As we now reach the eighth month of this pandemic, it’s starting to feel normal, and not in a good way. It feels like it’s been so long since we’ve been able to go anywhere, and do anything. October was a good month, it was a busy month, but a good month. And yet there’s still a huge part of me that longs for any sort of normalcy, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

On the first weekend of October Jenn and I had a day where we put our phones away and just spent it with each other. We dropped Frasier off at daycare for the day and went to one of our old stomping grounds for brunch, The Summer House. It was so nice to sit down, have a bloody mary and a mimosa, and a decent brunch. It almost felt normal? Jenn has been bugging me for a decade to go to Sherman Library and Gardens in Corna Del Mar (across the street from Summer House) and we finally did, and I am sad to say it was not worth the wait. Quite a small garden that we went through in less than an hour. That night though we had a beautiful date at Five Crowns in Corona Del Mar, we sat outside behind the restaurant on their beautiful lawn and had a great meal. Jenn had a glass of wine, I had an old fashion, and we split a prime rib. It was a really good day.

If you’ve been reading along this year at all you know how focused Jenn and I are on the upcoming Presidential election. I’ve been volunteering for months trying to help get Joe Biden elected, donating both our time and money to his campaign. In mid-October, our mail-in ballots came in here in California and we got those back sent out a few days later. It felt really good to get our vote in to hope for a change from what’s currently in the white house.

A few days later my Grandma came into town and we had a big family gathering at my parent’s house something we really haven’t done since Jenn and I moved back in June. It was great to get the entire family back together and share a meal and time. Given the pandemic you really don’t know how often we’ll be able to do it, so to be able to make it happen now was special.

The month continued on, Jenn and I continued to work hard, and try to make sure Frasier had plenty of exercise and time out of the house. One of my favorite memories of the month was going early to the beach on a Friday morning and letting Frasier just run wild. It was his third or fourth time there and he’s now fearless. The moment we let him off the leash he ran straight into the ocean. To see the joy on his face for the hour we were there and the little grin on his face when we drove home was priceless.

One of the more exciting moments of the month came in late October when I was sent a Playstation 5 a few weeks before release. It’s not something I have ever taken for granted and after nearly 20 years of writing about video games. And it’s something I still love and enjoy. Being able to test the hardware and play games far before they release to the public is a dream of mine and it came true again this month. It also came at a great time because there were massive wildfires in the Orange County area during that entire week so going outside was a limited option.

We wrapped up October with our annual pumpkin carving. This year we went fully political and had three pumpkins that said “Vote, Biden, Harris.” They turned out great thanks to Jenn’s outline and continued a beautiful tradition that her mom started with us many years ago. The month wrapped up with Jenn serving our country and community as a poll worker. She was inspired to do it over the summer and after ten hours of online training and eight hours in-person she began her time at the Newport Civic Center on October 30th. I’m so proud of her and I’m sure I’ll have more to tell next month as she wraps up her 5 days of work as a poll worker. As I write this we’re only a few days out from the election, we’re terrified of what might happen, but all we can do now is continue to put in the work and hope for the best.

TV WE WATCHED

Ted Lasso, Ted Lasso, Ted Lasso. I will be shocked if at the end of the year that’s not my favorite show of the year. Full of heart and hope, something we all need this year. We also watched the end of The Good Place, in which the final episode had me in tears. A truly profound and beautiful conclusion.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

October was a solid month for reading but nearly as exciting as the past couple. I really enjoy the third book in the Lady Astronaut series, The Relentless Moon, it continues to be a fun easy series to enjoy. The Paper Menagerie is a series of short stories that we read for GamersRead that I thought was good although there were a couple of real slogs in the collection. And I finished the month when the epic fantasy, Dawn of Wonder. Its a book that’s been on my list for years and I adored the first half of this book and then completely fell off by the end.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

Jenn and I were so excited for On the Rocks a new movie that was released on Apple TV + this month. It’s too bad it was just an “OK” movie. The best part of all though was just living in pre-pandemic NYC again, it seemed like home. The day after we watched On the Rocks we watched Good Boys with Jake and it was the perfect dumb comedy we needed.