A Look Back - October 2025
October will go down as one of the more consequential months of our year, but we will get to that later in the month. Jenn and I began October by going to see our first jazz concert since returning to California. We discovered that Segerstrom hosts them occasionally, and we were able to see Branford Marsalis, who was fantastic. A few days later, I went down to Riverside for a family day with all the kiddos. It was just the siblings; all significant others were otherwise occupied (Jenn needed to get work done), and so the four of us and all the kids. We hung out at Amy’s house and let the kiddos play both inside and out. As Elle gets older, it’s fun to start to see her interact with her cousins.
The next weekend, we went and met Ally, Tim, Abby, and Teddy at the San Diego Zoo. They have season passes, and Elle has always loved the zoo. Now that Elle is walking, we let her roam around the park with her cousins. She was far more interested in the freedom to walk around than she was in 95% of the animals. It was a beautiful day to be at the zoo, and all the kids seemed to really enjoy it. We were meant to meet Ally and family for lunch afterwards, but as we were pulling out of the parking lot, Elle fell asleep in the car and almost didn’t wake up until we got home. A sign of a good trip!
Family time wasn’t over, though. The very next day was my mom's birthday, and so we drove down to Menifee. Everyone came for my Mom’s birthday, which meant it was a noisy and fun day for all the kiddos. We started the day at a pumpkin patch where we bought all of our pumpkins for the season. After that, we all had lunch at my parents’ house and were able to let all the cousins play together. One of my favorite memories of that day was watching Elle and Gracie sit at the piano, both singing their own songs, playing both together and separately. I wonder if Elle will play the piano one day.
What’s not pictured in October but was a big part of the month was my post-Citadel career. Much of the spring and summer, I spent not thinking about my career, but just being a Dad. Or at least I tried my best; it wasn’t always the case. I kept an eye on the job market, but my focus was to get serious about the search in the fall. September and into October was where I spent more time focusing on what was next for me. I was incredibly fortunate that even in a relatively tough job market, I was able to get interest from some incredible places and received a few offers in the process. Jenn was superwoman, managing her very stressful job, Elle, and Frasier, to let me take interviews. It all culminated in mid-October when I accepted an offer for a Director role at PayPal. I’ll talk more about the role and what that means for our family next month when I actually begin the new job.
With my career decision settled, it was time to enjoy the last remaining weeks of my non-compete and being a stay-at-home Dad. Jenn consistently told me throughout the summer and into the fall how hard it was going to be once the time came to go back to work. She was right (like usual), I really struggled over the last few weeks of October to fully grasp that Elle and I weren’t going to be spending every minute together, so I tried to make the most of the time we did have. That meant going to the park every day, taking Elle to the library to pick out new books, and trying my best to put my phone away and be present. Elle and I met Amy and her kids, and my Mom at the Irvine Great Park. The kids loved it, and next time we will have to take them on the infamous hot air balloon.
Jenn took the 23rd of October off, and the full family, including Frasier, drove up to Oak Glen for apple picking. We try to do this every year, and it was nice to do it on a weekday, avoiding the massive crowds. The drive up was easy with very little traffic, and we arrived at the apple-picking area at around 11 AM. It had been mostly picked through, but we were able to get a bag’s worth of apples, and Elle was even able to grab a few. Frasier wasn’t technically allowed in the apple-picking area, but we snuck him in, and he loved it. We went down to the Oak Glen, a place both Jenn and I regularly visited as kids, and were a bit disappointed to find that much of it was closed during the week. We were able to have lunch at Apple Annie’s, where it felt like the entire restaurant ogled over Elle. We were able to get Elle into the very small petting zoo and later grabbed an Apple Pie before heading home.
One of the things we did really well in October was carve out time for Jenn and me to go on dates. Before the Oak Glen trip, we went to Segerstrom and saw Some Like it Hot, a show we missed on Broadway, and had a great time. When we got back, Jenn’s Dad mentioned it was a very popular movie that we had no idea about. The next weekend, we ventured out to Los Angeles and saw one of our favorite musicals of all time, Hadestown, at the Pantages. It was nice to get out of Orange County and see the show again. It wasn’t as good as it was on Broadway, but the music and the story are still some of the best we’ve ever seen.
As we reached the end of October and the reality of my time as a stay-at-home Dad was coming to an end, we did one of our favorite things in Newport and took Elle and Frasier for a walk around Balboa Island. It is only a few miles away from home, but it feels like we’re in a different county. Elle and Frasier both love looking at the water, and Elle likes to yell “boat” as we pass by each one in the bay.
Of course, the month couldn’t end without Halloween. Jenn did a phenomenal job of picking out Elle’s Winnie the Pooh costume (from Pottery Barn Kids). Elle was by far the cutest Winnie the Pooh I’ve ever seen. Jenn dressed up as Piglet, I was Eeyore, and Frasier was Tigger. Jenn’s Dad and Joan, and her cousin Holly came over to take in the festivities and help take Elle on her first trick-or-treating outing. What we underestimated was that our community didn’t partake in the festivities. At 6 PM, when we went walking in search of candy, not one home was open for trick-or-treaters. When we stumbled upon a house with candy on its porch, you would have thought they were giving away a car with how we all reacted. Even though we weren’t able to get any candy, Elle had fun walking around in her costume, and we will know better for next year.
And that wraps up October. In a year of a lot of changes, October continued the trend (as will November). I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to be a stay-at-home Dad, and for the opportunities I’ve been given. Back to work I go!
TV WE WATCHED
It was a relatively light TV month. We finished the second season of both English Teacher and Platonic. I have a similar recap/review for both of them, which is that they are an exact continuation of what we saw in the first seasons, not much better and not much worse. We’ve been slowly making our way through the latest season of Only Murders in the Building. Sadly, our slow pace is a direct result of a season of the show that is coming apart at the seams. A brilliant show that has started to lose its luster. The other few shows that we watched an episode or two of this month were The Paper, Nobody Wants This, and Murderbot.
But the crown jewel of the month (and maybe year) is the first season of The Pitt. We are hooked. It’s brilliant, well-acted, and one of the most intense shows we’ve watched in a long time. We can’t wait to finish it over the next week or two.
BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)
It was a lighter month of reading this month. I started the month reading Kamala Harris’ 107 Days, recapping her brief Presidential campaign last year. The only time I was more devastated than November of 2024 was in November 2016. And having read both Hillary and Kamala’s recaps of their campaigns, I can say with 100% certainty that we are worse off as a country for not having had them as our President. It was a brilliant and heart-wrenching recap of a great campaign that fell short.
I finished Jeffrey Archer's William Warwick series with End Game. The honest answer is I should have stopped reading this series a while ago. It didn’t go anywhere, wasn’t particularly interesting, and ended flat. I just have a soft spot for his type of writing and know that, given his age, he doesn’t have that many books left.
The best book I read this month was Twice by Mitch Albom. It is a bit duplicative with the movie About Time, but the concept is that the main character is able to relive any moment over again and make different decisions. I wish there were an entire genre of books with this specific concept because the commentary on life, love, decision-making, and human intent is profound. I loved Twice, but at times it did feel a bit too clean, almost like a Hallmark movie. Even still, I loved this one.
The final book and the longest book of the month was the exquisitely written and researched The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. It was such a great read that followed a few black individuals’ journey from the southern United States to the north. It followed them from their earliest memories to their passing. I don’t blame her for making this such a long and detailed book, given the amount of research she did, but my only nitpick was that it did, at times, get mired in too much information.
MOVIES WE WATCHED
Unlike TV and Books, I consumed a lot of movies in October. I’ve been on something of a movie kick lately, and have been toying around with the idea of trying to watch the AFI Top 100 Movies, most of which I haven’t seen. We will see if I get to it! This month I watched 9 movies, four of which were our Friday Night Movie picks:
The Naked Gun (2025) - Joel Pick
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) - Jenn Pick
A House of Dynamite (2025) - Joel Pick
Tremors (1990) - Jenn Pick
Of those, we both loved The Naked Gun, which was fast with its jokes and didn’t overstay its welcome. Jurassic World Rebirth was downright bad, A House of Dynamite was entertaining but ended poorly, and Tremors, Jenn loves, but I do not. Of the other batch of movies Jake and I went to see One Battle After Another at The Lot in Newport Beach. I know it got great reviews, but I didn’t love it. John Candy: I Like Me was a beautiful documentary that showed what a beautiful soul he was, and Honey Don’t! was the worst movie I’ve watched all year.
My two favorite movies of the month were The Last Stop in Yuma County, a thriller that takes place exclusively in a diner in Yuma. It is a movie that slowly builds and builds, and although a bit of a messy end was incredible. Ghostlight has been on my list for a while and was a beautiful movie of a father and daughter and their ability to work through the grief of their son/brother through doing community theater.
GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING
I loved Ghost of Tsushima a few years ago from developer Sucker Punch and am just as in love with its sequel, Ghost of Yotei. It’s one of the few games I’ve pre-ordered this year, and I’m currently 15-20 hours in. I understand some of the story criticism the game received, but for me, it’s just a phenomenal game. And when time is short, I tend to jump into my franchise in Madden.
2025 GOAL TRACKING
Goal #1: Read 50 Books: I’ve read 50 books and hit my goal!!!
Goal #2: 12 Monthly Recaps: 10 for 12!
