Fro-yo on Cali time

B and I may or may not be obsessed with fro-yo (frozen yogurt). We go at least once a week to Fro-Yo Life or Tutti Frutti, depending on which place we have coupons for. B’s a sucker for peanut butter. I’m cookies ‘n’ cream or cake batter. We love the control—we get to pull the yogurt lever and make our own fat swirls to fill the cup that we selected as high as we want with as many ounces as we desire.

A few Saturday nights ago I called Tutti Frutti just minutes after 10pm.

Me: Hi, just wondering how late you guys are open tonight?

Tutti Frutti: 10pm

Me: Oh, bummer. Ok thanks.

Tutti Frutti: But, I don’t really know when we’re closing tonight. When do you think you’ll be here?

Me: Oh? Um, well, we can be there in like 5 minutes.

Tutti Frutti: Sure, we can be open.

I got off the phone and told B they closed at 10pm…but they were open. He raised his eyebrows questioningly. I shrugged…I don’t know. Don’t ask questions and don’t ask for explanations. That’s the best way to go in Cali.

Last night, we hit up Tutti Frutti again. This time 9pm. As we opened the door, I noticed the hours listed said it closes at 9pm on Mondays. I kind of cringed and asked the two tanned surfer high school boys working behind the counter if they’d still let us come in? The one whipped his long dark curls out of his eyes and looked at me confused, like yeah, duh. I said, "oh, well, we noticed it says 9pm on your door." He said, "oh yeah, we don’t really do that. Close at 9pm." His coworker turned to him and asked slowly, "Oh really? We’re supposed to close at 9pm? Are we closing at 9pm tonight?" The other guy shook his head like Nah, not tonight, we have better things to do than close at 9pm.

I've heard people use the phrase "on Cali-time": "oh, he operates on Cali-time" and "yeah, well, not on Cali-time." It always has a negative connotation and is usually used when someone's waiting impatiently for someone or something who thinks clocks are over-rated. But as I enjoyed a spoonful of nummy cake batter fro-yo last night after 9pm, I realized that I think with Tutti Frutti, we're actually benefitting from Cali-time.