It’s 8:55 PM (Pacific) and I’m sitting at my desk, preparing to write this blog post. To my right sits a nearly full 32 oz bottle of Coke Zero.To my left sits a just opened 16 oz container of freshly made hot salsa from Vons. Slightly left of the salsa is a bag of freshly made chips, from Las Brasas Restaurant . This has nothing to do with the actual blog post, I thought I would set the scene for you. Enjoy.
I dig Sunday mornings. I generally have nothing important to do, so now that my daughter is a teenager who loves to sleep til noon, I can almost always sleep as late as I want.
Today has been one full week since and I decided to do something. We took Shadow to the Dog Beach at the Huntington Cliffs. I prefer to do it without Drama Queen because quite frankly it’s more fun when I can simply relax and not have to watch for her and see what she’s doing. I say that to illustrate this next thought.
We were at my mom’s last night (Sat night) and I found out my 4 year old nephew was spending the night at my mom’s with Drama Queen. For some reason I blurted out, “Hey. Would you two like to go with me tomorrow morning to Dog Beach?” Of course they did. I told Drama Queen she was responsible for watching her cousin, but I knew in my heart I was going to have to watch Shadow and the two kids. Sometimes I’m a real dumbass.
I told them I would pick them up at 9 and I rolled in at 10 after to find neither child ready, however, my mom did make me a pancake and gave me two Brown N Serve sausages. I can’t stand those fake tasting sausages, but my mom has bought them religiously since I was a kid, so kinda hard to say anything now. Once I scarfed down my breakfast, I threw his car seat in the car and we rolled down Seal Beach Blvd and made the left on to PCH.
It’s about a 10 minute drive down Pacific Coast Highway and I did it with the windows down and KROQ cranking on my stereo. We passed some of my favorite places–Kanvas by Katin (a surf shop) on the left. Across the street on the right is Taco Surf and three doors up from that is the Harbor House Cafe–can you say 6 egg omelets accompanied by toast and potatoes? Another mile up on the right we passed Mother’s–a cool little biker bar–and after that it was an ocean view the last five minutes. (Before that, the ocean was right behind the just-mentioned businesses.)
Parking at the Huntington Cliffs is a bitch on the weekend, not only because it’s a mile of beautiful beach that allows dogs to run off leash, but it’s also a primo surf spot, especially for long boarders. We cruised the first lot and found nothing, so we drove a block up and entered the second (and final) lot. I saw a couple of 50-ish surfers come to their car, so I pulled aside and was waiting for their spot. We sat there almost 10 full minutes and finally one of the guys (the one I previously made eye contact with on two occasions) walks up and asks if we’re waiting for his spot and I said I was. He said, “Oh. Sorry. We’re not leaving for about a half hour. We’re waiting for our buddy.”
I said I bunch of four letter words under my breath and found a solo surfer doing the famous, changing-from-wetsuit-to-shorts-under-a-towel-in-the-parking-lot trick. It’s something any male surfer has done at some point in their life, and many do it on a regular basis. I know I did when I was thinner and still surfed.
I asked this kid if he was leaving and he said he was. Three minutes later we were parked and I was getting Shadow out of my Journey. As we walked down the path towards the hill I looked at both kids and made sure Drama Queen was keeping an eye on my nephew, ( who I will name Truck Boy because of his love for things big and motorized) and she assured me she was. We got down on the beach and walked around some big rocks and onto open sand. About 2 blocks down I heard my nephew telling his cousin that his feet hurt from walking on the shells.
Like any good uncle, I turned around, looked at my daughter and said, “Help Truck Boy put his shoes on.” We both looked down and saw that he had no shoes in his hands. I looked at my daughter and said, “Where the hell are his shoes?” She said she didn’t know, so I rolled my eyes at her (payback’s a bitch, huh?) and asked him where his shoes were. He turned the direction we just came from and said in a four-year-old voice. “Dey over dare.”
I asked him if he took them off when we got onto the sand and he nodded his head yes. I looked over at my daughter and asked, “And I suppose you never noticed him sitting on the ground and taking his shoes off, did you Nanny McPhee?” ( I was going to go with Mary Poppins, but Nanny McPhee seemed hipper and cooler).
We hiked back down the beach and retrieved his Sandals. As we neared our destination, Drama Queen asked what we would do if we didn’t find them. I said we would go to the car, stop at B of A, get money out of her savings account and give it to my brother to buy Truck Boy some new shoes. She didn’t dig that idea and was pretty pleased that we found the shoes.
I opted to end the adventure at this point and we stopped back by my mom’s to grab my nephew’s stuff and to grab D. Q.’s bathing suit. We were taking him home, then heading to a friends house for burgers and brews in his backyard. After we dropped Truck Boy off, Drama Queen announced that she was kind of hungry. I was too, so we swung by the Jack in the Box up the street for a couple of tacos. I approached the drive thru menu and said, “Hi. I’d like two tacos and that’s all.” The genius on the microphone replied, “Would you like a large drink for only $1.00?”
What the fuck? Didn’t I end by saying, “and that’s all?” I guess I understood that to mean that I wanted no other items, thus the gratuitous offer of a refreshing beverage for only a buck was thoroughly unnecessary. Not to mention, annoying. I politely said, “No thanks. I’m good,” and drove to the first window as was requested.
I got to the window and was greeted by some 17 year old GLEE wannabe. “That will be $1.08, please,” he said with way too perky a tone. Yeah. Two tacos for 99 cents. They’re rad.
I hand him the money and he asks, “So. Have you enjoyed your trip so far?” I looked at him like he was on crack and with a completely sarcastic tone said, “Uh…the landscaping between the menu and the window was lovely. Yeah. I guess I am.” He smiled that big GLEE smile of his and asked me to drive to the next window.
We each killed a Jack in the Box taco (which are extremely greasy and totally tasty), as we headed to 7-11 for Slurpees. After pouring ourselves two refreshing treats, we cruised North one city into Highland to chill with The Kings Fan and his familia. He asked me to grab some beer and said to get whatever was on sale. I stopped at Von’s (a local grocery chain) and perused my selection. I as kind of feeling like Mexican today and I had my eye on Pacifico and Victoria. For some reason, I walked out with a 12-pack of Canadian.
It’s been two years since I’ve seen my friends and I really missed them. I first met the Kings Fan about 17 years ago when we both lived near Palm Desert. It turns out, we lived a few blocks apart and we got to know each other. His son is three months younger than Drama Queen and he has a daughter who turned two in April. I’ve only seen her once before today.
It’s funny, from the age of five, Drama Queen and their son (who I referenced in one of my first blog posts as “G.I. Joe) have been great friends. They’ve had sleepovers and done all sorts of stuff together, yet today it took both of them more than an hour to say a word to anyone. It was weird, yet cool to have a quiet hour from my yappity daughter.
You know those inside joke things that some people have? Well, about four years ago, Kings Fan invited me to go off roading in Mexico with some of his Jeep buddies. One of the guys who went has a son named Miguelito. This kid was a total shit (keep this last word in your brain for a few more sentences).
Miguelito got on everyone’s nerves really quickly and by the second day, the kids dad was walking towards the bushes, when someone asked where he was heading off to. “I’m going to take a Miguelito,” he replied, while holding a roll of toilet paper skyward. This afternoon, my friend said something about, “Taking a Miguelito” and suddenly we were both laughing, while the two kids stared at us like we were morons.
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