It's the end of the year as we know it, and I feel perfectly adequate

Before we get into this end of the year post, I feel like I need to remind everyone of a few things to be aware of on this last day of 2020. Like Halloween, NYE is one of those holidays where people make really poor life choices. Because it's 2020 and we don't need the universe sending us anything else in the last 24 hours of the year, please consider your actions wisely:

• Don't open any sort of tomb, unearthed item, ancient text, or anything else that looks like it could raise an army of zombie squirrels.
• Don't accept ANYTHING from a stranger.
• Avoid abandoned buildings.
• Be polite to people, particular your elders. Remember, most curses happen because someone was a jerk to an old lady.
• If someone gives you a mogwai, don't feed it after midnight or expose it to bright light or water. Actually, you shouldn't accept a mogwai at all. 
• Stay home. There's zero reason to be out this NYE. 

Warnings complete; let's move on with the last Island post of 2020. Normally, I use this last post of the year to reflect on the year that was and discuss goals, achieved or failed, and set up the wonder that will be 2021. Well, 2020 is the year that can best be described as a dumpster fire, so there will be no lofty post reflecting on the year that was. I feel, on this last day of 2020, perfectly adequate and ready to move on. 

This is not to say that I don't have some expectations for 2021. The mostly fall into five categories:

1. Not thinking about the President for some portion of each day.
2. Figuring out what to have for dinner in advance of dinner time. This is surprisingly more difficult to do when staying home.
3. Continuing to work from home BUT reconnecting to my work clothes. I've missed them. 
4. Figuring out Keely's peak attention needing times, and planning accordingly. 
5. Launching a new art project. 

Nothing crazy on that list. I don't want to set myself for disappointment in 2021. I want to creep quietly into the new year, with cat-like tread, and let the year unfold. It's going to be another very long year. I'm not being pessimistic, but realistic. 

One of the brightest spots of 2020 for me has been having time to focus on creative projects. I made over 100 embroidery pieces this year, which is amazing. A lot of the pieces were original designs or collaborations with my friend, Kelly, who is an amazing painter. I launched the Be a Good Citizen Project, featuring 30 original pieces (see below if you'd like a "Scream" - I still have a few), and I learned some new stitches and techniques along the way. Having more time to work on creative projects has been amazing, and kept me sane this year. I'm looking forward to my 2021 project, An Embroidery a Day, which launches tomorrow. You can keep learn more about the project and follow along on my new blog of the same name (the first post will go live tomorrow morning so don't be shocked if you see a blank screen right now). 

I started the Island in 2011 with no real plan or purpose except to be able to write and entertain. I hope that in 2021 I can get back to more of what I love to do on this space - share funny stories, write fiction, and answer my cat's questions. The 500th Island post will be written in 2021; I have no idea what it will be about, but I assume it'll include words and sentences and stuff. Thank you for joining me in 2020 and enjoying/tolerating the posts I did get out this year. I appreciate your time and your continued support of the Island.

Oh, also enjoy one final "Keely living his best life" photo. Pets really won 2020 - I don't know if I can go back to working in the office; he'd miss me too much (in his own cat way, of course).

Happy New Year - may 2021 be less of a dumpster fire than 2020! And please, whatever you do, make smart life choices this evening. Don't tempt 2020 in its final hours. 

There's still time to get your very own SCREAM! I still have a few left if you'd like to tell me all about how you were a good citizen in 2020. Check out this post for the details of my Be a Good Citizen Project. Use this link to complete a short questionnaire on your good citizen-ing. I'll be featuring some good citizens in a post in early 2021.

Under a Christmas tree instead of in a van down by the river

My old cat, Pumpkin, lived in an Ikea shopping bag for a week. No, this isn't a heart-warming story about how I found a tiny kitten in an Ikea bag on the means streets of Honolulu (Pumpkin was adopted when I lived in Hawaii) and brought her home to her forever home. The bag was in my apartment and she decided to live in it for a week. Pumpkin was the kind of cat who enjoyed boxes and waited patiently for a moment like an empty Ikea bag to come her way. She would leave the bag to eat, use the litter box, and take up far more space on the bed than an eight pound cat should take. But if it wasn't one of those three things, she was in the bag. I moved it around the apartment a few times. That had zero impact on her situation; she moved with her bag. For reasons known only to her, the week ended and she decided the bag was over. She resumed her "normal" life of living on top of the cable box. Cats are special and we don't deserve them. 

My current cat, Keely, also enjoys an Ikea bag and had short term love affair with living on my bed but under a garment bag from the dry cleaning service I used to use. I thought he looked like a solider in a tent writing letters home to his beloved.

He prefers his cat bed (I know!), lounging on a dining room chair, or using the draft blocker as a pillow by the sliding glass door. He does like to sit on my lap at precisely 4 pm each day, but only if we follow a set of rules he established when he decided I was okay enough for him to sit on my lap. Cats are weird. You can imagine my surprise when Keely found a new napping/sitting location this past weekend.

He lives under the Christmas tree.

Before we examine Keely's latest thing, there are a few things you need to know about me and Christmas:

• I have not put up a tree of any sort since 2013. That year, it was a book tree, so I'm not sure if that counts. 
• I did have a tabletop tree the following year, but that doesn't count. I used little earrings as decorations and sneezed whenever I was close to it. 
• I love Christmas decorations, but I hate putting them up. In fact, I once planned my visit home for Christmas to avoid decorating the tree. My family knows this, and now waits or holds back ornaments so I have to do something. 
• My preference for ornaments is the weirder the better. I once decorated my parents' tree with the theme of "Obscure Presidents" because they have a collection of White House ornaments and who doesn't want a tree where Chester A. Arthur is the focal point?

For whatever reason, I have fully embraced Christmas this year. Not only did I put up a tree...I put it up the day after Thanksgiving. This from a person who once wrote an open letter to Christmas decorations up before Halloween. I also bought eggnog and holiday themed pajamas (with dinosaurs, but still). I don't know me anymore either. 

I also decided to channel my Grandma K and make some ornaments, finally putting my abundant sequin collection to use. I also embroidered a few ornaments and was delighted to receive some handmade ornaments in the mail from my friend and her son. Target seemed to sense my need this year, featuring a line of ornaments that can only be described as "1965 Called and it Wants Christmas Back." I am here for it. 

And then Keely started living under the tree. At first, he mostly focused on rubbing his little face on everything and trying to eat the plastic branches, but then he really settled in. Sometimes, he likes to be out front like a tree guard. Other times, he lounges at the back of the tree against the wall. He naps, he watches the lights, he chills. He never bats at the ornaments. He never tries to climb the tree. I suspect he knows he weights more than the tree, so staying on the ground is the smart choice. He just snuggles into the tree skirt like it's his job.  This is same tree skirt I used to wear over my clothes when I was a kid and we decorated the tree.  The blinking star on top of the tree, which was an early addition to my parents' enormous holiday decoration collection (think foil star from the mid-1970s), seems to mesmerize him.

Like Pumpkin, I don't really know why Keely has decided to live under the tree. He tends to come out more since he really enjoys the sun by the sliding glass door, but he spends about 75% of his time during the day under or near the tree (he spends his nights sleeping on my legs and getting annoyed when I move). He's not great at hiding, so maybe this is an attempt at practicing his hiding skills. Maybe he's trying to reclaim some of his hunter/I'm the descendant of wild cats essence. Maybe that tree skirt is just really comfortable. Maybe Keely realizes we all need a little festive holiday cheer, and who doesn't smile when a chonky cat sleeps under a tree? 

Reminder: Show your good citizenry! Check out this post for the details of my Be a Good Citizen Project. Use this link to complete a short questionnaire on your good citizen-ing. The deadline for submissions has been extended until then end of the year. I'm like the Oprah of rewarding good citizenship: "You get a piece of original art! And you get a piece of original art.