Saturday Half Day with Johnnie

So Lisa has to work today and so I am at her house picking up Johnnie and the dog at 7:30 AM this morning. The past Saturdays I ended up keeping Johnnie until night time, even having to get him ready for bed at Lisa's house one Saturday night when she decided to work until really really late. I stayed there until 9 PM when she decided to finally come home I remember. Today, there won't be any of that. That's because Heidi, Jared and the kiddos are coming for the final slots in the afternoon and Lisa requested that I bring Johnnie to the office by 1 PM. Actually 12:30 if he wanted to help assist with any of the procedures. I didn't mind at all, since I have actually seen Johnnie for significant stretches of time this entire week, including MLK Day on Monday. Some early ME time would be good for me too. But first I wanted to maximize whatever time I had with him this morning. And I am not going to deny that I had so gotten used to having Johnnie with me for most of the day on a Lisa work Saturday that I actually felt a pang of hesitancy when she asked me to bring Johnnie over much earlier than usual. And so this morning Johnnie and I went to Elysee for breakfast. Johnnie must have been hungry from not eating as much last night as he normally would when he stays with me. But then again it wasn't like he didn't eat anything either. This morning he ate all the sausage and half the eggs. AND the croissant too. The only thing he didn't consume was the orange juice. Anyway we did our routine, hung out at Westwood and then to Target to pick up a few things. It wasn't even 9:30 AM yet and I could feel it was already going to be a warmer day than usual. And I am definitely not complaining. When we got home, we immediately went back outside. We had brought Johnnie's hoverboard with us. He seemed to labor when riding it last night in the streets although it WAS dark and you couldn't see the road and what you were riding over exactly. I wanted to see how he did this morning on MY neighborhood roads. And the answer can be seen in the video I posted. He didn't seem to have any trouble at all. And so this is another thing he has already learned. Johnnie noted that I taught him how to ride a bike and how to scooter a couple of years ago. This time it was his mom that got him to learn to do this. I was glad of course. Can skateboarding be too far behind? Anyway we got to ride around the neighborhood and I got some walking steps in chasing him of course. And then we went to Panda Express Westwood to get lunch. Yes, the morning went by seemingly in no time at all! Before I knew it, I was already dropping Johnnie and the dog at Lisa's office. I saw him putting his gloves on to assist. And that would be it for the rest of the weekend. With all this time on my hands all of a sudden, I did the thing that I do even when Johnnie was with me on a Saturday. I took a nap! AND THEN I actually started to watch NFL football! The Packers were playing those hated San Francisco 49ers after all and I'm not going to lie... I took great satisfaction that the Packers marched right down the field on their first drive and scored a TD. The Rams don't play until tomorrow but what the heck, I can watch football for my Saturday afternoon. Until the 49ers ended up pulling off the upset of the Packers! Damn those guys... Actually I ended up binge watching Wynona Earp. Yeah, just another series between a strong supernatural female character and some evil entities a la Van Helsing. What is it about series like these that has me binge watching? I know I could be doing other things. But then again I note that although I finished with 9000+ steps this evening, I managed only 9 active minutes. First time I had gotten that low in forever. Still I felt no urgency to step it up or to even get it double digits. I'll leave it right where it is without any special effort. And watch I will still have comparable numbers by the end of the week tomorrow. And so it was that this Saturday turned out to be a different one and I didn't really get much of anything done. Except chores and errands. Grocery shopping. Laundry. I guess that was the point. In that case, I did get lots done. That is perfectly fine.

Tank Day and Lisa Being Lisa

I already decided that I was going today was going to be a TANK DAY. No Johnnie, no dog, lots of ME time. Until Lisa called to drop off the dog with me right after she dropped off Johnnie at school. You see she swapped her Thursday and Friday schedule, so she now has Thursdays off and now works on Fridays. And so she obviously needed me to watch the dog. AND pick up Johnnie from school later. THAT part I didn't mind so much. I don't usually get to see Johnnie on a Friday. This way I do. And anyway, it was just the dog. I still got to do a lot of stuff this morning. Which included finding a way to rid myself of FEELINGS of "I NEED TO DO SOMETHING FOR WORK'. Feelings of annoyance and irritation of those that are asking stuff from me. Marina always, the new Director Starlette. And I am fully aware I feel these feelings of annoyance even while Eloisa is on vacation and not actually asking anything of me.  Just more feelings of "I AM SICK OF WORKING ANYMORE". I do need to pay attention.  That and the videos from Kyle Cease I watched this morning regarding money. I was basically getting reminded that what is happening in my perception of the outside world is merely a reflection of what I am focusing on. If I am manifesting not-enoughness, it's because I am focusing on not-enoughness. And the obvious remedy is to focus more on being enough and having more than enough. And being grateful for it already. Now. And so I did some meditation this morning on just that. Being grateful for already having a lot more money right now than I did last year and also the year before that. And for lunch I actually tried to put myself in the feeling of not being at work. In the past that meant simply sneaking out and going to watch a movie for a couple of hours. Today, I went to have lunch at the Century City mall. Went to Massis Kabob and enjoyed some koubideh kabob. And enjoyed the nice warm day that it was. I mean look at the pics of the Century City mall food court area outside that I posted. Can't do much better than that for a mid-January day. People walking around in shorts. I took the opportunity to make a stop at the Container Store to pick up plastic storage for Johnnie's toys that are starting to sprawl in my living room. I'm going to have to start throwing stuff out that's for sure. Anyway, I noted that 3 out of the 4 work days this week I was able to hang out and be places where I wouldn't normally be if I were still working at the office, and THAT makes a pretty big difference in terms of feeling a lot more relaxed. I even went home and took a little power nap in the afternoon, before walking some more around my neighborhood until it was time to pick up Johnnie. I normally do not pick him up on Friday but then again it isn't like I'm otherwise occupied anyway. I know Lisa and I made plans to do pizza night tonight. But a huge part of me knows that LISA BEING LISA means plans are by no means in concrete on nights that she works.  And so I made sure that at least Johnnie was fed. I picked him up and headed right to Mitsuwa Marketplace so I could get him some udon. That and some ice cream and it doesn't matter what Lisa and I end up doing for our dinner. Part of me wanted to get something to eat too. But then again, I was still holding out hope that maybe we could order that pizza at the corner at that pop-up stand and make a night of it. As it was, Lisa called around 6 PM and told us to go ahead and go over to her house by 6:30 PM. And so here's where it somehow unraveled. Lisa said she had eaten a whole bunch of cookies at work and so she really didn't need to eat a whole lot. She suggested we do pizza slices instead of the entire pizza. Already I knew we weren't going to have a pizza right then and there. Still we walked over there to the popup pizza stand. It had turned into a not-quite-so-cold evening with Santa Ana winds blowing. And when we got there Lisa was told they didn't sell pizza by the slice and we would need to wait 30-40 minutes for a whole pizza. More like an hour actually. Sigh. And so we just decided to go back home. But we couldn't just go back home. Johnnie had brought his hoverboard with him. And so Lisa decided we'd go back home the long way down Marco Pl and around to Maplewood. What-in-the-heck? I don't get to eat and now I have to do a walk even though I already walked 11,000+ steps anticipating that I wouldn't do any walking when I came down? Talk about out of sync! Still I didn't want to make any trouble. And so we all took that stroll. By the time we got back to Lisa's house it was nearly 8 PM and now I was hungry. I know Lisa would try to put something together to eat, even knowing full well that I HATE when she does that and that caused a major fight on Christmas Eve. She's doing it again. This time, I simply told her I'm tired and I wanted to go home. I gotta be back tomorrow early anyway since it is a work day for her. And I made a stop at Taco Bell to pick up a couple of tacos and a burrito for dinner. The win here was that despite Lisa being Lisa, Friday evening was not spoiled. And that we still managed to do SOMETHING together. I'll see Johnnie first thing tomorrow.

Bad Miscommunication

So the day after Tech Council Meeting Day is always considered by me as a breathe-out kind of day. In fact, in previous years, it would also be CCALAC Meeting Day that would pretty much take up most of the day, even though the meeting itself was only for a couple of hours. The key was that it got me out of the office, it made me feel good about the job I was doing at QueensCare, and I felt the respect of my peers. Most times LOL. Today I decided maybe I will join Scott and his friends for golf albeit at 1:20 PM. I always used to say my barometer for enjoying my weeks more would be if I played more golf during the weekday right? And so I did have a spate of meetings all morning that I had to do. And of course first things first means witnessing the daily play of Johnnie, Brooklyn, and Bailey as I drop Johnnie off at school <first pic>. And so I blasted through my meetings which really did take all morning, including a half hour interview with a Kennedy replacement candidate. That interview didn't really move the needle for me and my team and there was enough doubt there so that we decided we need to take a long at more candidates. OK then. My meetings got done by noon and then I high-tailed it to Los Feliz to make it Roosevelt Golf Course by 1 PM. I shoved some leftover pizza down my throat from last night, but since I did get there before 1 PM I decided to have a turkey melt too. And hey since I'm here anyway I figured I would just enjoy the patio view. It was a nice, warm day too... perfect for a round of golf. I pinged Scott to verify the reservation time and to make sure I was included in the reservation and he sounded like he was running late. So 1:10 came and no Scott. 1:15. then tee time 1:20. No Scott and no other people he played with that I had sight-familiarity with. That's when it hit me that he probably made the reservation for PENMAR, not Roosevelt. Sigh. Oh well. At least I had a nice 2 hour break for lunch. That's because it took a full hour to drive back home! See the pic I posted of the museum on Wilshire Blvd? That was my route home. And man was there so much construction going on EVERYWHERE or what? Oh well, it felt like the normal break for the CCALAC meeting at least time-wise. Back then when that meeting got done, I would find myself at Macy's on 7th or something simply to waste time until it was time to go home. In this case, it was 2:30 by the time I got back home. And at least I did get to get out and enjoy a warm day even if I didn't do anything active. I remedied that by taking a walk immediately when i got home. I would confirm later on that we indeed had a miscommunication and that Scott's group was at Penmar. Sigh. And so the rest of the evening went routinely. Or at least it seemed so. I picked up Johnnie at school, then we went to Whole Foods since I talked him into eating Italian sausage for dinner. Which also gave me a chance to eat pasta and same sausage for MY dinner. And then the surprise of the evening was that Lisa called at 6 PM to pick up Johnnie! W-h-a-t?? I didn't expect her to call until almost 9 PM like she had the last few Thursdays. Turned out I forgot she now has Thursdays off and switched her work day to Friday. She seemed calm and even happy on the phone! What a difference a day off made! I was happy to hand Johnnie and the dog off by 6:30 PM. That gives me time to clean up the house or just chill the rest of the evening away. And we made plans for me to pick up Johnnie at school tomorrow instead. All good. I get to see him one extra hour one extra day.  So the day didn't turn out like anticipated. But hey, at least I didn't spend the afternoon "working" LOL. Good enough for me.

Another Tech Council Meeting Day

A Technology Council Meeting Day on a Wednesday means that is where my focus is at least until 2:30 PM when it's over. And what happens when it IS over, you see the first posted pic. That's me taking a walk around my neighborhood padding my steps count. AND trying to get at least 70 active minutes for today, metrics that at least ensures that I am active and moving. AND I get to enjoy a nice warm-ish afternoon in mid-January. In other words, I am taking a breath out not that I was all that stressed from the meeting. The nice development as of late is that the Communications Meeting we used to have the week before the Tech Council Meeting is now the same DAY as the TEch Council Meeting and so really it's sort of a rehearsal since I'm presenting pretty much the same information as the Tech Council but very much abridged.  I feel like I keep spouting the same information in fact, but then again is anyone really paying attention? Do they really care? I feel like most are ok knowing I am at the wheel and that I have everything under control. As it was I did get cranking in the morning, catching up on lots of stuff, including Meeting minutes from 3 months ago that I didn't do. I got 3 months worth done inside of an hour! AND I managed to meet with the Data Team to assure MYSELF that things are under control. AND I got a troubleshooting meeting with OCHIN done before the TEch Council. In other words, I got a whole lot of stuff done. And as far as the meeting itself? Other than using it to educate the new ones that were there, I was anticipating a quick meeting. Then again, this meeting usually meanders certain directions and I don't really have any idea which way. Today, it was the FRB return-to-work plan and getting hardware replaced and making sure we're in the state of operational readiness in case we DO get called back at any time. And so what happened was that the meeting itself took the entire hour, which was unexpected to be sure. But I felt like I did get some good content discussed, a couple of asks where noted and the meeting went pretty good I thought.

And so I did my walk and then chilled on the couch and relaxed until it was time to pick up Johnnie at school. He had is usual download when he came out of STAR of course and he had his usual stack of artwork in his bag. I reminded him that it is pizza night tonight and so I got our 2 medium pizza from Dominos, one cheese, one sausage and pineapple. And I noted that once we got the route and routine down, it actually takes no more than 20 minutes out of our way to get our pizzas at the Sepulveda location. That is contrasted to picking it up at Domino's Pico Blvd or that first we went when I took the Culver Dr Route and got stuck there for a half hour. Now it's eezy-peezy and Johnnie and I had plenty of food for the evening. The picture I posted was after dinner when Johnnie shifted to play mode and started to dance to the Magic School Bus music episode. I'm glad he has reverted back to that, from Peg the Cat, and before that from the Wild Kratts. Look at him dancing around. And actually this evening, I gave him a treat. Since he always asks for dessert, and then a double dessert after that, he and I went for a walk. That's because he wanted to print out his artwork for the week. We had to do that at Staples of course and what better way to finish off my 11,000+ steps tonight than to walk there and back! AND on the way back I promised him a chocolate pop dessert from Starbucks... Except Starbucks closed at 7 PM except for the drive thru. Oh well, a promise is a promise. And so we went back to my apartment garage and took the car and got his chocolate pop from the drive thru. AND Johnnie "bought" me a hot tea as well. After all, he said he had $2. Enough money to purchase his own chocolate pop. And if I added a little more he said, I could also get a coffee or a tea. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that he now has an awareness of money. And so we ended up not only having a nice evening walk, which was definitely out of the normal routine, but we got him a dessert also out of the normal AND his pictures actually turned out to be pretty cool. And so it was that I had a pretty good day and when I tucked Johnnie in to what is now his bedroom <the couch in the living room> we both thanked the Universe for such a good day. I wasn't done yet. I watched the latest episode of Boba Fett to wind down my evening. This episode had connections to the last couple of episodes of the Mandalorian Season 2. I liked it. As I drifted to sleep I reflected again that it really was a pretty good day.

Start Of A Short Work Week

A couple of things happened first thing this morning before I even got to start my day. First, I showered on a Tuesday morning, even before Johnnie woke up. It occurred to me that I didn't even shower yesterday since I was so occupied with Johnnie. And then this morning when I dropped Johnnie off at school, I saw Brooklyn getting dropped off by her grandmother. I'm sure Johnnie will love that since this is the first time Brooklyn is coming to school after the holiday break. She had tested positive for Covid last week and had to quarantine and miss the first week back from the break. That alone already makes it feel like things are finally back to routine. In the meantime, I got a lot of stuff done today, a heck of a lot more than usual and the puzzling thing is that I got them done quickly and I'm left wondering why it took me so long to get around doing them in the first place. With the long weekend, the first thing to get done was timecards. And then I had my team meeting. And then I had contract stuff to get to. And of course I had to work on transition stuff for the new network and the new Voice system. Lots to do. AND I got everything done EXCEPT my presentation for tomorrow's Tech Council Meeting. I did get started on it already so all I had to do was follow my own template for the content. It's just that I do have quite a bit of content. I'm thinking the meeting isn't going to go for more than 45 minutes, but then again you never know. It had not gone less than an hour in the past few months though I didn't really prepare that much content. Lots of people ask questions is all. What I ended up doing was putting my head down, getting my presentation done and I took breaks along the way. Lots of breaks. Walking breaks. I at least got to almost 6000 steps by the time it was time to pick up Johnnie from school. And by the time I did that, I actually felt like I had accomplished quite a bit already for today.

And I had one more thing I planned to do. After Johnnie and I got dinner at Panda Express, after he had his round of desserts, after I finally finished my presentation for tomorrow, I made sure Johnnie was occupied with a project. He wanted to make a drawing or pictures of his day sort of like news style. Perfect. I needed him occupied because I was going to FaceTime a woman I had met online just a couple of days ago. Tara was her name and she was a psychologist who works for the prison system and lives in Santa Clarita. She had actually sent me a like and a compliment and I responded. Mind you I get lots of those now. At least one a week on Match.com actually. But she was the first one in a while that I felt like I might be interested in. She had a nice profile and she looked ok. You never really know until you meet someone in person. And you wouldn't know until then if you have any chemistry, or if you have that attraction factor I call it. The last time I went on a date was way back in May and I knew then the attraction wasn't there. Or at least it wasn't mutual. So that didn't pan out. And so here I am almost 9 months later and maybe this pans out. One never knows. The ritual is the same always. You connect online, then do email or FaceTime to make sure the person is real and see if the other person is at least looking like her pictures on her profile. In this case, they did so who knows. The purpose of these first steps is always to get to the next step. And tonight Tara and I talked for about 45 minutes and then agreed to talk again. Is that how you build a friendship at first in an organic way? Who knows anymore.  All I do know is that I am not in any kind of rush to get into anything. And so we shall see. In the meantime, Johnnie started popping in to the bedroom when he got done doing his picture(s). And by the time I was done with my call, it was back to his pre-bedtime routine. One thing about meeting someone new is that inevitably I would talk about Johnnie because you know, they ask you about your kids. And talking about him makes me feel even closer to him as his dad. I put him to bed <on the couch> gave him a big kiss and told him how much I love him as he closed his eyes. Yeah... it was a good day.

MLK Day Off

I am TRULY grateful to have the day off, also knowing that we won't have President's Day off next month. It is the day we honor Martin Luther King and even Johnnie and his class has spent time talking about the significance of his words and deeds. Johnnie was even volunteered to draw him for his class, which I thought was pretty cool. From a practical and logistic standpoint though, it felt like a Saturday which meant I probably was not going to get to my steps regimen until later. That's because Johnnie and Lisa called me first thing to ask me to come over for breakfast. Actually, Lisa was complaining about how sick she felt. Again. And that she wanted to stay in bed all day. I am sorry but I just don't commiserate with her as much as she would like. But I was happy to have breakfast with them and spend time with Johnnie, as she actually asked me to watch him for most of the day while she got some rest. Happy to do THAT. And unlike Saturday when I came empty handed and had to improvise, this time I brought bacon, and I brought milk which I was going to throw out by midweek anyway. And so it was that while Lisa lay in bed and debated with herself about how she was feeling and what she was going to do about it, I made us all breakfast. I made some pancakes with just flour so they actually turned into crepes, made scrambled eggs, hot tea, and heated up my pre-cooked bacon that I brought. <which by the way made Lisa jump in anger because she thought I was cooking bacon from scratch in her microwave. Funny, funny, funny> And so we actually had an even better breakfast from Saturday in my opinion. In the middle of all that, her cleaning lady came which actually made it ok for Johnnie and I to take our leave and take off for the morning. Like I said... just like Saturday. Johnnie was all too happy to hang out in my apartment watching his cartoons and without the dog even.  And it felt like the last 2 Mondays anyway, since Lisa dropped him off at 11 AM the past 2 weeks. And finally I did get started with my steps regimen and actually got to 5000+ steps before lunch. I don't even know how I managed that! Considering it felt like a Saturday, Johnnie and I went to Panda Express for lunch of course. That was after returning to Lisa's house thinking we were going to ferry her to Urgent Care to get her seen by a doctor. I don't really know how to get her to decide, but at least she decided she was going to just stay in bed all day. For Johnnie and I, it was like OK GOOD off we go back to the apartment. With a stop at Panda Express of course LOL. I'm thinking to myself do we really need to pander to Lisa the way we do? All she wants is some attention I guess. As long as I don't have to hang around her house all day, I am ok with that. Even though I know full well it is going to suck up some of my day off. As it was Johnnie and I actually got to just hang out for the afternoon. I got him to draw something which cost me $2, We played use-the-kali-sticks to score a goal with a balloon. And though we were having a good time, again we returned to Lisa's house to bring food. I brought split pea soup for her from Whole Foods, and El Pollo Loco tostada salad for me and I already cooked Johnnie's penne and brought my own broth. In other words, we took what we would have been having at the apartment and simply brought it to Lisa just so we could have dinner together. All that so she can come to some realization and verbalization that "I don't make her happy". Very hilariously funny. As if I was created for that purpose LOL LOL. Fortunately, I had had a good day and I just laughed it off as something she is not filtering and thinking out loud because she has spent more time with her mom. She still does not get that all this dissatisfaction is centered on her DAD, not me. What did she say this afternoon when we came by? She told Johnnie that dad does not get sick. Because he does not have as many stressors. And when she gives me stressors, I just ignore it. YES!!! I got it down!!! I'm even GLAD she sees that.  She wanted us to help her put away Christmas stuff too, but I think she simply got tired of trying to goad me into some drama. She just basically sent Johnnie and I off for the week. Which is a very very good thing. See ya!!! And with that I noted that not only did I finish my 15000+ steps today, I also did my HRSA report. On my day off. Oh well, at least Johnnie and I got to hang out. And we get routine back tomorrow...

Golf and Playoff Football

So today our tee time is at 9:30 AM at Harbor Park. Chris had bowed out yet again at the end of last week, citing an inconclusive COVID test from Connor. I think he found yet another excuse not to play and that is ok. We'll keep giving him chances if and when he does reach out. In the meantime, Scott and I do just fine getting paired up with random people. Today it's with a couple of Harbor locals actually and a nice old guy who doesn't play all that often. <Funny he played well enough actually> My first 3 shots off the tee were absolute bombs right down the middle. And the one on hole 4 was a nicely  placed shot less than 100 yards from the hole. If only I could be consistent and string 2 or3  good shots in a row. Maybe THAT is the goal right? To put a string of good shots together. On the first 2 holes, those nice first shots were followed by absolute stinker misses, both almost going way out of bounds. How do I not focus. All I gotta do is dig under the ball. Instead I top and miss right off boat 2nd shots. Finally on the 3rd hole, my 2nd shot was ALSO an absolute bomb. 2 shots in and I was already less than 60 yards from the hole. Long story short, I missed my par putt on that hole. But I got a 2nd chance and got a par putt in the next hole. Missed that too. And I got a par putt 3 more times in the next holes. Missed all those. Sigh. And so in the end, after the disastrous first 2 holes, I actually settled down to play pretty well. I have GOT to find a way to bottle what I'm doing on the tee shots which is now pretty consistently hard hit and long and straight. Couldn't complain at all. Anyway, those 2 locals we played with didn't play any better than I did, or not THAT much better anyway and I'm sure they play this course much more often than I do. And so I was satisfied that we were able to hang with them for the most part, although Scott looked visibly disappointed with his game today. I didn't shoot any pars but at least I was close and was putting for those on 5 holes. Some of those putts I really should have made too. Oh well. In the end, it turned out to be a warm day, in fact, so much I didn't even wear a sweater to the golf course. Should have worn shorts in fact. And after golf I made a stop at IN-N-Out El Segundo of course and there was no one in line. This is what I like. No long wait at all. Just my double double washed down by a Coke. It was already a pretty good day. 

And so lunch all done, I was ready to take a nice long nap for the afternoon. After all I did mention I didn't sleep a whole lot last night and I needed to catch up. But I got caught in NFL Playoff football for the afternoon. As in I ended up watching the 49ers and Cowboys. I mean the Rams weren't even playing until tomorrow night and I got sucked in to watching the game. Especially since the Niners pulled off the upset for the 2nd weekend in a row. Of course Dallas playing pathetically the way they did sure helped SanFrancisco along didn't they? And so it was that just that act of watching that football game shifted me into LAZY mode. I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I didn't feel like finishing the housecleaning that I started on Friday any longer. Heck I was already up to 11,000+ steps today and all the way to nearly 200 active minutes. For the 2nd Sunday in a row, my resting heart rate elevated past 110 for at least an hour after I came home from golf. I had to tell myself that there wasn't anything wrong and that i was not having a cardiac event. Last week I thought my body was fighting off something actually. Remember I caught that 24-hour bug and I didn't get rid of it until mid-week. No such thing today. In fact, I stopped by the drugstore after golf and picked up some Zycam. We're all so stuck on COVID that we almost forget there is still such a thing as the common cold. Anyway what I ended up doing was watching Iron Fist re-runs. Hey, it's Marvel isn't it? I don't have to work tomorrow. I can do anything I want and sleep in. Of course who knows what will happen tomorrow... we'll just have to wait and see.