Happy Twenty Twenty-One-derful

Do you all remember 2012-2103 when I wrote a blog post every.single.day.? I can't say for certain that I am returning to that, but I have so much I want to say and share and I *know* you've been waiting with baited breath for my return.
Let's recap 2020, shall we?
TL;DR - in which I recap the year, celebrate a few family moments, and share my mom's Uterine Cancer diagnosis and also let you all know she's doing very well.
* On December 31, 2019 we celebrated our 12th year of New Year's Eve fun with our friends the Tandy's. We fully expected to repeat that last night. We did not. I still made lasagna and we had Italian bread and it was delicious. I missed the annual catch up of whatever adult kids happen to be joining us for dinner and I missed our friends. Instead of yawning in Claire's living room I said, "the hell with it," and went to bed by 10:30. Yawning issue fixed.
* In February Kathy and I sold the salon. I knew I had to take the month of March off to regroup and get the Magic Basement magical. I needed to back away from all things salon and move full speed ahead into maggiepinque.com. This gave Shelley, Leslie and Justine the opportunity to create their own brand and make the place theirs. (I don't know if you know this but I tend to have a rather memorable personality.) They needed the time to own their social media accounts and let the clients celebrate them. They have created beautiful content filled to the brim with hair galore - something I never quite managed to do.
* In March I started creating my new work environment. I had made myself a marvelous room at the salon, and now all the artful objects of that room were in boxes in my basement. I got to work. Unloading. Hanging new items, archiving old items. Jane and I went to the 92Y on March 10 to see Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach talk about Glennon's book "Untamed". And then our world totally and completely changed. Peter began working at home on March 16. Bella began on March 17. I made a dreadful St. Patrick's Day corned beef. Seriously, it was quite nearly inedible. We played Phase One. We had cocktail hours. We were a family making magic happen. Until this life became routine. And then we figured out how to live and work and be together day in and day out. We began a Buckley family Zoom call every Sunday at 4:00.
* In April I began doing Facebook Live Card Readings. It was 100% for my own sanity and the sanity of others. I showed up every day at 10:15 and twice on Wednesday's - in the morning and in the evening. I can honestly say people who didn't know each other became friendly and in some cases friends. I was reading people from the Philippines, the UK, and Taiwan. I kept at this until the end of May.
* In May we celebrated our 25th Anniversary like any other day.
* In June we celebrated Bella's 23rd birthday with a made from scratch cake. My niece Colleen took a leap of faith and moved to Nashville.
* In July we celebrated the 4th of July by doing nothing.
* In August my mom hopped on a plane to NY from Florida and settled into living at Jane and Brian's house. My first grand nephew Alden was born. He is charming and beautiful and all the adjectives.
* In September I ordered all the pieces to redo the kids bathroom since the tub is leaking from the inside through the outside soffits. GOOD TIMES. Important side note: the tub was backordered and was delivered on December 7. We celebrated my mom's 85th birthday party safely and socially distanced in the McCarthy's backyard. On September 26 my niece Jennifer and her fiancé Dalton skipped off to Nashville and eloped! The bride was radiant and glorious, the groom dapper and the setting old world charm.
* In October we began the long awaited patio in the back year. By long awaited, I mean over 15 years. I cannot stress how life changing this is. Of course, patio furniture is all made in China and thus impossible to find, so next year we shall get on that. In the meantime we have a total of two Adirondack chairs that we are enjoying when it's not too cold. I brought mom to Stewart Airport the last weekend of October and she headed back to the warmth that is Florida in the winter.
* In November we celebrated Thanksgiving with fried chicken cutlets, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli. For the record, it was so yummy and Bella had cutlets for lunch for days. It was really hard to not be celebrating in our normal way with family. We gobbled anyway. My niece Caitlan (mama to Alden) and her partner Kyle bought a house! It is a stupendous fixer upper with tons of room, so many fabulous nooks and crannies and a gorgeous piece of property.
* In December I purged "the other side of the basement" and the house of over 200 items. HOW can one place have that much stuff you wonder? Well, being a highly crafty person, I had an insane amount of items I was waiting to create or alter or use in some way. That thinking led to a lot of dust over the past 10 years. And so, with my iPhone, an Excel spreadsheet and the FB group, Buy Nothing, I went on a wild spree of gifting anything and everything I knew it was time to let go of. I cannot stress how freeing this all was. We also found out my mom had Uterine Cancer. Jane immediately flew down to Florida and has been our go to person and world class communicator extraordinaire. As of this second, Peg has had all the surgery necessary via the miracle of robotic, laparoscopic means and will have a pretty tremendous recovery. There are still a few treatments she will have to undergo, but all in all, she's doing mighty amazingly for a gal who was diagnosed at the beginning of December to the end of December. We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the core four Pinque's and we don't take for granted that we all still like and love each other.

In the category of things that made a difference:
* Now that I am no longer sitting at the front desk of a hair salon I have let my hair show it's natural sparkles and silver. It's taking a while to grow in but all in all I love it.
* Speaking of hair, I jumped on the all in one styling tool wagon and now, more often that not, my hair is down rather than in a pony tail. The '80's have returned with this product and my hair generally looks good!
* The commercials won me over and I purchased the Waterpik Sonic Fusion Flossing Electric Toothbrush. This toothbrush made a difference in ONE WEEK. So much so that I became to poster child for the dental hygienist.

As we move forward in 2021, let's celebrate all the things that were amazing. Let's celebrate the things we did that helped us hang on. But let's never forget the tireless work of everyone who was essential. Can you fathom no food? Can you fathom no medical support? Of course not. Hug those you can. Wash your hands. Wear your mask. Celebrate and thank every educator you know; what they managed to make happen is nothing short of miraculous. Imagine the money you saved by not commuting; not to mention that you finally got a decent nights sleep. Zoom brought people together in ways we never could have pictured in it's its own kind of brilliance. Send love to each person you know who suffered a loss. These are trying times and staying optimistic tested the most positive of us. Remember you are the world to the people who know and love you.

Sending you blessings of love, laughter, abundance, excellent health, wealt, peace, creativity and great joy.

Raise your glass to 2021.

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be, anything but loud
And nitty gritty, dirty little freaks
Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass
https://youtu.be/XjVNlG5cZyQ