Being present

Last Friday night my wife and I had a rare occasion where she was off at night and the next morning. Typically as a theater manager her weekends are shot. Having a night off meant one thing: date night. We don’t get too many of those these days. Must be reaching that age.

We dropped the kids with grandma and grandpa and assumed they were going to be spoiled with candy and toys. We’d be back the next day to pick them up. Having zero plans we decided dinner was best. It was early on a Friday, perhaps around 6:30 pm but being December it was already dark and cold as hell.

Rolling towards downtown Cincy we chose the Moerline Lager House for dinner. I can’t recall the last time we ate there but it has been quite a while. We were seated immediately and the place was maybe half full. To my annoyance there was a table right next to us with a super loud kid.

I have kids, I understand that you can’t truly control them when they are little and in high chairs. However, having said that, this kid was screaming and throwing things since no one was paying attention to him. His mother (I am assuming) was with her friend and they were comparing instagram photos or some thing on their phones. The whole time this kid just threw a loud tantrum and at one point even nearly hit me with a flying toy. My wife asked me “aren’t you going to give him his toy back?” to which I replied NO since he obviously didn’t want the toy that struck my foot 5 feet from him.

So we settle in and order our food. I made a super conscious choice to leave my phone in my pocket so I could spend time with my wife. She chose to check Facebook and keep showing me updates on something happening at her work. It made me a little sad but I chose not to pester her about it. It gave me time to crowd watch, beyond the little brat to my right.

All around me were people sitting at tables within sight, and if they were not eating, everyone had their faces in their phones. It was quite a realization the extent of the problem. I totally admit that I have a problem not goofing on my phone too. But it was sobering to see it in that moment. All this potential for humans to talk and catch up, and instead a see of cell phone screens.

I quietly munched on the appetizer of a trio of dips like hummus and artichoke. It was wonderful. After that I had a “totally not good for you” burger. I swear three animals went into making this burger. I don’t care. Every now and then you just gotta eat an unhealthy meal ha ha.

Afterwards we didn’t know what to do with our earned freedom and ended up just going home for some tv time on the couch with a blanket. Pretty low key night all and all.

I am at least happy I didn’t give in to the temptation of my phone at dinner. Yay me.

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Reasons to enjoy this Monday

Today so far has been a great day! Its the first day back from Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Everyone is mostly back to work this morning. I noticed that a lot of people wander in like zombies. Almost bitter to be back in the office. Instead I chose to take the high road and celebrate today. So many reasons I can think of just from a quick list:

• I woke up perfectly happy, with a good sleep. My wake up light alarm clock slowly and peacefully started my day. I didn’t hit snooze once!
• I ate a quick breakfast and still had plenty of time without rushing.
• During breakfast my son who typically is a pain to wake up in the morning wandered down and ate some cereal too. We had a few laughs at my new automated Christmas tree.  (Don’t ask)
• After breakfast I pounded out the last thousand words on my NaNoWriMo novel! Woot. Winner winner chicken dinner. Done with yet another novel. I will make a separate post about these in the future.
• My commute to work, despite being drizzly, was easy. No issues at all.
• At work my work computer for some reason wouldn’t let my type the letter “p”. Most people would lose it on a Monday morning but I had a good chuckle at crafting emails all day that didn’t have a P in them. A simple reboot and re-seating all the cables seemed to have cleared up that amusing ‘roblem.
• I cleared a few tasks off my to do within the first hour of the day
• I drank this killer cup of tangerine / assam black tea. It smelled so good, and was the perfect temp to sip during an hour long phone conference call.
• So far, each hour of the day I have gotten up and taken a short 1-2 minute walk. My Apple watch seems happy with me right now, and that’s all that’s important.
• Despite being the one sole guy working last week, everything kept running and there were no IT fires. Woot!

So, I am going to keep up the momentum into the afternoon too.  I looked up my company’s cafeteria menu for this week and decide which days I want to pack. I already picked out some healthy choices for lunches.  No last second decisions leading to terrible choices.

My watch is reminding me it’s time for my 11 am walk. Peace out.