New Year, 2020
Another year, another dollar. It’s the Year of the Rat, and I am hoping this year will be more of the smart, intellectual kind of rat, rather than the bubonic plague kind. There is an outbreak of a virus - a respiratory one that’s similar to SARS - in Wuhan, China last month. Looks like swathes of people are being quarantined and are dying there. Hopefully, it can be contained before it reaches our shores. Given international travel, it’s not beyond the realm of the imagination that we might face a global pandemic. I’m thinking World War Z.
But, hey, let’s not go down that rabbit hole.
2019 has been everything I hoped a year to be. We are alive. I am happy. There were new experiences to be had and an unexpected twist, but most fell into place as the dust settled.
Key highlights
Japan! Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. Cherry blossoms and ancient temples. Manga and sashimi. High urban tech and country rural. The culture is iconic. The country is spotless. Okay, we had one racist encounter, but I checked one country off my bucket list, as GAPA Men’s Chorus joined a number of LGBTQ+ choruses in Asia for Proud Voices’ Hand in Hand Festival in April.
Taiwan. There was absolutely no way for me to be in East Asia without flying south to one of my favorite destinations in the world. This time we traveled south to Tainan, got a tour, and biked around Danny’s birthplace.
In May, my First Play was staged for the United States of Asian America Festival. Finding Your Voice: A Collection of New Works by GAPA Theatre was staged on May 10-12, 2019 at Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco, CA presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. A different boy is a 10-minute play, a serio-comic exploration of one queer child’s seminal memory of being ‘other-ed’. It closed each night to ovation. I acted for the first time. I feel hooked to playwriting, line and sinker.
Road trip, camping, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore and Devil’s Tower. I have not been in a solo road trip for a long time, which I absolutely love, so it was great to hit the road in August after getting laid off and drive north to Washington, visit my ex and his husband, and then camp out in Mora in the lush forests of Olympic National Park. Walked Rialto Beach along the mass of driftwoods stripped of bark by the elements. Then drive across state lines to Yellowstone National Park where Danny and his family are vacationing, glamping style at Flagg Ranch in luxe cabins. To see the Tetons, Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, bisons on the road and prairie, and more. It was at this time while overlooking the Grand Canyon at Yellowstone that I got a call and got offered my new job. After that I hit the road again and headed east, passing by ancient rock formations older than life, finally visiting Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and Mt Rushmore in South Dakota before circling back to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit the Family History Center there, a massive disappointment. Stopped at Reno then home. The country is breathtaking.
New job. I got laid off from a job I loved for 2.5 years because the company decided to pivot and move to San Diego. I got hired quickly after that by an exciting start-up in San Francisco. Not digging the weird, leaky Ukrainian art gallery office, but I see a bright future for this company.
Looking forward to
My wedding
This new job, new company, new team