2020:
A Year In Photos
It has been a year of change the world over, and for us it has not been any different. There have been quiet endings and new beginnings, some planned and others unexpected. Sickness, protest, isolation, and politics have been themes in the news and in our lives. Although mostly physically distant, if anything this year has brought us closer together and helped bring our priorities into clearer view. In 2020 we have stayed close to home and are grateful for what we have, including each other, our family, our circle of friends, and the community that surrounds us.
The year started normally enough. We still took the subway to work every day.
And went to work functions.
Teresa was still part of the Met Professional Learning Community, going to the museum regularly.
We kept going to see a play or musical a month, including The Woman in Black and West Side Story in January and February. We were supposed to see Jagged Little Pill with family in mid-March, but COVID-19 came in and “the world turned upside-down.”
You know this story. You’ve all seen it.
Soon nearly everything around us was closed. Our Brooklyn neighborhood — normally loud and bustling — was quiet except for the regular sounds of sirens.
All anyone wanted was toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
We all learned how to social distance in stores.
And just how long six feet really is.
Our home and work life changed pretty radically. We built up a collection of masks sewn for us by family members, and learned to wash them by hand whenever we came in from outside.
Our living room served all functions, including as a yoga studio …
… Teresa’s new classroom …
… and Tom’s office. Luckily Tom’s teams were already distributed, so working remotely wasn’t a huge change there, but we had to juggle who had meetings when.
Ruby was over it pretty quickly.
Our free time became consumed with virtual life, including games like Animal Crossing …
… playing “bar” trivia online with friends …
… and going on virtual brewery tours with the New York Brewer’s Association.
Ruby was over all of that pretty quickly, too. Even for our pets, isolation takes its emotional toll.
After George Floyd was killed (and so many others before him), New York City woke back up. As the songs of sirens faded, the chants of Black Lives Matter took their place. We joined other educators in the city, nervous about coronavirus but concerned and restless about the injustices we saw and felt around us.
After three months of being confined in our apartment, the protests reminded us about the life and vitality of the city, and we began walking again. Exploring the city has always been one of our favorite things to do together, and this spring and summer the city felt like a new place, with places we expected to be quiet busy, and places we expected to be busy quiet.
We saw evidence of what we already knew: That New Yorkers are resilient, and they love their city.
And New Yorkers are innovative, making use of every space, moving fine dining into gardens, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
With all the other New Yorkers stuck in their apartments, we found refuge in the parks.
We appreciated nature wherever we could find it.
And sought out small adventures in what was easily accessible.
While we haven’t even left the state this year, we can at least now say we have been to its southernmost point! Thank you for our great escape, Staten Island!
Summer brought many changes for us personally. While most of the change up until this point was out of our control, other big changes were planned out well in advance. For the last year we’d been planning that this year would be our last in New York City, hoping to relocate to the Hudson Valley. We began exploring towns between Beacon and Tarrytown for somewhere to call home with the hopes of a house and a yard. We both grew up in small towns, close to nature and mountains, and we missed that, but we could not bring ourselves to move any farther than an hour and a half away from The City.
Teresa said goodbye to her students and her Brooklyn classroom. The hope was she would find a job locally somewhere, whether at a school or museum nearby. Tom continued working his job, and we planned that he would take the commuter train a couple times a week to his office in Manhattan.
In the middle of the pandemic we followed what few plans we could: We bought a car, packed up our things and our pets, and moved north to Fishkill, NY.
We are the very proud new owners of 51 High View Drive, a 1930s stone house just outside of the village lines.
And Ruby is the very proud new owner of a fenced-in backyard where she can play with sticks and roll in grass without anxiety about strangers, city sounds, or constant traffic.
Teresa now has her own art studio!
She does not have a job in the area yet, but is taking an online class through the University of Rochester in Education Policy and is considering pursuing it in the future as a degree and a profession. Time will tell what comes next in her professional life.
Tom has an actual home office, now complete with a standing desk and curved monitor (and the cutest coworkers). The office in Manhattan has not reopened since March, and there is no date set for when or if it will reopen again. Although the train into the city really is quite nice, this setup suits him just fine.
Perhaps our favorite feature of the house is the fire pit, which will be wonderful for hosting each and every one of you, whenever you make it to the Hudson Valley. We are quite taken with sitting on our Adirondack chairs (from the Adirondacks!) and roasting marshmallows.
We’ve recently taken up new hobbies with our extra space. Tom has started brewing his own beer, and Teresa is enjoying lots of baking and cooking on our new grill.
There are a million (exact number!) trails within a forty-five drive, and we’ve only started investigating them this fall.
Completing the virtual version of the Great Saunter was a motivator, walking over 32 miles in two weeks. While it wasn’t the same experience as walking the perimeter of Manhattan in a single day, it was a good excuse to get ourselves out of the house and into nature.
Exploring small towns is always fun, but even nicer with company, however masked and socially distant it might be. In October we met up with other Hudson Valley transplants, Anita and Ben, to go apple picking. Altovise came for an afternoon to join us on a leg of our virtual Saunter. Effie and Erick came up from Brooklyn to hike and see what “upstate” New York life is like. Liam and Coco visited from Lake Placid to experience Halloween somewhere closer to Sleepy Hollow.
Someday soon we will all be together again, but until then take care of yourselves and your loved ones. We want to wish you and yours a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season. We hope 2021 brings good news and glad tidings.
Lots of love from Tom and Teresa
