduation. THe cusp of summer. I walked by Grand Hope Park back to the FRB parking lot. Everything had a nostalgic look and feel. But let me be clear: I have no intention of ever going back to the office for more than a day or so. Just like today. I'm merely visiting. And doing some time travelling :) 

I didn't go all the way back home yet either. I made a pit stop at the Century City mall. I noticed at the gym I was down below 160 lbs. I hadn't been at that weight in more than 20 years I don't think. My pants are all falling off me, even the ones I just got. I had to get another pair of shorts at 32" waistline. And since I was at Century City anyway, then I made a stop at Sprouts Westwood to augment keto/paleo foods for the rest of the week. When I got home it was already 2:30. I had HAD a pretty productive and active day. So much so I was already at 8000 steps. No problem getting to 11000 today at all. Finally I could relax. I sat back on the couch and watched Episode 3 of KENOBI. This one featured a rematch between Obi-wan and Darth Vader. Of course Darth Vader would be more powerful but he didn't win either. Obi-wan had help of course so he was able to get away. This time. You know this won't be the last confrontation in THIS series. I can not wait! I had one last meeting today, and that would be the HIT Roundtable Chair call. I had lots of energy for that one too. So much so the meeting went all the way to 5 PM! Usually it doesn't even last a half hour. But I was in no rush anyway. That's because we were supposed to go to Lisa's office for what is now Wednesday night dinner ritual. And I KNEW, just like last week, that we would have to wait for her. I was not wrong. Last week we waited until well past 6 PM. Tonight, we waited until sell past 6:30! I mean I know she's busy and I respect that and by no means am I saying she should just drop what she's doing so she could hang out with us. What I'm saying is why have dinner together at all? Wouldn't she be best served doing her thing at work then coming home to play piano or something? I mean she IS seeing Johnnie tomorrow and then the entire weekend right? Why make me waste an hour and a half of MY time? Fucking narcissist. Johnnie was so bored he reverted to doing his old tickle-me-with-his-head-under-my-chin thing.  That is the pic on the post. I shrugged off the familiar feelings of frustration and irritation and by 6:45 I simply decided Johnnie and I would walk towards Panda Express and the ramen place Daikokuya next door. Lisa can join us when or IF she can. I mean Johnnie and I were BOTH hungry. As it turned out, we hadn't even ordered yet when she did decide to show up. And we ended up having ramen for Johnnie and some karaage fried chicken, we had sashimi for Lisa and I and ribeye salad. yep ribeye. MInd you I had had a big meal at lunch already. And now I had a bigger meal because of course Johnnie would only eat 1 piece of the karaage. I had to eat 3 pieces of chicken. And then there was the ribeye. Couldn't not eat that. First time I've had beef in months! I figured it wouldn't be THAT harmful could it? I'll go back to vegan-ish eating tomorrow. And so we did salvage the dinner and then Johnnie and I came home before 7:30 PM. Back to Pokemon episodes for Johnnie, back to regular Wednesday night routine. But boy, it was some Wednesday today for me wasn't it?!

Time travelling

I did some time travelling last night in my dreams. I travelled back to the time I was into real estate. How I worked hard at all the foreclosure stuff. How I gave up my job and had no income source and had to live with Karl for a while. I did have some sporadic success though. Bought 2 houses in fact and got 2 other offers accepted that didn't get followed through on. Man can you imagine if I got that Norment house in Altadena now that I have money? And that house is now worth probably closer to $1M! Heck even thinking about the condo I purchased for less than $60K. The 1 BR in Hacienda Heights possibly worth more than $360K now. And what about my foray into the stock market where I held Amazon stock for all of 2 days back in 1998 for $86 a share. Not even going to think about what THAT would be worth now. Again, sporadic success. But then I also saw that I over-leveraged and maxed out my credit cards. I mean what was I doing buying a BMW when I already had a Hyundai station wagon that was going to last a really long time? All that to say I made a lot of questionable financial decisions in my younger days. And had to go back to the thing that I knew best, which was a job. And I turned that into a healthcare IT career from 1995 on. 27 years going strong. But I also could have gotten serious about finding alternative means of income. I had my chance when i left USC Dentistry. But that summer I was very much distracted by a new relationship that would turn into marriage. Maybe I wasn't ready to do the work-for-myself thing back then. I need to learn to do that. To create. CREATE A PASSIVE INCOME STREAM OUTSIDE OF A JOB. That was always the goal. And now that I have money socked away, I can actually work on growing it. Forget the misadventures, bad decisions of the past. I let those go. Now. And now I have more information, more resources, more guidance. I really have to get off my ass.