Day 652 of Pandemic Journal

Friday, 31 December 2021

New Year’s Eve

I was planning on doing a whole pictorial “year in review” for today’s entry, with a little slideshow of the most iconic photos of this journal from 2021, going over the January 6th insurrection, the loss of our beloved Edda, the overthrowing of Afghanistan…

Then Betty White died.

The news notification popped up on my iPad while I was browsing Google for new nightstands over coffee, and for a second, my heart twisted painfully in my chest. I got to work with Betty, briefly, on an animal advocacy video shoot at the Los Angeles Zoo. I remember she was generous and hilarious. She was exactly the same person we all saw on TV. Many of us never believed she would ever really be gone. And then it happened in the blink of an eye.

Then I realized the last thing I really wanted to do today was rehash the dumpster fire that was 2021. We lost beloved pets, family members, and several feet of my childhood home’s front yard. We watched Bezos and Musk send billionaires into space. The price of gas in Los Angeles went over $5 a gallon and stayed there. We got vaccinated and boosted, and fought with those who wouldn’t. We lost more family members. Omicron came and sent the whole pandemic into turmoil, for the vaxxed and unvaxxed alike. We went back to work and then we went back to Zoom.

Someday I will go back into this journal and look at these moments, and probably stare with disbelief that I lived through this. If I live through this.

But today, I simply wish you all a happy and safe new year, with an untrusting side-eye to 2022. Here’s hoping.