Year in Review: 2020

Wow, 2020, huh? I think it was quite a… how to put it, abnormal? Crazy? Unexpected? Year for all of us. Here’s a look back on how 2020 was for me.

Personal Life

As COVID-19 changed daily life for many people, it did for my family as well. We did the responsible thing of mainly staying at home, which in a way, improved a couple things. For example, we saved a lot of money by not eating out as much and was eating healthier overall, but we missed being able to do other things for fun.

And well, that also meant doing many things remotely and canceling all travel. I switched to fully working from home, and my daughter, Tali, started Chinese toddler classes online. We had to cancel a trip to Pennsylvania and New York and have not seen my brother or relatives in-person this whole year. In place of that, my cousins and I do a group video chat every Saturday now, so it’s been nice to keep in touch regularly at least. We also haven’t seen my in-laws in San Antonio, which meant doing Thanksgiving and Christmas ourselves at home.

I had another big change (not related to the pandemic)… I got pregnant! My husband and I always knew we wanted a second child, and I wanted to try some time after Tali turned one. We started trying in January, and when the pandemic happened, we considered stopping. Then… I got pregnant in March, so never mind I guess!

In December, Ada was born! Fortunately, the second time around is less stressful. We already knew what to expect, had most of the things we needed, and the labor and delivery was also shorter.

Though Ada was born a healthy baby, she did have some irregular breathing due to fluids still in her lungs and had to stay in the NICU for a few days. We were so happy when we were able to bring her home!

Work Life

When the pandemic hit, my company sent everyone home in March, and fortunately, we were prepared. In Engineering, at least, we already had laptops and a flexible work-from-home policy (basically, do it whenever you want). Half of the people I work with also do not live in the same city as me, so all of my meetings had to be done over video anyway. The difference was that our conference rooms had video conferencing, but now we’re all logging in remotely individually. It’s actually improved communication with my teams, since everyone is now communicating the same way. People not in the office no longer feel left out.

As the situation continued, my company made the decision to be permanently work-from-anywhere. We’ve even given up our office location and are merging with sister companies in another building in town. After all of this COVID stuff passes, I will probably continue work-from-home. Sometimes I miss the in-person interactions, but I really don’t miss the commute!

I also got promoted! I went from Senior Engineering Manager to Director of Engineering. I had originally hesitated on the director role because I want to work closely with engineers. My manager at the time knew that, so he made sure I still directly manage two engineering teams. I also manage a couple other managers now and have additional responsibilities as a director. I suppose that ended up working out for me!

Hobbies

Toy photography remained my main hobby, with my Instagram account reaching over 1,000 followers and hitting its second year. One of my photos was also featured on Good Smile Company’s official account! (GSC makes nendoroids – the figures that I mainly use and collect.)

When it comes to gaming, I uh… spent 500+ hours in Animal Crossing… but even so! I managed to play more games because my husband and I got back into playing co-op games together. I’ll post my usual Gaming Year in Review soon!

Towards the end of the year, I revived my art hobby. I participated in Inktober again (where you draw an ink drawing every day of October), and I focused on doing food drawings using Prismacolor and Copic markers. It was a lot of fun, and it helped me become a lot more comfortable with colored markers.

From there, I dusted off my watercolor set and worked with those again. I especially love this painting of Tali that I finished!

Working from home made me change up how I bake. Since I couldn’t bring baked goods to the office for coworkers to eat, I had to stop doing large scale baking, like large batches of cookies or whole cakes. I began turning to recipes that were easy to halve or ones that already made small amounts.

And that’s it for my 2020 recap! As much as I’d like to make plans or look ahead for 2021, it doesn’t really make sense with everything that’s going on in the world. My only plan is the start the year with my maternity leave and then, well… just take it from there I guess. Happy New Year everyone! Stay safe!