This year she made the same basic flight, but since May Day was on Monday this year, it was only FCBD Saturday; Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May, would be the next week.
This year she made the journey not solo-with-child like last year, but with child-in-tow, as the Boy went on the furthest afield trip of his young life. He'd already been to both another state and country, but OKC represents his farthest trip.
It was also his first flight.
I was staying behind to be left to my own devices.
But I was pretty sick, so the time alone was pretty basic.
It started innocently enough...
Dinner in El Segundo
Corrie drove so I could hang out in the back seat and mug with/play with Cass on the way to LAX. I was not looking forward to either being without these two or the virtual meeting I was supposed to join at 4:30, which was increasingly looking difficult. As it was already 3:40 as we were arriving at the airport, traffic on 405 south was already stop and go for large swaths, and arriving at my laptop in Long Beach by 4:30 was already a punchline.
Corrie suggested stopping somewhere close by (a brewery?), having dinner and a drink, and doing the meeting on my phone before letting traffic die down (SURE, SURE) and heading home.
Sold.
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| Saying goodbye at LAX |
I started heading south on surface streets (Sepulveda, which is North/South at that point) and quickly got to El Segundo Blvd and hung a right. I knew that the El Segundo Brewery was on Main, or another version of Main St in LA County, and knew that I had wanted to visit this tiny beach-town-in-the-middle-of-LAX-flight-zones for a while.
After a strange up-and-down of a hill and the road shedding lanes, I noticed the blight on my left disappeared into what looked like nature---it was shelter-belt vegetation at the north end of a refinery. Fog loomed ahead as what looked like the outskirts of Los Osos started appearing on the right,
We came to a stop sign, and I noticed it was Main St. I took a right and immediately started looking for parking. This town, if the El Segundo community of Los Angeles could be considered a town, is basically Los Osos merged with SLO. From my memory, the main drag in Los Osos hardly qualifies for that designation, but El Segundo has an abbreviated Marsh/Higuera setup that more closely resembles Los Osos.
I parked on the street parallel to Main and around the corner from the Brewery and saw, incredibly enough, when I exited my car a copy of Orwell's Animal Farm stuffed into a bush. I thought that if the book was still there on my way back to the car I would take it home---I had yet to own it.
It turned out it was too early for El Segundo Brewery to be open, so I went across the street to a restaurant/bar, took up residency on a bar stool, ordered a beer and dinner, and watched LeBron James and the Cavs demolish the Pacers. I'm not sure which game it was, but it didn't matter. Maybe it was Toronto LeBron was destroying.
Eventually the Brewery's tasting room opened, and I finally got to visit. We've been thinking about checking both it and El Segundo out for a few years now. On this particular Wednesday a few minutes before six pm it was crowded, and I shared a picnic-style table with another solo dude. He was busy on his phone while I read the latest "Beer Paper: LA."
Around 6:15 I decided to leave and brave the freeway home. Meeting was a bust, I was comfortable from the food and beer, and the cat's ate dinner at 7, so let's see how late they'd be eating.
Before leaving I noticed a particular gift bush was beckoning:
I got home around 7:30. Why I thought leaving El Segundo at quarter-past six was better than quarter-past four is beyond me, but in reality it was pretty much the same. I wasn't really prepared to wait until traffic actually lifted (reasons: because parking at our place is such a nightmare; the cats; and I still had some work to do), because that would have been at least another two hours.
Eventually the Brewery's tasting room opened, and I finally got to visit. We've been thinking about checking both it and El Segundo out for a few years now. On this particular Wednesday a few minutes before six pm it was crowded, and I shared a picnic-style table with another solo dude. He was busy on his phone while I read the latest "Beer Paper: LA."
Around 6:15 I decided to leave and brave the freeway home. Meeting was a bust, I was comfortable from the food and beer, and the cat's ate dinner at 7, so let's see how late they'd be eating.
Before leaving I noticed a particular gift bush was beckoning:
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| Would I not take a book from a bush? |
I got home around 7:30. Why I thought leaving El Segundo at quarter-past six was better than quarter-past four is beyond me, but in reality it was pretty much the same. I wasn't really prepared to wait until traffic actually lifted (reasons: because parking at our place is such a nightmare; the cats; and I still had some work to do), because that would have been at least another two hours.
The Virtual Meeting
I had known about this virtual meeting for a few weeks, and even in my response email when I got news I mentioned the possibility of taking my wife to the airport around the same time as the meeting. When that possibility turned into a necessity, I let them know again that I would do my best.
When Corrie was circling LAX trying to figure out the terminal (it wasn't posted correctly) I was in the back seat with the Boy trying to find out which terminal on my phone. This was after the decision had been made to just try the meeting at a bar or brewery and use my phone.
But at that time, trying to figure out the terminal on my phone, the battery had gone from yellow sliver to smaller red sliver. Awesome. I parked in the shade of a building in El Segundo around the corner from the Brewery and got back to my phone: rereading the email said I needed to download a virtual meeting app. Great. I started downloading it and the red sliver of battery life went down to red exclamation point.
I do not have a car battery charger, if you couldn't have guessed by now.
I sent an email to the meeting-holders telling my situation---left LAX, scrambled to shady street in El Segundo, downloading app, dying battery---when the screen does that I'm-now-super-dark-but-actually-dead-yet thing. It was 4:25, and the meeting would be starting shortly,
When I got to the bar stool I first ordered a beer, then checking the status of the download: complete, Sweet! I went to find it...hmm...not in the usual spots...but then pay-dirt! Tapped. Nothing. Then, message: "Cannot Open App."
By then I was just amazed to still operating the thing. I erased it and started downloading it again, noticed it was now almost 4:40, and started another email to the meeting-holders explaining again the situation.
But this was the straw. Mid sentence my phone was done, buzzing once, showing me a splash screen that said "Samsung," and turning off.
Can't say I didn't try.
The only thing that made me nervous was there being a problem with Corrie and Cass's flight and them not being to reach me. I remembered that Corrie knew my phone was on the edge before they got on the plane, and that I was going to try and get the meeting done somewhere between LAX and our place, so should they call, and my phone not be working, it stood to reason that Corrie would know why and be able to arrange what she needed without me until I got home and got a charge. She's resourceful.
Thursday and Friday Come and Go
Thursday came and went in a blur. Was I sick? Was it allergies? I think on Thursday it showed up more as sickness than allergies.
Friday was mostly the same until night, when a colleague who lives close by asked if I wanted to join him for tacos and beer, seeing how it Cinco de Mayo. I debated it internally for a while: being without family meant that I could go do stuff, but I was feeling shitty and the idea of being in the quiet, without the needy rigors of work or an eleven month old bouncing off things, was too appealing.
I turned the colleague down, but planned for Saturday.
I got comfortable on the couch, trying to decide what to watch on Netflix. Then a thought coursed through my body: Nobody's here and this is what I plan on doing? What would I do if I had all this time to myself, and I do, so...?
I strapped on my Chucks and zipped up my hoodie, got good and groovy, and went for a stroll.
I did just what I would do if on my own: get groovy and head out for a walk, be among the Friday night peeps of Long Beach. I walked down to the beach and cruised up the marina walk we do twice a week. Up to shoreline village and the tourist collection is deep.
Everywhere you look there are happy visitors from far away, mostly white-skinned, ready to enjoy the cheesy and kitschy shops and restaurants.
From there I headed up Pine Avenue and into the going-out crowd. Not so heavy with the tourists, rather, young folks from all over the south bay region and Long Beach proper come down to show skin and strut. And drink.
It was a zoo; loud and obnoxious, young and silly, a crowd I would have been a part of 15+ years ago, but am fully happy to be past.
Eventually I made it home and went to sleep, looking forward to the possibility of sleeping in.
Free Comic Book Day 2017, a Birthday Party,
and Musing on Uber
I slept all the way until 7:10, which felt glorious that morning.
I also remembered a birthday party I was invited to that was happening that Saturday, so I had to cancel my plans with the colleague.
The party was across town, and part of me wanted to ride my bike, but as I was already planning to ride across town in a more northerly route for FCBD, I decided to take an easy bus over to Belmont Shore. Six stops down Ocean Blvd at a buck and a quarter.
For the Free Comic Book Day shenanigans, check out this post on my comic blog.
The birthday party was cool and nice, but weird. I didn't have too much to drink since I felt so ill, and eventually left. It had started to drizzle as I made my way to the bus stop, but stopped by the time I got there.
The breeze, though, was still stiff and chilly. As I waited for the bus I started to think about Uber and Lyft and asked myself, Why was I so reluctant? People my age and economic demograohic would have already ordered their car and be halfway home while I---already sick and weary from miles of bike riding---was waiting in a chilly breeze at a bus top with no place to sit (the bench was wet)?
I never came to a reliable conclusion. I'm not really a Luddite or anachronistic, I'm not really afraid of using my phone for financial transactions. And waiting for a bus on a busy Saturday night in a trendy part of the city?
Why I am so reluctant?
The breeze, though, was still stiff and chilly. As I waited for the bus I started to think about Uber and Lyft and asked myself, Why was I so reluctant? People my age and economic demograohic would have already ordered their car and be halfway home while I---already sick and weary from miles of bike riding---was waiting in a chilly breeze at a bus top with no place to sit (the bench was wet)?
I never came to a reliable conclusion. I'm not really a Luddite or anachronistic, I'm not really afraid of using my phone for financial transactions. And waiting for a bus on a busy Saturday night in a trendy part of the city?
Why I am so reluctant?
Actually Sleeping In, Cleaning,
and the Pick Up
On Sunday after feeding the cats I went back to bed and slept in all the way to 10:30. IT WAS GLORIOUS.
Eventually I got around to cleaning, which took the better part of Sunday. Whenever I'm alone, the integrity of Corrie's clutter-free life is sorely breached:
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| Yikes...it can get crazy when I'm all alone |
Monday after work I went up to LAX and picked up Corrie and Cassius. Cass did well on both flights, there and back, but waiting in a tarmac queue for a half hour had him lose his cool. He was with four other babies all losing their cools, so that must have been nice for everyone else on board.
Corrie drove home, and we took Sepulveda the entire way, until it changes over to the PCH, and then we cruised home like I was coming home from work.
With virtually no food in the house (Thursday I ate a pound of sauteed kale for dinner) we went out to dinner at the pizzeria around the corner from our place, the site of book signing, Rebel Bite. It was open-mic night. We stayed for a few acts, but came home and started the bedtime routine. A whirlwind of activity, my time having been far different than Corrie and Cass's.
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| Together again |
Not being sick would have been nice, but we can't have everything, can we?
Not being around the boy was a strange mix of emotions. One part relief that his safety and well-being is out of my hands and one part terror that his safety and well-being is out of my hands. Not having to listen to him when he's having a night terror wasn't bad, but missing his giggling and his sweet smile was agony.
Parenthood...am I right?
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