12 Good Things About 2020 (for me)

The sun sets on 2020, and in the past I made a list of "best things" about the year. This year,  my list is shorter. No travel, but lots of learning. This will not be in chronological order, or in order of importance.  Except for the first one, the things will be posted as they come to my mind as I relax with this adult beverage.

The BEST thing that happened in 2020 was that we got the current occupant of the White House OUT! I know there's still resistance and craziness being exhibited by this immature loon, but we organized, mobilized, persisted, and voted! More of us than them, so we won. 

I had a really nice birthday in October.Lunch at Magic's, dinner at Royal Thai, and brunch the next day at Papa Kona's, all with special people in my life. Also, I turned 65, which means I have Medicare, which everyone should have, 

I have this secret (not anymore, I guess) - that I want to be a song-writer. I never really wanted to sing, except in a choir,  but I love songwriting. I wrote this protest song and gave myself the goal to practice and post it sometime before the election. And I did. Working on another one. Wanted to do it before 2020 was over but not gonna happen. Soon though.

My friend's granddaughters had their schooling disrupted so their mom asked if I would help. I have had fun hanging out with these two, one a first-grader and the other in pre-school. We were worried about the first grader more than the other, but she has since progressed and think she will be okay when school resumes. 

I developed a habit. I walk every single day. There have been very few exceptions. I learned that it rarely rains in my vicinity in the mornings so if I wait til the afternoon, there is a 50-50 chance it'll rain, and then there goes my walk. Most days, I walk around my neighborhood and to the next street, but on Saturdays, I do the highway, a longer walk, 

Back in early March, before pandemic restrictions. a friend from college came for a visit. We had reconnected at a reuni9n several years ago, and became Facebook friends. She brought a childhood friend of hers and they were staying at another long-lost friend who had moved to Kona.  I love when people visit. I took them here to Kiholo, among other things. 

Though I will miss her when she eventually moves to LA, I am glad that she got a job where she'll be happier. That's all a mother wants for her child. It always pains me when she is in pain or stress or hardship. I wish I had a magic wand to take it away, but she is an adult and making her own way in the world, and I think this is a good move for her. I intend to visit. 

I have good friends who thought that some kind of crowd-free adventure in nature would be physically healthy for us, and also necessary for mental health. So we decided to do this once a month. We all have small bubbles, and they, like me, take care of an elderly parent, so we are careful not to be reckless. This day to Pebble Beach was our first adventure. We hiked and snorkeled, two of my favorite things. Oh, and butterflies.

Pebble Beach

The hlll in the distance is where we hiked to.

Our second adventure was to Keawaiki. Best thing about this day was snorkeling there. It was so alive underwater! 

I took a lot of online classes this year. I was attracted to a platform called Domestika. They have fantastic art classes in Spanish with English subtitles. I took courses for illustration, sumi-e painting, lettering, watercolor, Procreate - 13 in all. Then I took advantage of a subscription site, Skillshare, learning pretty much the same things. I'm learning guitar online. I'm trying to learn Spanish from an app - Mosa Lingua. Also took a class on iPhone photography. This is how I made lemonade out of the lemons of not being able to travel and limiting my "bubble." I am never bored because I am always working on something or other. 

I bought a new guitar. I like the small size of a ukulele, and a small guitar I got in Baja Mexico about 20 years ago. This one is small too, my first one with steel strings. 

I wrote more this year. My main motivation was to do my part to remove the current POTUS from office. I felt I had to do something. Longer essays were on Medium and I wrote local letters to the editor to my local paper. I'm not sure if I'll continue this as I seem to be pulled more towards art and music, but we'll see. 

So now that I have a dozen, I think I'll call it a day. An artist/writer I follow, Austin Kleon. comes up with an annual list of 100. I will try to do this in 2021.