Shopping For Johnnie's Party

So I went to Lisa's house first thing this morning and walked in on a delivery. Max, her furniture maker was delivering Johnnie's desk that Lisa had custom made for his room. And I must say it looked GREAT! No need for the coffee table in there now. But Max didn't just deliver Johnnie's desk, he had my table ready too. That would be the custom table I had made for MY room to replace that very small desk that I had never intended to use for everyday work. It was ok for a temporary solution, but now that I am going to be working remotely possibly permanently, and at least for the majority of the week moving forward next year, I needed to have a desk I could really use. I tried to buy them online, but I haven't found one suitable. Yes I could have gotten one for $120 but not only were the measurements not quite to my liking, neither was the style. The desk Max made was great and I was happy to pay a couple of hundred bucks more for it. It looked great! So much so I had to take a pic. By the time he delivered it to my apartment, Johnnie was already with me and needing to eat breakfast. I not only got him McDonald's but he ate some  milk and cereal too. Doesn't Lisa feed this kid? Anyway as soon as he finished breakfast he told me we had a lot to do. He had a list of things he said we needed to buy for his birthday "party" tomorrow. It's just Fei-fei and family coming over to celebrate his birthday really, but to Johnnie it's a party. And really, it sort of is. And so I took him to Party City right down the block and we got to work. He picked stuff out himself actually. The most important purchase, of course, was the pinata. That was the highlight of last year's party and it will be the centerpiece of this year's as well. We bought some other stuff that we ended up doing last year. Balloons, a game or 2, candy to fill up the pinata, paper plates and napkins. I did have to clear an old emotion of negativity when I remembered how much work I had to do over the years for Johnnie's birthdays. And he's only turning 6. I remembered how I had to carry all the chairs and tables when he turned 1. And even the last couple of years when really Lisa pretty much shut down in terms of planning and left it to Angie. This year there is no one else but me. And so I'm trying to keep it to the familiar stuff. In the end I ended up bringing Johnnie back around 1 PM. Tonight, it's Lisa's mom... or mom and dad... or one of them coming over to bring her groceries. LOL. I wonder why she didn't tell them we were celebrating his birthday, I mean I do have a memory of Lisa's mom coming over when he turned 2. In any case, it was mission accomplished in terms of watching Johnnie while Lisa did her class AND we got to cross off everything on his list. But Lisa wasn't done. She needed help cleaning up the turtle tank, which she told me she hadn't done since I last helped her do it. I remember that was right around Father's Day in June. So it has been at least that long. And it was not as simple as it sounds too. Not only is the thing heavy, the water stunk up too. There was so much turtle poop, and skin sheddings in there, it was downright nasty. Still we managed to get it done and I'm chalking this up to my good deed for the day. And then I finally got to go home and enjoy a Saturday evening to myself. I had Johnnie last night and this morning and so I hadn't actually had any ME time all weekend. And I am unlikely to have one tomorrow since it's birthday get-together day. And so I spent the Saturday trying to organize stuff I have to learn. I have gone through so much material in the last year that some of the stuff I've actually forgotten that I have already gone through. And so I tried to organize everything but I only got as far as energy work.  There are so many modalities and I have to fight through distracting myself and removing focus from stuff I'm already learning by finding other stuff to read. I remind myself that a lot of the books I'm downloading now I have already kept in my collection for more than a decade. And I hadn't read them. And so that seems to be what I need to fix: actually going over the material. Not looking for shortcuts. There is no shortcuts to practice, practice, and practice. You do not develop unconscious competence in a vacuum. You have to actually work at it just like you're working on developing a jump shot, or practicing handling a soccer ball. You have to do it over and over and to be honest, I do one exercise and I already think I have it. The reality is I have to keep practicing and practicing and practicing. Daily. As often as possible. THEN I'll develop competence. And so that was the game plan tonight. To actually go through material. And you wanna know something that happened that was different? I actually did NOT watch a minute of TV tonight! THAT has to happen more often I think. Although I still didn't go to sleep until 1 AM. But as far as Johnnie's birthday weekend, which this is, it's all good. I'm ready for tomorrow...