What Weekend Is this?

What on earth are we doing in the middle of the Palos Verdes peninsula and driving down PCH at 7 PM in the evening and stopping at Carl's Jr so Lisa and I could get some burgers because we were so hungry? Ok, maybe not regular burgers, but Beyond meatless burgers. As implausible as that scenario may have been at any point, that was sure where we found ourselves tonight To backtrack, this weekend is Mother's Day weekend. Mother's Day is tomorrow. And Grace invited me to take our mom out for brunch. I happily accepted of course until I remembered that Lisa and I were invited to Dexter's birthday deal today. It's his birthday too. I have a conflict don't I? And for today I chose to go with Lisa and Johnnie to Dexter's birthday. I still felt bad that all this time he's convalescing and I've only seen him a couple of times really. Not that I see my mom that often either and at least I did get to talk to her on FaceTime when we went to see Grace last month. Is it bad that my preference for today was to see Dexter? 

This morning started with breakfast at Lisa's. And of course "on her terms" today meant we were all having eggs and sour dough toast. And hot tea for me. I brought the rest of the avocado that I didn't eat yesterday and for the second day in a row, I get to have an avocado toast for my breakfast. After breakfast and me getting the dishes done, Lisa was supposed to go to her office to oversee some flooding retrofit. I was supposed to watch Johnnie and then Lisa was going to come get us to go to Dexter's. Johnnie and I didn't get to leave immediately. Of course Lisa had to have a chore for Johnnie, which was to vacuum her bed because the dog Claire got dirt and stuff all over it from being outside. AND Lisa couldn't find her phone so I had to help scour the house for where it was. Always something when it comes to Lisa. Always some manufactured drama that sucks of other people's energy and time. It's the price I have to pay if I'm going to get to spend time with Johnnie. By the time she left at last it was already 10:15. We never did find her phone. I gave Johnnie a shower and then off we went finally. We did our weekend Sprouts shopping and then as soon as we got back tot he apartment, Johnnie immediately declared he was going to continue with Prodigy. Works for me! 

Lisa did not pick us up until it was already 1 PM. By then I had given Johnnie spaghetti for lunch. And I had wolfed down some soup and salad myself. I know there's going to be a lot of food still at Dexter's but at least I got my own healthy meal out of the way. We got to Sheila's house in Lomita by 2 PM. Typical of any filipino gathering, there was enough food for at least 25 people, the kids kind of hung out in their rooms and the adults did the same. There weren't a whole lot of people that Lisa or I knew but I didn't are. Whenever we bring Johnnie, invariably he becomes the center of attention, which was perfectly fine with us. We hung around until 4 PM and then when people started to bail, so did we. It was good to see Dexter again. I'm sure we will be seeing him more in the next couple of months. 

It was on our way home that Lisa decided she wanted to see the beaches at this part of town. Johnnie wanted to go home and so did I, but Lisa being Lisa, she just had to do what she wanted to do. And despite me generally wanting to only stop for a brief 5 minutes, we ended up driving through Rolling Hills Estates, up the mountain and down into San Pedro and we ended up at White Point Beach. Very spontaneous. Johnnie at first didn't even want to leave the car. Then he saw tide pools. Next thing you know we were climbing up and down rocks to get to the tide pools. We could have easily just walked on the road, but that's Lisa being Lisa, looking for the adventurous route. I played along of course until my ankles started to hurt from all the rocks. And then I watched on the beach while mom and son played in the island and the tide pools. Johnnie had such a time. And to me that's all that mattered. Yes I may have looked like a grumpy curmudgeon on the beach with the dog, not participating. I even told Lisa I wanted to get home by 7 PM. But at least they got a good hour in. And Lisa decided to take the long way home too not getting on the 405 Freeway until we were back in Manhattan Beach. And so we get back to the stop at Carl's Jr.  Turned out to be a pretty eventful day as I post the pics from today.