Year-end reflection

 
Let's do the year-end reflection now. Why not?
I will use different groupings than usual.

I wanted 3 things this year....

I wanted Trump to be gone, me to still have a job, and things to end well in canon for my OTP of a show that I've been obsessed with for a year and a half. I got all three. Weird.

The Saturday after Election Day when the race was called was grand, as was watching all the celebrations on CNN.



Fandom

• Fandom in 2020 was....awesome. The year started with my flying to Vancouver for Unity Days, a con for The 100. (My last flight since COVID, presumably my last flight for a while). Unity Days was....awesome. I got so much time with the actors who play my OTP. They were....awesome. (I will stop using that adjective but know that I really mean it!) Damn this con was good. I'm doubly glad that I went because the one that was supposed to take place in April keeps getting postponed. (Which is a good thing, though I wish they'd take it online)
• My birthday in September, I won the triple crown. One of my OTP's actors (Sachin) wrote me a birthday DM on Twitter! Two people wrote me birthday fanfic featuring my OTP. And the episode of The 100 that aired like the day before my b-day contained a post-sex scene of my OTP something I had never, ever dreamed I'd get. (And Sachin even replied to my tweet about it where I asked if people could hear me screaming all the way from Chicago)
• Then I got into Spartacus, wrote a fanfic, and got way more comments and kudos than I'd dreamed. I love it, love the praise, and my OTP in Spartacus also got to ride off into the sunset together in canon. (Sidenote: I wonder if I will ever again ship a couple that is not M/M. Hmmm).  (Also, edited in later....since I made this post 2 hours ago, I've gotten 4 more glowing comments on my fanfic!! Damn this fandom is generous with praise and I love it beyond all words!! I am practically dancing around the room now) 

Also about my birthday...

Doris's gift was so good and so perfect. She got notes from my friends and family and put them inside Little Free Libraries for me to discover.

How can you talk about 2020 without talking about COVID?

I can't. I've said that if Doris and I come out of this with our lives and without being financially ruined, then we are lucky. So far we are. Most Americans and many outside the US are not so lucky.  

Some books I loved

I read some great books this year! This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Fiction:

Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis 

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier

Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Nonfiction: 

This is What America Looks Like by Ilhan Omar

Minority Leader by Stacey Abrams 

Grilled by Leah Garces

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DeFranco

Oh, and my eyesight Went To Hell This Year - I should officially note that my eyesight went down the crapper this year. Before 2020, I used reading glasses to read in bed before sleep. On the plane to Vancouver in January, I noted that I could barely read the book in front of me and wished my reading glasses hadn't been packed away. I basically wear readers all the time now. Haven't been in the office since March and didn't used to bring reading glasses to it, but whenever I go back, I will have to keep a pair there as I can't read a computer screen without them.



Thank you to anyone reading this. Love you!