Wednesday Observations

Lesson of the day: The Law of Analogy: Patterns repeat at different levels of reality. EVERYTHING repeats at these different levels of reality. You just have to ask the right questions.

Johnnie playing with his friends Wasn't it nice to make breakfast for Johnnie today? Usually I'd be running 100 miles an hour trying to do this. But today I figured I'd do something different... and besides Johnnie really wanted to do it. The cool thing was that I managed to slow myself down. I made him eggs and allowed him to watch his dinosaur videos too. I'm not so sure THAT was a particularly good idea but it did give me time to get MYSELF ready as well. And we were out of the house and headed to school even BEFORE the usual time when we would be done at McDonald's. And then on the walk to school, we ran into his classmate Leo and then his classmate Dylan J. And those 3 got to run around and play as if we the parents weren't even around. They were having fun even BEFORE class started. Made the drop-off so nice and simple. And then it was off to work for me. The day was pretty full actually but not because of many things to do and many meetings. It was because of one meeting specifically, which was the first Leadership Summit of this year. I have to say that I appreciate our executive team for at least recognizing that these get-togethers were necessary if not just for the bonding experience. I mean we had a specific ice-breaker where we had to break into teams and we had to create a structure made up of balloons and the tallest structure won. I posted a pic of my team and our balloon creation. We didn't win. But we did have fun making the thing. Sometimes you gotta go back to being a kid to realize life isn't all that serious and that you gotta have fun no matter what you're doing. Just like the 3 boys were doing this morning on the way to school. I had no doubt then that Johnnie would tell me later that he had a good day. In the meantime, we did other stuff in the meeting too, we had a speaker talk about CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS and I think what was being addressed was the old culture at QueensCare of passive aggression and nobody really speaking up to challenge whatever where being said at the meeting. Now mind you, I hold back these days only because I think I'm a little too in-your-face actually and i realize I need to think and not react. And most of the time I speak as exactly that... a reaction. Except if it was my meeting, which is always a planned kind of thing. I realize that I talk a lot of the time to get a laugh, smart-ass that I am and I did so quite often at this meeting. I'm simply making observations now. And asking myself why I need so much attention on me. Truly something to work on IF it becomes something that needs working on for specific situations. In the meantime, I thought we had a pretty good summit. At least I got a free lunch too. And by 4:36 I was off and headed home.

It took me 25 minutes to get to Mar Vista Elementary, which I thought was a huge surprise considering my late start and that it was Wednesday humpday. i thought maybe people were headed home early to watch the Lakers and Knicks play tonight? Maybe not. In any case, it IS Wednesday night and it IS Panda Express night and I picked up Johnnie at the auditorium where they were practicing for an upcoming show. And as per routine, to Panda Express Westwood we went. Johnnie asked if we could eat at home... definitely a routine with Lisa, but when we got to Panda Express, our routine kicked in and he himself decided to eat there. He ate a lot tonight... as in most of his chicken. And so it was no surprise to me that not a half mile from the apartment, Johnnie was snoozing in the back seat. Oh well, at least it gives me time to finish my 11,000 steps tonight without much effort to keep Johnnie occupied. As it was he slept until 7:30PM, which was a little over an hour. Or at least I went to wake him up at that time.  I didn't want him sleeping a lot and then waking up at 1 AM later on and keeping me up all night. He was so groggy at first he sort of just wanted to lay on the couch. And then I asked him if he wanted to watch something? I asked him if he wanted to watch...Frozen 2. He all of a sudden got excited. And so it was that we ended up watching Frozen 2 for the next couple of hours until it was really time for him to go to bed for real. You could hear him belly-laughing at Olaf the Snowman a couple of times during the movie. And all he wanted was to watch with me sitting next to him. Awww. And so it was that we got a movie in. All before bed. And so it was that we got to bed before 10 PM too. A pretty good Wednesday this day turned out to be.