Saturday Cleanup Day

So as I mentioned in yesterday's post my intention was to make this one of my "learning conference-style" Saturdays. I had so many things I wanted to get to, so many online learning things I wanted to do. And I started with some nice meditation right as I woke up. 
And made myself some nice breakfast too. Eggs, sausage, raisin bread. Earl Grey hot tea. ahhh. And as I washed my dishes suddenly the dominant focus turned to cleaning my apartment. I mean I also intended to clean up my apartment at some point today, fully aware that the last time I did that was 2 weekends ago and I did it in spurts and phases. And I thought to myself: why can't I get it done in a couple of hours? That's how long it takes a professional house cleaner to do it isn't it? At least for a measly 1 BR apartment like mine. Actually I had already gotten started yesterday. It was while I was taking my shower in the morning when I had it in my head that I was going to clean my shower and bathtub, which was exactly what I ended up doing. And so again, I had already gotten started. This morning I ended up cleaning the kitchen. And it already took about 45 minutes to do that, which OBTW included mopping the floor. By the time I was done it was already past 11 AM. Again I ask... how do the pros do it? The morning was already almost done. By noon I was already headed out to get lunch as if I were already taking a break from cleaning the house. And for sure I had not even started on any one of those online classes I intended to get done. Oh well... I went to Bristol Farms Playa del Rey to get one of those thick turkey sandwiches and cole slaw. And got some chips and guacamole too (the guacamole was a sample). Ahhh, I may not have finished any tasks this morning. Doesn't mean I couldn't still enjoy lunch. And of course after lunch I had to have my afternoon nap... although today that didn't go for more than a half hour. Good enough to give me energy to attempt to finish cleaning the rest of the house! Next was the bathroom, mostly done already since I did the shower yesterday. And then the bedroom. Man did time fly though. By the time I got done with the bedroom it was already 4 PM! How did that happen? I could not NOT do the living room after that. And although I did it in pieces, I DID do it and I DID get done. It was 6:30 PM already when I did but I did it. MY APARTMENT IS CLEAN!

So I was sitting there on my couch... tired but appreciating what I had accomplished when I get a call. It was Lisa. She was inviting me to come over because she had marinated fish cooking in the oven. Yep, she was inviting me for dinner.  I knew there had to be some ulterior motive of course but at that point I really didn't care. I felt like I accomplished plenty today... although I was barely at 7000 steps at this point. Besides, I hadn't had dinner yet anyway. AND it had the added attraction that I would get to spend some time with Johnnie. I was barely beginning to think about what I was going to eat tonight for dinner at the time she called. And so I packed up some Chee-tohs for Johnnie and I headed on over. As it turned out they were out and about the whole day and Lisa wanted to plan on her move-in process. Now mind you it is one of those things where you just do it. At least that's how I would do it, but Lisa is Lisa and she has to have her process and I had no problem with that.  So I went over and Johnnie was in the middle of eating his "chicken noodle soup". And of course he was really glad to see me. Lisa made us these prosciutto appetizers. And then sprung out the fish. She had stuff all over the dining room table. And the doors to all her kitchen closets where not up. I didn't want to ask what was up. But at least we had a very nice dinner right there in the nook. We had talked about putting a breakfast nook in there when we first bought the house. It was a conversation we both remembered in a pleasant way. Tonight, although she was clearly a bit overwhelmed still by the process and the prospect of moving in and doing it alone, she managed to provide some pleasant company in fact. It was like she had a friend over and they had dinner together. And that was perfectly fine with me. And while she started to clean up, I did get my time with Johnnie in albeit we were roughhousing for a good half hour. As far as ulterior motive, she needed some help putting the TV together and getting some stuff hauled in from the garage. Like her books and stuff and I didn't mind doing that since it wouldn't be until tomorrow anyway. I told her I'd come right over after golf. To say we had a nice, pleasant dinner and to contrast that with previous interactions a year ago would be a huge understatement. Lisa was actually nice and really wanted to put a nice dinner together. I mean look at the plate in the picture. Lisa was always so good at that and the a very good counterbalance to my own lack of attention to aesthetics and detail. The price of course was that I had to bring them dinner tomorrow night. I'm fine with that.  Hey I'm ok with reciprocity. Especially if I get to see my Little Bug again. So tomorrow planned, I went on home. I missed a big NBA game which incidentally was the Lakers and Rockets playing for the first time this year. And the Lakers won too going away on the road. The evening turned out to be pretty good after all. And needless to say I knocked out my 11,000 steps even though I was already done at 9,000. Tired and unmotivated, I still managed to slog out an extra 2000 steps to keep the streak going.  As soon as I got done I crashed on the couch and slept right then and righ there. It was a good end to a pretty good day.