Looking back at all my old posts on a near-daily basis through the On This Day plug-in I use, I realize that I’ve written a whole lot of year-end posts throughout the years, which makes me feel somewhat obligated to write one for this year as well. Initially, my thought was “fuck, ain’t nobody got time for this shit,” but then I stopped to actually think about the year 2021 as a whole, and realized that making one, really shouldn’t be that difficult.
Seeing as how in my double dad duty life, I’m typically always in search of the path of least resistance, “shouldn’t be that difficult,” pleases me.
Although plenty of things happened both in my own little bubble, as well as the rest of the world, for me, the year really can be summed up pretty succinctly as a tale of two halves. The first half of the year was spent preparing for the birth of #2, where my job made me miserable and was sucking the life out of me. And then literally halfway through the year, #2 arrived, embarking on the second half of the year where my job still made me miserable, but it was compounded by the ever-living difficulty of parenting two under two with insufficient help.
All while the coronavirus pandemic that plagued most of 2020, still raged on throughout the entire 2021, regardless of how stupid, arrogant and ignorant the rest of the world seemed to become because we’re all a bunch of selfish fucks who can’t understand the importance of quarantine and distancing, and have to be out in public events and crowded restaurants. Vaccinations came into fruition, and smart people got them, but it didn’t make everyone suddenly invincible, as much as it dulled the fatality capabilities of coronavirus. But that was good enough for everyone, and I stopped pondering which was worse between the unvaccinated and the vaccinated who thought they were bulletproof.
On that description alone, it sounds like 2021 may have sucked, and I’d be the first to admit that I did have a tremendous amount of time with dark clouds over me and inside my head. But none of it has any bearing for the love I have for my children, no matter how hard they’ve made my life in this current juncture, and no matter how much I bitch and write pissy brog posts, they are still my happiness and the greatest things to have happened to my life along with mythical wife.
This isn’t to say that the year was entirely a wash. It’s just pretty easy to sum up in very broad strokes, that make it sound negative. Aside from the birth of my second child, she brought baby luck into play, and despite thinking I wouldn’t ever see it in my lifetime, the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. I mean if that isn’t the very embodiment of baby luck, I don’t know what was, the Braves had 88 wins and had no business making the playoffs, but they did, got hot, and rode the momentum all the way to the Commissioner’s Trophy.
I also got the NXT UK Tag Team replica blet, that I’ve been waiting to come into existence for three years. That pleased me greatly and was a good way to wind down the year.
Oh, and the new job I secured with the year winding down. A substantial raise, elevated job title, and for the inevitable future where I have to report back into an office, a shorter commute. Plus, it gave me the long-awaited departure from my toxic current boss, and I can’t wait to get the fuck away from her. That shit is really fantastic news too.
But because I’m a nerd that takes general notes on the happenings that interest me, the following things also occurred in 2021:
- Baked potato worshippers basically tried to throw a coup and invade the Capitol in Washington DC in defiance of the failed 2020 election
- I took a UX course to try and pivot my career path
- Got vaccinated, had it kick my ass. Got a booster later in the year, which kicked my ass again
- Tried the Dr. Now diet from My 600 Lb. Life of eating 1,200 calories a day; I lasted a week before throwing in the towel, but still lost 3.1 lbs.
- The housing market in America went completely bonkers, and I capitalized on it by refinancing on my house to help ourselves financially
- Alabama won its 52nd National Championship
- Tom Brady won his 43rd Super Bowl; but first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- The Milwaukee Bucks, yes Milwaukee Bucks, won the NBA Finals
- My upstairs HVAC died in the middle of summer and had to be replaced, causing a very uncomfortable week in August
- And finally, speaking of deaths, notable passings in my world included: Hank Aaron, Larry King, Screech from Saved by the Bell, Jessica Walter, New Jack, Norm Macdonald, John Madden, Betty White, and most tragically, Sonny Chiba.
But let’s not end this post talking about deaths. As droll and depressing some of the tone of this post might’ve read, there is absolutely no reason for me to not be optimistic about 2022. I have a new job that pays better and gets me away from the toxic situation that shit all over my 2021, and as my girls grow and develop, life should become a little simpler, and pave the way for me to get bits of my own life back, gradually, little by little.
Those things alone carry great weight, and as long as those things can progress positively, not even the dismal state of the world’s handling of coronavirus can drag me down. And with that, I close the brog book on 2021, and hope for nothing but the best going into year 22 of fairly consistent brogging.
