2020

Oh, how I wish I would’ve posted this days ago. After everything that transpired in Washington D.C. on January 6, I’ve had a million other things on my mind, BUT I’m a traditionalist and when I’ve made something a tradition, as I have with these verybeneficial.net year end roundups, I cannot deviate from my course, so here we go with my 2021-free 2020 review…

2020 started off brilliantly for me. We immersed ourselves in the photographic opportunities that were brought to St. Louis by our fair city hosting the NHL All-Star game in January. We saw Richard Marx, one of my Soft Rock Kings, in February and he truly put on a hell of a show. Then in March I took a PERFECTLY TIMED vacation to California and saw my many loved ones and got to visit the Disneyland Resort (my favorite place on Earth) three times before America shut down.

When America started to shut down I was in the Britney Spears museum, The Zone, with my dear friend, Amanda. We were having THE BEST time on our personal tour of this world-class institution and after taking in several iconically inspired rooms celebrating some of Britney’s biggest moments, we entered the Circus room and right away our whole world changed.

Centered in this whimsical room were heaping mounds of trash bags filled to the brim with the balls from the now empty ball pit that sat in the center of the ring. Obviously this was an eye-sore and definitely not anything we wanted captured in what became our eventual 578 photos from The Zone. It was also at this time that we got paired with another group and as a result, lost our amazing tour guide and landed a much lesser one. Then almost immediately thereafter, my phone started going off like crazy with hoards of people messaging me every which way they could telling me that Disneyland had announced it’s immediate closure in two days time! I was scheduled to go there for my third and final visit the day they were to close, so I ended up going by myself the very next day, but it became quite clear in that room that life as we knew it was all about to change.

Well, change it did. Because of COVID-19 – which just to make sure we’re all on the same page here is named as such because of its origin in the year 2019 NOT because it’s the 19th strand of the flu as some fool tried to argue with me the other day – I ended up being off from work for 165 days! Now granted my perfectly timed vacation accented all this, but still, I ended up with nearly six months of paid vacation compliments of this global pandemic! On a personal scale, I was thrilled! I’m not even going to lie, this was quite literally a dream come true for me. I was getting paid to not work and as a result had all the free time in the world to do exactly what I wanted. Suffice it to say, wearing a mask and social distancing was a small price to pay for this newfound luxury of time.

My blog evolved greatly in 2020 and as a result of that evolution, we can skip any recap of those 165 days. Everything I did I documented quite well. So in this sense, I’m quite thankful for 2020 because it showed me that I needed to bring my blog into the present day. Looking back, I can see that I was almost exclusively focused on the past. It was time to expand my palate and I’m happy this year helped me make that discovery.

Having to return to work in August was the clearest sign in more ways than one that my good times were over. My pay was cut significantly from the year prior, but I didn’t argue it because Tailored Brands, the parent company of The Men’s Wearhouse where I’d been working for two and a half years, had filed for bankruptcy earlier in the year. In addition to having my pay cut, my hours were initially cut as well. I returned to work with part-time hours because there just wasn’t enough business to warrant full-time for me. Needless to say, this slash in my monetary intake quickly ate up all the reserves I’d set aside from the summer. When I did finally return to full-time status the damage to my pocketbook had already been done, but my prayers were soon answered and God delivered me with an employment blessing.

A recruiter from TJX, the parent company of T. J. Maxx, reached out to me on LinkedIn and after several rounds of interviews and background checks, I accepted a position as the Assistant Store Manager of Merchandising at the T. J. Maxx location directly across the parking lot from my Men’s Wearhouse. I’m now making more than I ever have before and am loving every minute of this fast pace and exciting retail environment. I was never a Maxxinista before this, but you can definitely count me as one now.

Well, that pretty much fills in all the blanks from my 2020 that my previous blog posts didn’t touch on. Now I’d like to share as I have in years past my favorite films and sounds from the past year.

Although we couldn’t enjoy movie theaters like we have in years past, we still watched a LOT of movies in 2020 and these fives were my favorites:

5. The Invisible Man – absolutely terrifying. I usually never scream aloud in movies, but there was one scene that caught me so off guard that I screamed at the top of my lungs! Gives me chills just thinking about it!

4. The Lovebirds – funny AF! I was wildly surprised by how hard and how often I laughed in this one! I just loved it!

3. Onward – another Disney/Pixar masterpiece! I cried a handful of times and truly enjoyed every moment of this adorable film.

2. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – the soundtrack was phenomenal and the film itself was just as rockin’! I expected to enjoy this, but my expectations were blown out of the water by how much I genuinely loved and adored this movie! Will Ferrell at his very best!

1. Soul – this is a lofty statement to make, but this might very well be my absolute favorite Disney/Pixar film of all time. There are not enough positive superlatives to describe this movie. It was perfect from beginning to end AND I didn’t even cry. Usually I equate my emotions with my love for a film and while I felt plenty of emotions in this one, none of them brought tears to my eyes, which is all the more interesting that I loved it so much. It was a cinematic triumph in every sense of the word.

There were a LOT of great jams released this year, but after a tough narrowing down, I concluded these five to be my favorites:

5. Together – Sia – off the soundtrack from a film I’ve never seen entitled, Music, this uplifting and inspiring jam represented a good chunk of my late summer. I had this one on repeat for weeks! It just makes me feel so happy!

4. Dynamite – BTS – I’d never paid attention to BTS before, but WHOA! How could I not pay attention now!?! This song had the complete package: awesome beats, fun lyrics, and plenty of synchronized dancing in the music video! What’s not to love!?!

3. Let Me Reintroduce Myself – Gwen Stefani – this end of year entry took my ears by storm! When I wasn’t listening to Mariah Carey Christmas, I was jammin’ to this song all December and it’s still atop my most listened to jams a week into 2021!

2. Tucked – Katy Perry – Katy Perry released Smile, an amazing album in the late summer and this was the one song on there that should’ve been a single more than any the others. It’s infectious from start to finish and one of my absolute favorite Katy Perry tracks, which is truly saying something given how much I love her.

1. Savage Love – Jason Derülo x Jawsh 685 – I’M OBSESSED WITH THIS SONG! Tik Tok may propelled this song to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was already at #1 in my heart long before my favorite Tik Tokers, Brent Rivera and the Amp Squad, made it trend. It’s just a feel good banger that always puts a smile on my face and makes me wanna dance! I LOVE IT!

Well, that was my lil’ 2020 roundup! While this post may seem slightly disconnected from the reality that was 2020, I thought it better to focus on the more positive aspects of the year and feel beyond blessed and thankful that for me, there were plenty. I do sincerely hope that there were plenty as well for you and that you were able to have the best year you were able!

As always, thank you for your continued support! You all delivered me my most viewed and visited year yet (over 4,200 visitors giving me more than 7,700 views! WOW! THANK YOU!) and for that I’m eternally thankful! I would LOVE to hear about your 2020 highlights in the comments below, so please feel free to share them with me! I always look forward to reading and responding to them all! I’ll be back soon with another all new post, so until then, live the best life ever!