Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Chinese New Year, AND Happy birthday, Robby!

Valentine's Day is always special because it's Robby's birthday.

I planned a few surprise activities today.

First, we began with a breakfast at Bistro du Soleil in Marina del Rey. Robby ordered a poached salmon eggs benedict with avocado. He was very happy with his meal.

Then, we took a sombering spin around the Museum of Tolerance. A bunch a people called Robby with birthday wishes, & when they asked him what he did for his birthday, they would hesitate with uncertainty when they heard that he spent his birthday learning about the Holocaust & modern human trafficking practices. I know, I did not plan the most romantic activity for Valentine's Day, but Robby had never been to the museum before and I thought that he would appreciate the interactive nature of it.

"I can't believe we're bringing a child into this world," Robby said in the middle of the Tolerance exhibit about hate speech. Of course, that's a depressing thought, but I find comfort in knowing that people come to this museum to learn more about our ugly history and what we can do to change it. That's what I want our child to learn from coming to the Museum of Tolerance.

We listened to an Indonesian woman talk about her experience in the human trafficking industry, which is the biggest illegal money-making, international scheme
right under drug trafficking and arms dealing. The talk was sponsored by CAST LA - Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking. She came to the United States with a wealthy Singaporean family, and she was paid $150 a month to work for them as a housekeeper 18+ hours a day. She told a moving story about her life, eating her bosses' leftovers, learning English from watching Barney, possessing no understanding of English or of the value of her work, driven only by the opportunity to send money back to Indonesia for her daughter's family...She was a brave woman to seek help from the police when she understood that her own exploitation.

After resting at home for a few hours, we drove to Venice Blvd. for dinner at Mayura, an Indian restaurant inspired by Kerala cuisine. The waiter said my Mayura Special Appam Chicken Curry was not at all spicy, but I beg to differ...It was very spicy! Robby had to eat most of it. I ate the appam, a white, spongy bread very much like the bread in Ethiopian restaurants. Robby ordered a fish curry, which had an interesting flavor to it. The next time we come back to Mayura, I'll order a safer, foreign-friendly dish, like tandoori chicken or biriyani, to avoid the spiciness.

We dropped by Zabumba, a gross little dive bar/restaurant also on Venice Blvd. Robby discovered amateur comedy night, in addition to live hip hop & salsa music. The comedians were pretty bad. Luckily, each set was short. The live hip hop was all right, but the speakers were pretty bad. Everyone there was either a performer or a friend of the performer. Disappointed, we left early.

Indulging Robby's action movie urge, we came home and watched the rest of a kungfu French movie called District B13. It has a horrific plot, but it's not the kind of movie you watch for complex plot or meaningful character development. It's all action. There was a few gnarly parkour (originated in France) scenes & lots of well-choreographed fight scenes.

Time to open presents!