2021...eh?
Are we sure...?
This is how a lot of us would probably sum up 2021 - a kind of “Eh?” I always find it helpful to take a concrete look back, so if you’re interested, join me for a bit.-I took a total of 27 weeks of online writing courses. It was three classes total: Memoir I, Memoir II, and a blog writing class. I expected the memoir classes to be great and they absolutely were. I didn’t expect the blog class to be all that interesting or inspiring, yet it was both. It included the most eclectic mix of people and pursuits, from medieval manuscripts to peace management to growing up with a schizophrenic parent and the class itself covered a lot of ground in genre and audience. All three teachers were warm and encouraging with unique and realistic feedback, and as you might guess, my standards for teachers are pretty high.
I also attended an online writing conference and a few random seminars, mostly to learn about the process of querying and publishing. I also joined the National Writing Project’s new online platform with the purpose of connecting with writers from all over the country and writing opportunities. I made an online profile and you had to give yourself a caption. I captioned myself as in the process of writing a book. Because, I am. The goal is to finish it in 2022, maybe by October so I can pitch at the next conference, and now y’all can hold me accountable since I told you about that. I am otherwise keeping it very under wraps.
-I sent a piece out to the so-called real world. I’ve wanted to send it out for a long time but was too chicken. It got rejected, which I was expecting, but man, the evening that I sent it out was about as badass as I’ve felt in a long time. It’s a good piece, and I’ll send it out to other places soon.
-I started a creative writing club for students at my school and it was probably the most fulfilling, validating thing I did in my professional life. Pandemic-willing, I plan to start it up again in late-January but this time in-person. Kids are truly craving validation and someone to simply listen to them.
-I joined Grethchen Rubin’s reading challenge: read 21 minutes every day in 2021. I did it most days. I hit a rough patch (with just about everything) mid-to-late summer but got back on track in the fall. Overall, this resulted in much more reading than usual and consequently, more joy. Favorite book: The Catcher in the Rye, by miles. Currently reading: Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile’s memoir.
-Remember those two weeks in August when things felt a little more hopeful? I squeezed in my return to live music during that window with a Brandi Carlile concert at Wolftrap. All of my musician friends had raved about her but I had inexplicably never bothered to investigate. Having been in a sorta of music rut for the past few years - surprisingly easy to do when your day job is all music - I decided to treat myself and see if I liked her. I didn’t like her, I immediately LOVED her, first phrase of first song. And then she told stories in between songs and I really loved her, as she is extremely grounded. Then I spent intermission reading up on her and her story is fascinating. Needless to say, I have now listened to her entire catalogue and have attended a few of her recent livestreams and if she ever wanted to go shopping with me I’d be okay with that. As a friend said, “I want her to win every award there is.” She’s up for five Grammys in January.
-I re-solidified my love of Gilmore Girls. Two reasons: Scott Patterson, who plays Luke Danes, started a podcast (I’m All In) which isn’t very good but is getting better with listener feedback. He and a few podcast-y people on his team are going through each episode chronologically and deep-diving through it, bringing on guests who were either on the show or on the crew, and they go through all the pop culture references (which are extensive) and I usually learn something new that I somehow didn’t notice the first 47 times I’ve watched. Anyway, it feels like an assignment, this re-watching, when it’s probably just an excuse. I try to pair listening to the podcast with taking a walk, so I get some exercise as a bonus. The second reason: "Gilmore the Merrier" marathon on UpTV during the week of Thanksgiving. I know I can watch it whenever I want on Netflix. I know I can dig out the old DVD player and watch them that way whenever I want, too. But something about it being on live television, the way we all used to bend our schedules to watch it, combined with the deep need to relax over Thanksgiving break, well...I really thrived.
-In October, I became a board member for Reston Children’s Center. Arthur went to preschool there (Matt too, in the 80s!) and he currently is in their school-aged program before and after his kindergarten days. He has loved it there, we have loved it there, and honestly, I was looking for a way to feel more positive about education in general. It’s no secret that things have been brutal for teachers and staff lately, and this little involvement gives me an outlet to feel like I can maybe help in a way that’s less possible in the huge county where I’m employed. Though I’m honestly having one of the best school years ever, I’ve had to set some boundaries within it for my mental health and it’s been refreshing so far to get some outside perspective. If anything, I’ll learn some new skills and meet some new people and feel more connected to a great community.
-I threw a lot of money and time into the now cliche idea of self-care. Specifically, I used a lot of back credits on my MassageEnvy account so that from May through November I could do both a massage and some sort of facial treatment monthly. I do and buy whatever my new bestie Sue, a petite and somewhat direct esthetician at the Herndon location tells me to do. If Sue told me to slather my face with the eyelash dust of a unicorn and that they sold it at the front desk, so be it. My skin is getting back on track - that, or the amount of money I’ve spent on products creates the illusion of back on track. And I highly recommend Liz, the massage therapist I’ve most repeatedly booked, who loves fantasy and sci-fi novels so much that she’s almost convinced me to read one even though it’s my least favorite genre. She’s good people and is great at her job.
-I became a baseball mom in 2021 and it was the happiest thing to ever happen in NoVa. It was all the things and extra things that I thought maybe it would be and we were those parents who practically broke our laptop to pounce on spring registration the minute it opened, as if it were Bowie tickets.
-We are also now kindergarten parents, which is equal parts challenging and hilarious. Like when you see that your kid has chosen to write (and enthusiastically illustrate) a story all about the whoopie cushion that made all kinds of sounds, but then it got a hole, and now it just makes an air sound that goes “wooh”. No details left unnoticed in this literary tale!
-Our little family managed to squeeze in most of our traditions surrounding holidays and travel, and I even saw my beloved NYC twice. We also added some new destinations, and we hosted Matt’s sisters in October, who we had not seen since before the pandemic. My expert travel planning husband still twitches over what could be, but we’ve made the most of these challenging times and are grateful for our health and (mostly) upbeat outlook.
-We also embarked on the most maximized eight month HelloFresh subscription that almost caused divorce, but our cremas and cool heads prevailed. If you are thinking of a new year of cooking with HelloFresh, we hope you have a lot of pots. And bowls. And dish detergent. And maybe not a kid. The food tasted great though, this detail perhaps the most maddening.
-I upgraded my barre studio membership to unlimited classes. Strangely, this has psychologically tricked me into going way more often. Something about the label of being a lifestyle member, even though it was basically the same price I was paying before I snagged a promotional upgrade deal, holds me more accountable to it. Brains are weird.
-I actually kept up with my daily delight notecard box journal such that now when I go to write on the cards in 2022, I’ll see last year’s entry. Sometimes it’s simple and mundane cataloguing of what we did, but most of the time I can remember something silly or sweet that Arthur said, something thoughtful my husband did, or some small triumph in the day.
-We did a lot of mundane stuff too, like renovate two of our bathrooms, get haircuts, oil changes, car inspections, teeth cleanings, physicals, MICHELLE AND I CLEANED OUT THE MUSIC STORAGE CLOSET (believe me, that deserves all the braggy capitals), upped our Halloween and Christmas outdoor decor game, spontaneously planned lakeside picnics, did taxes, nature center program loveliness, movie nights, raked leaves, played a lot of ball, ordered takeout, poured over financial review statements, practiced piano, lost a few pounds, gained a few pounds, fed the cats, picked up crumbs and toys and board game pieces, and watched a lot of Jeopardy! (goooo Amy Schneider!).
Holding our breath a bit into this next year, right? Good luck, everyone.
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