2020 recap

© Emily John Photography

When exactly did 2020 go wrong? I guess when the COVID-19 pandemic started, although maybe it was something that had been building in the background for much longer. Electing a corrupt leader into the office of president four years ago certainly didn’t help. He did not steer the county in a direction I thought we should go. At least we have someone taking the job now who my kids can look up to again and someone who admits the coronavirus is an actual problem. Trump was a disgrace to our country, and it is best we move on and perhaps learn to never elect a selfish jerk into the role again.

It was going to be a big year for us, and it still was to a degree. The important thing is that our families remained healthy and safe, with the exception of my aunt who passed away due to a heart issue. That came as a shock and led to a difficult time. On the other end of things, we gained two nephews in the year, although our interaction with them was unfortunately quite minimal.

Sorry for the pessimistic start to this recap! The funny thing is that I actually really like staying home and 2020 was certainly good for that. I did miss nights out with my wife and visiting family and friends, but I also love having a weekend at home with nothing on the calendar. If it wasn’t for the emotional/psychological toll on my immediate family (who are inherently more social people than I am) or the obvious devastation to others’ lives due to the virus, I wouldn’t have had a problem with taking a year off from some of the usual traditions and routines. With some increased responsibility at work, along with a fair amount of ongoing photo/video projects, I still kept plenty busy.

I have very little to complain about. My biggest obstacle was having to cope with having my family home with me on weekdays. Everyone was working/schooling from home for a large chunk of the year. We had to learn to function together and share the space. Maybe it was even good for us in some ways. For the record, I would take that over being entirely alone.

Thanks to R's careful planning, we made it to the Big Island of Hawaii in March, which was essentially part one of our 15th wedding anniversary. It was a family trip and we also brought Grandma Linda along with us, allowing R and I to get out on some hikes across fields of lava rock and hit some happy hours while shops shut down around us. We spent much of the trip worried about the swelling pandemic. Partially due to the time zone change but mostly due to worry, I would wake at 3:00 every morning and check the worsening news on my phone. It was quite an experience, one that felt like something out of a sci-fi movie. I wrote some more thoughts about it in our travel journal.

We were going to throw a party for R’s 40th birthday and that was canceled… or maybe postponed? We gave up trying to reschedule it until things settle.

I enlarged and printed 30 of my photographs (of musicians and the Iron Range) and had them on display in a gallery at our church. I was looking forward to showing them off more at a well-attended Easter service, but church turned into a virtual thing before then. It was still fun to share them, but it also felt like a little bit of a waste. Maybe I’ll use the prints in another show one day.

The summer was better. We had Rachel watching the kids again. We saw family and went camping three times, including four nights in a cabin at Camp Du Nord. The kids played soccer. R and I celebrated part two our anniversary with a night in Minneapolis. Things felt pretty normal in the summer, which was a relief after a cooped up spring.

Fall started off feeling relatively normal too, at least with school. Omri has been able to attend in-person learning since then. Veronica switched to distance learning from the beginning of November until January. Her time at home went much better than it did in the spring. We were happy about paying private school tuition when it meant R and I could concentrate on our work and the kids could see their friends, get in-person instruction, etc.

Omri turned 6 and Veronica turned 10. Omri has been interested in space stuff (see our handmade Star Destroyer) and Veronica finally got her own digital device (an iPad). They are amazing kids, but I’ll be honest: the year in parenting was a tough one. 2020 took a toll on us.

I’m still working on my short film called “The Decisioneer.” Right now, I’m where I thought I would be on it a year ago. But it wasn’t just the pandemic that caused me to lose a year. Part of it was just getting too busy with other projects. There was a bit of a setback when the majority of the footage came back from development quite out of focus. I had to rethink it and not only come to terms with the imperfections but also kind of embrace them. I have a lot more to say about it, but I am going to save those thoughts for when the film is put out in the world. I am going to try to get it into some festivals first, and then I’m sure it will eventually surface online.

I edited two additional videos in the fall. These were done “for hire” and I’m happy with my work, but they also don’t quite feel like my own because they weren’t necessarily my design and I wasn’t involved in shooting (most of) the footage. I became plenty passionate about them, however, and gave up a fair amount of sleep to get them done on time on top of my regular schedule.

I also watched a good number of movies and wrote about every single one of them here. Getting back into arthouse and foreign films over the last few years has been truly rewarding for me. I love reading about them, listening to podcasts about them, and discussing them. They are to me what football must be to some other folks.

The year ended with a laid-back Christmas vacation. We made two cautious trips up north, but mostly we enjoyed time at home. We skated on a snowless Turtle Lake, built a gingerbread house, and played Mario Bros as a family. Those are some of the happy memories that make this all worth it.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it feels like we have this virus on the run now. Vaccinations are being rolled out. Minnesota's case rate is decreasing. Let's hope the good news continues.

That’s all I’m going to do for this recap. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. As usual, you can keep tabs on us over at Four Peas in a Blog. I hit 2000 posts there last May! The older the kids get, the fewer the photos I will post of them, but I’d like to think things will keep going there to some degree for the foreseeable future.