Mr. Babester POV
Twas a Friday morning when I strolled into work just like any other work day. Nothing special until I overheard my co-worker Steph talk about taking the "viet bus" down to LA. All of a sudden, a light bulb dinged. I knew it has been awhile since we've seen each other face to face so I made a spur of the moment decision to visit her this weekend. I slowly picked away at clues by texting her: "I hope you don't have to work tomorrow. You'll be so spent and mickery will be mad!". She quickly replied: "I don't need to work tomorrow! :D" Houston, we have green light! I was so anxious to finish up work and leave early so that I could quickly pack my weekend bag.
Throughout the whole bus ride, my heart was thumping and my palms were sweaty like none other. I was so excited to surprise me lady! I couldn't wait to see her reaction and to see how over joyed she would be. The night went by quick as I slept overnight at my dad's hotel room.
The morning after I woke up and picked up some specialty buns from PappaRich bakery in Pasadena and headed over to her house at around 8:30. I knew about her plans to hang out with Nicky shopping the day away so I knew I had to get to her house early enough. Luckily again, she texted me in the morning wishing me a good day at work. Twas another indicator for me to head over to her place.
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| Just moments before reaching to her house |
The food settled extremely fast and we were hungry for lunch by the time we got to Nicky's house. We decided to try a new ramen place in Little Tokyo called Hakata Ramen Shin-Sen-Gumi. Good grief, that is a long name for a ramen shop. It was good to try a new ramen place though seeing as we pretty much ate at Orochon and Daikokuya plenty of times. I noticed an old couple (grandparents) with their grand daughter while we waited for our food. They were "boss" caused they were spending their Saturday with their granddaughter and drinking a mug of beer. I know for sure Susan and I will be like that.
We gave up shopping after visiting all the main stores. I really wanted a nice pint at the Congregation Alehouse Susan told me about but it was too far from the parking lot so I made the executive decision to eat Argentinian. The chicken I ordered was so so. It was too dried and didn't seem like it had enough of the citrus/herby flavor the menu described it to be. I definitely won't be trying anything chicken from that place. On the other hand, the empanada was my favorite.
626 market was chaotic as expected. It was crazier than walking in the streets of Hong Kong. A lot of the booths weren't really that interesting. I was expected a lot of cool gadgets and toys. I was expecting it to be like downtown LA fashion district, except with an asian twist. Nonetheless, it was cool to see everyone aimlessly walking. We aimlessly walked past a booth that had a live band playing jazzy tunes. I was really into the music and tried to dance with the lovergirl but didn't so that she would have felt embarassed about dancing in public. It's all good cause I still gave her a smooch!
The day went by too fast for I wanted to spend more time with her before going back to norcal. I decided to go to Porto's the following morning. Boy were we in for a treat? That place was huge for a bakery. I assumed it was going to be a normal sized bakery that could fit like 20 people or so. But this bakery was packed with at least a hundred people. It was all very confusing when I tried figure out how to place an order to go. Thankfully, Mrs. Babester figured out the take out line and we ordered some sammiches for lunch and some baked goods to take back up for my coworkers.
Before you know it, we ended up at Americana and then met up with my co-worker to hitch a ride back to norcal. The visit was short lived but it was refreshing to see my lover.
Mrs. Babester's POV
shocked about the whole ordeal. Anyways, here is how it went for me.
On Friday, I was exhausted. The last two or three hours of work went by super slow (it usually goes by fairly quickly for me), and I just could not seem to focus or stay awake. I could not sleep the night before (for some strange reason unrelated to caffeine/sugar) and was dragging myself through the day. To top off this lovely mood, it was raining. Hard.
I decided to finish my day early at 4:30pm. I normally stay until 6:00pm, but in all honesty, I was done with most of my work, and the rest had to be finished the next week. So I left early and decided to go through some retail therapy at a nearby mall alone. I perused a bit, purchased some small tidbits, and went on my way home.
During my shopping, my twinsy Angel called me.. I think.. or maybe I called her. Anyways, throughout work, I was texting her, so when I got off we chatted on the phone. There was a point during our conversation that I grew suspicious; we talked about shopping on Saturday just to hang out, but she had work during the day, so I decided to ask my hubby (not literally) Nicky to do some damage with me instead. We would meet up with twinsy afterwards for the 626 Asian Night Market event and loiter the streets of Pasadena.
For some reason, she wouldn't let me. She insisted I don't go out tomorrow until the night market.
..and she wouldn't tell me why.
Not that any of you readers (if anyone is reading this?) would know, but I enjoy "mysteries" and "puzzles" (which would explain my addiction to Picross 3D, word search puzzles, Scrabble, Ace Attorney, and Professor Layton), and so this just brought up a huge red flag in my brain screaming, "Okay.. this is suspicious.. WHAT COULD IT BE?!" Strangely enough, my first thought was, "Ben must be visiting. OMGawd IS HE COMING?!"
It made sense to me; why else would she not tell me? THAT HAS TO BE IT.
However, I did not want to raise my hopes.
So I finished my shopping and just went home. I texted Ben about this thought; I missed him so much, it was taking its toll on me, but he was already asleep. Later online, twinsy told me that she was trying to get the day off so she could join Nicky and I in shopping, but she couldn't. le disappoint. Back to the original plan. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I really had my hopes up.
Woke up refreshed the next day (FINALLY GOT 8 HOURS OF SLEEP!). It was early, probably around 9:00am, when I was getting ready, when I heard the doorbell. Probably a package. So I went to open the door.
Standing there with a smirk on his face, was my Mr. Babester! My jaw stood agape for what felt like forever (my jaw got tired after a bit). BEST SURPRISE EVER.
We had some buns Mr. Babester brought for breakfast and I finished getting ready and we went on our way to Nicky's house. After she got ready, we decided to go to Pasadena (where the 626 Night Market event is held) to do some shopping.
Of course, we had to have some lunch before a long day of shopping. Ramen it is; our favorite food to eat in Little Tokyo.
We bought each other clothes as gifts for after we started working. Mr. Babester bought Mrs. Babester a pair of skinny jeans and I bought him a denim shirt. Soon enough, we'll be matching each other in our denim shirts and skinny jeans.
626 was packed. Good grief I am SO glad we ate before we went. It's like opening a can of sardines... and vacuum-packing them. Regardless, we went into the hole of Asians and wandered into a tent of live performers, and then into a photobooth for some physical evidence of such fantasy. Finally when we got out, we tried contacting twinsy. But my cell phone wouldn't make calls. I texted. The text got DENIED. I think there was a jam? I don't know, but for some reason, Ben and my phone was busted. Hubby finally got in contact (DANG IPHONES) with twinsy, but in the end, we could not meet up. We managed to take some photo booth pictures despite the busy crowd and lines for the food stands.
After standing through the live performances, hubby's foot got cramped. We decided to sit at this picturesque bench that sat as a perimeter for a tree and waited for the pain to go away. As we sat there, we reminisced about the past: how Nicky and I met, the adventures we had when we were still in school, and how Mr. and Mrs. Babester came to be. It was freezing at 11:00 at night, but the warm memories kept us lively..
..Well, that and the watermelon tai chi hubby and Ben were doing did bust me up laughing.
We walked back to the parking garage where we parked Jetti (name of my car) and had to prepare to say goodbye to Mr. Babester as I had work the next day. But how often does Ben actually come down? As we arrived at the hotel, I gathered enough courage to ask for Sunday off so that I could see my lover for one more day. And I got it. So happy.
Ben quickly jolted into the hotel to gather his things (I'm sure he was rather excited) and got back into the car. We drove back to my house, where he would be staying in the guest room. Hubby left after chatting with my parents a bit, and we KO'd afterwards.
Sunday strolled by quickly. We slept in since we were exhausted from walking all day Saturday, and woke up only to drive to Porto's to pick up lunch and some pastries for Ben's co-worker (who was so kind to drop him off to the bus stop to get here). We ate.. then like the chub I am, I fell asleep. Woke up only to prepare to take him to Porto's again, where he was to meet his co-worker to carpool back.
They were running late. Thank you.
So we walked around Americana instead. We strolled through a shop or two, then bummed on the grass watching kids frolic around while the fountain played music to complement the streams of water spewing out.
Mr. Babester ordered some kimchi fried rice from Ahn-Jong for the trip back up. We drove back to Porto's (the established meet-up spot) and met up with his co-worker and friends. We packed up the car, hugged, kissed, and said our goodbye quickly. All too quickly. Wish that hug and kiss could have lasted just a bit longer. Would that make me too greedy?
I drove home with an empty passenger seat. Back to reality. Until next time, don't fret on small things cause life is full of surprises.