PanicPagoda

I see it's been a year and a half since I last submitted a journal, so I figured I'd make a new one reflecting on how this year went for me. It's been pretty eventful actually, as far as both good and bad things go. :bulletred: First, the bad: I lost two special people in my life. The first was my uncle (who was also my dad's brother), who died suddenly near the end of April. He was a part of my whole life, despite us living on opposite sides of the country: we'd meet with him and his side of the family for numerous trips throughout my life. Flying out to attend his funeral was my first time traveling for an unhappy reason; I'm glad that my family was able to travel to say our final goodbyes. It took a while for that sad new reality to sink in, but now that the initial shock has passed, I feel we've come to accept it and need to keep moving forward. The second loss was my friend's grandmother, who died near the end of September (both my mom and I knew well.) She was in her eighties

With the pandemic winding down and my first week of vacation time this year available, I decided it might be fun to go on a road trip to Philadelphia with my mom (my dad didn't feel like going and watched the cats at home.) I haven't been on a long drive since I visited a friend from Australia staying in Rhode Island early last year (pre-shutdown) and I chose Philly since it's less than three hours away and I've never been there. On Wednesday we left and arrived sometime in the early afternoon, first getting cheesesteaks at Dalessandro's Steaks and Hoagies, which I've heard is really good (and they are.) After checking into the hotel we walked around a bit, saw statues near City Hall and visited Love Park to see the "LOVE" sculpture. The next day we went to see The Liberty Bell, which thankfully wasn't that long of a wait. We then went to the Mutter Museum, which is a collection of various somewhat-creepy medical oddities. After getting lunch and resting a bit, we went on a

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since the beginning of 2020: a year that began with hopes that I'd finally be able to leave my awful job and start something new. The first few months were okay, with me getting my first new car in seven years (a Nissan Sentra) as well as attending two concerts (The Adicts and Om) and at least one movie (Onward). I also had my second day-trip with an Australian friend staying in Providence, Rhode Island (we drove to Plymouth, Hyannis, and Provincetown, Massachusetts.) As March progressed, of course, everything closed down, leading to the cancellation of multiple events I was interested in (particularly a Pee-wee's Big Adventure anniversary screening in New York.) I was also participating in over-the-phone career coaching that my relatives got me for Christmas which, if the pandemic hadn't happened, might have led to me switching to a "gig economy" based freelance job. As much as I despise my grocery store bakery job, however, I was