2022 Resolutions

Normally, about a week before the end of the year, I would have written a well thought-out post detailing my 2022 resolutions. This year, I just didn’t have the same excitement or energy to complete them in time. I was wrapping up my difficult 2021 fall semester of classes and working retail during the holiday season. My energy was zapped. I did write this post a few days ago and it got erased. Is the universe trying to tell me that resolutions are futile? I refuse to believe it!

I’m going to plunge into 2022 resolutions, without reflecting on 2021, as I have done in previous years. Here we go…

1. Finish my AA degree. I have four more classes to go, two in the spring and two in the fall. I want to maintain my 4.0 gpa. I will be taking two semesters of Spanish. Foreign languages are my nemesis and I barely passed two years of high school Spanish. I will be proud of myself if I can complete these courses and be able to have a basic communication with a Spanish speaker.

2. Finish my manuscript or start a new project. This is long over due and I have many ideas on how to accomplish this. It may need to primarily be done between school semesters, but after classes, this is my next biggest priority. Working at a bookstore has provided motivation too.

3. Reading Goals, I have three. The first is to read a minimum of 50 books, which I listed as my goodreads challenge. The second is to clean up my TBR list of book commitments on Netgalley and to be caught up in the new year. The third is to start a “Read Around the World” challenge. This will take multiple years, but the concept is to broaden reading horizons by reading a book by an author from each country in the world. I want to start with Spanish speaking countries as a cultural tie in to my language classes.

4. Exercise routine - this is a big one. We have a home gym, so there are no excuses. I also have an upcoming doctor’s appointment with a blood test, where I’m pretty sure I’m going to be told that I need to make changes to my diet too. In the past, I’ve completed many endurance races, such as 1/2 marathons ( and nearly the entire LA marathon), but I’ve primarily walked. I’d love to be able to run a solid mile in a decent time and maybe work up to a 5k.

5. Travel to a new country, state or major city.

6. Catch up on blogging. My blogging was essentially dropped due to my school schedule, but I’d like to write at least once a week to keep it going. I have many travel posts and book reviews to catch up on!

2021 Wrap Up

It has been several months since I’ve blogged, but I couldn’t end the year without my usually wrap up post. 2021 has been a great year.

I kicked off 2021 asleep. We were in Florida with the kids and we had just spent an entire day at my favorite theme park: Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I was completely exhausted and just crashed. Due to covid, the park closed before the customary midnight celebrations, but the area surrounding our rental home was filled with partiers and fireworks. I briefly woke up, gave everyone “Happy New Year” wishes, and headed back to bed.

Our winter holiday 2020/2021 vacation was epic. About a week prior to Christmas, we said “screw it” and opened our presents early, including having a classy holiday dinner of frozen White Castle burgers. The next day, we hit the road driving through Kansas (largest ball of twine), Missouri ( Arch), Arkansas, Tennessee (night in Memphis, no Graceland), Mississippi, Alabama, and a two night stop at the freezing beaches of Pensacola, Florida. After Pensacola, it was ten nights in Orlando, where we did both Universal and Disney, also a gator airboat ride. The idea was to continue for four nights in Key West, with Dan flying the kids back to Sweden out of Miami. However, the weather was absolutely miserable, so we altered course, heading to Texas with a two night stop in New Orleans.

As a teen of the 90’s and Anne Rice enthusiast (RIP), I had always wanted to visit New Orleans, but in a covid world, it lacked the vibrancy I was expecting. Many of the stores and restaurants were shuttered and the streets were empty. We went to the fabulous National WW2 museum. Our museum visit occurred on January 6th, and upon returning to our hotel room, we saw the news of the insurrection. It was heartbreaking, and I literally had no words to explain the situation to my European step kids.

In Texas, we stayed a few nights in Houston and toured Johnson’s Space Center. It was too cold in Texas to be outside for a long period of time, but we want to go back when the weather is nicer. Ditto for New Orleans. I said goodbye to the kids and Dan, who flew out of Houston, and drove solo back to Colorado. On my way back, I did a night-stop in Miranda Lambert’s hometown of Lindale and visited her store, The Pink Pistol. I drove through Oklahoma and did a second stop in Garden City, Kansas. The third day, I met Dan at the Denver airport and we finally headed home after our epic trip!

I was surprised, when in the summer, the kids expressed an interest in doing another road trip. We have a family goal of hitting all 50 states before they are adults, and if we plan it right, we might just meet the goal. We did two short road trips. One to California and back ( hitting Utah and Nevada). In California we stayed for two nights at our family favorite hotel, the La Quinta Resort and Club, just to enjoy pool time and sunshine. We did one night in Vegas at the new Resorts World- more pool and sunshine.

Our other mini road trip sent us to Wyoming ( Cheyenne Days Rodeo), South Dakota ( Mount Rushmore) and Nebraska (Carhenge). We also showed the kids many of the sites in Colorado, including the Royal Gorge, Pike’s Peak, Vail, and Colorado Springs. Summer also brought a discovery of a new family activity that we all enjoy: escape rooms. I hope that we will do a few more next summer!

Autumn brought a last-minute trip to the UK! We visited for just over a week with Zoe and Felix taking their first solo flight to meet us at Heathrow. The solo flight was a big success, which should make future vacations easier to coordinate and cheaper- or saving money to spend on fun things, rather than flights. We made our base in Newbury to be near my sister-in-law and close friends, but did two day trips to London, where we visited Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon, the Tower of London and did lots of shopping. Dan and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary in London with tea and cake at a cafe inside a crypt. In England we also went to the Cadbury Factory and made a seaside day trip to see Dan’s uncle and aunt.

On the job front, we are doing well. Dan started his own business and has had some big contracts with major companies. I’m so proud and excited. I left tutoring at Cambly to start working at Denver’s largest independent bookstore chain- Tattered Cover. I helped open a holiday pop-up location at a local mall and it has mostly been a blast. I love being around books and helping customers. I think I really needed to get out of the house and be more social. It has been good for me.

I had a poem published in Cordella and an essay published in Local Honey|Midwest. My Intima essay from 2020 was submitted by the Columbia University for consideration in the Best American Essays collection. I was not chosen and quite frankly, it was a HUGE long-shot, but I was honored to have been recommended. I finished three courses at Arapahoe Community College, very close to finally finishing my AA. At this point in my life, I’m not sure how important it will be to finally complete my bachelors, but I like the idea of accomplishing it. It was frustrating to have to re-do my science credits, but I’m taking different science courses to expand my knowledge and I love learning, so this is a positive. I have four classes to finish my AA and then transfer, which will be completed over the next two semesters.

Last winter we finished our basement. The idea of not only having a basement, but being able to transform it into another level of our home is still mind-boggling. We added two bedrooms ( serving as Dan’s office and music/gaming room), an enormous bathroom with soaking tub, a full-size home gym and oodles of storage spaces. It’s amazing. However, now I have no excuses for skipping the gym and must develop a habit of going in 2022. I am ringing in the new year approximately fifteen pounds lighter than last year, mostly to do with working retail.

I had a Christmas miracle last week to round out my 2021. We were having a lazy morning and I happened to look at Facebook messenger, noticing a two-week old message from a stranger. The stranger is the wife of one of my father’s childhood friends. My father died when I was four and the situation was traumatic, so I know very little about him. So far, I’ve had two long conversations with Brian, my dad’s friend, and so many gaps have been filled. The conversations have not been light or easy, but they have altered my perspective significantly. I’m hoping to learn more in the new year and also start focusing on writing a historical fiction novel based on my family. The biggest aspect of this situation is I never thought that there would be someone still living that remembered my dad. Brian is 85, but still sharp. Meeting him is a true gift. i’m hoping that I might even have an opportunity to meet him in person. He lives in Florida.

We are still in the middle of a pandemic, but I’m grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted, allowing for so many special moments and in-person connections this year. I hope 2022 continues this positive trend.

Book Review- Kat Chow's Seeing Ghosts

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy of Kat Chow’s memoir, Seeing Ghosts, in exchange for an honest review.

The youngest of three daughters, Kat Chow was in middle school when her mom passed away from cancer. Her mother’s illness was diagnosed late, and although her mom may have been ill for a long time, the loss seemed sudden and unexpected. After the loss of her beloved mother, Kat struggled through her grief, especially as her older sisters move out of the family home and Kat is left with her father.

Kat’s relationship with her father is fraught and difficult, made even more challenging by her father’s money troubles and his own childhood trauma, including losing his father at a young age.

Seeing Ghosts was a very emotional read for me. I lost my mom to cancer back in 2008. Reading through Chow’s own experience brought back a flood of emotions, and especially during the first half of the memoir, I was a sobbing mess. I was crying so much, that I had to take breaks. That said, Chow’s beautiful writing and raw emotions were very cathartic for me.

The second half of Seeing Ghosts explores Chow’s father’s background and his search to find the remains of his father. Chow was born in the United States, but her parent’s immigrated from China via Hong Kong. When her father was a child, his father left Asia to find work in Cuba, and ended up dying in Cuba, separated from his wife and infant son. Chow’s grandfather’s body was never repatriated and it has been her father’s life long quest to find his father’s bones, a story that finds a happy resolution in the final chapters of the Seeing Ghosts.

Although my family story is very different, I could find a connection to Chow’s family through the themes of how we struggle to understand the traumas of previous generations and how many people have a desperate need to connect with their ancestry. When visiting Cuba, Chow’s father holds a glimmer of hope from gossip that his father had an affair, hoping that he might have a living half-sibling. I’m an only child, with no close living relatives, and I have to admit that I too have a similar hope. I feel that there are many people out in the world looking for connections and Seeing Ghosts is a memoir about connecting, both to our past and with those still living.

Chow’s father is a bit of a hoarder, a problem that increases after his wife dies. This is a a major area of stress and worry for Chow and her sisters, but the problem also reveals an important aspect of her father’s personality. He has experienced so much uncertainty and loss in his life, that the objects allow him to have a sense of control and peace. I saw a similar behavior in family members who were alive during the Great Depression and WW2.

I also must mention the tremendous amount of love in the Chow family. Chow’s mom did not hold back when showing affection towards her daughters, and that love has spilled over into the relationship between the sisters. Love is open and vibrant, shown through words, actions, and gifts. There is so much strength in their love, that it kept me hopeful, in even the darkest moments.

Seeing Ghosts is a beautifully written and highly emotional memoir. It’s a fascinating look at the Chow family, but also a deeper story about the affects of leaving your homeland and figuring out your place in the world. It is about navigating the ephemeral and transitory nature of life.