ONJ

Back on track, I was conscious and downstairs facing the new day by 5:35am. And I was thrilled to find myself in sync with the plan again. Without any further thought I tucked my toes under the sofa and began my routine. Ten minutes later I finished and bundled for my walk with Ykraps. Again, it was very cold, and wearing a hat, gloves, and thick coat were definitely required equipment for dealing with the cold. I was excited to be back before 6:05am. In fact, I had coffee at Mindy’s bedside even before that. Mindy wanted lunch today, so I made tuna salad for the both of us. We had fried eggs & fruit for breakfast. She and the children left the house at 7:23am. And before heading to the shower, I did a nice long meditation in a quiet home. For no good reason I decided to make today a jean day. I warmed the Trooper, and it started like it had a fully charged battery. It does! After some brief guitar and minor picking up of the kitchen, I left for work. The morning went very fast. It went fast in part because of our weekly staff meeting. That went until 12:45pm. Upon my return I didn’t wait too long before heading out for a run. After scratching the “new running trail” itch yesterday, I didn’t feel like running my usual trail again today either. So, as I set out to run, I chose to take my alternate route. I ran Britton Rd to Davidson, and Davidson to Trueman. Then, I took that all the way to Hilliard Cemetery Rd. It was liberating to run a different route. After today’s run, there would be only nine runs standing between me and my ten year anniversary. It’s a feather in my cap – that’s all. After my shower and ultimate return to work, I hurried through my packed salad since I had a 2pm meeting looming just minutes away. I didn’t get a chance to eat my tuna salad. That meeting took us up until 3:45pm. And when I returned to my office I had a VM from Mindy requesting I call her to schedule a dinner out. Because of this, I put my tuna and fruit back in the fridge for Thursday. I called Mindy and made plans to pick her up after work and head to Ding-Ho for some Chinese. The remainder of the day, what little there was, went as planned. I left for home by 5:10pm. I called Mindy to let her know that I was on my way. She told me that she had already walked Ykraps and had coffee prepped for the following morning. I asked her to be at he door and ready when I pulled up. The reason being, Jim brings the kids home at 7pm sharp. That leaves us a very tight window to enjoy a quiet dinner. It’s very doable, however, as long as we’re efficient with our time. We were. We were at Ding-Ho somewhere near 5:45pm. We were quickly seated. I already knew what I was ordering and so did Mindy. Our soup and appetizers arrived first, and we enjoyed them immensely. Minutes after we finished our main entrees arrived. They were piping hot and delicious. And just as we’ve come to expect, there was more than twice the amount we can consume in one sitting so we always leave with another meal for later. We headed home directly. After arriving we both changed into our comfy clothes first thing. It wasn’t too long before the children were at the door ringing the door bell. Keeping with the times, Jacob asked if I would play with him seconds after his daddy departed. But Mindy quickly put the kabosh on that plan by rushing both kids upstairs to ready for bed. The kids were in bed not too long after the initial rush. The Buckeyes were playing basketball against Purdue and I was watching some of that. Eventually I chose to watch only passively in favor of reading. Come 8pm Mindy changed the channel to watch what she thought would be American Idol. But for whatever reason, it didn’t come on until 9pm. While I read, she watched a show called Bones. At 9pm Idol came on. Again, I watched only passively, keeping a nose to my book. At the halfway point I put down my book to watch with Mindy. Olivia Newton John was a guest judge this evening. And she still looks damn good and doesn’t appear to have “overdone” herself. These days you see very few of the contestants that make the cut. Instead, we see the most entertaining rejects. It’s what sells! After Idol we headed to bed in hopes of a restful and rewarding night’s sleep.