2020 in review - the personal stuff

[catherineldf]

Ooph. Okay, so here's how the year went, in terms of big events.

• January through early March - started a new job after getting laid off at the end of 2019, participated in a bunch of events, hung out with friends, did stuff, wrote, planned April release for Cinrak, did Mom care stuff.
• Lockdown starts at Mom's nursing home and we get mostly cut off in early March.
• End of March - car accident. I nearly totaled my trusty fit in a parking garage in St. Paul.
• I start working from home, fortunately, since my car will be in the shop in St. Paul for 2 months, as it turns out.
• April 1, my mother Alice, passes away after a brief bout with the flu. She had been failing for quite a while before this, so it's not unexpected, but is still hard. Lots of juggling to get her stuff back, get her cremated, get her paperwork squared away, etc.
• Queen of Swords Press releases The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater.
• A couple of days later, the contractor who I've been trying to schedule with for a year and half calls up and announces he can do our attic remodel right now, but not in a month or six. Construction starts. Lockdown is going in earnest, but our house is filled with construction workers, electricians and other folk. Access to the attic is through the bedroom closet so we're all on top of each other.
• End of April: attic mostly done, apart from some things like putting in a new floor. It is lovely and well-insulated and I like it a lot (which is good, because it was spendy).
• Beginning of May: weird noises in porch roof prove to be squirrels tunneling their way in. $1000 in live trapping and relocating and repairs later, this is addressed.
• End of May: a police officer named Derek Chauvin, aided and abetted by three other officers, murders a man named George Floyd at an intersection 4 blocks from our house. Minneapolis burns and we have a very bad summer in which things are burned down, trashed, closed and otherwise inaccessible and everything feels utterly hopeless and horrible and scary. Helicopters and frequent gunfire are now on my lists of things I Do Not Like. The city reeks of tear gas, chemical weapons and despair. Our drug stores, office supply store, etc. are gone, along with a whole bunch of other things, like our much beloved science fiction and mystery bookstore, Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's.
• Minneapolis and St. Paul step up on the mutual aid though, and some cool bits and pieces of social change begin to crop up. The murals and artwork are often amazing and people go all out to think outside the proverbial box about how to make things better. A bunch of stuff is kicked off elsewhere as a direct and indirect result of our local struggles.
• We "adopt" a local farmer's market and I meet a friend there twice a month, preordering from local farmers so they have consistent sales coming in. We also add a friend to our "pod" and he starts coming over regularly; we commit to ordering food from locally owned restaurants a couple of times a month to support local businesses; and we start attending a couple of benefits a week - concerts, plays, readings, etc., all online or outside. I begin taking a weekly dance/movement class from the Cassandra School, a local Middle Eastern school that also supports Jawaahir Dance, the local Middle Eastern Dance troupe (the school is located in the Hook & Ladder Theatre, a small music and arts venue located next to the ruins of the Third Precinct).
  
•  DreamHaven Books gets broken into, trashed and nearly burned down (the neighbors stopped them in time, fortunately) and a bunch of local fans and pros show up to help clean up and get them back on their feet. I do a virtual talk there  few weeks later in June and it gets featured in Publishers Weekly, along with a plug for their fundraiser.
• July - the aging chimney on our house has to be replaced ($2k).
• August - early September pretty much more of all of the above, minus being on fire. I write, Jana works on projects for her Etsy and picks up some book repairs. We all fantasize about the virus fading away. I go for lots of walk with a friend and there is frequent gunfire in the neighborhood.
• Mid-September - my day job suddenly gets very toxic, going from just being disorganized and boring to me being told that I'm lazy, uncooperative and a bad employee because...I asked my manager what his long term plan was for moving me to a particular project. Cue "beatings will continue until morale improves." And the shower breaks and my car needs an expensive repair.
• Beginning of October, I enroll in a 10 week long program at St. Thomas University to get my Certified Professional Project Manager Certification.
• I also double down to finish Blood Moon, the sequel to Silver Moon, which I've been working on for years. Spoiler alert: I finish a novel and get my certification at the same time!
• So things are looking up, rebuilding and reopening is happening here in the Minneapple, I'm planning a Kickstarter, working on a new novel for my Patreon, planning a new workshop, figuring out new plans and things for next year, including how and when I can leave this job before it boils my brain, reading submissions and...the police shot and killed a Somali American at a gas station less than a mile away last night (we drove by the gas station 6 minutes beforehand on our way to GLOW Fest in St. Paul).
• And here we are. Not sure what will happen next. My condolences to the family and loved ones of Dolal Idd, my hopes no one else will be injured or killed this weekend in the ensuing protests and that we will finally get real justice and much needed change.
• My love to all of you! Thank you for sticking with me, doing the Zoom calls, checking in regularly, stopping by and all the other things. I miss hanging out and I hope that 2021 is a much, much better year all around.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

My goodness, what a year for you . . . and it sounds like it's carrying over to 2021. I'm so sorry about your mother.

[catherineldf]

Thank you! I'm...really tired, amongst other things. Happy New Year! May 2021 be an easier path!