Both Westley and I were lucky to have extended birthday celebrations this year. We kicked off Westley’s day with the Deas over pho and boba, then drove down to Sausalito with Melody for a romantic bayfront overnight stay. We watched families disembark their seaplane adventures then dined at Fish, where we were reminded of our visit there 6 years ago. We jotted our memory again browsing shops and galleries in Sausalito next morning, but were disappointed by bonsai hunting and lunch in Berkeley. Fortunately, my actual birthday dinner was tasty, and I even got treats from my lab, technician, and scribe to round out the week. After celebrating the return of Pooja’s lunch buffet next weekend, I flew to Palm Springs for the Macula Society meeting. Renting a car to the resort made financial and logistical sense, and allowed me to rush back for Westley’s birthday dinners over more pho and lemongrass pork rolls with E3. His celebration continued through Chinese New Year as we rang in the Year of the Dragon and our lunar birthdays collecting a dragon tear and completing his Wing Gundam. We even donated paper dragons to Catalyst Kids to share the fun with his class. My next trip this month was a visit to Abbvie. The proximity of their campus to the airport, hotel, and restaurant kept the trip short and focused, allowing me to squeeze in clinic on Valentine’s Day before flying to NYC that night. The early hotel check-in didn’t provide much time to rest after my red-eye. I joined my friend Meenakashi for artisan pizza at Jean-George’s abc kitchen, yawned through my meetings and talk at Mt Sinai, then socialized with the faculty over a cozy dinner at Pascalou before staying up late to prep my lecture next morning. By the time I was done touring NYEE with the chair and filling on Soothr’s lunch special, I was ready to conk out. I somehow still managed to flip through vacation photos and chow down on a whole suckling pig with my parents before passing out for 12 hours. I felt refreshed Saturday snacking through Brooklyn Chinatown with my parents. Despite being fooled by fuzhou-style XLB and tiring on pineapple bun comparisons, we were greeted by an exhilarating lion dance heading into Ji Bei Chuan for their lychee shrimp balls, brown sugar rice cakes, and signature fish maw and beef brisket rice noodles. Sadly, my luck turned south when my return flight got delayed by 5 hours and I learned that my R01 submission was not discussed. As my anxiety set in for an inauspicious year, I will keep my fingers crossed for my fortune to change in the near future.