2020 – What the heck was that? – All The Places I Will Go

2020 Review

We made it! I know turning a year doesn’t magically mean all we endured last year suddenly poof goes away, but man what the heck was that?

I don’t mean to make light of anything anyone has gone through, what and or who you may have lost. It was a big hit to everyone this year one way or another and some went through it more than most and to all of you I extend my heart out to you. I wish I could wrap so many people into such a big hug as I watched them hurt throughout the year, know that I did send my hugs out virtually to everyone of you even if I didn’t tell you I did.

All I can say is that every time we go through hardships we are learning a lesson we needed to learn and we grow along the way. Honestly my darkest moments and memories when I didn’t know how I was going to fight my way out of a wet paper bag I was in it so deep. The time passed, I kept going through the motions (if only it was to fake it), I made it to the other side and honestly when I was able to come up for air again I had changed. I had grown and as much as hated what I went through and wouldn’t want to wish those feelings on anyone, I would not trade those moments for anything as they became my biggest defining factors to who I am and where I am know. I think 2020 will be that for a lot of people although it may take longer to be able to look back and see what we learned and how we grew from it.

So let’s get into it, borrowing from myself and using that same format from last year.

Surprise, surprise! Pulling together my top images from Instagram from 2020 I know it must come as no shocker I didn’t post that much. I lost a lot of motivation and mojo on the creative side this year as I am sure many others did, but I will say I gobbled up any creative content those who crushed this year creatively put out. Here are my top 9 of 2020 (yes, I was shocked I even had 9 images to pull from last year).

So as much as I had goals for the year (see below) and didn’t really achieve much if any of them, this year wasn’t a complete loss, so highlighting some of the positives.

2020 Goals

Monthly or Quarterly Recaps – Not a chance
Photograph More – Very Much No
Continued Travel – Ha, that’s funny!!!
Get Caught Up – Depends on what you look at, some things yes, other things horribly no
Print! – Yes!!!

So what will I want to do for 2021? Lets just shift some of those intentions/goals from 2020 forward shall we.

Personal
- Balance
- More Quality Time
- Be Present
Mind/Body
- Meditate more
- Workout (anything goes here)
  - Fat Pants back to Fat Pants vs everyday pants (haha)
- Drink more H2O
- Travel (if we can…)
Growth
- Read More
- Learn More
- Monthly or Quarterly Recaps
Creativity
- Photograph More
- Get Caught Up
- Print!
- Website Growth

So what did 2020 look like?

January started off with the best of intentions. Cat Yoga was continued, and I tried a few new workout places. I made the hard decision to start selling off some of my photography gear to get some new items I wanted to have in my arsenal for the year ahead. I got some of my travel vaccine booster shots (you know gotta keep that yellow book aka the international vaccinations current).

February started off on a wintery adventure in Yellowstone where we enjoyed quite a few laughs with friends, watching the bison root around in the snow, snowmobile adventure to a top of a mountain (followed by some fun feathery/tree moments on the way back down), a few ghost towns with our very own “gun toting cowboy” to enjoy a few shots of whiskey with. I got super excited as I was able to book out a trip in June to go visit some bears in Alaska. Such hope, such optimism.

March, oh March…. Well first things first, I needed to renew my passport for my trip in August. So I sent off that little nugget off to be processed, since this is my passport for the next 10 years, and I expect it to be epic, I opted for the extra pages. Of course I get a little shaky without my passport so I got that back within a few days. 2 days later the world shut down, and that became the most expensive useless thing I purchased this year. That said a few nights before Mother Nature sent us all to our rooms for being assholes I sold off the rest of my camera gear, well my Nikon camera gear, as I decided to finally commit to the Sony line and I upgraded my primary camera body. Good thing I built out my editing suite last year as my new work from home situation didn’t miss a beat as I set myself up in my workspace.

April Fool’s Day started out interesting, not a joke much to my chagrin as I had an “entertainment” mouse in the house and the next few days was up with all the antics to play a little catch and release of our new furry friend. I had my quarantine unbirthday (birthday age progression does not count in 2020 I’ve decided). Kept adapting to work as an ever changing direction, hours, etc. downtime was hard without a physical break between work and home. Poor Cooper had his first quarantine vet appointment due to a paw injury. ☹

May was the official nail in the coffin to some big trips I had planned for the year (not that they are cancelled rather than postponed until 2021). It also saw the demise of my dishwasher and my refrigerator was giving signs and indications that it was soon to follow. Since I am clearly not traveling any time soon, what better way to keep me occupied that with a house project. What does that mean, well if you’ve followed me for a while you know that the house refresh was going in phases and while the kitchen wasn’t on the books for this year initially it was time to get my hands dirty and tackle it head on.

June brought on some financial drama as my bank allowed someone to steal a heap of money out of my account, I had to laugh as the person who stole it did it in Corona, Ca. Of course Corona…but to sort it out I had to go to the bank masked and demand money, like some old wild west situation. I’m all about flipping a negative into a positive so I took this opportunity to reassess my entire financial outlook and make some adjustments I have had on the backburner for quite some time.

By the time July rolled around, my minor attempts to continue to workout had gone by the wayside, and now I just sit and eat all the snacky snacks in the house. I was able to do some virtual volunteering at a camp for a week which was a nice break from the normal work routine.

August was the end of the kitchen project, apparently I wasn’t the only one updating their kitchen during this time as many things were either on backorder or booked so far out that it took quite awhile to get things done.

September I started my new distraction, I have a nice new kitchen after all, and went back into cooking mode. I used to cook all the times years ago, enjoyed it a lot, but it just wasn’t a priority so it fell by the wayside. So I now annoy most of my friends with my weekly/biweekly timelapse cooking series.

October, can it be that I have been cooped up inside the house for over 6 months now? I mean I am a homebody naturally so it wasn’t all bad, and I enjoyed the bonding time with the cattos, but I do like my balance of getting out into the great wide open. I felt okay here is a quick window before I expect the world will shut down again (not that it really opened up but we had a little more opportunities during the summer) and I went off exploring Zion with a small group (with all of the protocols in place for covid). I can’t believe its been so long since I’ve been able to see the world. I didn’t take as many pictures on that trip as I just enjoyed soaking up the scenery. However I came home to the reminder that this year is about your home and making it cozy as my furnace decided it have lived a good life and wanted to go peace out before winter hit.

November wasn’t too exciting (beyond waiting for the election results that would never end), I rearranged furniture once or twice, trying to mix things up/reignite creativity/flow, cooked, and generally just kept moving things forward.

December comes about, now you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned much about photography this year. Well, the downside of my editing suite being transitioned to my home office is the last thing I want to do now is to continue to sit in the space when I am not working and my motivation to work on photo’s, enhance my website, etc. etc. was gone. Since my brain needs my balance of creativity, I decided to shift backwards and migrate back to the old couch to do website/editing (not ideal but its better than nothing).

2020 Thoughts

An unexpected year, things may have been delayed, daily interactions changed, focuses and goals adjusted but overall seeing the positive side to things. It was a get back to basics year, take a beat, slow down, have quality time, focus on health and home. I had the opportunity to get some things crossed off the old list around the house that I’ve been putting off for quite an extended period of time and I have loved spending day in and day out getting lots of extra bonding time and cuddles with the little fur babies, I don’t know what I would do without them. As much as introvert me has enjoyed this time I cannot wait to go explore the world and to have a drink with friends (hopefully I won’t accidentally smother them after first giving them with the biggest hug in the world).

I proactively apologize to any and all for future in person interactions as I think you may have forgotten my weirdness…