We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary (early) this year.

It was so fun getting dressed up and going out for the evening! We started the night off with some sushi and ramen. Ramen for delivery just does not hit the same way as ramen in a restaurant. It’s always more delicious and satisfying in a restaurant. Probably because it’s nice and hot. And you don’t have to assemble it. We have been craving a nice hot bowl of ramen for a while and this really hit the spot! This was probably our favorite part of the evening.

The big event of our night was a musical at the Pantages Theater! We had so much fun seeing Wicked on Broadway that we wanted to see another! We were hoping to get tickets for Moulin Rouge, but the tour had ended. Instead, we got tickets to see Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill with no knowledge of what the show was about. This is mostly because Cindy doesn’t like watching trailers or reading any synopses because she doesn’t want any spoilers whatsoever. In this case, a review or something might have been helpful. We were hoping for something light and fun. Instead, we walked into something that was heavy and politically charged. We still enjoyed it though and definitely gave us something to talk about on the car ride home. Plus, it had Alanis Morrisette’s iconic “Ironic”!

We had a lot of time after dinner before the show, so we wandered around the Hollywood and Vine area. And checked out Amoeba Music! We felt a little out of place but also so cool at the same time. We feel so lucky to live so near such a famous place.

We had such an amazing evening, spending time together.

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Other Highlights of the Week

Jake gave his Practice Job Talk!! A practice job talk is basically a 1.5-hour presentation of your job market paper. It’s a really big deal because not only is it a chance to practice your “pitch” but also an opportunity to suss out what others think of your paper. These things can get really brutal. A thick skin usually helps. Overall, Jake thinks it went…pretty well! He’s so relieved!

On the same day Jake gave his Practice Job Talk, Cindy came down with a bug and ran a fever nearly all day. Of all the days to get sick, it had to be a day when Jake HAD to be on campus all day. Trying to parent through a fever has got to be one of the worst experiences ever…second to childbirth. Jake was so excited to come home and share how the presentation went and even celebrate with a nice dinner! Instead, he went straight to baby duty and spent the night alone while Cindy slept.

Also this week, Baby R experienced her first major illness. She’s had minor colds here and there. But this week, she caught a virus… we think rotavirus. She had zero energy, no appetite, and an insane amount of diarrhea. We’ve never known Baby R to turn down Dino nuggets or string cheese before. Yet, all week she refused to eat her favorite foods. She wouldn’t drink any water either. We had to resort to Pedialyte pops just to get her to stay hydrated and replenish fluids. It was pretty worrying, her first major illness. But we all survived. Baby R has since bounced back. She ate an entire slice of pizza the other day. Normally, we would be appalled by a 16-month-old eating an adult-sized slice of pizza. But that day we were so happy she was eating again, we didn’t even care.

And finally, we went to our first pumpkin patch of the season!! There’s a small local one that is literally right around the corner from where we live. It’s things like this, having something as special as a pumpkin patch sitting so casually around the corner, that remind us why we LOVE living in the city. We are for mixed-use development! We can go to the pumpkin patch every day if we wanted! We probably will. There is a petting zoo there and Baby R just loooves feeding all the goats and pigs!