What Happens When You Have No Plans

So usually, Lisa has piano lessons on a Saturday like today and I get to whisk Johnnie away and hang out with him until she's ready to be mom again right around mid-afternoon-ish. But today her piano lessons actually got moved to Monday. But she still wanted to practice but not until way later. Still she mentioned me joining them for breakfast even though I was just with them until bedtime last night. It's almost like I'm still there at Maplewood but I don't actually live there. It didn't really occur to me that perhaps Lisa actually wanted me to hang out with them, them being she and Johnnie and not just Johnnie. I didn't think about it because I have now hard-programmed in my consciousness that there really isn't a point to hanging out with Lisa, unless Johnnie is involved, and the first option there is ALWAYS for he and I to hang out without her. Still I was ok with going there for breakfast and this morning I actually took my time, took a shower and cleaned up and then the call from Johnnie coincided with me being already 2 blocks away. This was at 8:30. But when I got there, Johnnie wasn't there, he was actually at next door neighbor Pablo and Allie's house hanging out with their kids Lulu and Roman. And that's when I realized I had just allowed myself to be sucked into Lisa's morning of play-it-by-ear organized chaos. She always has things lined up. She has to go to the office to do some more office infrastructure projects. I didn't really bother to ask what. All I knew was that Johnnie had it in his mind too that he was going to go visit his mom's office today. And so really I was just there to participate in the evolution of Lisa's plans. I guess that's what I get for having nothing better to do. I at least am polite enough not to actually tell Lisa this is not my thing anymore, to watch her act and think things out as they happen. And that I could be doing other things. Or that I'd RATHER be doing other things. As it was, the kids next door kind of ran in and out of the house, Lisa did make us breakfast and I washed the dishes, and even watered her vegetable garden. By the time Lisa settled on a plan of action, it was well past 10 AM. I actually got Johnnie ready and even made him nudge his mom to get going. By the time she actually got dressed and got ready to go to her office it was almost 11. And it was 11:30 by the time I got back home and it was already time to think about lunch. I tried to frame to myself that I still need to work on my patience and who better to test that than Lisa right? To be fair, she didn't really test it so much this morning as it was me that chose to be there and therefore I had to accept what happened. Because none of it was even a surprise. I did know she was going to call me again later on in the day because what didn't happen was that she didn't get to practice piano. And that was sort of the one mandatory thing she needed to get done at all today. And so I spent my afternoon just doing some more internal work. That exercise yesterday about finding Purpose was very insightful, but now I have to tie it in to my goals, including the financial outcomes that I want. By the time Lisa called back it was already almost 4 PM. This time she asked for a couple of items from Trader Joe's if I were going there anyway. She already had salmon she could cook. I decided that I would nudge her into making the cucumber tomato and onion "salad" as a side dish. I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't feel like eating the green beans she made last night because she burned the onions. Sometimes she hits it out of the park cooking but more often than not, she is not instinctive and she makes lots of mistakes. I am by far the better cook, but I would never tell her that. And she would never agree anyway.

And so this Saturday night I once again spent at Lisa's house. Mommy and Johnnie were actually sleeping at first and then Lisa wised up and decided to practice piano while Johnnie was still asleep. And in the meantime, I knew she would take her time making dinner so I decided to nudge that along too. I made the Armenian rice for her and mine actually turned out better than hers a couple of weeks ago.  And I cut up the vegetables. All she would have to do was pan fry the salmon. I even opened a can of soup for Johnnie's dinner to heat up too, which would get me in "trouble" later because she had broth in the fridge. When she got done I had to bug out of the kitchen because of course I would be stepping on her toes and invading her domain LOL. If I didn't get tested this morning, I got tested now. Still we ended up having a pretty good dinner, might I add because the rice and veggies turned out very nicely thank you very much. And then she went on to practice for another hour while I kept Johnnie occupied. 

For me, that time also served as the distraction I needed because my thoughts really was at the Lakers game for Game 5 of the Western Division Finals. It was a closeout game and last I checked the Lakers were up by 9 in the 3rd quarter. But the Nuggets have come back before. Many times in fact. I even remembered being right here at Lisa's house watching Johnnie when they came back from a double digit deficit against the Clippers and won to my HUGE surprise. That was just 2 weeks ago. And so I didn't take anything for granted. By the time I left Lisa's house it was almost 8:30. Is the game over? Is it safe to check the score? Funny me. I did check. It wasn't over. Lakers up 7 with 3 minutes to go. Should be a win right? Except by the time I got home 5 minutes later, there was no post game going on just yet. It wasn't over. Sigh. Did the Nuggets come back?  I finally settled on the couch, turned on ESPN. It WAS over. Lakers won. They are back to the NBA Finals. HUGE Sigh.  4 wins away.