At the end of every year, I take time to reflect on the past 12 months and this year is no different.
January started out with snow and the bright spot of traveling to North Carolina to spend time with my sister, bro-in-law, and nieces.
The month ended with a fun night of celebrating Chinese New Year where a group of friends ate yummy food, played trivia, and watched Mulan.
The first two months of the year continued to throw all the flu cases at our clinic, and the last week of January I succumbed to influenza (3rd year running). Flu rapidly turned into a pneumonia involving two lobes of my right lung, causing a temp of 103.5F and heart rate of 150 bpm, and prompting an urgent care trip for IV fluids and antibiotics. Just as I was recovering, the world was bracing for a "new virus" out of China to hit their countries - interestingly, I had been following the medical news on this virus since November 2019 when I first read about it in my journal emails when I was on vacation in New Zealand.
On March 17, the governor of Iowa put our first Covid lockdown measures into place. Our Quickcare clinics quickly became our influenza-like-illness (ILI) outpatient team, screening patients for symptoms and qualifications for testing, managing illness, and a few of us being pulled to help staff the outpatient Covid patient clinic for those needing more interventions prior to or in lieu of hospitalization. I was one of those providers and spend most of the summer with 1-2 shifts/week in that clinic and through this experience met so many great providers and grew in my learning.
During our early pandemic season, I spent wonderful quality time with my roomie and at home using my isolated time to learn, exercise, and bake. I subscribed to The Great Courses Plus and completed several courses including ones on color analysis, overview of infectious diseases, and the art of cooking with spices. I walked numerous miles, enjoying the budding Spring world and sunny weather, and logged miles for my friend's Cystic Fibrosis challenge.
Some baking projects prior to the pandemic included pavlova (in honor of my recent NZ trip), frangipane pear tart when visiting my sister, and Chinese new year food (eggroll in a bowl). The week of lockdowns was St Patrick's Day and I made bangers, mash, and cabbage, Irish soda bread, and Guinness chocolate cake to share with the roomie and her bf. For my birthday, my roomie got me an Indian cook book I had been eyeing and I made three recipes from it right away - butter chicken, garlic naan, and masala chai. After watching an episode of the GBBS Masterclass, I was inspired to make Mary Berry's cherry cake.
And then after Memorial Day, I started the Whole 30 program, which allowed me to experiment with low-carb recipes and lose 15 lbs when nearly everyone else was gaining due to the stress. Some fun recipes included Thai green curry chicken with eggplant and bamboo shoots with riced cauliflower and zoodle pizza bowls. (See previous blog posts detailing my Whole 30 journey). In the fall, I learned about pierogis from some co-workers; I bought some pre-made ones and made Russian Borscht for the first time to pair with them.
Prior to the pandemic, I also experienced two new ethnic restaurant foods: Jiang Hu Asian Street Noodles and Seoul Grill Korean ramen. During the pandemic, a friend and I tried El Salvadorian food (pupuserias) from La Bendicion Pupuseria y Restaurant and I've been hooked since.
In addition to culinary adventures, other creative endeavors include trying macramé for the first time with a project in June and completing a counted cross-stitch pattern for my mom for Christmas (took 4.5 months and finished all 8 seasons of House, M.D. while working on it!).
And of course, I spent time reading. On reviewing my book list this past year, many are children's or audiobooks. My goal was 100 books in 2020 and although I did not meet that goal, the 69 books I did end up reading isn't bad. Here's a link to the list if interested.
In terms of life events this year, the following are the most notable.
- Celebrating my birthday, pandemic-style, with my roommate who threw a surprise party via Zoom.
- Becoming entirely debt-free when I paid off my last graduate student loan in May (< 5 years after graduating).
- Hosting my roommate's engagement party, bachelorette party, and being the maid of honor for her wedding, all with pandemic precautions in place. Transitioning to living alone after being roommates for 5 years.
- Marie Kondo-ing my entire apartment and getting rid of so. much. stuff.
- Volunteering with Samaritan's Purse disaster relief when the derecho came through our state in August.
- Finding out I will be an aunt again - to a third niece!
- Signing back on part-time with Quickcare after being a year PRN. Working most of the last two months' shifts in urgent care, where I have continued to learn and grow as a provider.
- Supporting my parents from afar when they were infected with Covid and managing this year to avoid getting it despite interacting with numerous positive patients at work. Ending the year on the best note ever by receiving my first dose of the Covid vaccine!
I have participated in Zoom Bible studies and distanced small-group studies, played games with friends over Zoom, and met up with limited number of friends in small groups for games/trivia or a meal. Our church met outdoors all summer, which was a huge benefit for our members to still attend and take the precautions we needed to be safe for work and this fall I have stayed engaged by watching services online.
I can't deny I'm happy 2020 is over. But each difficulty teaches us more about ourselves and what we rely on. God has been faithful throughout the tough times this past year, and he will be so in 2021. Can't wait to see what this year holds!
