June 27, 2021

by drplasticpicker

It’s 3AM and the puppy and I are up. I simply had a cup of coffee at 6pm, and it was too late and now my sleep cycle is off. In general, my sleep is much better. This is in general a rare occassion. The puppy got up as well, and I let her out for a bit. Of course she barked into the empty night, and I opened the fridge and with the light of the fridge which she can see from the backyard – she comes running in. I give her a treat. She’s now comfortably asleep with the safest and most gentle person in the house, our teen son. She loves to curl in bed with him, right behind his knees. I saw my old mentor Dr. Ash yesterday and he always told me it was important for children to grow up with a dog. I sometimes would bristle at the lessons he tried to pass onto me, but in this as in many things he tried to impart – he was right.

He was right about the pizza too. Over a decade ago he tried to teach me how to make pizza dough. Indeed, I did make it a few times. But I was not in the mindest to really make home-made pizza. It just wasn’t the time. My mind was too busy, and life was racing. And I needed to learn it myself and hear it from someone else in my life. In that, I will always thank my old senior resident Dr. Young-Ho Yoon https://drplasticpicker.com/updates-from-the-field-dr-young-ho-yoon-making-environmental-moves/. I needed to hear about his pizza experience to be motivated to create our family’s own. And now it seems so simple. Pizza dough. We make it all the time. I even sometimes do a 24 hour rise.

Yesterday was Saturday and today is Sunday. Saturday we spent almost half the day at the park across from where I grew up. Our daughter had volleyball and I am now a volleyball mom. She dilligently gets up early and makes sure I am ready to drive her down for Open Court with her team. They played for two hours, and she is focused and engaged. And I sat in the chair my mother-in-law salvaged and cleaned from where, I do not know. But it is so comfortable. I fell asleep in the chair wearing my new-to-me shoes, and a new pretty dress my mother bought me under the shade of a tree. I feel middle-aged and pretty, and I am comfortable with that. My daughter came up and hugged me several times during practice, gently waking me from my park slumber. After practice we had an hour, and we spent time at the Vons at Rohr Park. It’s just a grocery store but I love that grocery store. It’s the grocery store we used to go to all the time when I was young, except when it was so expensive compared to the discount grocers. It’s even fancier now, the Vons at Bonita. Imagine that. Even Bonita Donuts is fancy now. But we wandered around the asiles and I bought some things we needed and she bought lip balm. We picked up some bean dip and chips for the HMO picnic.

And we went to the picnic but for her, it was not as fun as it used to be. She’s been to so many of these picnics. She was tired. I could see it in her eyes when she came up to me wearing her mask still, eventhough she is vaccinated. I was chatting and talking to all the co-workers. Some co-workers had worked to organize things. Even in picnics, there are office politics. Picnic politics is a real thing. So everything was a big off because of picnic politics, but I’m Assistant Boss and it doesn’t have much to do with me. There are always politics, even in Girl Scout Cookie Sales. Trust me. I was the Troop Cookie Manager for four years. But I noted the picnic politics and was polite and myself, and let things play out for all those involved. But what I noticed that my daughter’s eyes were tired and she needed to go home.

And so we left after 1.5 hours. We left because my daughter was tired. And I noticed it in her eyes. And for that, knowing how distracted I was when she was younger, made me content through the day. She had been at volleyball for hours and she was happy at volleyball. But she was overtired from the company picnic, and it’s my work event and nothing to do with her. We brought a watermelon and we brought some chips and bean dip, and we have thrown so many office parties over the last decade – that it was absolutely okay for me to leave. So I said a hurried good-bye to all my friends and co-workers secure in the knowledge that the picnic politics will go on. Nothing to do with me. But my daughter was tired because it was too busy of a day after two hours of intensive volleyball. And we salvaged the day. And she went home and wanted to be with her brother, the safest and kindest person in the house. And they sat for the rest of the afternoon laughing and watching Anime.

Toward the end of the day when I asked her how her day went, she was smiling and happy. The picnic was a minor blip in an otherwise wonderful day. It’s important to be in tune with your children. To watch their eyes to know when they are overtired. That is what #490 bags of ocean plastic have given me.