The Lisa Present

I kind of knew what to expect already heading over to Lisa's this morning to pick up Johnnie to give Lisa some ME time on this Saturday that she doesn't work. The routine is to have breakfast around 8:30ish. The uncertainty is whether I'm going to make breakfast, whether Lisa will make breakfast, or whether I'm going to leave with Johnnie right away so we could have breakfast ourselves. In other words, expect the uncertainty LOL. As it was this morning, I got to Lisa's house at 8:40 and mom and son and dog were lounging around in bed reading comic books having one of Lisa's favorite "lazy days".  I am perfectly ok with that, other then the fact that these "Lazy days" tend not to include factoring time to eat.  Which was the reason I was there in the first place. Lisa was only all too eager to invite me to join them in bed in keeping with the theme of "let's have daddy join us with our activities in this house".  I reminded myself that Lisa's attention span in that regard only accounted for right here right now. And I reminded myself that Lisa doesn't really think in terms of how hungry I would be. I mean if I wanted to lollygag with them all morning, of course I could have easily gotten my own breakfast in before heading over.  Of course she also doesn't think that perhaps Johnnie might be hungry considering his routine of eating early. And Johnnie of course wasn't going to say anything, just as long as he was hanging around his mom. He WOULD tell me when he's hungry though. He also clearly hadn't taken a shower since Thursday morning. So that's gotta be factored in today as well. Lisa was clearly checking out from being mommy and turning into her own mom... which is always something to factor in as well. This morning what I had to do was focus her on breakfast. Kindly. In a nice way so she wants to do it. This was the inflection point of many a fight we had when I lived here. She being in ME mode and me simply trying to keep to some semblance of routine.  In the end, Lisa did get up AND make breakfast. I brought the eggs and I brought brioche bread that I was about to throw out. Before she could even make it downstairs, I had already made myself a peanut butter and jelly bagel toasted. See how easy that was?? That's all you gotta do is make sure YOU don't starve and everything will be fine.  So Lisa made French toast, and we all finally got to have breakfast in the nook. I gave Johnnie a shower upstairs after doing the dishes. All of which only got me a brief lecture on not putting wet dishes over the ones that were already dried from last night.  And then FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY Johnnie and I got to leave and get on with Saturday morning! With a nice reminder for myself on WHY EXACTLY I was never going to move back in this house.  Spend my energy fighting to keep myself sane? Thank you NO.

So this morning Johnnie and I made some grocery rounds. First at Mitsuwa to get some more stuff for Lisa of course LOL.  And then to Ralphs afterwards.  The thing was we had gotten started so late that by the time we had gotten home to unload groceries, it was already nearly 11 AM! And so I let Johnnie watch a couple of episodes of Wild Kratts just to keep some semblance of routine. This morning he wanted to make a present for his mom, who has a birthday on Monday of course. So we still needed to head out since I had no idea what to get her for him. Here is where I am at my best though, conjuring up something Johnnie and I at least will remember experience-wise.  Johnnie and I actually agreed we should go to Michael's and get something artsy-craftsy. AND we also could stop at Panda Express for lunch which was already right there. Problem solved! And so it was that in perusing the arts and crafts stuff at Michael's. Johnnie decided he wanted to get his mom a terrarium. It was something they could build together and I hoped Lisa would see the intent there. It isn't something she would like specifically, but it IS something mom and son could do together. Kind of like the chemistry set that she ended up doing crystal stuff with Johnnie last week. It took a week, but they did manage to create some crystals that I had to wash out this morning as well LOL. The actual present we both agreed on was that we would get mommy a tie-dyed T-shirt. But not just any tie-dyed T-shirt. Something we could make ourselves. So we bought white T-shirts for mom, dad, and son. And the tie-dye kit. The only thing was that it was clearly something we wouldn't finish today.  After lunch, Johnnie got busy making his own wrapping paper for the terrarium present. And then I helped him wrap it. And then we got started with the T-shirt tie-dye design. I told Johnnie we were out of time to finish it today. But I promised I would drop off the finished t-shirt tomorrow. Look at the pic of the aftermath of "Johnnie's lab". It was 2 PM when I dropped Johnnie off and I think we did manage to surprise Lisa with her present. Also informing her that the main present was coming tomorrow. I had the rest of the afternoon and evening for me finally. I wanted to watch the Eternals, but couldn't get into the 3 PM show at Marina del Rey. Oh well, I guess I really do get to finish the tie-dye project tonight. I'm working in Johnnie's lab it turned out.  And so THAT is how I ended up spending the rest of my Saturday. On Lisa's present. And binge watching the Blacklist. And planning how to get to Roosevelt golf course tomorrow since the LA Marathon is happening. Yep, the LA Marathon. In November. At least it's also the end of Daylight Savings Time. So I get an extra hour of sleep.  I went to bed with this thought in my head: Lisa better not ever think we didn't think about her today. Because as it turned out, that was all we did.