NOTE: Written on March 2, 2020: Pre knowing just how big Covid was... I decided not to rewrite it because it was a simpler time then.
Holy COW, we're in the 2020s!!! Where did the time go? I recall pondering how old I would be once it hit 2000... sheesh!
But before I dive too deep down that rabbit hole, I want to reflect on 2019. I don't write blog posts on the regular anymore, which is pretty evident by how many posts have been published in the last year. Though it's not because I haven't thought about it. For 2019, I have 4 drafts; 2018 and 2017, 1 draft each, 2016, 3 drafts... you get the idea. I'm unsure if I'll finish most of those, but I am guessing a few of them may see the light of day at some point.
But before I dive too deep down that rabbit hole, I want to reflect on 2019. I don't write blog posts on the regular anymore, which is pretty evident by how many posts have been published in the last year. Though it's not because I haven't thought about it. For 2019, I have 4 drafts; 2018 and 2017, 1 draft each, 2016, 3 drafts... you get the idea. I'm unsure if I'll finish most of those, but I am guessing a few of them may see the light of day at some point.
Overall, it was a good year but not without several challenges. Nothing happened directly to me, but I was impacted (and still am) by some of the losses that were part of last year's journey. One of my best friends lost her father somewhat unexpectedly, while another set of really good friends lost their 2 year old daughter, also somewhat unexpectedly. If anything, the cliché rings true, we are not promised tomorrow. I don't tend to focus on the harder moments but I will say more about some of that a bit later.
Prior to becoming gainfully employed after a long hiatus, my friends and I went to the King Tut Exhibit in LA. From what we were told, it will be the last time that the exhibit toured because they were able to earn enough money to build a permanent installation in Egypt. It was truly amazing how much they were able to preserve, even with all the traveling throughout the world. I am glad I was able to see it. Even though I would love to go to Egypt, I'm not sure when that will become a reality.
We went on our annual trip to Mammoth, which, as always was a blast. That's one of the things I really appreciate about this fine state. An 8 hour drive will take us high into the mountains where the fluffy white snow is a stunning place for winter sports. As any GoT fan knows, last year was the series finale. And while we were awaiting it, my brain was going into withdrawals, which made me "see" dragon formations quite often. The ending was pretty disappointing, but here's hoping IF the books are completed, it will be told in a better way. I don't want to go into a rant about the finale, as I've already mourned and vented enough for the time being.
So, I'm still back among the working class. My "break" was WAY too long for my tastes, though if I were independently wealthy, I would have been pretty darn happy to not work. Unfortunately, this lovely state isn't cheap to live in, so back to work I went. I'm grateful for an awesome team, and how much fun we had for the Halloween contest. Not to mention the 3 escape rooms we got to do, and the gym classes that I'm a bit obsessed with now. LOL.
I was able to do a tiny bit of traveling aside from Mammoth, visiting friends in the Bay area and my family in Vegas. There is something tremendously fulfilling about having reunions with friends that are family. The laughter, the fun; how it feels like no time has passed, even though time sure as heck passes. We had some visitors come through as well, which was great too!
I saw my 4th Janet Jackson concert with my brother in Vegas. Even at 53, she could still move. Maybe not J. Lo at the Superbowl, but she still has game. #goalsformy50s That was very nostalgic too. I don't know a single new song, but anything before 2002, my brain recalled almost every single word.
I got to play softball again! The last time I played was back in 2017, so I was rusty. It was quite the experience, actually. Almost half the team had never played softball before and didn't know any of the rules. We played in a general city league, and to put it bluntly, we had our butts handed to us. There was only one team we were on par with, and when we played them, we tied. That tie, though... was our first non-loss. We were getting KILLED in each game, have the mercy rule of switching positions after 7 runs were made per inning, invoked on us in a good 65% of the games, if not more.
My silver lining to that is that if you see how the team started to how we ended the season, we improved A LOT! The batting was better, the fielding was better, we had some great innings and even whole games where the mercy rule wasn't invoked. (some...) All in all, we had a great time and spoiler alert, we just started the newest season last week in a new league where we won our first game, as a team, EVER!!!
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As a treat, we got reservations for the Blue Bayou. After all these years, I had never been and it was not too bad! We should have waited to get a seat closer to the water, but I'm sure we would have been WAY TOO hungry to wait that long. Next time though.... we will be patient enough to get the table by the water. :) We got on over 15 rides in less than 12 hours, often taking single rider lines to make sure we could get on as many as possible. A few awesome people (who have passes) came throughout the day and though it was a HOT day, it was everything I had hoped for. Disney just has a way of making you feel like a kid again!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We're almost in the last quarter of 2020 right now. What a crazy adjustment it has been and there are no signs that things will change any time soon. But... that's for another post.
