New Normal

If this were a normal 3rd Wednesday of the month, I would be at the office cramming on my presentation for the Technology Council Meeting today at 1:30, probably suffering from less sleep than usual because I stayed up late working on said presentation. Many MANY times have I been able to pull material seemingly out of my ass. But there really isn't much to pull out this time is there? This being the first week of a very quickly imposed remote work regimen for the entire FRB staff, all I have to do is report on how things are going out there in remote-land and ask if there is anything the Leadership has noticed that we need. As far as I'm concerned it has gone much better than it could have, and that's because most of the leaders were already conversant and compliant, if not expert in the remote technology. All I needed was for them to lead THEIR staff. Having done that I didn't really anticipate any major issues in all honesty. Besides, my team IS at the ready and they been more than up to the task. And so... if this were a normal Wednesday, I'd be sending out my agenda first thing in the morning and then have lunch with everyone that was at the FRB just to attend this meeting, including Barbara, Art, Eloisa, and Faith... my lunch table that won't be together for a while. Obviously today is NOT a normal Wednesday. I did get up early as usual to get ready and to have Johnnie eat his breakfast. I'm all about routine you know, specifically for Johnnie. Today I dropped him off at Lisa's right after breakfast. I figured if she looked after him today, I wouldn't necessarily have to keep him occupied at the apartment while I held my Tech Council Meeting. Lisa too is scrambling for work and she told me she intended to spend the day at her office so her crew could do some cleaning and so she could continue to pay them. She has her own unique problems doesn't she? And so after dropping Johnnie off, i went home, put on the finishing touches on my presentation, and then had more leftovers for lunch. I keep forgetting that when I cook something, it would usually last for 3 meals, maybe more. And so 1:30 came and I had my meeting. From the house. I had practiced on how it would like and even had another computer so I could see what everyone else was looking at on their screens. And my meeting pretty much went off without a hitch. I had a whole bunch of To-Dos to come out of it, but really they were mostly help desk stuff. As I said, the remote infrastructure was sound and there weren't really any big problems at all. That said I finished my meeting in 52 minutes. And then just as I would had I been at the FRB doing this, I went out for a walk afterwards to breathe out and clear my head. 

I posted a pic of me taking that walk. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on emails. And writing down all those to-do things that came out of the meeting. Gonna need to meet with my team tomorrow. And then by 5 PM I called Lisa and she brought Johnnie back. He was asleep when she first got there. But I think the minute he sensed he was back at dad's apartment he sprung back to life wide awake. This being Wednesday of course we would have to get Panda Express for dinner. Of course we had to go to the one in Westwood even though I had no idea if it would even be open. Fortunately, they had takeout service. And I even put my order in online ahead of time. And so Johnnie still enjoyed his chicken teriyaki and white rice, and I enjoyed my fried rice, chow mein and chicken with string beans. Dad and son had a nice dinner together. I checked Johnnie's homework books and he did do some, though not as much as he and I did on Monday. I figured I'd make up for it tomorrow. I didn't really care much if he did any with Lisa at all. Johnnie's as far along with his learning as the Lakers were with their season when it was abruptly stopped. They were leading the West, positioned well for a deep playoff run. Johnnie was already well ahead in most of the benchmarks. He can read, he can write, he draws with more detail. I think he'll be just fine in kindergarten next year. I just want to make sure he stays the playful, happy-go-lucky child that he is, even when he gets a little out of control sometimes. Especially with me. He scratched my hand again and this time, I lost my temper and hit him on the side of his face. Of course he cried. Why did I do that? I NEED to learn to control that reaction. I reminded myself immediately that there was no need for that as the only thing it does is teach him that it's ok to hit. I felt like sending ME to time-out to go to my calm place. How can I advise him to go to his if I'M not calm? THAT is the lesson isn't it? I need to master my state if I am to teach Johnnie to learn to master his. Definitely work to be done. Fortunately I did get him out of his upset state and as soon as he cried everything out he was back to his playful state again. As he did his shower and then went through his stories and fell asleep I reminded myself that TODAY was the new normal, both with my work stuff and with the Johnnie stuff. He's going to be around the apartment all day i suspect through the end of the school year. That's 3 months from now in June. Am I ready for that? I better be...