2020 was not the year most people thought it would be, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20, right? To document life during a pandemic, unlike other years I’ve been writing monthly posts since March, so this post will be a summary of summaries. [Find each month here: March April May June July August September October November December.]
For the third time in four years, I began the new year at the airport, flying back to Detroit at the beginning of January. I reread The Fellowship of the Ring, ate pineapple tarts delivered from Singapore and picked up at home at Christmas, had a band concert in which I made my debut on the triangle, and was recruited to attend a couple ChemE seminars and have lunch with faculty candidates.
In February, reports of a new virus in China were circulating, but it was believed to be localized and people didn’t need to be concerned unless they had recently travelled to China. We procrastinated and complained in the office, our lab had group meetings, band rehearsals for our third concert of the season continued, I watched the end of Cornell men’s hockey’s very successful season and the start of MLS’s 25th season, and I started Star Trek: The Next Generation.
By March, it was becoming clear that the coronavirus was not contained in China. Days before classes went online, conferences and visit weekends were cancelled, churches stopped meeting in person, and sports were delayed, I performed in what might end up being my last concert with the Ann Arbor Concert Band. Later that week, our lab had our last in-person group meeting, and I went to my office for the last time to pick up books and notes before non-essential research (anything not virus-related or necessary to keep cells/animals alive) was shut down. As Michigan got an official stay at home order, I finished watching The Office.
I worked from my apartment through the month of April and started exploring the neighborhoods and parks of Ann Arbor on foot. Community came to Netflix, MLS re-aired old matches while the season was on hold, and I baked peanut butter cookies and cinnamon rolls, assembled jigsaw puzzles, read from my bookcase, and finished writing the first draft of my manuscript v2.0.
During May, businesses started reopening with cleaning, mask, capacity, and distancing requirements. As a computational researcher, I continued computing in my apartment, though the university tested opening a limited number of labs for experimental researchers. I began my quest to visit every park in Ann Arbor, which turned out to be a great pandemic activity. Basically free, essentially infinitely ventilated, can be done alone, generally easy to remain distanced, is a source of vitamin D, reduces cortisol (stress hormone), and produces endorphins (can lower symptoms of depression and anxiety).
With coronavirus numbers looking much better, the stay at home order was lifted in June. I spent the month on my bike in all corners of Ann Arbor hunting parks down. The Ann Arbor District Library put on the 2020 pandemic version of the Summer Game. My baking masterpiece of the month was a pineapple upside down cake, and I finished the available Great British Bake Off episodes, started rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and ate, slept, and did research.
July was hot and humid, just like summer should be. While I sweated my way through dozens of parks and miles on my bike and avoided the oven, Jeopardy! opened up their vault and aired old episodes, and MLS started back up after four months. They bubbled up in Orlando for the MLS is Back tournament (the Returnament), where each team played three group stage games that would count in the standings followed by knockout games that didn’t factor into the standings but would earn the team a mostly meaningless trophy. The Revolution picked up a win and two ties, then were knocked out in the round of 16 (the first knockout round).
Students returned to campus in August for a limited number of in-person classes and on-campus activities. I didn’t think it was a great idea, but covid numbers in Washtenaw county looked pretty good, so I wasn’t vehemently against it. The MLS regular season picked up again with regional games (with the three Canadian clubs stuck in Canada only able to play each other), no fans, and regular testing. At the end of the month, I submitted edit 927 of version 2 of my manuscript and had my first day of 21st grade.
The university’s (lack of) coronavirus plan was a major point of contention in September, as minimal covid testing and quarantine housing conditions, among other things, drove the grad students to strike, the RAs to strike, the dining hall workers to want to strike, and the faculty senate to vote no confidence in the university president. Matters were somewhat resolved and people settled in for the semester. In other news, I finished Parks and Recreation before it left Netflix, met up with a couple individuals for the first time since March, picked up my clarinet very briefly, and saw goats.
October was my birthday month, and to celebrate and enjoy fall before everything froze over for six months, I visited several parks in Ann Arbor in search of fall colors. Covid cases at the university rose enough for the county to issue a shelter in place order for the undergrads, and nationwide cases and hospitalizations were trending upwards (again).
I was finally forced to put on pants in November when temperatures dropped, but I continued my outdoor wanderings (in shorts) whenever possible. The election happened. One of my coworkers defended via Zoom, I watched a livestreamed wedding, and the Revolution finished the regular season with enough points to make the playoffs. To the surprise of many people, they won a play-in game, beat the number one Eastern Conference seed in the round of 16, and emerged victorious in their conference semifinal game, earning themselves a spot in the conference final. Also, I baked molasses cookies and cranberry orange scones, made cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, had breakfast for dinner, and my manuscript, after a couple rounds of revisions, was accepted. One of those things is not like the others.
And finally, we made it to December. The Revolution lost in the conference final, but that means they made it to the conference final. I tried to venture outside a few times a week, it snowed (and melted), and I started cross stitching again. And my paper was finally, after many trials and much tribulation, published.
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