Los Angeles. Day 3. I'm a Great Dad.
TZVI: I woke up around 530 and started doing work. My office was technically closed for Christmas Eve, but there’s a lot going on.
Under normal circumstances I probably would’ve had to spend a lot of the day doing work, but between dealing with Hallie and Steph I ended up screwing up enough stuff that they recognized I wasn’t capable of doing work and taking care of my family, so they graciously let me off the hook with the work. Hallie and I had breakfast again in the lobby (Hallie had a waffle) and then hung out at the hotel until my parents picked us up. We drove to Santa Monica and spent the morning at the Cayton Children’s Museum, which is a huge play space for kids. Hallie had a blast. She loved the ball pit and spent a while painting a sheet of paper completely green. After playing we drove to Venice and had lunch at the Rose Café. The weather was great so we sat outside. I needed a break from Hallie so I let her watch Toy Story during lunch. She ate almost a whole pizza (which was incredibly delicious) and I had a fantastic salmon salad. I also brought a box of pastries back for Steph, which were all tasty.
I once read an essay on fatherhood by the author Michael Chabon. He told a story about being alone with his baby in the supermarket, holding the baby in one hand and unloading the shopping cart with the other, when a random woman told him, ‘I can tell you’re a really good father.’ He went on to say that men have it so much easier than women, because the bar for being a ‘good father’ is so much lower than the bar for being a good mother. Essentially, you just need to not be hurting your child in public for people to commend you on what a great dad you are. That’s kind of how I felt being alone with Hallie. I’m sure that Steph doesn’t get the kind of adoring looks that I do when she’s out with Hallie. Everywhere we went people were so friendly and told me how cute Hallie was and I could tell that they really thought I was doing a good job.
After lunch we went back to my parents’ apartment where we met Talia, who is going to be babysitting Hallie this week (and essentially filling in for Ofek). Talia took Hallie to the Grove to walk around for a bit while I went back to the hotel to get Steph. However when I got to the hotel, Steph wasn’t up to going out so I ended up going back to my parents’ place to get Hallie and then my father drove us back.
Steph: I don’t really have much to say here. Monday night was rough. The hospital air was so dry and I was so congested so I just kept waking up. At around 1am my IV started really hurting, but they didn’t come to change it until 2:30. At 4 AMish they came back to check my vitals. The nurse shift change was at 7. Well, in walks Leah Lousky (a friend from NYU).. Apparently she is a labor and delivery nurse at Cedars. Anyway, she gave me more pain meds which was nice. She also strained my pee, which every nurse did, but it felt special now that Leah was doing it, so thanks Leah. I was finally able to leave the hospital around 3pm with a bunch of medications in tow. Basically, I have to drink a lot and wait it out and hope for the best. I wasn’t in shape to go out at night, so Tzvi dealt with the evening as well.
The plan for Tuesday night was to put Hallie to sleep at Tzvi’s parents apartment, then see a movie, followed by a 10 PM dinner reservation at a famous old Italian restaurant in West Hollywood.
Instead, Tzvi brought me back a tuna sandwich that he made me at his parents place (which actually was a fantastic tuna sandwich) and we went to sleep.
What a saga. Merry Christmas.
