So… 2021 hasn’t been any shorter or any less stressful than 2020, but I’m trying to look on the bright side of life (a la Monty Python, meaning in a somewhat sarcastic and most definitely irreverent manner) and dig for some silver linings. And I’ve found some, yay! I actually left the sane state of California twice this year. In April I offered to ride shotgun for my friend Ruth’s road trip to Mesa, AZ for a family wedding. We swung through LA and had dinner with my brother Kevin, and I lounged by the pool while Ruth did wedding stuff. In September, I flew to Tucson to visit some friends who recently moved there from the Bay Area and had been raving about. the Sonoran desert. We had a great time exploring, did a bit of wine tasting, found some excellent food, and just enjoyed hanging out. It was warmer than the Bay Area so that was enough of a plus for me. I also had lunch with a Boulder friend I hadn’t seen for 20 years, and met up with a new Mythsoc contact and his wife for drinks and dinner. Some other (shorter) road trips included wine and olive oil tasting in Sonoma, and a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with some wandering around my old haunts in PG.
Back home in San Francisco, restaurant dining became a bit easier, and movie theatres opened up; proof of COVID vaccination mandates eased our minds a bit although we remain cautious. I really liked the new Dune and fell right down the Timothée Chalamet rabbit hole. I am also very glad Part 2 has been green-lit, although of course I have read the book and did a reread just before the new film came out. I did attend one outdoor summer concert (Joan Jett, free in Stern Grove, and yes, she still ROCKS!), and a good number of baseball games, major and minor league (the Giants had an amazing season and we so know we were better than that team down south). SF’s current drought is bad for us climate-wise, but good for outdoor dining in parklets (OK, that’s a questionable silver lining, although often a delicious treat). And it’s raining as I type this.
I’m doing some very light volunteer work for a local historical group, the Western Neighborhood Project, which saved a lot of memorabilia from the now-closed Cliff House restaurant and is showcasing some of it in the pop-up Museum at the Cliff (in the old restaurant gift shop) at Land’s End. I end my tenure on the Jane Austen Society NorCal region board in a few weeks, and thank the Romantic Poets for that. I joined a virtual writing group put together by some old friends in Hawaii, and have surprised myself by penning some fiction and poetry (neither of which I have tackled since college, and what I wrote in college was very, very bad). You can find some of this on my web site, including the continuing saga of Fish Tales. There is way too much interesting stuff streaming away on TV, and still a lot of Zoom presentations on fashion, history, and the arts. And books! This year I’ve been rereading Dorothy Sayers, saving Gaudy Night (my favorite book of all time) as a holiday treat. My top new read in 2021 was The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, a queer, Asian-tinged, magical realist reimagining of The Great Gatsby. YMMV.
That’s it, that’s what’s been lurking beneath the storm clouds during this past year. There have been some health issues, but hey, I’m not getting any younger and things could definitely be worse. (“I’m not dead!” There’s Monty Python popping up again.)
I wish everyone a happy, warm, and stress-free holiday season: remember that it goes until the end of Lunar New Year festivities, at least where I live, so make the most of it. Drink lots of egg nog, watch as many episodes of “The Great British Baking Show” as you like, create a bookhenge in your living space. Give yourself a box of chocolate, a bottle of wine, and a booster shot for whichever gift-giving holiday you celebrate.