Super Sunday

J. is at church 'cuz he is officially the only bass player left in the church's musician group.  He could literally play every single Sunday at this point and I acknowledge there's no reason for him not to.  He's got plenty of time these days for the Tuesday evening rehearsals and the Sunday morning early arrival (another rehearsal).  Still, I miss our lazy Sunday mornings of hanging out together with occasional waffles and bacon mornings.  Now, it's just me and Greek yogurt with coffee.

H. is vertical and he's good company - but he doesn't want to just hang out with me.  I think I feel a little lonely on Sundays for some reason.

Glory to God though so it's all good.

It's Super Bowl Sunday and I had visions of preparing snacky things to munch on but J. is heading to San Leandro to visit his brother and they will watch the game there. H. is heading to work at 3PM so if I get home from the office by 3, I will have the place to myself.  Plenty of piddling to do.

California is officially in a drought and the dark skies this morning are begging to pour.  We had 1/5th an inch of rain one day this past week and then less than that another night...but it has been an incredibly dry winter.  At the very least, I hope the dark skies here means there is snow up north - so am fine with the gloomy cold the weather brought today.  Yesterday was stunningly beautiful - crystal clear and sunny.  We've had a lot of those clear winter days and they are wonderful - but when you see lake beds drying up and realize that water rationing may actually happen, it's different.

I enjoyed a long talk with B. yesterday - decided to call him as I pulled out to go to the office for a bit.  It was a 40 minute conversation about nothing much but it felt great to just visit with each other.  He made the Recon unit - the time he's spent there has been a 'try-out' of sorts that culminated in an interview.  He was nervous but said he thought the interview had gone well - and he was right 'cuz he made it!  So he's officially Recon now and looking forward to starting specific training including shooting sniper rifles.  He's really stoked about that. It was great to hear him excited and content.  Considering in November, his invitation to Thanksgiving dinner was 'hey, you're the new guy and nobody likes you, but you're still invited to my house for dinner' - he's come a long way.  He's made some great friends and is officially 'accepted' in the unit.

Sometimes I think the military is really just living through high school over and over and over.  Being new; trying to be accepted; making friends.  But he's dealing with all of it fine and seems happy so that's good.

He did acknowledge that he and the friend we met when he was here have decided to be just friends.  Romantic feelings long distance are impossibly hard - and he said they both realized it and mutually agreed to just keep in touch.  We'll see if he sees her when/if he comes home for a visit in April or May.  I think their decision is practical and logical.  They don't have a long term friendship to back them up and getting to know each other across thousands of miles sounds good in theory but is challenging in reality.

H. has spent the morning chatting with me - I love how curious he is about so many things. He spends a lot of time surfing the web and watching videos and at first, you might think 'what a waste of time'.  But he's basically educating himself on so many topics - he finds interesting things he's interested in hearing and learns more.  Sure, some of the stuff he finds is ridiculous.  But it's all thought provoking and I enjoy how he chats about things he's seen or heard or wonders about.  Today, he asked me 'what makes a Louis Vuitton purse so special?' and I explained that partly, it's the brand (high end designers with a good design reputation are coveted for anything they make) and also the materials used to make the purse.  And that high end purses are usually hand-sewn and last a lifetime...and age well because they are made from materials that last forever.  We talked about my Dooney & Bourke obsession and I said 'I still remember how it felt when I'd purchased a pretty expensive handbag - to carry it - 'cuz I'd never spent that much money on a purse in my life.  But when you've reached the point where you can treat yourself to something like that, it felt great!'.  Then I said 'I think that's what's hard for kids today - 'cuz I didn't own a purse like that in my 20's...or even my 30's. You see adults with all this stuff and you forget that you are in your 20's and your goal at that age is to get to where you can support yourself.  Budgets in your 20's and 30's don't include luxury items like that.  And maybe your budget will never include things like that.  It's OK.'

Now, I need to remind him that I always get my purses on sale at the outlet stores or online vs. full price - 'cuz I'm all for treating myself but I'm frugal.  Maybe those purses will put his kids through college someday.

It also hit him this morning that we are going to both Europe AND Cancun this year - and he was stunned about that.  I said 'Carpe diem! is our new motto'!  He wants to go to Cancun and I said 'save up for a ticket and you're welcome to join us'.  So we'll see.

I've got to get showered and head to the office for a bit.  Hoping to be home 3-ish to enjoy a little quiet time and piddle around the house a bit.  There's always plenty to do.