Requiem for Winter '20/'21

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- taking a winter break to relax and read
- celebrating Christmas with C’s family
- staying in the hotel during road trip and truly enjoying quietness, stillness and cable TV (Shark Tank!)
- calling friends to say Happy New Year
- hosting Olya and walking in Manhattan together like good old time
- reading about New York and falling in love with the city all over again
- enjoying morning walks with my dog Biscuit
- taking time to enjoy wrapping Christmas gifts
- getting the most sweet package all the way from Belarus with ginger cookies
- re-learning how to drive
- buying a little Christmas tree and decorating it
- celebrating my birthday walking in the city, getting Bottino takeout and visiting Rockaway beach
- getting so many surprises from my friends and family on my birthday
- spending time with my nephews and nieces
- hosting Kanyewasted reunion
- supporting C with meal prep approach
- advocating for myself at work
- taking up cross-stitching again
- resewing dog toys after Biscuit destroys them
- learning how to bake chocolate babka
- going away for the weekend to a tiny remote town in Maryland
- getting my first haircut since fall 2019
- running into James Murphy while walking the dog
- going through existential crisis because of my age, but getting over it pretty much the next day
- learning about indie rock of early 2000s in New York and feeling this mix of nostalgia and sadness

Thankful for all the people and events and decisions (good and bad) of my 20s.

short version: where is Wallace, String?

Requiem for Fall'20

- buying our first car
- participating in the elections for the first time
- celebrating first female Vice President Kamala Harris
- hoping and rooting for the freedom in my home country Belarus
- enjoying morning dog walks
- learning how to bake perfect chocolate chip cookies
- saying goodbye to Hanna and Alex before their one-way flight to LA
- finding my old hard drive with memories
- visiting Alexandria, VA for the first time
- having friends over
- getting stickers from a wonderful doctor who was doing my bloodwork
- teaching Biscuit new tricks
- celebrating Bella and Gleb’s first baby
- mourning the loss of Roman Bondarenko;
- mourning the loss of my parent’s friend who we lost due COVID
- mourning RBG
- learning to take criticism
- cleaning dog puke (sorry, this is gross)
- running into familiar people in COVID line
- taking Amtrak for the first time
- celebrating 5 years at Vimeo

short version: жыве

Requiem for Summer'20

🏴 Most of my summer was occupied by thoughts about Belarus. The requiem can’t represent the true summer without statement on the situation in my home country.

- dealing with a lot of change in many aspects of life: personal and professional
- adopting a rescue puppy from Korea: learning a lot about how to take care of dogs, how to train them and also how to not go insane with constant supervision and attention
- worrying about friend being unlawfully detained
- experiencing pure joy after facetiming with him after he’s been freed
- celebrating C. birthday
- reading and learning about BLM movement
- driving upstate for a little hike with friends
- watching Lexington ave with no cars
- learning to ride a bike
- standing up for myself at work and moving things forward
- driving to Philly on a rental car that turned out to be a ridiculous Jeep pickup
- baking bread for the first time
- getting to know our neighbors
- seeing family after a long quarantine
- celebrating Hanna’s time in New York and having a farewell party in Prospect park
- having a lot of flashback to 2010
- having a crazy amount of support from friends and co-workers
- reading

short version: Тваё мора не мае назвы