My 2020 Story Told Through Random Photos

Driving from Suffield, CT to Pittsburgh has become a New Year's Day tradition... I'll go back to CT to spend the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day with my family and then have to return home to Pittsburgh because work generally resumes Jan. 2.

We joke that Port Jervis is my mom's favorite stop along the route between Pgh and CT. It's a New Jersey town right off Route 84 right where the borders of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania meet. I think she has a habit of stopping there because NJ will tend to have lower gas prices than the other two states. A funny thing about NJ has, though, is that by law the gas station employee must pump your gas for you.

While stopping in Port Jervis in honor of my mom this time, I encountered a unique bathroom logo.

Here is Ally in her most natural state: Taking control of a situation. Here, she is teaching our friends how to play One Night Ultimate Werewolf.

Ally, me, and Dad.

We visited my brother Tim in Washington D.C., where he was living. Here is a picture from Embassy Row.

Here is Ally with a cup on her head. Love this.

We played one friendly game before the season was cancelled due to the arrival of Covid-19.

I got this fabric for Ally in Cameroon in 2013, but never figured out what to do with it. My mom found a tailor who turned the fabric into a jacket.

Who knows when Covid really arrived in the United States. It definitely seemed to be spreading through China, the Middle East, and Europe in January and February this year before reaching the Americas. I've heard stories from people in the U.S. who claim that they were extremely sick with Covid-like symptoms before March 2020. In fact, there were reported cases of Covid on Washington State and New York in early March. But, it was this day (Friday, the 13th!) when things really started to shut down around the country and life as we knew it would be changed forever.

When everything started getting cancelled due to Covid's arrival in the U.S. and I realized that we would be spending a lot of time confined indoors, I assembled the best home gym that the space in our basement and our budget would allow. The Powerblocks (the dumbbells on top of the green yoga mat) are awesome. They are adjustable dumbbells. Each one is a 50-lb dumbbell set made up of smaller dumbbells that fit inside each other like stacking dolls and increase in 5-lb increments. 

Once the whole world was on lockdown due to Covid and most people were relying on the Internet to provide them with entertainment, there started to circulate all sorts of "challenges" on social media. One that was circulating in the soccer world was the T.P. (toilet paper) Challenge. The challenge basically just involved juggling a roll of toilet paper with your feet like a soccer ball for the camera. Of course, there were some phenomenal videos and people doing amazing tricks with the toilet paper. I wasn't that good at it. I tried one day, got frustrated, and decided that my video would show me volleying the roll of toilet paper into the camera. That was the best I could do. Below is my video.

Ally found the best marinade for salmon. I'll have to find it and add it to this post. She then passes it along to me and calls me the "grill master." The truth is that anyone can be a grill master. You just let the grill do the work.

One of the easiest and best meals of all time...

Tim came to visit me at my new house in Dormont for a week. Below is a clip of me giving him batting practice at the cage in Dormont Park.

We played soccer tennis at the Dormont Tennis Courts, too.

Left: Hohner TWP600B Acoustic Bass

Right: Fender Standard Stratocaster with humbucker

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (a.k.a. Borat 2) came out October 23 and was of course amazing. It is a stunt-based satire of United States culture. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should! If you are proudly from the USA, don't get offended--Just enjoy the comedy.

Anyway, the movie inspired my Halloween costume.

Ally is very competitive. She also has a D (dominant) personality. Therefore, it is very important to document when she loses in game. On this occasion, we were playing a team game of strategy and deceit called Secret Hitler with her family after Thanksgiving dinner.

I volunteered to deliver gifts for the Pittsburgh Latino Community Center to local residents.

I remember feeling throughout 2020 like everyone was giving up. 

Because of the pandemic, so many events and gatherings had to be cancelled. Other events were held virtually, which was better than nothing, but lacked the interpersonal element and therefore weren't as stimulating or uplifting as comparable in-person versions of the past. Businesses were closing all over the place, too. Despite often being necessary, overall, these changes were really negative.

As a result, sadly, it felt to me at times like a culture of apathy and despair had been created. So many people who used to go out were staying in. Friends and family gathered less. People were tired from having to completely overhaul their lives in order to adapt to  The easy answers and decisions always seemed to be "no" and "let's just cancel.

When Ally asked me if I want to decorate the house for Christmas, I initially said no. "Nah, not this year. I just don't feel like it." Thankfully, the next day I changed my mind. We went to Wal-Mart, bought some lights, and spent the day decorating the house. 

Walking outside became a common activity for many people this year. For some, they spent all day working inside virtually. For others, their places of recreation--the gym, yoga class, concert hall, etc.--had been shut. A lot of people just needed to "get out." It was so nice to arrive home after one of our "Covid walks" and see the Christmas lights, a sign of brightness in an otherwise dark year.

There seemed to be a trend of students showing support for their teachers this year by making and holding up to their camera thank you cards while on a virtual class meeting. I remember in the first few months of Covid-19, there were "movements" and hashtags calling for support for health care professionals (deservedly so). I suppose that this sentiment inspired people to think of who else should be recognized for their work during this time and teachers entered the conversation. 

(I'm a teacher. Yeah, having to learn how to run a virtual classroom was tough, but I tried not to complain about it too much because I feel like everyone, everywhere had to learn to adapt to the changes that Covid brought to our lives this year.)

Anyway, two students  "gave" me these thank-you cards one day during a virtual class. I think I may have made a remark like, "I am going to have a meltdown" the day before because our Internet wasn't working well and these kids wanted to cheer me up. It definitely made my day. Teachers can sometimes spend a lot of time complaining about the kids who don't perform up to our standards, or "do what we want," but it's really important to remember that there are so many kids out there who are kind, thoughtful, and fantastic like these two.

I had to cancel my annual trip home to CT to see my family over the Christmas holiday. Shortly before Thanksgiving, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, released a Stay At Home Advisory, which required public employees to avoid traveling outside of Pennsylvania until after the New Year. As a public school teacher, this order pertained to me. 

What a bummer... We would be stuck inside at home for Christmas break. We set up our home gym in the basement of our new house and tried working out everyday in order to keep us from going stir crazy.