Wednesday, February 24 2021

Dear Journal,

Good morning, everybody! After a random day off yesterday, it feels good to rejoin you all on regular working hours. Although looking at my calendar, you could argue that today should have been my day off. Mysteriously, I don't have a single meeting all day, which will make for a gentle re-acclimation. That begs the question - what happened yesterday? Was I fired? Did they just forget about me? Why does nobody need me today?

It's a beautiful day today. The weather is consistently warming up, and our living room is clean and filled with sun. I'm writing on the couch, and beside me we have one of Rodney's new LEGO creations set out like decorative art.

Rodney made a structure yesterday during quiet time. I was so pleased to see him getting the most out of his alone time and focusing on something constructive. Seeing me peek my head through his doorway, he scooted a pile of legos on his bed to the side and invited me in to check it out. He held out a bare structure with a stair case and some floating platforms.

He re-used the Spider-Man and Mysterio bank robbery set he got for Christmas last year. I recognized the characters, some of the decor from the bank, and the big circular vault latch. He had re-purposed the pieces in his own way. Mysterio stands on the edge of the highest platform, looking down on the vault latch like it's some kind of powerful artifact. Spider-Man and Venom watch from below. Just behind Mysterio stands Gwen Stacy, poised like she is making one last appeal to Mysterio's reasoning.

"It's our house!" said Rodney.

Suddenly, the picture became clear. The upstairs and living room came into view. The four Spider-Man characters were apt stand-ins for me, Marissa, Rodney, and Miles. The long platform on top started to look like the upstairs hallway.

"And LOOK, dada," said Rodney spinning the structure around. "It's our fish tank."

Rodney found a transparent cube and filled it with smaller bricks.

Lego's are a good lens into how kids see the world, aren't they? Maybe Mysterio at the edge of the platform really just represented Rodney in his room during quiet time. I love studying the stuff Rodney makes.

Sip. So here we are - Wednesday morning. How did your Tuesday go? Even though I took the day off, my morning felt pretty much the same. Marissa is still feeling just about the same - congested, achy, and a bit queasy. We're still waiting for the COVID test to arrive in the mail. Until then, she gets the platinum package in the sweet of Recker family sick day perks. Her own blanket and pillow on the couch, full control of the remote, and all the Gatorade, cheese, and crackers she can handle.

She still went through with her Instagram interview, though. She put on a nice outfit, slammed some coffee, and fooled the Internet into thinking she was her same bubbly and optimistic self. Rodney and I watched the interview from upstairs. After she had signed off, she practically crumpled into the couch.

After eating lunch, we kicked off our sick day movie and TV marathon with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. As you might now, this has been Rodney's favorite movie since before he could talk. The movie can be credited with imparting to Rodney a love of water slides, and it has given us some toddler gibberish gems like Ich'a'maaa'dooo (the reader might remember that it took us a year to realize that Rodney was quoting the movie, IT'S YOUR MOM, DUDE).

Rodney still loves the movie, but he's older and more talkative. He quotes the scenes he likes and provides commentary. What a different perspective now! As a two year old he used to watch the movie silently and slack-jawed, and I would wonder if any of it was actually getting through.

Meanwhile, I fell asleep on the couch beside Miles. It would have been a good nap, if Miles had stopped hitting me in the face with that measuring cup every few minutes.

We all took a nap upstairs. I picked up groceries and cooked dinner. I turned on the Hawks game and slowly, Rodney and Marissa trickled downstairs to join me.

The Blackhawks are a strange team this year. Their roster is filled with rookies, but they seemingly can't lose. We were projected to be dead last in the standings, but we are currently neck-and-neck for first place in the division. And yet all of our wins happen in overtime. I'm sure Rodney appreciates the trend. Games taken to extra minutes and a shoot-out just mean that his bedtime gets pushed back on game nights.

I put both the boys to bed. I cleaned up after dinner and finished my chores. I finally joined Marissa on the couch, and I let out a sixty second sigh after taking my first sip of beer.

We finally wrapped up my movie pick, The Blues Brothers. Marissa and I have never seen it before. What a silly movie. I was questioning whether it truly needed the staggering two and a half hour running time, but the ending sequence was pretty incredible.

I also feel dumb that I missed all the celebrity cameos. I caught Ray Charles as the music shop owner, but my radar missed Aretha Franklin, Carrie Fischer, and the others. While closing up the house for the night, Marissa and I exchanged the line "We're on a mission from God." in our best Chicago accent. Weer on a misshin from gahd. Weer ahn uh misshin frum GAHD.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great Wednesday, everybody.