Saturday turned into Johnnie Day
So Lisa called this morning just as I was jumping out of the shower. Yep, I took a shower on a Saturday as strange as that may sound and as rare as that eve
r happens anymore. That's because I felt sticky and yucky when I woke up. Lisa told me that Johnnie knew I was coming for breakfast and has requested breakfast at Elysee. Of course I was happy to indulge. Since Lisa was prepping for her piano lesson and was ok with simply having a cup of her favorite coffee, that would mean Johnnie and I get a Saturday day together like it was a regular Lisa workday. And only because I pointed out to Lisa that she will likely have an emotional piano lesson. She always does. It always tires her out mentally. And she's going to need to take a nap, besides needing to catch up on her notes. And so I get to have Johnnie through lunch. AND have the privilege of doing grocery shopping for Lisa as well. I figured it was part of the price I have to pay to get time with Johnnie. And I'm glad to do it. And so it was that I posted a pic of Johnnie, mask and all, at Elysee having breakfast. It had gotten pretty warm already and it was barely 9 AM. We were lucky to get one of the only 2 tables outdoors that had shade. After breakfast it was on to not one but TWO Whole Foods stores, chasing Lisa's Illy coffee. The one in Westwood, our old Whole Foods I used to go to, didn't have the coffee grounded one. But the one in Mar Vista right by my apartment did. And we had to go to both. It was yet another trip down memory lane when I was driving through our old Westwood streets, as it always usually does. There are far less people in the Village since the pandemic. And my trip down memory lane only reminded me of 800 Degrees Pizza which is no longer there, and Palomino restaurant, also no longer there. It is always nice to visit, but now it was time to go on home. We made one more stop at Ralphs to get the rest of Lisa's groceries. She didn't really have all that much today. Johnnie was aching to get to the apartment to do some memory tripping of his own. He wanted to watch Tumble Leaf. He hadn't watched that in many months graduating to Octonauts just a little over a month ago. And I was actually glad to see some of the old episodes while I did the laundry. By lunchtime it had gotten really hot out and I was happy to just get McDonald's chicken mcNuggets for Johnnie for his lunch. The $6 menu came with a filet-of-fish sandwich for me but I supplement it with a salad. Yep, a salad. What is happening? A shower on this Saturday, then Elysee, now a salad? Is it turning into a bit of a bizzarro Saturday? Not when Johnnie and I are just hanging around duking it out, roughhousing and playing on the sofa. I'm starting to feel some of his punches. I couldn't help thinking that before too long I'm going to have to get him to refrain from doing that to me period. Otherwise, I am hesitant to flick him out of "play mode". That giggly smile on his face I posted on the pic is one of my favorite things ever after all. And so I ended up dropping Johnnie off at 2:30 PM at Lisa's. She had already taken a nap AND worked on her notes. And now she's in work-on-something else mode. I could tell her brain is still going 100mph. I also realized that unlike the past 2 non-working Saturdays, they didn't have any place to go tonight. And so that is why Lisa is doing several things like she always does, usually working on the stuff on the house that bugged her the most. One would be the curtain rod that apparently Johnnie had hung on and bent. She went ahead and moved the supporting hook on another part of the wall. I sat and watched. If you think I'm going to help her and then get yelled at when something doesn't go quite right you are out of your mind. I really really wanted to just drop Johnnie off and then be off myself on my merry way, go home to take a nice nap. But it was clear that since she had no plans today, Lisa wasn't going to let me go just yet. In fact, she wanted me to look at the application she was trying to turn in to get even more funding help from the government. How do I tell her that I had just spent 2 days myself filling out a government form (those goddamn CTF applications) and looking at one of those things yet again is the LAST thing i would ever want to do today? Besides talking about her office finances had always been a lose-lose proposition for me. She resented that I knew it and she didn't, and in the meantime I always lost patience because it would take her hours to do what I would have finished in less than half the time. But this afternoon I decided to just listen and help as much as I could. Johnnie in the meantime, had gotten into a mood. He wanted to spread out his play stuff and when I said he needed to put stuff away, he got into drama mode and not only did not want to listen to me, but also kept on saying that his afternoon had been ruined. Sigh. Such dramatics. He literally fell asleep minutes after the dramatic display. And then I helped Lisa with her application, and then chatted with her some more. We ended up chatting until it was already 5 PM. Yes, I was there hours longer than I anticipated. She was yakking away and I found myself turning my own mind off because I didn't want to listen anymore. I couldn't. It was draining me. And so I bugged out at the first opportunity that I could without offending Lisa. For her part, she did make us some flatbread specials for a snack for me <and supposedly dinner for her>. It was already nearly 6 PM when I got home. The Lakers were on. The Dodgers were on. And it is the first day of August...
r happens anymore. That's because I felt sticky and yucky when I woke up. Lisa told me that Johnnie knew I was coming for breakfast and has requested breakfast at Elysee. Of course I was happy to indulge. Since Lisa was prepping for her piano lesson and was ok with simply having a cup of her favorite coffee, that would mean Johnnie and I get a Saturday day together like it was a regular Lisa workday. And only because I pointed out to Lisa that she will likely have an emotional piano lesson. She always does. It always tires her out mentally. And she's going to need to take a nap, besides needing to catch up on her notes. And so I get to have Johnnie through lunch. AND have the privilege of doing grocery shopping for Lisa as well. I figured it was part of the price I have to pay to get time with Johnnie. And I'm glad to do it. And so it was that I posted a pic of Johnnie, mask and all, at Elysee having breakfast. It had gotten pretty warm already and it was barely 9 AM. We were lucky to get one of the only 2 tables outdoors that had shade. After breakfast it was on to not one but TWO Whole Foods stores, chasing Lisa's Illy coffee. The one in Westwood, our old Whole Foods I used to go to, didn't have the coffee grounded one. But the one in Mar Vista right by my apartment did. And we had to go to both. It was yet another trip down memory lane when I was driving through our old Westwood streets, as it always usually does. There are far less people in the Village since the pandemic. And my trip down memory lane only reminded me of 800 Degrees Pizza which is no longer there, and Palomino restaurant, also no longer there. It is always nice to visit, but now it was time to go on home. We made one more stop at Ralphs to get the rest of Lisa's groceries. She didn't really have all that much today. Johnnie was aching to get to the apartment to do some memory tripping of his own. He wanted to watch Tumble Leaf. He hadn't watched that in many months graduating to Octonauts just a little over a month ago. And I was actually glad to see some of the old episodes while I did the laundry. By lunchtime it had gotten really hot out and I was happy to just get McDonald's chicken mcNuggets for Johnnie for his lunch. The $6 menu came with a filet-of-fish sandwich for me but I supplement it with a salad. Yep, a salad. What is happening? A shower on this Saturday, then Elysee, now a salad? Is it turning into a bit of a bizzarro Saturday? Not when Johnnie and I are just hanging around duking it out, roughhousing and playing on the sofa. I'm starting to feel some of his punches. I couldn't help thinking that before too long I'm going to have to get him to refrain from doing that to me period. Otherwise, I am hesitant to flick him out of "play mode". That giggly smile on his face I posted on the pic is one of my favorite things ever after all. And so I ended up dropping Johnnie off at 2:30 PM at Lisa's. She had already taken a nap AND worked on her notes. And now she's in work-on-something else mode. I could tell her brain is still going 100mph. I also realized that unlike the past 2 non-working Saturdays, they didn't have any place to go tonight. And so that is why Lisa is doing several things like she always does, usually working on the stuff on the house that bugged her the most. One would be the curtain rod that apparently Johnnie had hung on and bent. She went ahead and moved the supporting hook on another part of the wall. I sat and watched. If you think I'm going to help her and then get yelled at when something doesn't go quite right you are out of your mind. I really really wanted to just drop Johnnie off and then be off myself on my merry way, go home to take a nice nap. But it was clear that since she had no plans today, Lisa wasn't going to let me go just yet. In fact, she wanted me to look at the application she was trying to turn in to get even more funding help from the government. How do I tell her that I had just spent 2 days myself filling out a government form (those goddamn CTF applications) and looking at one of those things yet again is the LAST thing i would ever want to do today? Besides talking about her office finances had always been a lose-lose proposition for me. She resented that I knew it and she didn't, and in the meantime I always lost patience because it would take her hours to do what I would have finished in less than half the time. But this afternoon I decided to just listen and help as much as I could. Johnnie in the meantime, had gotten into a mood. He wanted to spread out his play stuff and when I said he needed to put stuff away, he got into drama mode and not only did not want to listen to me, but also kept on saying that his afternoon had been ruined. Sigh. Such dramatics. He literally fell asleep minutes after the dramatic display. And then I helped Lisa with her application, and then chatted with her some more. We ended up chatting until it was already 5 PM. Yes, I was there hours longer than I anticipated. She was yakking away and I found myself turning my own mind off because I didn't want to listen anymore. I couldn't. It was draining me. And so I bugged out at the first opportunity that I could without offending Lisa. For her part, she did make us some flatbread specials for a snack for me <and supposedly dinner for her>. It was already nearly 6 PM when I got home. The Lakers were on. The Dodgers were on. And it is the first day of August...
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