Golf Friday and the Vietnamese Dinner

Last year I remember playing golf with Scott the Friday after Thanksgiving at Penmar. This year we were a little more intentional than a last second text. I made a reservation at Eaton Canyon and the regular foursome all agreed to play which was pretty cool and considering only 2 of us are playing on Sunday, this works out. The morning started out really cold. To the point where I was double layered when I first got to the golf course. But after just one hole, both layers came off. I was simply trying to play much better than the last time we played here 2 weeks ago when all 3 of us Scott, Greg, and I really butchered our first 3 holes.  After my first 2 shots I already played better than the last time. Too bad I missed the putt for a bogey. But the 6 still ended up winning the hole! Ok good... I'm already on the board after 1 hole. It turned out that was a good thing because I would not win another hole until Hole 8. Not that I didn't have any chances either. The goal was simple: slow down my swing, cancel the negative thoughts and negative programming, visualize good shots. Easier said than done though because I simply could not get it done all morning long. I was either too distracted or more accurately, too easily distracted. Even some good-natured yapping with the golfers right behind us did not help and did not put me in a more relaxed state. I did hit some good shots... but not good enough when Chris is swinging well. And with a resurgent Greg hitting even better shots. Even my signature Hole 5 swing went into the sand trap at pin level. I got on to the green after that, but missed a hole-tying putt. Yet again. As I did on Hole 3. And then I started whiffing badly on Hole 6 and Hole 7 and even Hole 8. It was like I was already flustered and out of it and I couldn't back into it mentally. Sigh. Oh well... at least it turned out to be a nice day out on Black Friday. And I still did manage to get out and play. The thing was we got done so quickly I was home by 11:30. If this were a Sunday I'd be getting out and getting a nice meal somewhere. But since it IS a Friday I figured I'd get an IMpossible Whopper and a couple of tacos for lunch and then finish off the mid-day with a nap. Especially since I didn't really have a good sleep last night. Hey it's still a day off and nothing could be better than that really.

Lisa had called by mid-afternoon asking me to come over to watch Johnnie. Since mom and son didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving weekend, that was to be expected actually. I was happy to take her up on it so I could spend QT with my Little Bug. I even had a novel idea for dinner when she mentioned she didn't have any food in her fridge. Why not eat takeout? And why not eat Vietnamese food I volunteered? I remembered Blossom had opened right next to Crimson and I had never eaten there although it used to be the go-to Vietnamese place in DTLA even from the USC Stevens days.  So I was glad when Lisa agreed. I even brought up the Grubhub menu for her to choose what she wanted. She picked pho of course and I was very happy to choose the old favorite of rice noodles with meat egg rolls, shrimp, and lemongrass beef. That dish brought me back to memories of that nondescript Vietnamese restaurant we frequented when Lisa still lived downtown. Those were the early days of our relationship. Pretty good days too that I fondly remember. Even Lisa remembered eating Vietnamese pho the day we hiked Mt Wilson with Courtney. Yep, it is a nice anchor all around. And to top it all off, even Johnnie enjoyed the rice noodles. All we should have done was order extra rice noodles for him and he would have been just fine. Needless to say I enjoyed this meal much more than the regular fish fare we usually do. And the food alone made it already a memorable dinner. And after dinner, Lisa went on to playing piano, I went on to washing whatever few dishes there were (the beauty of ordering takeout) and then playing with Johnnie. We rough-housed for a bit and then he seemed to tire of that. After Lisa had been playing for at least an hour, Johnnie decided he wanted to play where his mommy was. Oh well then. I left at around 8 PM only because Lisa had planned on playing the piano again tomorrow morning and so I was invited over for breakfast. Hey it IS Saturday after all right?  I went on home, turned on the Mandalorian which was an especially good episode today because it centered on Ahsoka Tano one of the less famous Jedi but no less skilled. Lots of connections to past Star Wars events in this episode. I would have been happy to go on to bed right after that, but nope. One more phone call. A frantic one too. It was Lisa. And Johnnie. They had lost Blue the gecko and he was nowhere to be found.... Sigh. Always some drama isn't there? I don't know what I could have done to help except to stay on the phone and offer emotional support and ideas. I told Lisa to close all the doors since he was likely still in the house. She had found some gecko poop in her bedroom. And then they will have to wait until he turns up. Hopefully Johnnie didn't lose track of it outdoors. We'll have to see what happens...