We returned to the Vacaville outlets this year to brave Black Friday again. Fortunately, with most online merchants rolling out their deals way ahead of time, I was able to get most of my purchases done the night before. We ordered a Wi-Fi camera to serve as a baby monitor, a motorized deadbolt that can be unlocked remotely, a Capiz shell console table for the guest room, and a pair of W7 speakers from Definitive Technology’s BF BOGO deal. I also found a great deal on a new Google Pixel phone to replace my dying Samsung S5. By the time we got to the outlets, we were able to shop at a leisurely pace, with my wife feeding an intermittently-febrile little Westley while I trolled for a parking space. We ended the day with some work clothes for Melody, outfits for Westley, and gift baskets for my co-workers. I also supplemented my holiday shopping online with some AMEX gift cards and even a DSLR for my lab tech. We unwinded for the rest of the weekend, putting up the Christmas tree, visiting the neighborhood park, and enjoying Westley’s newfound skill in babbling. It was endearing to hear his first words of “da da,” though I’m sure his mom is jealous.

With the weather getting colder and Melody maxing out on her vacation day accrual, we decided to warm up with a few weekday lunch outings at our favorite noodle joints including ramen, pho, bun rieu, and beef noodles. We also tried out the new Boiling Pot in Davis, which offered a variety of steaming Taiwanese-style hot pots including one with stinky tofu and pickled veggies, complete with rice and milk tea. Melody had just finished the first session of her new Massage Envy membership, while I spent some quality time with Westley at the local Starbucks, so we were able to tolerate waiting with starving undergrads during their grand opening. At home, while Melody’s binge-watching the Gilmore Girls to prepare for the show’s reunion, I took a break from the Walking Dead to check out new episodes of Black Mirror and Westworld – a compelling new HBO Sci-Fi series about a Western-themed amusement park populated by android “hosts” where high-paying human “guests” can play out their wildest fantasies. We also tried unsuccessfully to push ahead with Uncharted, as Westley continues to drain what little free time we had. Despite being so busy, we still managed to roll out an impressive spread of Asian dishes for Thanksgiving day, including lotus root soup, tomato-egg stir fry, baby gai lan, a tofu skin salad, bean sprout salad, and scallion pancakes. My in-laws brought the roast duck and stick rice, our yearly tradition, and left the carcass for congee the next day. Since we decided to do lunch to accommodate Westley’s schedule, we were able to hang out in the afternoon over some garage ping pong doubles action, neighborhood tennis drills, and a round of Pandemic. Westley also joined in the fun, despite mounting yet another fever, but we’ll have to see how he handles the rest of the weekend.

When I look back upon the past 24 hours, I can still feel the trauma and despair that came with the unraveling of the presidential election results – the unanimous claims of a certain Clinton victory by pollsters at the beginning, the violent flip of the needle on NYT’s live forecast model, the narrowing paths for Clinton as battleground states fell to the GOP, and the ominous, quiet atmosphere at Javits Center when John Podesta asked supporters to go home. By the time Donald Trump came on stage to start his victory speech, I knew our country will never be the same again. I could almost imagine him saying, “So, Hillary, now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb,” from the annals of Spaceball quotes. The result reenforced my disillusionment with our country. With society. With human nature. That people can be so easily brainwashed by fear and hate. That bullying and bullshitting outplayed dedication and hard work. And that sexism and misogyny remains so ingrained even in a country like ours that prides itself on equality. Melody went to sleep early, saddened by the cold new world in which we’ll raise our baby. Even my parents, who were first-time registered voters, became disillusioned by the results. They had been staying with us for almost 2 months now, helping with the baby, weeding our yards, and even assisting with candy duty on Halloween. Westley wasn’t really down with his penguin costume, although we did a pretty good job shifting his sleep schedule to adjust for DST while Melody was attending a conference in Denver. Now with both of us getting sick again and my parents getting ready to return home tomorrow, we prepare for uncertain, busier times ahead.