2020 in Review
Hi,
Some of you may have received a prior year-end letter from me (if I missed you one year, I apologize, you can find them here).
Another year down, and what a year it has been! As always, if you don’t care to read this it’s totally OK to skim through the pictures or just click the “x” at the top and exit and resume your doom scrolling. Just so I don’t bury the lede: we’re having a baby girl in January :) More on that later…
2020 has been an intense year, and I hope you and your family are safe and healthy during these trying times. I will attempt to keep this letter positive, but completely acknowledge this year has been intense, troubling, and incredibly hard for many. I hope to see you in person at some point of 2021 and look back at 2020 as a distant memory!
This year started off with a bang…well, more of a sharp pain in my back that shot down my leg.
I’ve been fighting through some back pain ever since 2015 (maybe withdrawal symptoms of leaving NYC??). Perhaps a result of years of putting myself in bad positions as a wrestler?? The pain would come and go. I had MRI’s, did physical therapy, and then it got better…until it got worse again. It was actually at its worst during our wedding in 2016 when I couldn’t feel my left leg during the ceremony!
In January it finally got so bad I could barely walk. It was time to have someone to stab me in the back. I had back surgery to fix a disk issue in early February.
The surgeon said I’d be 80–90% in 30 days. I did not believe him, as 100% physical activity consisted of me training Jiu Jitsu and have a grown man trying to tear my limbs off and strangle me. I didn’t think that was in the cards for MONTHS. I did walk out of the hospital after surgery (a bit loopy, but I walked) and the recovery was swift #science. With that said, Jiu Jitsu started 45 days after surgery, and has been something that has kept me sane through the pandemic. Laura and I adopted my friend Stephen into our quarantine bubble right at the beginning of the pandemic and we have been consistently training in our “annex” (part office/part home gym).
Our last pre-pandemic project was redoing our kitchen. We wanted something that would open up the space a bit more and also add some more counter space and cabinets. We flew in an expert in remodels (my dad) who arrived from Finland and immediately started working 12–14hr days and directing me. We previously put him to work laying our floors in the new bedroom and living room. He’s also my go-to guide on FaceTime when I get stuck tinkering.
It was good that we pushed long hours to finish the kitchen. Toward the end of the project, Finland was imminently closing its borders (remember early March?) and he had to adjust his flight to get back ASAP. Luckily, Dad was able to finish all the work that required actual skill and talent, and left me with the touch-up paint and finishing touches! Dad got back to Finland and entered a two-week quarantine, and (thankfully) we had a new kitchen going into the pandemic.
With limited activities available…we leveled up our gardening game this spring. Last year was a great experiment (okay, I had no idea what I was doing). This year, I studied more about gardening, and we and we decided to grow some new veggies. We planted: potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, jalapeños, Serrano peppers, banana peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, Cayenne peppers, bell peppers, sweet heat peppers, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, yellow squash, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, chives, sage, cilantro, Swiss chard, romaine, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, okra, and leeks. The damn chipmunks ate the sweet potatoes and garlic, the crows ate the half the cucumber plants…and then my wife developed serious first-trimester aversions to many of the rest (oh well!). I started building fences and got nets to keep the birds away. Have I mentioned, I HATE chipmunks? Overall, the harvest was an amazing success, and I am planning out new plots for next spring. I also hand tilled and replanted the grass in the backyard this fall.
Then this May we found out Laura was pregnant :) and she is due January 20th with a girl. After several years of some really tough losses and setbacks, we feel lucky to have made it this far and are anxious to meet her!
I went back and forth about whether to share this part…I know (in the U.S.) there are many differing views about traveling during this pandemic. In July, we weighed the pros and cons of flying to Finland, doing a rigorous 14-day quarantine when we arrived, and then again when we returned home. We ultimately decided to go and spent five weeks there (with both of us working remote). At that point, the region where my parents live hadn’t had a single Covid case in 16 weeks so it was such a nice break. We’re really happy we went. We had an amazing summer foraging for mushrooms, hiking, staying at the lake, and seeing family and it was nice to be in a country that made good decisions during the early pandemic response that allowed their country to essentially go about their business normally all summer long.
One pandemic skill I’ve acquired is using a smoker. Laura got me a smoker for my birthday and I have been trying to figure out how to perfect cooking with it since. It has blown my mind how good food can be when cooked low and slow over 10–12 hrs!!
Much of the rest of the year has been spent in preparation. We’ve set up the nursery, taken birth classes, read books, listened to podcasts, and had conversations about how to support each other once the baby comes. Laura gets a maternity leave of three months from her job at 2U, and then can take an additional month working part time as she transitions back. If the baby arrives when they say she should (who knows!), this would set us up quite well as Laura’s maternity leave takes us through the academic semester and then I could take over once classes end in May. I will then take a paternity leave. George Mason’s policy is amazing. I’ve opted to do a full year at 50% workload. This means in the summer I am able to take a large share of baby time, and then in the fall I will only teach one class (fully online) and then in the spring semester, when the baby is about a year old, I will teach one class in person. I’m really happy to work somewhere that is so supportive of families. I also submitted my tenure application this fall, and am awaiting a decision. I should find out late spring.
We’ve continued our hiking throughout the year. The trails were crowded at times, but as the weather has cooled, most people stay home. This has been a great time to explore new hikes and trails. We’ve taken several day trips to Shenandoah National Park since it’s less than 1.5 hrs away. We’ve also explored Great Falls Park, Catoctin Mountain Park, and Prince William Forest National Park in addition to the Manassas National Battle Fields and other local green areas. The hiking in Virginia is PLENTIFUL! And there’s no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing choices.
So to end this year, we are waiting. Waiting for a new addition to the family, waiting to “go back to normal,” and waiting to reconnect with all the family and friends we’ve missed.
-Risto and Laura
