Friday Before A Busy Saturday

How did Friday the 13th sneak up on me like this? Suddenly it IS Friday yet I did not feel like a TANK DAY kind of mood. I really had just one major thing to do for work and that is to actually go to our East Third Street location and do Lam Wong's exit meeting. But before any of that I had to at least work my way to getting a shower in and ease into my Friday. Hey at least it is payday today and it felt good to see my checking account swell to over $30K again! And it felt good to watch Episode 3 of the Mandalorian. Good to see Mando see other Mandalorians and tell him how his "sect" is sort of a little different and be a bit "overzealous". Anyway before long it was already 11:30 and time to head on out to East LA. I hadn't been to that site in over a year! But I still knew the way by heart. Hey I helped build that place. It holds a very special place in my heart. And it opened officially in December of 2014, when we installed Epic and the time we got Johnnie. Lots of intersecting memories. Now THAT was all tough. THAT is why losing someone like a Lam is really no different than losing a Justin or losing Victor last year. We just go soldier on and do the best we can. I also remember where all the eating places are and funny that I would gravitate to Boston Market. I would eat there quite a bit 5 years ago when I would come to this area far more often. I'm glad this location is still up and open and serving. The one in West LA (Pico Blvd) was a a particular favorite of mine until it closed. And I do remember I really liked the meatloaf. And so today I had the meatloaf for lunch. Ate it right outside the store where some benches were. It turned out to be a bit warmer today than the last few days. And that was very much welcome too. And so I had my reminisce moment of the day and then off to E3 did I go. I had lots of flashbacks about that place too although I had pretty much forgotten what the general route was. I hung out the front desk which was the only place that I knew and crossed connections with Lam. He waited for us in the conference room, I was downstairs with Nelson stewing about why Lam would be late on his very last day.  As it was the exit interview took all of 8 minutes and then I was headed home again. I made a stop at Ralphs on Barrington for another stop for the turkey lunch tomorrow. Made a pitstop at Taco Bell for a few tacos. I don't exactly know why I had to supplement the Boston Market lunch. I didn't care. By 3 PM I officially deemed myself done for the day. Even though I got an SOS call from Marina about some report she needed for an audit. Sigh. Gonna be like this the next few weeks huh?

In the meantime, Lisa called asking if I was coming over at 5 PM. She of course wanted some time to play the piano. I of course was merely glad to spend even more time with Johnnie. When I got there, her house was all dark and there was no noise. I thought Lisa had pulled one of her leave-the-house with Johnnie without telling me what was happening kind of stunts. Turned out mom and son were just taking a nap upstairs. And of course since Johnnie was asleep, we couldn't very well wake him up. Instead, Lisa had asked me for help cleaning her turtle enclosure. For sure that would be a 2-man job even for me. And so that's exactly what we did was spend the next half hour cleaning up that enclosure. And so I'm putting it down that I did do my good deed for the day with Lisa and her turtles. When we got done, Johnnie woke up. I quickly began to realize that Lisa was not really all that hungry and was not interested in eating at all. And Johnnie doing a mirror-match thing also said he wasn't hungry. Hey I can't be the only one that's hungry! Fortunately, Lisa did compromise to let Johnnie come with me to my apartment so I could get a decent meal to eat. Again we stopped at Ralphs and Johnnie mentioned he would eat a pizza. Only when he's not around his mom does he acknowledge he's hungry. OK then. Pizza it is. I stopped at McDonald's to get a quarter pounder with cheese AND a Filet-of-fish. And so tonight turned into a night like a usual weeknight when Johnnie is with me. With him playing with dinosaurs while watching Cat-In-the-Hat. Hey it's a win-win. I get to spend time with Johnnie, Lisa gets to play the piano in peace. And I dropped him back off by 8:30 and it was time to go to bed already. But not for me. I had to start prepping for the turkey meal tomorrow. I started chopping vegetables. For the stuffing. For the green beans. I had a plan for when to cook everything actually and so it was all good.  But I didn't end up getting much sleep tonight. THAT much I already expected. It's still all good.