Last Day of September

Let's face it. It's a big sports night. Lakers and Heat Game 1 in the NBA Finals. And of course I'm staying away not watching it. Dodgers and Brewers Game 1 of the MLB playoffs and of course I'm staying away from watching that too though I am not nearly as emotionally vested with the Dodgers as I am with the Lakers. But that's all tonight. Today I still have a typical mid-week starting with Johnnie lessons. I have settled in to focusing on Johnnie and his schoolwork for the mornings when I have him *T,W,TH* and then re-focusing on my own work after lunch. I think I'll have to do that for a while. And even so, I still do my team meetings at 9:30 every Tuesday and Thursday. Today it's breakfast, then, his big class meeting, then Art. He likes that art class and I do too actually. Last week he got introduced to Monet. Yesterday he learned about George Washington. This week he's doing water lilly cut-outs. All good. I have lots to do myself actually, but I am in procrastination mode clearly. Not just for work, but other stuff too. My car's lease is due in a couple of weeks so I still have to decide about what to do. And who knows what's happening with my driver's license that I renewed a couple of months ago. But again, I'm not really focusing on any of that. I'm more into Johnnie paying attention to his Zoom classes, listening in on what they're teaching him, feeling pride when he gets answers right when he gets called on, and even letting him show his personality a little bit when he does his SeeSaw assignments. That's when he describes his work. I think he expresses himself just fine. Oh and he also has to do at least 20 minutes of reading on the EPIC books website. Here is where MY parent competitiveness comes out. He's at Level 19, the 3rd highest level in his class. Someone in on Level 23, and the next highest is Level 20. I'm sure he is past the level expected of him that is considered normal. But who's trying for normal LOL. The second picture I posted is a pic of him outside of Panda Express Westwood, the place we've been going to every Wednesday for more than a year. Of course he's having teriyaki chicken tonight. Again. The Panda Express on Sawtelle already told Lisa that they see Johnnie almost everyday LOL. We don't go there everyday. Do we? But really who am I kidding? By dinner time I'm just trying to keep myself occupied and distracted so I don't have to think about the Laker game. This is big folks. The first time the Lakers have been in the Finals since 2010. That's a decade ago!!! That was the year we went to the Philippines. I took a timetravel look back at my journal entries from that time period. I actually WENT to Game 1 vs Boston at Staples. I went with Karl. Lisa and I played Woodley Lakes a couple of times that month. And she was less than a year into her practice. A few pictures with Dexter and Yadira visiting. Also one of a dinner with Roe. And of course a bunch of pictures of us working out at UCLA track. It seemed like such a simpler time, which it was of course, and one I still do remember fondly. So far removed from tonight, with Johnnie watching another Jurassic Park Lego series that we discovered based on the movie Jurassic World and the Indomitus Rex episode. In the meantime, I kept my mind occupied watching the latest version of Van Helsing on Netflix. It had gotten pretty dumb during the last part of it and so far, it has picked up some likely because it has a bunch of new characters. But I'm in the middle of watching this thing on Netflix, and ESPN reminders came on. First half had just ended. I didn't see the score but I could tell the Lakers were ahead. I even watched some of the Jurassic stuff with Johnnie for a bit. He has regained interest in dinosaurs I think, which has now flip flopped from the Octonauts. Anyway in the middle of watching on my iPad, the final score blipped through. The Lakers win Game 1 by 20 points. And apparently it was not even nearly as close as the score. They were up by almost 30 points in the 3rd quarter. W-h-a-t? This was the vaunted Miami team that had beaten the Bucks and Celtics? I temper my own giddiness at the win, reminding myself of the Memorial Day Massacre with the Lakers and Celtics in the mid-80s. Boy you talk about time traveling. I couldn't watch Game 2 then because I was working. At the Hacienda Golf Club! OF COURSE I was going to spend a lot of time watching post game, not just on Spectrum Lakers Access station, and even when Johnnie had already fallen asleep. I had to watch all the other pundits talk about it.  Only later did I hear the Dodgers won too. But there was no mistaking where my heart was. 1 down.3 more to go.