Best of 2020

To close out the year, here are some of the things I most enjoyed in 2020! (Find previous years here.)

Books

• Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love (1373)
  trans. Fr. John-Julian Swanson OJN (2011)
• María de Zayas y Sotomayor, Desengaños amorosos (1647)
• Machado de Assis, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881)
  trans. Flora Thompson-DeVeaux (2020)
• Chanel Miller, Know My Name (2019)
• Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel (2020)

Podcasts

• Reply All #158: The Case of the Missing Hit
• My Gothic Dissertation: Grad School Gothic
• Clerically Speaking #93: Religious Chastity with Sr. Theresa Aletheia, FSP
• Outside/In: The Darién Gap
• Articles of Interest: Perfume*
  *thanks to this episode, my new fragrance is Hyde by Hiram Green

Articles

• Jeffrey Moro on the adversarial classroom
• Jennifer Schaffer on housework
• Lara Chapman on Google Earth
• Eve Tushnet on Úrsula de Jesús
• Joseph Flipper on whiteness as heresy

Performances

• Much Ado About Nothing (Actors’ Renaissance Season)
  American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse, Staunton, VA
  February 9, 2020
• Twelfth Night (SafeStart Season)
  American Shakespeare Center at the Blackburn Inn, Staunton, VA
  August 1, 2020
• Jack White on SNL
  October 10, 2020
• Dialogues des Carmélites
  The Metropolitan Opera, New York, NY
  2019 (via the Met’s free nightly streams)

I wish there had been more. I miss live theatre, music, dance, everything so much. Help keep it alive by donating to a local arts organization (in case you can’t tell, here’s my favorite).

Film & TV

• Emma. (2020), dir. Autumn de Wilde
• Mistérios de Lisboa (2010), dir. Raúl Ruiz
• The Baby-Sitters Club (2020), created by Rachel Shukert
• The Claudia Kishi Club (2020), dir. Sue Ding
• Maradona’s Legs (2019), dir. Firas Khoury

Lockdown Culture

• Pope Francis seriously kept me going:
• the extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing
• livestreamed daily Mass from March to May
• letter on Saint Jerome
• Fratelli tutti
• letter on Saint Joseph
• Meditations on the raising of Lazarus:
• Sr. Bethany Davis
• Fr. Stephen Mathewes
• I played my first-ever video games:
• Firewatch by Campo Santo (2016)
• Gris by Nomada Studio (2018)
• Football Drama by Open Lab Games (2019)
• Songs of the never-ending summer:
• “What a Man Gotta Do”
• “Bang!”
• “So Much Better,” aka that song from the Reply All episode 
• “Nobody,” aka that song from the AfroBySara Challenge
• but above all, “X”

Things I made

in chronological order

• A fun quilt for my goddaughter—with my mom’s help, of course
• SPAN 4040: Translation from Spanish to English (redux)
• Fabric masks for family, friends, and neighbors
• The short-lived, but very fun, #UVACemeteryTour
• Most of my dissertation, including some side projects:
• a talk at my parish
• faith-full: notes on translation & faith
• guest segments on St. Dymphna’s Playlist and Inter Sessions
• so many tweets

Moments I had

• I became a godmother. 
• I became a PhD candidate.
• I helped unionize my workplace.
• I got to play my dream role (Richard/Garnet in Equivocation) for an evening.
• Soon, I’ll be seeing my family for Christmas. I haven’t seen them in ages. It’s going to be lovely.

A year of wonders. I’m grateful for the light in the darkness. Come, Lord Jesus.