Goodbye 2021.

 1.  What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?

Drove off road with my brother out in Twentynine Palms, CA.

Visited the NY Botanical Gardens

Saw Springsteen on Broadway

Saw Sara Barellies in Waitress on Broadway

Packed in as many Broadway shows + concerts as possible as soon as NYC opened its doors again this fall

Went to Shakespeare in the Park

Spent a week in the Outer Banks

Went on more blind dates than I ever have in one year

Long weekend in Sedona

Successfully celebrated my Dad’s 80th birthday with family in NJ

Got the vax + boost against Covid-19

2.  Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

This is what I wrote last year for 2021:  Be Open and Keep the Faith.  Seek out goodness and joy whenever possible.  "Focus on the next right thing."  I'd like to remember that mantra throughout 2021 when I feel overwhelmed - just take it bird by bird. 

I tried to do all of the above throughout 2021. I mean, it was a hard year. A really hard year.  But I know I did the best I could and I should be satisfied with that, even if on some days the best felt extremely challenging and not nearly good enough.

One of my dear friends, Matt, lives in Chicago. He texted me earlier this month about a sign he’d spotted.  Someone had printed something on a label maker and stuck it on a light pole near his apartment.  The sign read - “Everything can still happen.”

Matt went on to write: “All the things you’ve ever wanted to do and haven’t, that *maybe* in your heart of  hearts you’re starting to worry about are ALL still on the table.  Everything can still happen.”

So there we go, 2022 - “Everything can still happen.”

And a few other goals: take a pottery class, play the piano again, remember to fill up my own cup before others, take myself on adventures new and old, read only what I truly care about reading, keep going even when I’m scared, look at my phone less often, write my book.

3.  Did anyone close to you give birth?

One of my friends up in Boston had a baby boy.

4.  Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Sadly, none.  Thank you, pandemic.

6.  What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?
More actual facetime with family and friends, more opportunities for travel and adventure, more time for writing, more love, more time, more perspective.

7.  What dates from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
January, for a new president and administration. April, for my chance to get the vaccine.

8.  What was your biggest achievement of the year?
As the world got smaller, doing my best to focus on the things I could control - walking every day in the park, streaming a lot of yoga classes, writing in my journal more, saying yes to opportunities when they arose, and doing my best to just get through these strange and surreal times one day at a time.

9.  What was your biggest failure?
Not writing enough. Doubting myself.

10.  Did you suffer illness or injury?
Thankfully, no.

11.  What was the best thing you bought?
tickets to Broadway shows and any and all theater and live music opportunities.

12.  Whose behavior merited celebration?

Dr. Fauci, our nurses and doctors, those who did their best to stop/control the January 6th rioters, anyone who stood up for justice, those who are simply kind to another human being just for the sake of being kind.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The anti-vaxxers.

14.  Where did most of your money go?
Rent, the general cost of living in New York City.  As the twitter post that was making the rounds earlier this year said: Me - wakes up. NYC - that’ll be $35.

15.  What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The few chances to travel, opportunities to see friends and family in real life versus on a computer zoom screen, the Covid vaccine! and the return of Broadway!!

16.  What song will always remind you of 2021?
 Mumford and Son’s Forever

17.  Compared to this time last year, are you: a)happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
a) sadder

b) fatter

c) about the same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travel to and exploring new places, more reading and writing, giving myself permission to quit a book without guilt if I'm not feeling it.

19.  What do you wish you'd done less of?
Wasteful phone scrolling, worrying about things that don’t really matter, feeling homesick and missing a lot of my good pals.

20.  How will you be spending Christmas?
I was in Georgia with my Mom and our sweet corgi, Tully.

21.  Did you fall in love in 2021?
It’s complicated…but I guess, nah.

22.  What was your favorite TV program?
I May Destroy You.  Amazing and brilliant writing. I feel like it should be required viewing for all.

23.  Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

24.  What was the best book you read?
Writers & Lovers by Lily King and Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don’t know that I really discovered much that was new this year. I listened to Sara Barellies A LOT.  I got to see Nathaniel Rateliff, Kamasi Washington, Josh Ritter, and St. Vincent live this fall when life felt a tiny bit back to normal. I was immensely grateful to be back at live shows while I had the chance.

26.  What did you want and get?

More actual face time with family and friends, the opportunity to travel a bit more than in 2020, a vaccine(!) to be able to go on my annual yoga retreats again, the chance to take my favorite Boston yoga teacher’s classes even while in NYC, a neighbor/pal in my Upper West Side neighborhood.

27. What did you want and not get?

More time to write and read, to visit international destinations, to see other far flung friends, to find someone special while aboard the 2021 dating train.

28.  What was your favorite film of the year?
Promising Young Woman.

29.  What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 42.  I was visiting my Mom on my birthday. I took the day off of work, went to an in person yoga class, heard from dear friends and family, and went out to dinner with my Mom at the end of the day where we randomly met a funny, handsome, kind of a player Australian.  Ask me about that story sometime. It was a good, memorable birthday.

30.  What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
No more pandemic.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?
Ha! Non-existent and also somehow all over the map.

32.  What kept you sane?
yoga, walks in Central Park, walks anywhere, being outside, getting up to New England for my Boston fix, getting back to Broadway, my friends and family, writing.

33.  Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Sara Barellies. She is the best.

34.  What political issue stirred you the most?
The storming of the Capitol building. Trump insisting he “won” the election. Texas and its abortion laws.

35.  Who did you miss?
My Grandma, my friends in Boston and beyond, my family.

36.  Who was the best new person you met?
My friend and pal, Scott S. One of the kindest and most thoughtful people I know.

 37.  Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021.

This life is so breathtakingly beautiful and also so terribly ugly. And at times it can all be so damn hard…but I try and remember, no matter how bad it is, it’s just weather.  Look how fast it can change.  Calmer seas always (eventually) come after the storm.

Also, time is elastic.

38.  Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

What you didn't do to bury me

But you didn't know I was a goddamn seed

…

Hand me my armor (Armor by Sara Barellies)