Holy hell, what a year.
In January, we started off the year with an absolutely lovely trip to Puerto Rico. I can’t even begin to express how wonderful this trip would have been in a normal year, but in the year that this turned out to be, I’ve been so very glad we were able to look back on that trip.
We also had visits of some good friends from Austin and the Bay Area in February, and made our last out of town trip in early March to a dear friend’s wedding in Austin.
And then…to quote Hamilton…the world turned upside down.
Everyone I know has their own 2020 tale of personal woes. Mine were not nearly as bad as others. But it wasn’t an easy year — professionally, personally, or politically.
On the job front, the role that as recently as January I described as my “dream job” and “the best job I’d ever had” shifted dramatically…I was forced to lay good people off, and to furlough many others. I myself took a pay cut for several months. The boss that recruited me to the company left, as did the boss that recruited her to the company. Overall, we were just in crisis mode for months on end, and it often felt like we’d never get out of it.
However, my team did good — often GREAT — work this year, even though it was hard, and painful, and often thankless. But I try to remain grateful that I had a job, and my hubby also retained his job through the year, so I hardly feel as though there’s any reason to complain.
On the personal front, well, I’ve had all the hobbies. We tried baking, painting, board games, video games, wine tasting, cheese tasting, attended drive-thru events, streaming concerts…we’ve done it all.
However, despite “keeping busy”, I often found that getting through the work day in a productive fashion and making sure my household didn’t run out of anything essential became my sole focus — to the exclusion of my “regular activities” like exercise, gardening, and writing this blog. (Not that there was really that much to write about anyways; we had to cancel 6 separate vacations; Arches & Canyonlands National Parks in April, Las Vegas for my mom’s birthday in May, the Bay Area in June, Kansas to visit the hubby’s family in July, Disney in September, and Detroit in October, plus many shorter family and friend visits along the way…) The drudgery of it all was just overwhelming at times.
And on the political front, while I am very pleased that we’ll be starting the new year with a new president, as the horror show created by the current one created an even darker shadow over the year that was 2020. It often made me feel so sad for our country, and the many, many people that horrible man has bamboozled into following him. (Side note: if you live in Georgia, PLEASE VOTE in the Senate runoff!)
However, sometimes in the middle of something awful, you can still find some beauty, and a little of that happened this year as well.
- We made Tuesday “documentary night” and Friday “award-winning film night.” As a result, we have now seen a ton of movies we’d missed when they came out, including:
- 1917, Jojo Rabbit, Ford vs. Ferrari, When They See Us, Parasite, Knives Out, One Child Nation, Captain Marvel, They Shall Not Grow Old, Science Fair, Toy Story 4, Black is King, Ad Astra, Kusama Infinity, Peanut Butter Falcon, Mountain, Hustlers, Booksmart, Three Identical Strangers, The Death of Stalin, The Work, Dolemite is my Name, Man on Wire, Ant Man & the Wasp, The Act of Killing, How to Survive a Plague, Beerfest, Hitchcock/Truffaut, Plus One, Waltz with Bashir, Shut Up & Sing, Blinded by the Light, Baby Driver, Spaceship Earth, Eighth Grade, Hail Satan, Bombshell, Rodents of Unusual Size, Mulan (live action), Apollo 11, The Post, Pick of the Litter, Amy, Tully, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. (Whew!)
- We also started a quest to watch every feature length film EVER released by Walt Disney Pictures, in chronological order. We’ve watched 48 movies so far, having spanned the years of 1937 – 1960.
- I cooked. (And cooked, and cooked, and cooked.) I’m coming out of 2020 having mastered an amazing barbacoa recipe, the sauces that established my very favorite (now-dead) fast-casual chain, homemade woodfired pizza, homemade shrimp poboys, and most recently, homemade hummus. I was a good cook when all this started, and now I’m even more efficient, resourceful, and creative.
- I also meal prepped quite a bit for next year. I’ve already got a full meal calendar planned out for January, and have spent the time in between Christmas and New Years filling our second freezer with lasagnas, casseroles, meatloaves, enchiladas, and chili. We’ll start 2021 with 40+ total servings of homemade frozen meals fully prepped and just needing to be re-heated, for those busy days when cooking feels too overwhelming.
- We were lucky enough to buy the Peloton treadmill in March, just before they stopped doing new deliveries. Since then, I’ve become one of those annoying Peloton devotees, having completed 116 total workouts this year. We also completed six virtual 5ks to help keep us motivated!
- We filled our “Zoom-based” social calendar with 28 virtual happy hours & birthday gatherings with friends, plus 37 weekly online family brunches, allowing us to still get to see so many of you throughout this crazy year.
Writing it all out like that, adding all the numbers up, helps me to realize just how much there was to be grateful for in this nutty, nutty year. And of course, I am so very thankful that we made it through without getting this horrible illness.
As we turn our attention to next year, I urge all of you to keep your guard up. We’re not past this virus yet, not by a long shot. It will be many more months before most of us can get our first dose of the vaccine, and even then another month until the 2nd dose, and another 2 weeks until full effectiveness after that. And until that point, every time you order takeout instead of eating at a restaurant (even if outside), host a zoom call rather than visiting a friend (even if socially distanced), and delay family gatherings (even if people get tested right before), the more lives will ultimately be saved.
So 2021 will start out much the same as 2020 ended, but with any luck, we’ll have a heavy dose of something that was in short supply in 2021: hope.
(But y’all don’t forget to eat your black eyed peas on Friday, in any case…)
