It’s almost halfway into January 2021 and I’m finally getting to my 2020 review post. Better late than never! I’ve typically written this post every year as a way to look back at the victories, learnings, and activities of the past year. Obviously with 2020 being such a crazy year, I’m switching things up this time around with a slightly different format. Read on for a look at how Glen spent the year of the pandemic.
The Start of 2020
2020 started off normally enough. In January and February I’d booked several snowboarding trips and managed 3 weekends of boarding in Colorado. It would then be a few days at Jackson Hole before I’d journey to Japan for a repeat of the epic snowboarding trip I took the year before. And then it happened – I had a bad crash at Jackson Hole and separated my shoulder (grade 3 AC joint tear). My season was over. At the time, I was still determined to travel to Japan just to hang out with my snow group, but then the murmurings of a new virus turned into a full-blown international disaster. I canceled my flight, unsure of what would happen next.
The COVID Crash Landing
March 2020 marked the start of sheltering in place in San Francisco due to the COVID pandemic. It was a scary time where city life as I knew it seemingly changed overnight, and no one knew what to expect in the coming days and weeks. The adjustment was tough – I went from being out and about almost every day of the week to staying solo in my small city apartment most hours of the day, with both roommates temporarily back home.
Week 1 involved the initial shock and adjustments. Week 2 saw some scheduling refinements and coming to terms with the grief and changes. By Week 6, I’d figured out a pretty solid new schedule that included workouts, walks around the city, new hobbies, and TV/movie time. Throughout that period, I also had opportunities to virtually hang out with friends and family, making good use of technology to stay connected and get some much-needed social support. The adjustments weren’t easy, but at the very least they provided a bit of structure and stability.
A Season of Change
That structure would soon give way to a season of change, which started in May and lasted until July. During this period, I prepped and interviewed for a new job, spending my evenings after work practicing interview questions, reaching out to friends and friends of friends, and researching companies. I also started apartment hunting, as rents were beginning to drop and my roommates decided to permanently move back home. And to top it all off, I realized the usefulness of a personal vehicle during a pandemic and began shopping around for a car.
Long story short, I landed a new job with a nice pay raise, moved to a studio apartment that was cheaper than my previous shared apartment, and picked up an adventure-mobile for $2,700 that has since taken me on trips totaling close to 6,000 miles. This was one of the most challenging periods of the year, but the end results were well worth the effort. You can read all the details of my season of change here.
The Summer & Fall of Savoring
After things settled down with the job change and move, I was determined to enjoy my new situation and surroundings. Unfortunately, things weren’t so cut and dry. While the COVID situation had improved a bit, there were plenty of difficult days following the murder of George Floyd and the explosion of wildfires all over the state. Who could forget the now-infamous day where the sun didn’t rise – it was a perfect real-life metaphor for 2020.
At the same time, I did my best to explore my new neighborhood, planned out weekend camping trips where I could finally see some friends in an outdoor setting, and continued practicing the hobbies I’d picked up at the start of quarantine. Over a 16 week period, I went on 11 camping trips, including a very fun Oregon Coast road trip. The trips were a nice counterbalance to the tragedies happening all around and allowed me to process everything without falling into a pit of despair.
A Winter of Self Reflection & Slowing Down
By late fall and winter, my weekend adventures were winding down. With more friends temporarily or permanently relocating away from SF, I had more time to reflect and live a slower-paced life. I doubled down on reading books, finishing TV shows on my watchlist, and going on some solo trips (including an epic Santa Cruz motorcycle trip, Tahoe opening weekend, and LA).
Two key things happened in December – my 30th birthday, and going home to spend the holidays with my mom, who I hadn’t seen in nearly a year. I turned 30 as SF once again locked down due to a serious new wave of COVID infections. Although I was physically alone, I experienced a strong connection to the friends and family who reached out and made me feel loved. I also refined some of the thoughts brewing in my head on how I could approach living my 30s. The time spent with my mom over the holidays was a huge blessing. I did mundane things like detail the cars and clean the house, but that was perfect for slowing down and appreciating what was in front of me, including re-connecting with my mom.
All in all, it was an excellent end to a very tough but ultimately growth-filled year.
2020 Farewells & New Beginnings
The pandemic year brought an end to many of the things I was active in and enjoyed doing. My friends know that I love traveling and attending music festivals and shows (30 music festivals in 7 years plus at least 10 shows in SF per year). 2020 saw none of that. This past year was also the longest I’d gone without swimming since 2012. And unfortunately, I put volunteering for Back on My Feet on hold, something I’d been actively doing since 2017.
Despite the farewells, I picked up new hobbies and skills, some of which I’d been eying for years. I also doubled down on some passions that I’d always wanted more time to do. I never thought I’d learn to DJ, make cocktails, and cut my own hair in the same year. I’ll cover those and additional skills and accomplishments in the sections below.
Running, Working Out, & Staying Active
With swimming and contact sports out of the picture in 2020, I pivoted to other ways of staying active. I took up running again, starting up with 1.5 mile run-walks and eventually hitting 2 mile runs 2 to 3 times a week. I never considered myself a runner but with the consistency this year, I’ve actually started looking forward to my after-work runs. Next I’m focusing on varying up the terrain (running on dirt in Golden Gate Park), increasing mileage, and adding some HIIT runs into the mix.
With my shoulder injury and the lockdowns, I started doing bodyweight exercises at home, alternating between PT exercises and full body workouts 4 to 5 times a week. The pandemic brought a silver lining in that I could focus on recovery – I’m happy to say that 10 months in, my injured shoulder has fully healed without requiring surgery.
I’ve also continued my habit of taking after-work walks around my neighborhood, typically a couple times a week from anywhere between 2 to 5 miles. I’m a lot more familiar with all the green spaces and funky-colored houses in the Sunset now. I love trying to guess whether a house is a Doelger or Rousseau. It’s been absolutely awesome having easy walking access to Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, and countless other parks, restaurants, and shops in my area.
Making Cocktails
With all the doom and gloom of the initial COVID lockdowns, it was the perfect opportunity to get into cocktails. I’d always wanted to learn and had discussed taking classes with friends in the past. But with everything closed down, I ended up just watching YouTube channels and buying a starter set – that was more than enough to pick up on the basics.
I started off learning to make classic stirred cocktails such as Old Fashioneds, Manhattans, Negronis, and Martinis, to name a few. As I got more familiar with the recipes over time, I tried out different variations and ingredient brands. More recently, I ventured into my first shaken cocktail – a whiskey sour made with egg whites and freshly-squeeze lemon juice, and I’m looking to learn more shaken recipes in the coming year (Tiki drinks? Pisco sours?).
DJing
At the end of 2019, I purchased a mini DJ controller with the intent to start learning to mix music. The stay at home orders provided the perfect opportunity to dive right in. I started an online DJ course and had weekly virtual DJ practice with a friend who was also learning. Those sessions were the highlights early on during the pandemic when the future was uncertain and I was stuck at home. I remember dancing in my room and just enjoying the moment – learning to DJ definitely kept me sane.
I’ve seen visible improvement over the year. I can do basic beat matching by ear, learned about the importance of phrasing, and also added the use of effects and little flourishes to my repertoire. My friend and I eventually upgraded to better controllers and started hosting occasional livestreamed practice sessions with our friends. There’s still a long way to go and so much more to learn, but I’ll continue to keep in mind why I started DJing in the first place – to better enjoy and appreciate the music that I love.
Cutting My Own Hair
When quarantine first started, I decided to grow out my hair until hair salons opened back up. After several months, I was having a terrible time with longer hair, so I asked my old roommate to cut it. He’d been learning from YouTube videos during the lockdowns. The end results were really great, and I was inspired to try myself, which is exactly what I did a couple months later when my bangs started falling into my eyes again.
After buying a basic hair cutting kit and watching some YouTube videos, I took a deep breath and dove in, hoping I wouldn’t end up with a disaster. That first effort wasn’t great – there definitely were some bald spots in the back and some of the trim was uneven. But it was passable on my Zoom video calls. After my second and third efforts, I was much more comfortable with the clippers and actually improved quite a bit. I also reduced my total time spent from an hour-and-a-half to an hour.
Apart from saving quite a bit of money, I feel great about doing something for myself on my own. While I might get the occasional touch-up at a hair salon in the future, I’m planning to continue cutting my own hair with a focus on improving even more.
Camping
In past years, I camped at least several weekends during the summer and fall. Despite that, I always wished I could camp even more. 2020 was a year where that was fulfilled. Since long-distance traveling and even backpacking trips were near-impossible to plan due to the lockdowns and the wildfire smoke, I focused on weekend car camping trips at nearby state parks and private campgrounds.
My trusty Subaru allowed me to take 12 total camping trips this year, mostly with small groups of friends. Camping turned out to be an excellent pandemic activity – it worked for people with varying COVID risk tolerances, was outdoors and away from crowds, and mostly local. There are too many great memories and fun times with friends to cover, so I’ll just include a list of spots below:
- Madrone Tree Hill Hipcamp near Placerville (x2)
- Henry Coe State Park
- Desolation Wilderness
- Mount Diablo State Park
- Hendy Woods State Park
- Cosmo’s Camp Hipcamp near Mendocino
- Salmon Creek Ranch Hipcamp near Bodega Bay
- Portola Redwoods State Park (x2)
- Oregon Coast Hipcamps
- Calaveras Big Trees State Park
Enjoying Books, Movies, & TV Shows
2020 also allowed me to dive deeper into reading books, watching movies, and finishing TV series.
I read 13 books this year, which is a huge personal accomplishment given I typically read 2 to 3 books annually. I guess all that extra time at home gave me more opportunities to do some undistracted reading. It also helped that I joined a reading discussion group that virtually met up to talk about whatever book we were reading at the moment. Some of my favorite books that I read in 2020 include the following:
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone – a must-read about the best parts of therapy
- Season of the Witch – if you think SF is in bad shape now, read about the tumultuous late-60s and 70s…some insane stuff happened back then
- The Count of Monte Cristo – especially proud of finishing this classic, all 1276 pages of it
I also watched plenty of movies, spanning a wide range of genres and years, from blockbusters to artsy films. My favorites are listed below:
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 – based on a real-life trial of Vietnam protestors, solid acting and perfect for the times
- Chungking Express – a legendary Cantonese classic, I can see how this influenced Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation
- Uncut Gems – one of Adam Sandler’s finest acting efforts, loved the nerve-racking pace
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 remake) – filmed in late-70s SF with an excellent sci-fi storyline and cast, including a young Jeff Goldblum
- Being John Malkovich – they don’t make trippy postmodern films like this anymore…
In 2020, I finally got a Netflix subscription. Along with Amazon Prime shows and some other purchased series, I watched more TV shows this past year than all the other years of my life combined. Some of my favorite series include the following:
- Breaking Bad – I was afraid it would be overhyped but glad I was wrong, amazing series and the pinnacle of good TV
- Cowboy Bebop – a classic noir-y space western anime
- Watchmen – a wonderful remix and continuation of the beloved graphic novel storyline
Church Community & Retiring Gracefully
It’s hard to imagine surviving 2020 without my church community, in particular my SOMA3 community group. They kept me sane during weekly virtual meetings, bought me a DoorDash gift card after my shoulder injury so I didn’t have to cook, and continued to share vulnerably and support each other through the challenges and the successes. I’ve co-led this group for 5 years, which involved taking the time to plan meetings, organize events, and check in with group members. But responsibilities aside, being a co-leader provided me with extra accountability and allowed me to personally grow.
I decided to step down as co-leader after 2020 because it felt like the right time to let others shine. To me, the mark of a healthy group is having leaders that can raise up the next set of leaders, which has been my goal over the past year-and-a-half. I’m excited to spend my “retirement” staying involved with my community group as a member in 2021 – while keeping an eye on future opportunities to serve the larger community.
A Final Note on 2021 Goals
This turned out to be an extra-long post so I’ll make this last section quick and simple. In 2021, I want to start living out the values I set in my 30th birthday reflections post – fostering a life filled with more contentment, staying open-minded, and making things better within my sphere of influence.
As a more immediate goal – since my new job is related to real estate valuations and data for investors, I’d like to continue learning more about the real estate industry, particularly RE investing. That doesn’t mean going out and buying an investment property right away, but taking a more active curiosity and diving into books and resources as a starting point.
That’s it. Here’s to 2021! It’s looking like another crazy year but I’m optimistic for some amazing times ahead.
