The 2020 Meme

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 20:10:07 GMT

Was it really 20 years ago that I copped this meme from alicey? alicey, at the time, was a teenaged schoolgirl plagued by angst the way other adolescents are plagued by cystic acne. These days, alicey is a tax attorney and a new mother.

Of course, I haven’t changed one bit! 😊

1. What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?

I zoomed! A lot.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I did make a New Year’s resolution last year! I didn’t write it down, though, and I can’t remember it. It would be easy enough to reconstruct it by rereading last year’s diaries. But I never reread my diaries.

I don’t seem to be very good at keeping New Year’s resolutions. I don’t think I will make any this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

I don’t think so.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Can I count John LeCarré? One of my favorite, favorite writers. In the three weeks since his death, I’ve listened to (first) A Perfect Spy and (now) The Honorable Schoolboy as I tromp around the grey countryside.

True, he was really old. And I didn’t know him personally. Still, I felt the unmistakable ping! of true connection and personal loss when I learned of his death.

5. What countries did you visit?

Ha, ha, ha, ha! The United States of Inertia.

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?

A novel coronavirus vaccination.

7. What date(s) from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

March 11: The Last Normal Day.

I met up with BB for some economic geography. We tromped around Kingston, a favorite city of mine because it overflows with history, interesting architecture and urban decay. Before that, though, we'd had great Jamaican jerk at this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and I saw my first person in a mask, and I thought, Uh oh—shit’s getting’ real.

The next day, the Plague lockdown began.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Cue BeeGees: Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Doubtless, giving up on my various fiction-writing projects. 2020 was all about wallowing in my own personal irrelevance.

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury?

No. In fact, my health has been exceptionally good, which I attribute to the boatload of vitamins I pop first thing every morning and my self-discipline in one area of my life, at least: exercise.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

The car! I’m not longer squeamish about driving! Though, of course, there’s nowhere to drive to.

But I also bought a brand new computer and a big-screen monitor. I’m having more fun with them—even though I LUV the car more—mainly because I use them more often.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

BB continues to be the greatest pal ever, and Ichabod is the best son a mother could ask for because he stays in close touch without having to be nagged.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

On a personal level? Well, I wouldn’t use the term “appalled” or “depressed,” but I was disappointed in Lois Lane's behavior.

She sent me a New Year’s greeting on FB a couple of days ago.

Happy New Year’s to you, too, I messaged back. I’m STILL trying to figure out why we stopped talking.

Which seems to have effectively shut her right up. But I’m not gonna pretend we are collegial acquaintances between whom things are profoundly o-kay.

In the political sphere, practically everyone’s behavior appalled me. Special shout-out to Trump and his sycophants, though.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Food was an unexpectedly large expenditure this year. Mostly because I’ve been too inertia-bound to cook, so I’ve been buying a lot of (expensive) pre-cooked meals.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The car!!!!

Oh, and back in late February, I remember being terribly excited over the publication of The Mirror and the Light, the third installment in Hilary Mantel’s fictional Thomas Cromwell bio. I scurried out and bought it in hardcover the first day it hit the Barnes & Noble shelves.

I have been utterly incapable of reading it, though. I’m not sure whether the problem lies with the novel or with me.

16. What song will always remind you of 2020?

Águas de Março

It's the stick, it's the stone, it's the end of the road
It's a stump rest, it's a little alone
It's a piece of glass, it's life, it's the sun
It's the night, it's the death, it's a snare, it's the hook...

Of course, I love the Tom Jobim version; he composed the song after all:

But I gotta say, I’m also strangely partial to the Smoke City cover:

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) Happier or sadder? Sadder.

b) Thinner or fatter? Fatter.

c) Richer or poorer? About the same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Writing fiction. Reading books. Taking road trips.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Getting woken up at 2 in the morning by all my inadequacies. My inadequacies think they're pet animals! They like to sit on my chest. They're heavy.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Pretending to eat goose but actually pushing it around on my plate and eating red cabbage.

21. How did you spend New Years?

I had Visitors from the Future! They were vastly entertaining! The party went on for nearly three hours! Bourbon was my tipple of choice, and I drank so much of it, I got drunk and had airplane swirlies! Haven’t experienced those since I was in my 30s. Can't say I'm a fan.

I’m a bit hung over as I type, and am downing huge volumes of some hideously expensive stuff called Life Water, courtesy of Z, in an attempt to rehydrate.

22. Did you fall in love in 2020?

That’s a joke, right?

23. How many one-night stands?

An old joke that never gets stale!

24. What was your favorite TV program?

Shtisel

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No.

Should I?

26. What was the best book you read?

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

The excellent Afropop Worldwide podcast

28. What did you want and get?

A car!!!!! A new computer!!!!!

29. What did you want and not get?

Freedom.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

2020 was not a movie-goin’ kinda year. Just sayin’…

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 68, and for the life of me, I can’t remember a single thing about my birthday.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

No Plague.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020?

Well, I did get dressed every day! Which is more than many of my friends and acquaintances tell me they did! 😊

My personal fashion concept remains modified bag lady. Long white boyfriend shirts and jeans, c’est moi!

34. What kept you sane?

My friends. My boys. Exercise. Vitamins. DW/LJ, which allows me to vent, bitch and complain to my heart’s content with no one in what we laughingly call my real life any the wiser.

Sybyl the cat.

In the warmer months, my garden.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

My celebrity boyfriends right now include Hugh Laurie, Jeff Bridges and Eric McCormick.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

The U.S. election

37. Who did you miss?

Isn’t it funny but I still think an awful lot about my little orange guy, Rutger. Sybyl is a wonderful cat but she’s a very cat-like cat. Rutger had a personality that often reminded me of Myshkin's in Dostoyevsky's The Idiot.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

Nafisa.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020

What it boils down to is putting one’s feelings on a special plane; most unwise, if you come to think of it. Because the bitter but true fact is that the only person who cares about one’s own feelings is ONE. -- Jessica Mitford

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The 2020 Meme