2020 has been, well, 2020. DH and I went on the JOCO cruise the first week of March, we almost cancelled, but I’m glad we went and have that fabulous memory. I had interviewed and gotten the Para pro job in the ASD transitions program working with young adults which I had been hoping for since I subbed there almost two years ago. Schools closed on the day I was supposed to start.
Schools finally opened and we had a month of two hours of live classes in the morning, with online class in the afternoon. Then we closed again and have gone to all virtual. Many of our students have responded surprisingly well to working online, but fully one third are unable to navigate that environment and are missing out on education. Still, I have a job I love and will be happy to get back to it when we go back into the classroom. My DH lost his job (editing an auto website) at the beginning of the pandemic. This threw him onto a pretty serious bout of depression. He dealt with this by talking it out which helped and by deciding to exercise, and he is in better shape than he’s been in for a decade. We ate up our savings and went into a bit of debt until he got another job just last month, but he is now making more than he was and is excited about his new position and the people he works with.
Lost two of my beloved Aunts and and an Uncle and my father in-law this year. That generation is slipping away and it’s very sad. Not being able to gather with family to honor them sucked.
I have been in better touch with old friends online and on zoom and that has been great. Even depressed, my DH is excellent company and we’ve not grown bored with each other during quarantine. We have binge watched endless hours of Scandinavian Noir and true crime, leavened by “The Repair Shop” and we take long rides trying to discover new towns whenever we feel housebound. I feel endlessly lucky to share life with him.
Thank you, Buffistas, for your good counsel, your many and fascinating enthusiasms, your humor and your deeply generous hearts.
Just a driveby post.
We received a digital Christmas card from a vendor in India who wished us "Season's Greetings. Here's to a cheerful holiday and a fresh 2021." I don't know why I find that so charming but I do. Maybe the mental picture of a landscape just washed by rain, with everything all clean and full of possibilities. So I wish all of us a Fresh 2021!
I'm glad I got to spend a week in the LA area in February, first for a family wedding, then a couple days in Disneyland, and then a con. It was a great trip, and given those three events, I'm incredibly glad that no one was sick or got sick.
The rest of the year, yeah. The other great thing to happen was getting hired full-time by the place I'd been contracting with. It's a great relief to have benefits again, a few months before COBRA ran out. My coworkers are sensible people, my manager is great, and they haven't had a tech writer on the team before, so there's a lot of stuff I can contribute quickly, and there's a lot of variety.
My family has escaped any serious illness. I miss singing in a choir and eating in restaurants. I miss seeing my friends and the places we usually go. Husband has a covid risk factor, so I'm hoping that that he at least will get the vaccine soon. Same for our parents.
May next year be better.
Oh, and naturally I forgot the other sort of big thing but not really big? Over the course of about a month, I figured out that I was bisexual and came out to my husband and friends. Still married, no plans to change that, and no plans to tell my family, just because of privacy. Weird to have that kind of revelation which means nothing but also means a lot? Mostly it's meant more thirsting over women with my pan friend.
Dana, thanks for sharing that with us!
Congrats on the self-revelation, Dana. Sometimes coming out to one's self is the hardest to deal with. Once that's done, the rest is pretty navigable.
As Captain Holt said, every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place.
Nifty of you to keep learning who you are, Dana!
As Captain Holt said, every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place.
Concur! Thanks for sharing that with us, Dana.
Congrats Dana! And thank you for sharing your new knowledge with us! And you can ALWAYS find people to thirst with here.
