Day of the Mom

One thing I like about hanging out with my mom and my brother Justin is that we can all be entertained by such simple things. After taking my mom to Walt's Wharf in Seal Beach for lunch for Mother's Day (try the blackened catfish in the cilantro lime sauce with crispy polenta. Hello!) we walked down to the pier and sat for fifteen minutes on a bench watching a guy with his metal detector. I fed my brother coins, which he threw down into the sand for the man to find. This was infinitely entertaining. He almost got hit with a penny, but Justin has good aim, so it usually landed just behind or ahead of the guy. Priceless.

We then headed to the movies to see the documentary Babies. Really interesting. It's literally just watching four babies from around the world as they develop through their first year of life. The American baby portion was the least interesting to me. Maybe it seemed duller than the others because the other babies were foreign and the cultures less known to me, but I will say this: the Westernized babies were way more coddled than the others. It was pretty fascinating. I almost wanted to cry at the simplicity and humanity of the piece. But then my brother and I started laughing because the old lady behind us kept yelling at her caretaker. "Just leave it be. LEAVE ME ALONE!!! You just STOP THAT!" It was awesome. Did I mention the theater was right by Leisure World? I've never seen so many elderly people at a movie in my life. I guess they likes them some babies.....

Yesterday three of my EXTRAORDINARY friends spent half their day painting and caulking with me. They give so generously of themselves and I tell you, it's made a world of difference in this whole process. When I thanked R., she said "I'd do almost anything for you." I was so touched. But then I requested the list of things she won't do for me. Just curious. I suspect it would be an awesome list.

After they left I decided to push through and get as much of the kitchen cabinets painted as possible. I can be singularly focused when necessary. At about 9:30pm, I realized had been on my feet painting for about 9 hours without a break. I looked down at my right arm that I was using the paint roller with and saw that it was a deep, dark red and swollen and my hand resembled a fistful of fat German sausages. I gave it up for the night. If I don't finish those diggety dang cabinets tomorrow I will run screaming face first into a brick wall. Not really, but the image is funny.

PV is a master caulker and R. can paint trim like nobody's business
(and here you can see she is a top-notch texter)

On the job model posing

KK painting the heck out of my kitchen. She rules.