The Good

This year is bad. Just pure awful. Like the smell of burnt popcorn, the weight of a dirty diaper in your hand, the sound of nails on a chalkboard, and the taste of orange juice when you were expecting milk. It's all of those things and more. More as in plus the death of a loved one combined with strokes, hospitalisation, a lingering cold, daily stress and job pressure, terminal illness, separation, divorce, mental health issues, abandonment, the sudden passing of a beloved pet, a favourite shop closing, great social unrest and injustice, political climate so horrific as to make one wanna barf, anger, inaction, brutal senseless murder, lynching, dictators, Republicans, and the usual: homelessness, famine, war, extreme poverty, greed, and hatred. Oh, and a global pandemic so bad that loved ones are left to die alone because only the sick are admitted to hospitals. The world right now is so full of rage and misery that it feels like an avalanche, leaving us crushed and without breath. That said, I want to try to find at least ten truly good things that happened for me so far this year.

• Reunited with my cousin Emily and her children in her lovely new home. This woman had a patch of years that were really bad and we all worried about her. She has come through, stronger than ever, and is raising her two fabulous children with a sense of calm that I have never seen before. It's hard to see who is the lucky one, Emily for having two such wonderful children, or Ana and Adam for being blessed with Emily for their mother.

• Discovering Toni Morrison in the documentary The Pieces I Am.

• Kathleen Hanna sang to me from her home's shower.

• Amber Brown sold me the last of her stash of felt cd cases.

• Wayne and Chrissy dating after secretly being in love with one another for close to a decade.

• David coming over and fixing my bathroom sink that's been broken for the past four and a half years as well as my closet's shelf that fell down three years ago.

• Getting a free trial to HBO so I can binge on wonderful documentaries.

• Discovering some really great 80s television like Spenser for Hire, In the Heat of the Night, Murder She Wrote, and of course, Voyagers!

• Falling in love with Brian Blessed via his marvelous memoir Absolute Pandemonium.

• As horrible as work has been these past four months, I try (not always successfully) to be thankful that I have a job that allows me to work from home full time, continue to pay my mortgage and credit cards and live my life.