It’s hard to imagine that this is the last time (maybe for a long time) that I will be writing a monthly recap from California. It’s been such a beautiful respite for us while we tried to ride out as much of the pandemic as we could. Now it does feel like the right time for us to return home and continue our life in the big city. Until then though we had one full beautiful month left in California and we enjoyed it with a week off, some furniture shopping, and the start of another cross country move.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

What a crazy year it has been. During this same time last year, we were just starting our first lockdown from the pandemic. I’ll never forget Jenn and I trying to figure out how to live/work/survive in 700 square feet and we just started to toy around with the idea of riding out the pandemic in California. Now a year later and I’m surrounded by boxes with our return to New York City only weeks away.

Before we started packing though we had the entire month of March. We started off the month with a week off of work. We had thought about traveling to Sonoma, Phoenix, and Cancun but with vaccines around the corner, it felt like we were only months away from being able to travel with a lot less worry. So we stayed close to home, met Amy & Gracie for lunch, took Frasier to the dog beach and Laguna dog park, and enjoyed some nice meals out. It was really nice to step off the bus for a bit, put work to the side, and enjoy a week where we could all just be together as a family before the stress of the move really kicked in.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much furniture shopping we did, especially on our week off. We made our to South Coast Plaza and other nearby furniture stores quite often to try and determine how Jenn wanted to furnish our new apartment. We’ve gone back and forth on whether we wanted to re-do the bedroom and living room but ended up deciding to hold off. It looks like the rest of the country is also in a remodeling phase because getting furniture is incredibly tough right now. What we do have waiting for us though is a beautiful new dining table and desk that we can’t wait to get to.

The month continued on. We had a nice dinner and board game night with Jenn’s cousin Holly and her boyfriend Westin. Jenn finally got to break out the board game Case Files where you’re given a murder to solve. After a little over 2 hours and a few bottles of wine, we officially cracked the case. It wasn’t easy and there were a few times we thought we hit a wall, but each of us had a moment where we contributed to getting to the next phase of the investigation and the jubilation of completing the case was quite something.

And then things started to get real. We started to sell items we weren’t bringing with us online, making donation runs, and planning out our driving route from Orange County to New York City. I had a couple of roll-over days from 2020 that I had to take at work so I did get the full Crystal Cove hike in one more time before we left. Jenn went to Huntington Beach for a few nights with her Dad and I’ll never forget watching Zack Snyder’s Justice League while she was gone and getting a knock on the door from security saying my volume was far too loud. My bad!

And just like that March came to a close. All in all a great month and one that I think Jenn and I did a much better job of appreciating how lucky we were to have the means to come back and ride out a lot of the pandemic. On almost every nightly walk we talk about the future, where we will be, and what the next five, ten, twenty years could look like and then we laugh and say well we never planned to be back here so quickly. Thus is life I suppose. Well, goodbye March, the next time I will be writing this update for April, it will be back in the big apple!

TV WE WATCHED

Although it looks like a lot of TV, in fact, we actually watched a little of a lot of things this month. We finished up both the series finale of Wandavision and Schitt’s Creek. I also finished both the Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan documentaries which were fantastic. We continue to make our way through The West Wing (still on season 2) and have started to enjoy Kim’s Convenience.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

This is the least I’ve read so far this year, I do anticipate that changing in April with a cross-country drive ahead of us. Luckily though these were all three very good four out of five-star type of books. I enjoyed all three of them for their great character development and very compelling stories. If I had to choose one I think Purple Hibiscus is the one I’ll remember the most six months from now.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

I’m not sure what spurred it on but Jenn felt like re-watching La La Land a movie that I still love and think is a classic. We did watch Oscar contender Minari which was a beautiful movie about a Korean family trying to make it on a farm in America. And of course, I mentioned this already but outside of security telling me to turn down my surround sound I did enjoy the 4+ hour Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.

THEATER WE SAW

This section continues to be blank but i have hope and optimism that at some point in 2021 we will be vaccinated and seeing a show.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

I slowed down quite a bit on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I still expect to finish it at some point but I am not sure I am on the same trajectory that I was in February. With the move and everything my video game time has slowed down tremendously in March and I am sure will continue to for at least the first half of April.

2021 GOAL TRACKING

Goal #1: Read 45 Books: I've read 13 books and on track to hit my goal.

Goal #2: Keep Weight Under 140: I've yet to go over 140lbs

Goal #3: 12 Monthly Recaps: 3 for 3.

Goal #4: Create 6 travel books: China Trip complete, 1 down 5 to go.

A Look Back - March 2021