Last Day of a Short Week

Don't we usually get let off at 3 PM the day before the long Thanksgiving weekend? Maybe if we were still working at the FRB I guess. Since we're working remotely, I'm ending my workday at 3 PM one way or another. The only sort of drama today centered around Kennedy as we all awaited his COVID test results. Fortunately, he tested negative, and so we could avoid all the negative repercussions one way or the other. Today I had one huge mission for Johnnie. By now since nobody had reached out to me, I figured I actually had no plans for Thanksgiving. Kind of like last year huh?! And for my family I'm sure it's partly because I hadn't reached out to anyone since we all got sent to quarantine from COVID way back in March. So much so my mom complained about me to Tita Alice. So I called her. And of course she didn't answer. I FB messaged her. Didn't answer. Finally I had Johnnie do a video message. I even had him rehearse and everything... not with the pic I posted of course. That was just him goofing around. But I wrote out a script and it turned out just fine. And not only did I leave a message for my mom, I decided to leave a general message for :dear family: And sent it via group chat to my sister Grace, my cousins, Tita Lou, Uncle Pons, and even Auntie Alice. If they're not going to reach out to me, for sure Johnnie will melt their hearts. He always does. And finally I actually did get a response. And so at least no one can say I did not reach out this Thanksgiving. By the time the afternoon rolled around, I headed off to Ralphs to at least have some turkey to cook for tomorrow. I may not have anyone around but I can still celebrate. And so I bought a nice turkey breast... not an entire turkey. Way too much food for just me. but a turkey breast should last me a couple of meals at least. And I was even going to get some pie too, but there was this huge line at Marie Callender's! So much for that idea. By the time we got back it was already almost 4 PM. It is STILL Wednesday after all, albeit the night before Thanksgiving. And so we still headed out to Panda Express to get Johnnie his dinner. And mine actually. And although it feels a little off-routine, it is Lisa's last night of work tonight so I was expecting Johnnie hand-off to happen later...

Or not? I called Lisa at 7:30 and she was headed home from work. She explained that although it was her last day of work for the week, it was still Wednesday night and she wanted to do her Wednesday routine, which apparently was going for a walk with neighbor Melissa. Apparently, they do this every Wednesday. More power to her of course, and for me it meant I was going to keep Johnnie just a bit later. But in the middle of conversation, Lisa and I both figured why not just keep Johnnie for the night? And then I can drop him off tomorrow after breakfast. I was ALL for that of course.  My routines were pretty much all done anyway, and I was already at 9000 steps by the time Lisa and I talked. It was not even 8 PM yet. And so it was that Johnnie and I got to watch Jurassic World again together. And he got to draw to his heart's delight. He had all these lists he wanted to give his mommy. What to do for Thanksgiving. What he wants to do for Christmas. A rendering of the Jurassic World movie and a nice rendering of Thanksgiving and what he was thankful for this year. This would of course include Blue the Gecko in addition to mom and dad. Tonight couldn't have been any more different than last year's Thanksgiving. Or the one from previous years with Johnnie when we would spent the night before Thanksgiving packing for Hawaii. For a brief minute I also reflected on how I used to spend the night before Thanksgiving packing extra food from the Cedars-Sinai lunch following the example of the Tony Robbins Basket Brigade. It was an activity that grew both in participation (Bruce YOung and Dexter) and also in the amount of food! One year I remember delivering more than 50 individual dinners. 2 years ago I even had Johnnie give out a couple of cheeseburgers. The symbolism of course was that no matter how much he think you have or don't have, you always have something to give and share. And it felt good. Tonight I was simply very grateful that Johnnie was snoozing quietly next to me sleeping peacefully.  Very VERY grateful for that.