This quarter is a bit intense for both of us- Jon has class until 9PM two days a week (don't feel bad for him, he's taking a sailing class and recently joined the pottery collective. He's fine.) and I'm balancing a busy work season with two seminary classes. This means that our date nights are even more precious! And normally, an Akutagawa date night is eating left overs and falling asleep on the couch catching up on SNL. BUT THIS WEEK WE WENT OUT. FOR AN HOUR.

We tracked down a Thai pop-up restaurant and found out they were at the Santa Cruz Food Lounge + Night Market. Which, apparently, is a thing here, and we had never ever heard of it! It was great! Yesterday night, they had mini arepas, mole, meat pies, and Italian pastries with live music and drinks. Even though we were the only POC besides the Thai pop-up woman, it was nice to be together in a new place. Even though we finished our Chicken Tikka Masala meat pie and sour orange curry with a Thai fried egg in like 15 minutes and then went home to watch Cal crush WSU 37-3, it was exactly what we needed.

A few details:

• The Food Lounge hosts the night market on second Fridays from 4-9PM!
• Their outdoor patio is beautiful and dog friendly!
• The Food Lounge is a community center and commercial incubator kitchen, which means they'll likely be hosting lots of delicious new flavors in the future. 
• Cal's defense was on fire, but my favorite moment was Bower's crazy touchdown:

ICYMI: Cal upset No. 8 Washington State and did it in style. pic.twitter.com/4gtRoXY8TL

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 14, 2017