May 8,2025,Thursday night,8:04pm,pacific standard time, apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. It has been nice having my mom here. On the way home from work I stopped to say hi to my daughter and her mom. They hadn’t eaten dinner yet so I picked up Dominos pizza for them and got a thin crust pepperoni for myself and mom. We had pizza and Guinness for dinner. My daughter didn’t go to her dance as planned. It was a little disappointing. She bought such a pretty dress last month and seemed to really look forward to going. Not sure what changed between now and then but she didn’t seem upset like I thought she would. I guess she really is done with her school and ready to move on. Not that I blame her. She outgrew the experience a long time ago. The time has come for change.

May 7,2025, Wednesday night,8:15pm,pacific standard time,apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. Mom landed in Long Beach California shortly after noon. I dropped her off in Dana Point then headed back to work. At 5pm I came back with a quick stop in Aliso Viejo to see my daughter and take the dog out. When I got to Dana Point mom and I went to the Ralph’s off del Prado and Golden Lantern to buy drinks and snacks. It was a pretty good day. Now I am settled on the couch and getting ready to turn in for the night.

May 6,2025,Tuesday night,7;47pm,pacific standard time,apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. Came home this evening and started cleaning for mom’s visit. I will pick her up around noon in Long Beach. From there we can grab lunch then I will bring her back to Dana Point. Depending on the time I might not go back to work. It seems unnecessary to drive all the way to Costa Mesa for an hour or two just to turn around and drive back. Today I met with one of our doctors for coffee in Santa Ana. He spent the whole time complaining incessantly. Really ruined my mood and dragged me down. Why are people like that? I stopped by Aliso Viejo this evening on my way home from work. My daughter still has her cold and isn’t going to school. And apparently the dog ate a cookie with chocolate last night so they rushed her to an emergency vet appointment. Crazy. The dog is doing fine but sounds like it was a long, expensive, traumatizing experience. Now I am finishing up laundry. Once the towels are in the dryer I will go to sleep and be ready for a nice day tomorrow.

May 5,2025,Monday night,6:59pm,pacific standard time, apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. Today was one of those days where every single person was in a terrible mood. Myself included. The day didn’t start bad. I got up, walked and worked out, made it to the office on time and settled in before the morning call. From that moment on it all went downhill. My mood soured and so did the attitude of all the people I encountered. I am not sure what it was but I am dog tired and ready to sleep. The sooner the better. This day needs to end so we can have a fresh start tomorrow.

May4,2025,Sunday afternoon,5:03pm,pacific standard time, apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. Slept in until 6:30am this morning. It was raining so I didn’t go for my usual Blue Lantern walk. I walked for an hour on the treadmill and did a light chest workout at the gym instead. After that is was a low key day. Did laundry, took a nap, walked the dog and saw my daughter. On the way home I stopped at the store to pick up some carrots, pickles and chocolate mini-builder bars. I have been in a good, content mood all day. Overall it has been a nice day.

May 3,2025,Saturday evening, 5:45,pacific standard time, apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. Completed the quad walk today. Woke up at 2:45am, walked up to blue lantern, did my full walk, then walked back home. At a quarter to seven I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for an hour and worked out. Then this afternoon, after a trip to target and little Caesars, I took the dog for a walk past the dog park. All in all it felt good. I was more tired from getting up early than from all the walking. I will see how tomorrow goes. I don’t anticipate walking that much but it was fun to do it one time. Now I am watching game seven between the nuggets and clippers and monitoring work issues.

May 2,2025,Friday afternoon,3:46pm,pacific standard time,office in Costa Mesa, California,USA. Finishing up a fairly busy Friday. The office manager left early so the clinical director and I are doing the pre-weekend office things. Things we normally don’t do when we had a business office specialist (who we laid off last week) or the business office manager is here. It is good to learn new skills but the day has been a little stressful. We need to know these things in case we don’t have support staff around again in the future but that is little consolation right now.

May 1,2025,Thursday night, 7:01pm, pacific standard time,apartment complex parking lot,Dana Point, California, USA. Today started with a 8:30am meeting. It was unnecessary and unproductive. Then we had our every two week interdisciplinary team meeting. After that I talked with marketers for an hour. I barely had time to eat before I went to a couple off site meetings and then back to the office. I am so tired and grouchy I can’t think straight. I am going to wash up and go straight to bed.

April 30,2025,Wednesday night,7:09pm,pacific standard time,apartment in Dana Point, California, USA. Today is the nine year anniversary of the last day with my brother. Hard to believe he has been gone that long. Time seems irrelevant now. Experiences flow by, measured not where they fall on the timeline but rather by their emotional heft. The things that hit strongest last longest. April 30, 2016 was such a fun day. Going out to eat, playing games, laughing. Yet it is tinged with sadness looking back realizing it was the end. No one lives forever. If all goes to plan I will have to say goodbye to many friends and family members. Or they will have to say goodbye to me. Such is the fate of life and love.

April 29,2025,Tuesday evening,6:24,pacific standard time,apartment complex parking lot,Dana Point, California, USA. This morning I drove to a Aliso Viejo to take my daughter to school. When I arrived her mom said she wasn’t feeling well and decided to stay home. They meant I had unexpected free time. I took the dog for a walk, did my morning call, grabbed coffee from the Starbucks off Ridge Route then meandered into Costa Mesa. I didn’t arrive at work until a quarter after nine. It felt good. Like playing a little hooky. Unfortunately the day was unfathomably slow after that. Weird energy. The past and future held no wild flights of fancy and work was painfully boring. I actually zeroed out my work email inbox. That is crazy. When my last job ended I had almost 20,000 unread emails.