All I can say about this year really is...uuuggghhhh!
So I guess the question here is why was the year so bad? I suppose it wasn't bad for EVERYONE, but personally speaking it was just a slice of hell on stale rye for me. The first month saw us all in masks still and we were all tired of the whole damn thing, especially at work. On top of that, we had to do a daily check-in of our overall health and temperature reading. THAT didn't go away until September!
Not ashamed to say that as spring got closer, I was feeling some other stuff inside that got me feeling, well, low on the sanity/emotional health spectrum. Thankfully I have a good support network that helped me to get through it. Some therapy also came into play, but it didn't have the desired outcome...perhaps more down the road might be in order in this coming year if need be. Really I just need to get back to eating healthy and getting my ass outside for physical meditation.
As for the actual teaching, it was ok for the most part, although in mid May over half my class was quarantined...literally a week from the end of the year! Then came a few weeks of summer school where I focused on American history in the 20th century.
Near the end of that period, my new Corolla finally came in! That helped to make a happy if brief summer vacay!
My daughter turned 13.
I turned 50.
Then came the current school year. Frankly, every few years we teachers get a group of kids who are just tough to build a positive relationship with, and this is one of those years. Will it get better? Time will tell.
On the news, events were just not heartwarming. The presence of Donald Trump was still around as the Congressional committee investigating January 6, 2021 pieced together clues and testimony for what we all really knew in our minds from that actual day almost 2 years ago now.
Gas prices surged in the western part of the nation...in California some towns went over $7 per gallon! We did get a nice treat in December of under $4, but I can already see the prices starting to creep up again.
The war in the Ukraine sparked support for that poor nation against Russia...but really it was a temporary thing to distract us from what was happening at home...specifically inflation of food and goods prices! I'm still waiting for egg prices to drop to something more reasonable!
Monkeypox...another quick panic to get people focused on something other than reality.
Cryptocurrency crashes...I never understood it, never invested in it, so no biggie for me.
Midterm elections: about as fun as midterm exams in college! At the very least, the Republican party was finally realizing that Donald Trump was not so much a kingmaker, more of a court jester-maker, and most of his handpicked candidates lost.
Roe vs Wade, after 49 years, was overturned. Quite frankly I think the damage from this move will be greater than the overturners imagined over time. I will not get into my beliefs on this one, but there was missed opportunity for a reformed law as opposed to overturned law here, and all for vain politics. Such a waste!
As far as I'm concerned, the best part of this year was my road trip with my mom. I took her from San Diego to Fayetteville, North Carolina, a nice 4 day trip where we had a lot of time to talk about lots of things and see parts of the country we had not seen previously. Say what you will about western Texas, but one must define the word "empty" carefully, for there was no real emptiness that I could see. Not always the most interesting, but not a vast flat plain, either. In Alabama, I got to see an old friend from junior high and high school after 33 years apart for a little bit. Plus, I finally got a chance to meet my grand nephews and grand niece along with my beloved nephew Ian and his wife Alexis.
All right, now it is time to revisit the celebrity deaths of the year...quite numerous as always...and my disclaimer if you feel I missed someone: I list the people with whom I have a sense of familiarity.
January: Dan Reeves, Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Poitier, Dwayne Hickman, Bob Saget, Ronnie Spector, Ralph Emery, Yvette Mimieux, Meat Loaf, Gary Hart, Donald May, and Howard Hesseman
February: Ivan Reitman, Sally Kellerman (light month)
March: Conrad Janis, Johnny Brown, Tim Considine, Mitchell Ryan, Traci Braxton, William Hurt, Madeleine Albright, and Kathryn Hays
April: Nehemiah Persoff, Bobby Rydell, Orrin Hatch, David Birney, and Naomi Judd
May: Charles Siebert, Jerry verDorn, Jewell, Mickey Gilley, Fred Ward, Lee Lawson, Ray Liotta, and Bo Hopkins
June: Barry Sussman, Jim Seals, and Philip Baker Hall
July: James Caan, Larry Storch, Ivana Trump, Rebecca Balding, Taurean Blacque, Paul Sorvino, Tony Dow, and Nichelle Nichols
August: Clu Gulager, Roger E. Mosley, John Abdo, Anne Heche, Joe E. Tata, and Robert LuPone
September: Bernard Shaw, Mark Miller, Kenneth Starr, Louise Fletcher, and Coolio
October: Judy Tenuta, Ann Flood, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Andrew Prine
November: Robert Clary, Irene Cara, and Clarence Gilyard
December: Christine McVie, Bob McGrath, Kirstie Alley, Stuart Margolin, Maggie Thrett, Pele, Pope Benedict XVI, and Barbara Walters
Well, let's wrap up this gas station sushi roll of a year once and for all!
Happy and peaceful 2023 to all!
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