#392 - Happy Birthday Kiddo!

To say I was looking forward to the end of this week was an understatement.

Today was kiddo #1’s twenty-sixth birthday, and she sent us a picture of all the little things her roommates had bought her for her birthday. It was all silly things to me, but apparently, she loved whatever it was they found for her.

I was happy to sleep in a bit this morning and not to have to commute into the city. For once, I had no meetings to attend, which allowed me to focus on just getting work done. But first I needed a little sustenance, and I got myself a tea, then logged into my computer.

My supervisor tasked me with rendering the rest of the Art Director approved files, and I got on that right away. It would take longer than the workday to get it all rendered with only the one machine working, but as long as there were no hiccups, it would be sitting in the folder waiting for her.

I had some approvals and revisions to complete as well. I sent back a revision each to two painters. Delegating is important in this job, and it is sometimes good to send the work back to the painters, so they know what things to avoid doing next time. As a painter, I always preferred to make my own revisions and I think most of us are like that.

We took our noon walk in along the paths of the Provincial park. There were so many dogs out and about today it was crazy. The dogs were everywhere. And strangely there was large numbers of joggers on the trail today as well. You might see one now and again but today we say at least half a dozen. Maybe the cooler weather is bringing people out earlier in the day.

As such, we had to jump off the trail a few times for cyclists and runners. I don’t mind moving over for runners, but for some reason cyclists annoy me. I think it's because they expect you to move out of the way like they are a presidential motorcade.

But it was another wonderful day with cool weather and just the right amount of heat coming from the sun. I enjoyed ever step of that walk and could have stayed out the rest of the day, but duty called.

Back at home, I ate a salmon and rice combo from a tin. They make some really tasty tuna and salmon tins these days with beans and veg and chillies. And they are good heated up or straight from the can, which was how I had it.

I brought it up to my desk to eat because I usually get one o’clock messages as everyone is getting back to work or even worse, I get the dreaded twelve thirty messages from people who don’t want you to enjoy your lunch.

You know who you are!

But today was just one of those days where everyone was chill.

I had decided that I would stop answering questions immediately from now on. I tend to respond right away whether it is a text from a friend or a message from a colleague. From now on I will pause and let it sit for a little while. One, because very few people respond to my messages quickly even when they are the ones who initiated the conversation. Two, somethings just tend to work themselves out anyways. And three, some people I work with like to contradict everything I say. So often that it means I am always wrong about everything, which statistically seems impossible, or they just like to take the contra position.

Yet if I wait and say nothing, there is nothing for them to contradict. This might all seem like a bit of childishness on my part, but I am trying to change a part of myself that can be disruptive. Maybe, for example, I am not the best person to answer the questions, and that can be knowingly or unknowingly. I might not now all the information in a situation, and pausing gives another person to give their information first. I still have every intention of speaking my mind, I don’t think I could hold my tongue that long! But I can create a little more space for others and not be so eager to give information away.

I’ve done with some of my friends and family, particularly people who seemed too distracted to have a conversation. I’ll just stop talking mid-sentence and look away realizing they don’t have the bandwidth right now, even if they engaged me in conversation first.

I’ve had that happen at gatherings as well. I am minding my own business, and someone comes up and asks me about my writing or something about my life, and then they immediately tune out. I didn’t even get the chance to be boring! I’ll just stop talking mid-sentence. They either don’t notice, or re-engage, meaning I don’t have to waste my breath, or I signal that I am not someone who will put up with your crap.

So far, it’s been very effective.

Russell Brand, for all his scandals, performed this live on air while at CNN. The network invited him on with three other anchors, and every time they were rude to him, he stopped paying attention and gazed off to the side. It was a bit of a masterclass on how to deal with people who are being hostile with you in conversation. And it works great for people who are just wasting your time.

The YouTube video can be found here:

https://youtu.be/o71YAZKQM-A?si=JnWSpmymJb2dWOO9

I also used to be more foreword with some people by using the old trick of asking them a question about themselves to get the conversation happening. But I am a person that has always been very comfortable with long silences. So, one of my other superpowers is the ability to sit in silence for hours. Sometimes silence gets people talking and puts them on the defensive. They are almost relieved when they find out you do talk and have things to say. All of a sudden, they are hanging off your every word.

As someone who wants to learn to write interesting characters, having some of these techniques in the toolbox is a real game changer. And I find psychology very interesting at this point in my life.

Anyway, I am learning to strategically lean back and not dive into responses from now on.

I was back to doing approvals and taking care of the render files for the rest of the day. With no meetings and no one really asking for anything, it was all smooth sailing. Sometimes Fridays are like that.

I finished at five and went downstairs. My fancy gold-rimmed coupe glasses had arrived from Amazon, which was a surprise because the delayed arrival time was for sometime next week. I opened the package and was pleased with the shape and look of the glasses.

I grabbed the Pisco Sour mix the carton of egg whites and threw them into a shaker. Less than 15 seconds later, I had a frothy Pisco Sour that filled the new glasses nicely. A few drops of bitters, and my Friday vacation drink was ready. And it tasted great!

You really can’t go wrong with the Campanario Pisco Sour mix. I think it would be good without the egg whites and the drops of bitters as well. It tastes as good as making it from scratch as far as I can tell and it sure is a lot less of a hassle.

I checked my LCBO app to see if my shipment of Pisco Sour had arrived at my local store, but no luck. Hopefully, I can get more before we leave to the cottage.

The kiddo had his best friend over. They were heading to a party, and he asked if they could each have a pisco sour when they got back. I showed him how to make one so he wouldn’t ask me later that night. And it was a good thing I ordered more, because they finished the bottle on me later that night.

So, I am guessing they had more than one!

I had no compunction about cooking tonight, so I got us some McDonald’s delivered. The kiddo was very happy to hear that I got him a McChicken and fries. In fact, he was ecstatic! The salty, beefy meat was what I needed, and I felt very satisfied afterwards.

Robyn left to do her second job taking care of a senior with Parkinson’s.

I should have been writing, but I was still exhausted and feeling a bit like I needed to treat myself. I wanted to feel like I was on vacation, which I technically was!

I watched an episode of Dark Matter until she returned. The story gets more and more complex the longer it goes on. It does get hard to remember all the duplicated characters from each dimension. They do a decent job with character tags like clothing and hair cuts, but only the character of Leighton Vance is different enough to make it easy to remember.

But I am clearly enjoying the show so far, as I keep watching it.

When Robyn came home, she went straight to her desk to do some work. She came up later when she could just as easily work on her laptop in bed. But after a little while we watched the last episode of The Diplomat, which was the season finale and it was a doozy. I won’t spoil anything for you, but they pulled what I call a reverse ‘Oh Captain! My Captain’, at the end and it was brilliant. I’ve said it before, but Deborah Cahn knows how to make a good show.

It was good enough that I am confident that they will get a third another season green-lit. Netflix could use a few more good shows like it. Although, a bunch of highly placed show runners over at Netflix just got fired and that might affect what shows get renewed in the near future. Even Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company, Artist’s Equity, which currently seems to have some deals in place with Netflix might also be in jeopardy.

That’s always been the problem with the big studios and now with the big streamers. A regime change or a big move to appease the stockholders can have some disastrous effects on the industry.

My money is still on Apple TV winning the war over the long run. They just have the best quality shows and the way things are going, just being the last one standing might be the best way to come out on top.

But enough of all that corporate junk.

I put on me earbuds and ended the night listening to Dune Messiah once again and very much enjoyed the experience once more. I am convinced that this is the way to end each of my evenings whenever possible. It’s calming and helps me fall to sleep. And some days that’s all that gets me through the next day.

The story had gotten better as the plot develops. It’s more into the characters again and less about the book of this and the book of that. There are some interesting new characters as well as some returning characters like Stilgar and Chainey. Paul’s freaky sister Aliah is a prominent figure in this book as well. There is a lot of plotting going on from many different factions as you might expect after a massive shake up in the ruling classes of the universe.

And of course, no one wants Paul and Chainey to have a child, particularly his wife the Queen. It’s a tangled web indeed. I could say more, but I don’t want to spoil some of the other fun bits about this novel. I am glad I finally got around to listening to this massive saga.

My plan is to get some relaxation in tomorrow before I have to do another late night session writing a short story for my mentor assignment.

Until then.