Here We Go, 2021

I've never gotten this excited about hanging a banner before.

 A new year is upon us, and I suppose it couldn't come soon enough. Although the arrival of 2021 isn't going to magically cure all our problems, 2020 was terrible for almost everyone, well, except for about three clueless people in my social media newsfeed who keep insisting it was their best and/or happiest year ever. I'll have whatever meds they're having. I think it's best for the lucid rest of us that we turn a fresh page.

2021 has to have the easiest job in the world: just don't screw things up nearly as badly as your predecessor. That leaves plenty of room to dance when you look at the dumpster fire of a year we just wrapped up--I will spare you a recap because you know all too well what we have been through, a completely bizarre year that redefines the word "unprecedented" and had people so out of their minds they were hoarding toilet paper and using perfectly good tequila to make hand sanitizer. Good grief.

It was a year where we were confined to our homes even for the purposes of work and school, so we baked, we binge watched, we home improved. Our dogs were the real winners, with more puppies and rescue dogs adopted than ever before and no fur baby left unattended because honestly, where did their owners possibly have to go? For walks! And more walks. 

2020 took away beloved celebrities like Kenny Rogers, Alex Trebek, Gone with the Wind's Olivia de Havilland, Charley Pride, Sean Connery, Eddie Van Halen, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, just to name a few. We cancelled plans, vacations, reservations, and turned it all into a big staycation as we waited for the months to roll on by. 2021, have we all been waiting for you.

I liken this past tedious year we have endured to an old episode of Designing Women where Julia Sugarbaker gets her head stuck in the banister of the stairs in the Governor's Mansion after being dared to pose for a silly picture whilst on a visit. Much like 2020, it all starts out innocently enough, but by the end, like our dear Julia, we were all feeling trapped and panicked and just begging to be set free already. 

We were all Julia Sugarbaker in the year 2020. Cut us loose. Set us free!

So here we go, 2021. I feel like my head is still stuck in the bannister railing and I'm just waiting in this awkward position for someone to release me. I took a good look around the grocery store this week at all our little faces covered in masks, obeying the signage to limit our purchases of paper and disinfectant products so as not to overwhelm the supply chain and I felt like I was in some kind of apocalypse science fiction movie. (I would prefer to star in some type of old Hollywood glamorous film, given my druthers, but I am rarely given my druthers). 

I'm not sure what this new year will bring, but the good news is that our standards are low. A friend pointed out that this year is already a bit frightening--the mere sound when one says 2021 really does sound like "2020 won," now doesn't it?  If that's what we need to concede to get our heads out of this proverbial bannister, then 2020 won! I consider myself highly competitive, yet I freely admit I was no match for her. As for this new year we embark upon, I have just this humble plea: 2021, keep your highly contagious plagues to a minimum, kindly let us out of the house now and again, and keep on keeping those murder hornets at bay, would you? Happy New Year? I certainly hope.

Ew, 2020. Here's to a kinder, gentler new year!