The Best Parts of 2020

So Long, Farewell!
As I said Good Riddance to the past year, I paused to think about the good things that happened in 2020. It wasn’t all bad, was it? Were there good parts that I’m not thinking about? What was I grateful for? It’s been so easy to slip into negative mind space given everything that we, as a global community, and we as a nation divided, have been through. In addition to all of that crap (I won’t recap the list, because it’s just too long and too depressing), on a personal level I went through a lot of crap, too. I had a lot of unplanned medical issues to deal with year, resulting in lots of trips to various doctors, many vials of blood drawn, tests and procedures (some unpleasant), two surgeries, and as the grand prize at the end of the year, contracting COVID-19 in December.

So, I think I get a free pass on complaining about 2020.

No, it wasn’t as bad as some folks. I know three people who dealt with cancer diagnoses and treatments this year. There are lots of people who dealt with racism (and deal with it on a daily basis). There are people who lost jobs, and lost loved ones, and had to forego planned trips and celebrations. We all dealt with a lot this year, but I think if we all reflect on the year, we’ll find that there was some pretty good stuff in there, too.

On the first day of the new year, I opened the photos app on my phone and scrolled back to the beginning of 2020 to take a trip down memory lane. I took a lot of pictures last year, and found a lot of good stuff in there: pictures of a trip to Ft. Lauderdale in January, lots of pictures of my garden and yard from spring blooms to fall foliage, countless pictures of the doggies in various states of cuteness, fun times with friends prior to the quarantine, ridiculous amounts of food that I prepared (and failed to post on my blog!), and many, many more happy memories. Even though some of those memories were consolation prizes for what should have been, like my daughter receiving her master’s degree via a virtual graduation ceremony online, or our 25^th anniversary celebration locally instead of in Greece as we had planned, they were still good and happy memories not to be forgotten.

Here are my Best Moment of 2020:

JANUARY

My good friend Teri joined the team at work in December of 2019, so it was a thrill to have her around while we were still in the office at the beginning of the year

2. We took a trip to Ft. Lauderdale for my birthday weekend. We got in some fun in the sun, and enjoyed some great meals out.

3. We also enjoyed a lovely birthday dinner out with my husband and girls after we returned home.

4. I had a fun lunch out with Teri and Michelle, before we really knew what this “coronavirus” was all about. Was it just a bunch of hype? So of course we ordered some Coronas with our tacos and crossed our fingers that all would be OK.

FEBRUARY

5. Chip and I took an impromptu trip to Auburn to watch the University of Kentucky Wildcats play. Auburn is a lovely town, the fans were super nice, and it was fun (even tho the Cats lost)

6. I received this fancy award for my performance at work.

7. We had an early February snow, which doesn’t happen often in GA. It was enough to make us stay home and Ziggy LOVED playing in it! It was completely gone within 24 hours.

8. Attended MaryBeth’s Valentine’s Day Concert at the Lumiere Lounge in Marietta. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the singer that night!

9. Celebrated Mardi Gras at Venkman’s listening to a fun band

MARCH

10. All Day Bar Crawl though Midtown with my buddy David and several of his friends. It was an absolute blast!

11. We celebrated Michelle’s birthday with a nice brunch out with a bunch of friends the day after, but I don’t have any pictures of the occasion! I can assure you it was fun. FAIL but fun nonetheless!

12. Started working from home in March and enjoyed attending meetings in my PJs and slippers!

APRIL

13. Since I started working from home, I had more time to devote to gardening and landscaping at home. I ended up growing a lovely herb garden, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, lettuce, and a variety of flowers.

14. Another benefit to working at home was extra time with Ziggy. We went on LOTS of walks!

15. I received a surprise delivery of the BEST chocolates from Teri’s boyfriend. Teri posted a picture of the chocolates and I commented about it, so he sent me some! What an awesome guy.

16. I managed to run a virtual 5K this spring. My time was very slow, but I was proud of the accomplishment.

MAY

17. We got a new puppy! I adopted a 1 year old Havanese from a friend. Daisy has brought us a lot of joy and has been a good companion for Ziggy.

18. Our daughter Madelyn graduated with a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice. We attended her virtual online graduation via Zoom. We followed it with a very small party at our house on Memorial Day weekend with Madelyn, her sister Sydney, and some of their friends.

JULY

19. In July we celebrated our 25th anniversary with dinner at a local favorite restaurant, a trip to that chocolate shop previously mentioned in #13, and a couple’s massage at the spa. It wasn’t our dream trip to Greece as originally planned, but it was a very nice weekend.

AUGUST

20. We had our friends John and MaryBeth over for dinner, but I failed to capture any pictures of them again (like I failed back in February when we saw them at MB’s Valentine’s performance AND in March at Michelle’s Birthday Brunch). But hey! I have these pics of the delicious tomato focaccia and Oreo cheesecake I made!

21. In August Michelle and I met up with Teri to celebrate her birthday with a lunch out at a restaurant practicing social distancing and COVID-19 protocols in place. And a heck of a dessert waffle.

OCTOBER

22. While there wasn’t a lot of fun in the September and October due to my surgeries, I did manage to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather we had while I was recovering.