We would find her in the piano room calm and quietly working on something. I'm just happy she's not raging about something. That's good. We left her with a Johnnie rendition from the opera Magic Flute. I gave Johnnie a hug and told him I'd see him on Monday and off i returned on home. The pic of he and I on the couch watching TV was identical to one from exactly a year ago. This is what we do on a lazy Saturday Johnnie and I. As soon as I got back I took a quick nap. Hey it is Saturday after all. And then I picked up where I left off with cleaning the apartment. I did the dining room and had no intentions of cooking anything this evening. After all, I had just cleaned the kitchen. Fortunately, i still had leftover bolognese AND leftover Egg Foo Young for my Saturday night. And I ended up binge watching Archive 81 on Netflix. This supernatural/thriller series. Had components of witchcraft, time travel, character connections you couldn't predict or anticipate. It was pretty good I thought. And I could swear there were a couple of moments were I really felt scared... as in hair in the back of my neck scared. Which meant the thing was shot very well, and the storyline was pretty sound. I don't scare easy. Not anymore with supernatural kind of stuff. Anyway, I watched it all the way to almost 1 AM in the morning, fully aware that I had a golf game of course. Fortunately tomorrow's tee time is not until 9:30 AM so I can sleep in. In the meantime, I fully appreciated that today was all about getting out of the way of the negative stuff that comes up. And to learn to reverse that hold positive energies. I also found a way to be thankful for Lisa to keep being the emotional foil that serves as a reminder from the Universe. I know it can't possibly be easy stay as negative as she does as much as she does. I wonder how surprised she will be when she realizes all that stuff was hers to control right from the get-go. I also noticed I took some time to do some work stuff tonight. Like downloading all the files I needed to download to get my HRSA report. I do have the day off on Monday but why not get it done so I'm not rushing on Tuesday? Goes to show where my head is too. The last thing on my radar today? I got not one but 2 pings on online dating site Match.com. Hopefully one pans out? We shall see...
And so it was that I prepared to go to her house later on and deal with mosquito larvae, concerned only because Johnnie just puffs up when he gets bitten by mosquitos. Can't have that. Hey, I simply let the day finish out satisfied that I had at least gotten started with my house cleaning and tanked the rest of the afternoon. I made no plans for the 3-day weekend of course. I looked back on last year's entry and it was pretty much the same thing. About the only notable thing we used to do back in the day was play golf with Dexter LOL. Anyway I was prepared to spend my Friday night doing Lisa yet another favor and being taken for granted for doing a good deed. It would turn out that I would get spared from all that. And it would be Lisa's parents that would bail me out of it. THEY decided they were coming over to help Lisa with her mosquito problem. Which means I am off the hook! I guess I don't get to see Johnnie tonight which is ok because Lisa asked me to watch him tomorrow anyway. THAT works for me! And so all of a sudden I have my Friday back. What to do?! First things first is to decide what to do for dinner. And for whatever reason I had it in my mind to get shrimp egg foo young from First Szechuan, that Chinese place not even half a block from our old apartment in Westwood. I can't even count how many times I would eat this specific dish from that specific restaurant when we lived here! It's been 5+ years since we moved and so it's been that much time since I've eaten here. Used to be Johnnie and I were here all the time and the servers gushed all over him as a baby. It remains one of my happy places with Happy memories. How about that Christmas Day when we ate here before we drove to Santa Barbara with Silvia and fam. It was the only place open LOL. Anyway, time travelling aside, the dish wasn't exactly like I remembered, this one seemed like it had been out and been cooked for a while. It wasn't that fresh. But it was still ok. It was the memory that made me feel good. And so it was that with the Egg Foo Young, and episodes from the Book of Boba Fett, I ushered in the long 3-day MLK weekend. Man, is January really halfway over already?
I reminded myself that it is hand-off night tonight and it was likely that I was going to need some mental and emotional self-protection for this Lisa interaction. All indicatons from the week is that she is dealing with a bunch of stuff. Fear of this, fear of that, now fear of COVID. But I also reminded myself that I am a day closer to the long 3-day MLK weekend. Here I was just barely breathing out from the holidays and already January is halfway over? How can that be? In the meantime, the pic I took of Johnnie eating an ice cream sandwich bar and Claire the dog eating as well was pretty much how the evening went. Just usual stuff. Routine even. Johnnie and I went to get his dinner at Panda Express, I made myself the last of the bolognese and his leftover penne from just a couple of nights ago. The trick is always WHEN Lisa decides to pick up Johnnie and dog. Back in the day it was 6:30 when it was at Cornerstone. That seems so long ago. And then it was 7:30 PM from this past summer. And then it has now evolved to well past 8 PM. To the point where she picked them up at 8:30 PM today. Yes of course she had to talk about how tired she was and all this stuff going on at her office. She has done way too long without an office manager. But maybe she's like me... after all, I've done way too long without a manager of my own. More than 3 years now. It's like my own responsibilities expanded like crazy and I'm still working with a skeleton crew LOL. The difference I think is that I do not have the impossible desire for perfection and that I know I don't have the perfect individuals at their positions. All I ask is that they do the best they can. And usually, it's enough. I think that Lisa simply needs to determine for herself what is enough. Will I piss off some users. Undoubtedly. But my business does not depend on that as much as Lisa thinks hers does. So there's that. And still I knew she was in a state because she gave Johnnie a joke, Johnnie yelled, next thing you know she's walking off and blowing off steam. Poor Johnnie. I hate to leave him with her when she is in a mood like this. But it is her turn and all I can do is mentally and emotionally send loving, protective thoughts to him and for him. Hey at least she didn't scream at me right? LOL. I went in quickly, I finished my day. it was plenty good.
As it turned out I didn't take a nap in the afternoon. Instead I got started watching the latest Book of Boba Fett episode. They spent a lot of time with character development in the first 2 episodes, but now the plot lines were starting to evolve and dare I say thicken. Anyway I never did get to take my nap because in the blink of an eye it was already time to pick up Johnnie. I dare say I was anxious to see what his Covid test result was though he was definitely showing no symptoms of any illness whatsoever. In fact, look at him in the pic without a jacket. It wasn't like it was real warm out but he was definitely not cold. And in the spirit of Covid-consciousness, it was Lisa that called a bit later on asking if she could use the at-home Covid test kit I had. Her throat was feeling scratchy according to her and she felt anxious about it. And so she dropped by the apartment and picked up the test. And proceeded to test negative when she went home. Hey at least we're sure. In the meantime, Johnnie and I had picked up pizzas from Dominos on Sepulveda: cheese only for him, sausage and pineapple for me. And dad and son had a fine dinner. I thought I was totally prepared for Johnnie entertainment tonight. I had the movie Rumble all downloaded and cued up. He had only been talking about watching it since Christmas. But for whatever reason, he lost interest not even an hour in. I thought he was evolving into liking monsters now. Monsters like Godzilla and King Kong. i guess an animated monster wasn't good enough. Neither were kaijus when I tried to get him to watch Pacific Rim. Nope, he wanted to watch Godzilla. Or in lieu of that, it was back to Peg the Cat. WHo knows about this evolution. Anyway I got him to make Brooklyn a card too considering he kept talking about how he missed that she's not around. Aww. The card got an immediate response from Brooklyn too courtesy of her mom. Ahh kids. THAT covered tonight's entertainment. Tonight I went to bed not because I was dead tired and not because I needed a lot of rest. It felt good not to have the distraction of feeling like I was sick. I'll be grateful for that any day.
As far as work was concerned, I definitely tanked this morning as I felt like just taking a nap all morning long. No, this was not good. In the afternoon I did have a couple of interviews to do for Kennedy's position and I had to make sure I at least looked alive for those. One thing about my present condition that bothered me even more, was that my resting heart rate shot past 77 for the first time in years. At least for the time I've been wearing a Fitbit I think. Something is definitely going on with my body and it definitely is out of the normal. Anyway I did manage to make it through those interviews, and then when they were done it was already 4:15 and time to shut it down work wise. Not that it took a lot of convincing myself, I still wasn't feeling good. But then again, other than the elevated heart rate, I didn't have any fever. My throat was a little scratchy, but not overly so, not even like it was Thanksgiving when I felt like I caught a cold full on from Gayane. I had a little stuffiness, but again not overly so. I did feel like taking a nap though. Honestly it felt like the day after when I got my first Covid shot a year ago. I slept it off and that was that. Hopefully, whatever this is, I can do the same. It was still pretty warm when I picked up Johnnie from school at 5 PM. And even better, it wasn't completely dark anymore yet. It's already starting to get lighter later. Johnnie was his usual self, jacket-less, dirty pants, and asking for a chicken noodle dinner when we got home. THAT I can give him. AFTER I pick up my own dinner at El Pollo Loco of course. Hey, at least he gets his churros right? The problem this evening was that I was so off all day that I never did focus on getting my steps in. I was barely at 6000 by 7 PM and I did not feel like I had any energy to go on. And so I lowered the day goal, if just for today. Maybe I can shoot for 8000 steps just for today. Funny thing was that my heart rate stayed elevated even when I wasn't moving. So much so I recorded 140+ active minutes today even though I could have sworn I wasn't even moving through half those minutes. Fortunately I summoned enough energy to go past 8000 steps, and when i did that then I got to 9000 steps, and then 10,000 steps. I don't know how I did it but I actually did make 11,000+ steps today, although my legs were feeling it at the end. I did a socially distanced toothbrushing session for Johnnie and put him into bed, while keeping my distance doing so. Can't kiss him goodnight tonight. But that's ok. He SURE isn't showing any symptoms whatsoever soat least I know he isn't infected. And chances are, I am not either. But what a strange day of feeling unwell. Strange indeed.
So Lisa picked up Johnnie and Claire at around 4 PM. And she declared that she was going to Helms Bakery in Culver City to look at sofas. I guess she's trying to replace Ellen's sofa once and for all. Lots of memories on that thing to be sure. But perhaps it is time for a new sofa for her. Heck, it's time for a new sofa for me as I mentioned to Lisa that I am starting to look around for a sleeper sofa. That solves the problem of the extra room for Johnnie. He can just sleep on the sleeper in the living room. Heck he's sleeping on the couch now. Lisa invited me to tag along and I said why not... It brought back memories of 2012 when we were shopping for furniture for what was then her new office in the 6th floor. Man that feels like a whole lot of time ago. Lisa did her shopping Lisa style of course, which is to say she took her time and asked lots and lots questions. Which is her prerogative obviously. I sort of stayed with Johnnie and made sure he was at least occupied. After all, I'm shopping too, though I already know pretty much where I was going. Anyway, with the time travel all done, we all went to dinner. At Oops. 2nd time I'm trying to eat there in a week. This time it was open though Lisa bugged about me not reserving the outdoor table. So I had to take Claire to my house 5 minutes away. It was not a big deal to do just that but of course Lisa was fixated on the imperfection of the moment. And that was ok, since I was emotionally prepared tonight. No arguments happening here. Just some sushi, and Johnnie's usual udon and then capped off with chocolate mochi. And then when we met up at Lisa's house <so I could pick up Johnnie's backpack> she started doing the measuring thing. I know enough to sense that nothing good will come out of this and so I waited for the moment to gracefully exit and then me and Johnnie were headed on home. Hand-off all done. Hey at least Johnnie had a pretty good dinner already. As did I in fact. And I let him watch his latest interest: Peg the Cat. Not sure how it is he decides on what he's interested in anymore. Last week it was Godzilla. I got him to go to sleep early. Tomorrow is a school day after all. The first day back at that. Back to the routine. In the meantime I immersed myself in RIFE frequencies to combat the symptoms I am experiencing. And i am not sure at all, my mind is not creating this just because. We will see how I feel tomorrow...
It's been interesting playing golf without the usual foursome that we used to have. Without Chris and Greg, Scott and I have carried the torch. But that also meant playing with different people every Sunday. I used to worry about that, but not anymore. I've gotten sort of used to playing with different people every week. Today for example, we were paired with Michael, who we played with before and who plays Roosevelt daily he says. Of course, he's good! He reminds you more of Ja Morant the NBA player rather than a golfer, but the guy can hit his irons 200+. In fact, he showed me the certificate of him hitting a hole-in-one on Hole 4. With a 3-wood! Pretty amazing. As for me, there was no special visualization this morning. I figured all I needed to do was slow down my swing and keep myself from overswinging and overthinking. I can only do that during the moment of impact, the time I'm actually swinging the golf club. Of course it also felt good to visualize getting a bunch of pars today, considering I didn't get any the last 2 Sundays at Penmar. I took care of that right off the bat. I blasted my very first shot 200+yards then chipped on to the green with a bump-and-run 7 and then 2 putted for my par. YES! Another par on the first hole. All in all, I actually played pretty well today. Except for a couple of holes. That would be Hole 2, where I hit my first 2 shots right to the base of the hill. And then took 5 shots more to finish. How do I do that? I mean I showed a propensity for recovering today. Hole 3 tee shot ended up 20 yards from the tee and to the right. But I nailed the 2nd shot right to the green. And on Hole 4, I hit my best shot all day. I blasted the tee shot 220+ yards just to the right of the sand trap. And then got a pitch right on the green on the 2nd shot. I missed the birdie putt but made my par. 2 pars out of the first 4 holes is not too bad. Hole 5, the halfway point, my first shot landed just 60 yards from the pin. but i screwed around and ended up with a 6. I did get a 4 on the next 2 holes, both landing on the green in 2 shots. Hole 7 I blasted the tee shot right down the middle 200 yards. But I hit the next shot into the trees, and then the shot after that into the bunker. Oh well. My 2nd poor hole. Not too bad though if I screwed up on just 2 holes out of 9 and the rest were pars or bogeys. I would say that is a pretty good day. From there I got lunch at IN-N-Out. And then I noticed my resting heart rate stayed up past 100+ on the drive home. WHy was that? Was there something wrong? I didn't feel sick. Maybe I'm dehydrated? After all, it was in the low 70s this morning. Am I anxious about something? Am I in the middle of a full-blown panic attack? In response I went home and chilled the rest of the afternoon. I noted that my heart rate was below 100 inside of an hour, below 90 in another hour and down to 75. That's after logging in 200+ active minutes because it was in cardio mode for most of the golf game and then a couple of hours after. In the end, I guess I don't have anything to bug about. Other than the RAMS losing an OT game to the 49ers after having the ball and the lead at midfield with 1:57 to go. Man that defeat hurt. And then to add to the total sports failure of a day, the Lakers got taken apart and blown out by Memphis. Are they that bad that now they can't even beat Memphis? Wow. Oh well. I basically just shut down after those games, though I did venture out to get some grocery shopping done. Sunday over, weekend over, and next week Johnnie goes back to school...
