I wish I had posted more this month. It's been an insanely busy month, one filled with exciting news, lots of work, and a fun getaway. It's one of those months that although I didn't get to write as much as I'd like, its a post like this that will help me capture all of the amazing moments.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

September has been an incredible month. We started off September in the big apple, to check off one of my bucket list items from when I was a kid, going to the US Open. We had an amazing couple of days, enjoying one of the best cities in the world, eating some of the best food in the world, and watching tennis. We got insanely lucky and were able to watch Roger Federer take care of business in his match under the lights at Arthur Ashe stadium. I won't recap the entire trip (already did that in another post), but needless to say it was a great quick getaway.

When we got back I started my developmental assignment at work and Jenn went back to pushing to staff up her group. Of any month this year, I think we both put in more work hours in September. We spent many nights after dinner and walk coming back, pulling out our work laptops and plowing through the minefields of corporate America.

Almost two weeks after our trip to New York we got word from Rome, Italy that my youngest sister Amy and her boyfriend of almost two years had gotten engaged. They were on a trip with the rest of my family taking a trip to Italy, and while in Rome, Ryan proposed in the wee hours of the morning at the Trevi Fountain. We were fortunate enough to call them using Facetime and congratulate them on the amazing news. We couldn't be happier for them.

Almost as monumental as that news, was when Apple held their annual September press conference. For me, it's like the Super Bowl. What amazing products would Apple show off, and how many could I buy? Well, the answer to that so far is an Apple Watch Series 3 and the Apple TV 4K. Here's to hoping that I will be able to preorder the iPhone X at the end of October.

Another annual tradition for Jenn and I is to have an Emmy's party. It's just a party for the two of us but we love to watch the Emmy's and guess who will win. This year we paired up our Emmy ballots with still our go-to take out, Chipotle. The Emmy's this year was hosted by Stephen Colbert and outside of the mistake of bringing Sean Spicer out we both thought he did a great job. I was able to narrowly get the victory in our ballots, in large part due to The Handmaid's Tale's big victory this year.

Two weeks in a row in the middle of September we had play's to go to (which I talk about in more detail below). With that though we tried two new restaurants. And just like the play's themselves one was great and the other not so much. The first place we tried was Pirozzi in Corona Del Mar on PCH. It's a relatively new Italian restaurant that we didn't care for at all. The second was Water Grill right near the theater in Costa Mesa. We had an incredible fish, a great appetizer, and a dessert that was to die for.

I used to recap my Fantasy Sports teams but after a while coming in last place or close to last place didn't seem like news that was worth sharing. However, for the first time in nearly two decades of playing Fantasy Sports Jake and I won our Fantasy Baseball league. On the same day we won our Fantasy Baseball league we also had the highest points ever recorded in our Fantasy Football league for a single week. Maybe the tides are finally turning on our Fantasy Sports luck.

The end of September was less eventful. We did have a day where we both worked from home on the same day which was glorious. When we were done with work we decided we needed some fresh air so we went back to our old hike in Crystal Cove and had a nice 4-mile hike to get the blood flowing.

We love where we live but one of the downsides is that we both feel guilty that we aren't able to use our apartment complexes amenities as much as we'd like. With work and other obligations its hard to be able to just sit back and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. Towards the end of September on a beautiful overcast Sunday afternoon, we took two glasses of wine, Ticket to Ride, and went out on one of the giant lawn areas and played a board game. It was glorious.

The month ended with Jenn and I attending Amy & Ryan's engagement party at Ryan's families home in Riverside. It was a great evening, albeit a little surreal that my youngest sister is getting married. I remember telling Jenn at least twice that night that it was just weird to think about and reconcile with. But we're so happy for them both and looking forward to all the wedding festivities to come.

TV WE WATCHED

It's been an insanely great month for our TV watching. Not only were there some amazing episodes of shows we watch weekly like The Daily Show, Full Frontal, and Last Week Tonight. But we also enjoyed the premiere week of The Opposition with Jordan Klepper.

But really if we are going to remember this month of TV watching for anything it will be two amazing dramas. The first was Big Little Lies on HBO which was a tour de force of action. It was a riveting drama based on a book of the same name. The other show we loved this month was The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu. Having read the book recently it was amazing/horrifying to see the dystopian world come to life. Easily two of our favorite shows of the year.

Last but not least we finished our start to finish rewatch of Seinfeld. Now we've gone through all of Frasier, Friends and Seinfeld. We're thinking of doing Will & Grace next as our 20 minute comedy before bed.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

September was quite the eclectic reading month for me. It started off with the GamersRead pick for the month, Stardust but Neil Gaiman which I adored. It finished with me reading Hillary Clinton's aptly titled recap of the 2016 election, What Happened. I love both books for vastly different reasons, but needless to say it was a good month for reading.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

I watched a total of 1 movie in September. It happened on the first day of the month on our plane flights to New York. I had heard amazing things about a documentary on Netflix called Icarus. It starts out as a documentary on doping in professional sports but morphs into something so different from that I don't even want to spoil it. I loved this documentary so much.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

September is the start of gaming season. From now through March is when the majority of the biggest games come out. This last month I've been splitting my time equally between two of the games I get most excited for each year, NBA 2K18 and Madden NFL 18. Another two great entries and games you will continue to see on this list for many months to come.

SHOWS WE SAW

We saw two plays this month and they hit at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. The first one was at Segerstrom and was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and honestly, we just didn't love it. The cast wasn't great and the story while fine just never grabbed us. But the show that truly resonated with both Jenn and me was Once. Based off the movie from a decade ago, the musical at South Coast Repertory was magical. It was one of the most enjoyable and memorable productions I've ever seen. It was perfect for the intimate playhouse, and brought me to tears twice. We both adored Once.

PERSONAL STATS

This month I got a new Apple Watch Series 3 after my original Apple Watch died a month back. I absolutely love tracking stuff. From how many steps I take, to my daily runs, to what I eat, how much I weigh, and how well I sleep. I thought this would be a good addition to keep myself honest with how well I'm doing on my personal goals.

Avg Daily Steps for the Month: 14,991 a day

Avg Hours Slept for the Month: 7 hrs of sleep a night

Avg Miles Run per Day: 3.46 miles

Avg Weight: 135.73lbs

Total Miles Run for the Month: 103.88 miles

Total Steps Taken for the Month: 449,745

ANYTHING ELSE

The last couple of months I've used this portion of the monthly recap to talk about politics, and that will continue this month. Not only has reading Hilary Clinton's book What Happened harkened the dread I felt in November 2016 but seeing our President ignore a demolished Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria and try to distract us with this war on players kneeling for the National Anthem I'm simply fed up.

So instead of giving him the time of day, I will say two positive things from September:

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) repeal efforts were defeated again.
A ton of NFL players kneeled in defiance of our lunatic President.

I was not a Colin Kaepernick fan while he was a 49er QB, but I am a fan of him. I think what he kneeled for was noble and just and had nothing to do with "the troops." There's a ton of racial injustice in this country, go read Between the World and Me if you don't believe it.

A Look Back - September 2017