It’s almost impossible for me to aptly articulate what its felt like to see August come and go. This year has been such a peculiar nuisance that I can’t fully capture exactly what it has been like to live through. I still harken back to January and February of this year a lot. Jenn and I had mapped out a lot of what we had hoped to do this year and by the time March rolled around it was gone. But alas another month is gone and we’re both a year older now, and hopefully a bit wiser as well.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

The month begins like every August for the last 33 years has with me celebrating my birthday. I was fortunate to have my birthday land on a Sunday so we went to Sol Cocina for brunch. But the real highlight of my birthday was having my first “good” meal since the shutdown at Marche Moderne in Newport Coast. I remember telling Jenn when we were eating our entrees that I wasn’t sure if this place was that good or I was so desperate for a nice meal again. We started off with a charcuterie board full of amazing cheeses and meats. For our entrees, I had the duck confit and Jenn had the Coq Au Vin. Just typing duck confit made me happy again. Everything was delicious and I promise you we didn’t leave anything on our plates. We ended our meal with their signature peach cake and ice cream that was to die for. It was a meal I’ve been dreaming about since the pandemic hit and the perfect way to celebrate my birthday.

Jenn’s birthday rolled around the next day and unfortunately we both had to work, and Jenn sadly had a very very busy day. We did go get Spaghetti Bender and opened a nice bottle of red that night. The following Friday we met Jake, Ryan, and Amy in Temecula to enjoy two different wineries. We started off at Mount Palomar Winery where we did a couple of wine flights and a light lunch. From there we went to Briar Rose and had a couple more wine flights and some cheese and crackers. Given there’s still a pandemic ravaging the world all of the wine tastings were done outside on a very very warm August day.

Speaking of the pandemic a couple of days after the wineries I was in desperate need of a haircut. I found one of the only places taking online reservations (and that was open) and went to a nearby Sports Clips in Costa Mesa. The only reason I’m even bringing this up is to remember the fact that I got my haircut in the parking lot of a strip mall with the wind blowing my hair all over the place. It was nice to get a haircut but wow was that a disaster.

After weeks of planning and pushing it out the middle of August arrived and Jenn and I took the entire week off from work (17th-21st). We planned to go to Napa and go to about a half dozen wineries and two Michelin restaurants. We had our hotel booked and Frasier’s stay ready to go. We left Tuesday morning the 18th, dropped Frasier off at the Bone Adventure, grabbed some Starbucks, and began driving up to Napa. We were listening to the second Harry Potter book when we passed through the empty freeway through downtown LA (thanks COVID) and towards the grapevine when we turned the audiobook off and Jenn fell asleep. About twenty minutes later I get a text from Ally asking where we were going. After joking that we were going back to NY early I told her Napa and she informed me her friend still lives up there and there was a fire that broke out overnight. A few google searches later and sure enough, a massive blaze erupted right near where we were staying and the wineries we were going to go to. I woke Jenn up and let her know and a few minutes later we got off the first exit after the grapevine, canceled all of our reservations, got gas, and turned for home. A few hours later we were at the pool at our apartment complex and our weeklong getaway was dashed away. Given everything that 2020 has thrown at us we handled it like champs and enjoyed a relaxing, albeit more subdued week off.

Getting back on the freeway heading home…

We had two highlights of our week off. The first was taking Frasier to Huntington Beach to the dog area where he just ran wild and had more fun then I’ve seen him have since our old Central Park walks. The other was a recent addition to Fashion Island with COVID a makeshift drive-in movie theater on the top of the parking structure near Nordstroms. We saw Jurassic Park with Frasier asleep in the back of the car. It was so nice to just get out and do something “somewhat normal.”

And that really wraps up August. Much like July we stayed home 95% of the month, went to a couple of outdoor dinners, and went on more walks then I can count. We’re starting to think about our return to New York and what that will look like as summer comes to a close and fall comes into full swing.

TV WE WATCHED

What an interesting month of TV. We started watching Perry Mason on HBO but fell off of it, was just far to slow. Another slow we started out strong with was Indian Matchmaking a reality show on Netflix that started out strong but had no real meat to it. The best two shows of the month actually came from Apple TV + which were Trying and Ted Lasso.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

Of the three books I read in August, by far the absolute best was American Dirt a book that had so much controversy surrounding it. But I’m pleased to say that it was a book absolutely worth reading and one that when I think about my favorite books of the year will be one that I come back to and give a hard look.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

Really none of the three movies we watched in August were really anything to write home about. We enjoyed Greyhound for what it was a 90-minute action movie. The Way Back with Ben Affleck was fine, if not a bit rote. And Quarter-Life Crisis was a good solid stand-up special.

THEATER WE SAW

Sadly none but there may be some online streaming coming to this section by the end of 2020 which would be nice.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

What a great month for video games. The two that I’ll focus in on are Ghost of Tsushima which I completed and platinumed and The Last of Us Part II a game that I slowly make my way through given its incredibly tough subject matter but wow what a game.