Just weeks after inauguration, the Trump presidency has already offended most of our allied nations, rolled out a xenophobic travel ban, displayed shady links to Russian intelligence, and unveiled blatantly cronyistic cabinet appointments. Between the fear-mongering rhetoric and alternative facts from the White House, SNL and the media have been struggling to expose the emerging bigotry in our country. These uncertain times recall the fascist state in the recent second season of The Man in The High Castle, which showed better pacing this season and led up to a thrilling finale. I also finally got around to watching the last season of Continuum, which also concluded with a satisfying, yet convoluted ending. Finally, this weekend marked the end of our recent adventures with Lara Croft. Her new game was a good exercise in game play and level design, but ultimately was hampered by the bland storytelling. At home, we began planning for new bathroom renovations with visits to Ferguson and Arizona Tile, while also finding more home decor in Roseville from Z Gallerie and Pier 1. On the way back, we discovered a new upscale Chinese restuarant called Yue Huang along I-80, which was surprisingly authentic and served dim sum on a weekday! The recent torrential rain has managed to get us out of the historic drought, but not before causing significant water damage around our windows. Between meeting assessors and contractors, and being inundated with student requests for research projects, I decided to take a day off with Melody on Valentine’s Day to play hookie, lunch out at Davis Noodle City, and stroll around downtown Davis. We also invited the in-laws for a dim sum party to celebrate Westley’s first birthday this weekend, although he seemed more intent on poking the cake than eating it. It didn’t help that he and his mom are still getting over colds, but we hope that his newest set of vaccines from the pediatrician will take care of all that.

This weekend was a confluence of celebrations as my son and I both celebrated our lunar calendar birthdays, which also coincided with my actual birthday this year. On Friday, I brought Westley to his first visit to an allergist to confirm his peanut allergy, then enjoyed cake and balloons from my clinic staff in the afternoon. We braved the crowds the next day to celebrate Chinese New Year with Melody’s cousin at Asian Pearl, making sure our baby gets properly indoctrinated into the habit of collecting red envelopes and ordering dim sum. On Sunday, I volunteered my birthday morning at the Paul Hom clinic before joining Melody for delicious soup dumplings at the aptly named Journey to the Dumpling in Elk Grove. The festivities were not over when I returned to lab on Monday, when I found out that I received the Genentech AMD Fellowship from the ARVO Foundation. I took my technician Eric out for Chengdu Style lunch to celebrate the grant and his acceptance to grad school. With Westley’s recent move to the toddler room at daycare and advancement to more solid foods, we were excited to share more of our meals together. His increased mobility, however, also necessitated new corner protectors for our furniture and baby gates at the top and bottom of our stairs. He has also attained the new skill of pointing with his finger, which has somewhat improved our ability to communicate with him. It’ll be interesting to see what else he can come up with next.

They say that with a kid, you no longer have vacations; you take “family trips.” So with Westley now almost a year old, we took our first family trip down to Monterey. It certainly was no vacation, starting with the whole family coming down with sinus symptoms and chills last Saturday. Luckily, little patient zero was in good spirits, so we drove to Fremont for an HK-style lunch of baked pork chops and noodles with one friend, then visited another friend in San Carlos for dinner. At our Palo Alto hotel, we put Westley and his pack-n-play in the bathroom overnight, but we did not account for midnight bathroom needs and a chilly room. The next morning, we ate with my aunt at a Vietnamese buffet. Westley sampled indiscriminately but managed to survive to reach our beach bungalow in Pacific Grove that afternoon. The rental turned out to be our best decision, as we were able to set up play areas for him and could even put him to sleep in a separate room. We dined at Monterey’s Fish House, where the chowder was redeemed by the cioppino and Sicilian holiday pasta, then had a round of Scrabble before bed. Since the forecast predicted rain for the rest of the week, we jammed our outdoor activities into Tuesday. After breakfast, we hiked the Cypress Grove Trail, then had lunch on Old Fisherman’s Wharf at Sandbar and Grill. After crab club and fish sandwiches, we fed our chowder cravings with free samples along the wharf. We enjoyed the butterflies at Monarch Grove Sanctuary, then drove a scenic 17 miles to Carmel-by-the-Sea, where we browsed art galleries and fairy-tale architecture before dining on excellent tapas at Mundaka and ending the evening with Pandemic. We took the next day more slowly, with a late morning nap after breakfast. The no-stroller rule at the Fish Hopper took us by surprise, but we still enjoyed the pasta. We exhausted ourselves in the afternoon watching marine wildlife with Westley, so we retired early and I cooked instant noodles for dinner. On Friday, we were banished to Red House Cafe’s back room for breakfast, but took our time afterwards to pack and nap before leaving for Santa Cruz and our ocean-view room. Westley tolerated the winds at the Natural Bridges State Beach and a nice dinner at La Posta. But our attempt at another game of Pandemic by headlamp with Westley in the same room did not end well. After a night of all three of us co-not-sleeping, we were happy to receive hand-delivered hot chocolate in the morning. Since the owners of Picnic Basket closed shop to attend the Women’s March in D.C., we ate at Zachary’s for breakfast and had hearty feijoada at Cafe Brasil on the way to Half Moon Bay. The scenic coastal drive up US-1 afforded multiple photo-ops, including Pigeon Point Lighthouse. However, we were more impressed by the view from our penthouse suite at the Beach House. After fresh handmade pasta at Pasta Moon, our sleeping arrangement improved dramatically with Westley sleeping in one corner of the bedroom with no line of sight to the living area, where we saved the world yet again from pandemic. After brunch at a friend’s new house, we headed home, stopping in Berkeley for a set of glasses and Richmond for 99 Ranch and Daimo. Westley had a blast exploring new places and seeing new faces during this trip. We concluded, however, that we are not ready for him to travel with us internationally this summer.

We got another 4-day weekend for New Year’s this year, but Westley’s daycare remained open on Friday. We took advantage of this to go watch the new Rogue One. Our last movie date was a year ago for the last Star Wars movie. This story in comparison felt more unique with impressive visuals and many funny moments, although everything felt a bit rushed. Meanwhile, I continued expanding my smart home network with a Ring Pro video doorbell to serve both as front-door surveillance and visitor intercom. On New Year’s Eve, we celebrated with some Moscato and champagne cake over a game of Scrabble, with Carson Daly and Dick Clark playing on TV. The rest of the weekend was spent chilling out at home – napping, chowing down on rice cakes, and trying out Rise of the Tomb Raider. This sequel to the reboot of the 20-year-old franchise felt like a cross between Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed, and seemed pretty engaging so far. Although we felt a little unaccomplished just lounging about this weekend, we look back upon our challenges in parenting this past year, and prepare for a new year of adventures ahead.

As the holidays approached, we were glad to have grandparents available nearby to watch the baby as we attended my department’s holiday party and my wife’s division gathering. Westley got to come with us to my mentor’s holiday party, and even enjoyed some of the Chinese food there. In fact, he seems to have a general preference for Asian foods like rice, noodles, and congee. We’ve also exposed him to more exotic foodstuffs, from cumin and coriander to tofu and liver pate. His culinary journey was stopped short on Thursday, however, when he sampled a bit of peanut butter on toast. Within minutes, he was red, swollen, and agitated. I rushed to Target for some baby Benadryl. But when my wife called to tell me it was getting worse, I told her to call 911. I got home and saw him surrounded by fire-fighters, but could hardly recognize his little swollen face. Fortunately, after getting Benadryl, epinephrine, and solumedrol at the Sutter Davis ER (where we had just been for Melody’s appendicitis), he was looking much better. We nevertheless kept him under observation overnight at UCDMC, where ironically I wasn’t even on call. On Saturday, we went for noodles and dumplings with the in-laws, and made sure to bring along our EpiPen Jr. We then celebrated Westley’s first Christmas with unwrapping of presents, followed by a trip down to Stockton for crabs with grandma and grandpa. We spent the rest of the 4-day weekend relaxing at home, finishing up Uncharted 4 and getting my mind blown by the WestWorld season one finale. I also binge-watched the third season of Black Mirror, where the episode “San Junipero” particularly resonated with us. The story of two women with disparate pasts who find love in a virtual world left us feeling warm and fuzzy to the tune of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth.” Despite our four trips to the ER this year, we were reminded of how fortunate we are to find love with each other, and to have Westley in our lives.

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.

Despite being still drugged up on cough syrup and cough drops, I was determined to keep our plan to see Pentatonix live in concert for their one-night-only show in Sacramento. Since my parents were still in town, we were able to enjoy a dinner date at Grange before heading to the brand new Golden 1 Center for the concert. This was our first live-band concert in many years, so we decided to splurge for third-row seats, just behind the mosh pit. The show opened with a lackluster set by Abi, a Nashville-based country/pop band with a Letters to Cleo vibe; followed by a more impressive American folk pop duo called Us the Duo, featuring husband-and-wife Michael and Carissa Alvarado who showcased a variety of hits including one they premiered as their wedding vows. Of course, the headliners stole the show, as the team of a capella all-stars showed off popular covers like their Michael Jackson and Daft Punk medleys, and originals like Can’t Sleep Love. Our breaths were also taken away by Mitch’s vocal range and Kevin’s beat-boxing to Bach’s Cello Suite. The late event made it hard for me to wake up Friday morning for more meetings about the new Eye Center building. I went home for a quick lunch with the family at our new local Chinese place Hong Kong Cafe, then was off again to the Allergan campus in Irvine for the “FIRST” immersion program. There, I got to catch up with other “innovative retina stars of tomorrow”, in addition to learning much about the expansive research facilities at Allergan. My cough was much better by the time I got back, and we had both sets of grandparents over to enjoy some hot pot with Westley. After five nearly consecutive trips over the past month, I was relieved to be finally home again to spend time with the family.

With my wife just discharged from the hospital and myself suffering from both laryngitis and bronchitis, my arrival in Chicago for this year’s AAO annual meeting began rather inauspiciously. Since the Academy is primarily a social gathering, my inability to carry a conversation without hacking up a lung severely limited what socializing I was able to do. It also didn’t help that I was featured on the cover of the meeting program this year, which led to a lot of congratulatory text messages and even more social calls than usual. On Friday, after checking into my hotel, I joined our residents and fellows at the Cornea Society party, which as in prior years has become bigger, louder, and darker – I could barely see or hear anyone there. Next morning, I was glad my booth talk at Zeiss was sparsely attended, and I enjoyed a private preview of upcoming features for their intraoperative OCT system. After grabbing lunch with a collaborator from UCSF, I attended a few final sessions from Subspecialty Day, which again taught me nothing new and reinforced my decision not to register for this event again. I rested at the hotel until the evening, then stopped by the Harvard alumni reception before dinner with the Allergan team including their CEO. My voice had not recovered much by Sunday, which made for a rough morning teaching two Skills Transfer courses. I was consoled, however, by a participant who came up after my talk to commend my teaching style and confirm that I was the author of the 300-slide board review powerpoint which had apparently gone viral and passed between trainees across the country. For lunch, I had some chicken pho with a fellow clinician-scientist at UW to soothe my throat, then returned to the conference to see my resident’s poster win best-in-category. By the time I returned to ORD for my flight out, I felt like I had spent more time conversing with Uber drivers than with actual friends at the meeting. Despite lamenting my bad luck for getting sick, I was nevertheless glad that I have no clinical or call duties when I get back next week.