Now that we're in the last few days of this WTF year, I just have a few last random thoughts before I come back on January 4, 2021, when we can all start with a clean slate and a semblance of normalcy...

1.) With this travel blog, I'm hoping to actually travel in the next 12 months, and not just domestically.  I'm glad I did get to go to Cozumel on a Carnival cruise, Chicago, Seattle and Northern California this year.  My aspired destinations for 2021: Provence for an AmaWaterways river cruise, Miami and Cancun for business, New York with my kids, a Virgin Voyages cruise to the Dominican Republic and Southern California to take my younger one to college.

2.) I am beyond happy that we have a new President here in the US and therefore new leadership to finally get COVID-19 under control with several vaccines available and our economy turned around. 

3.) My daughters have done the very best they could with online education. Naturally my hope is that they'll be back on campus next fall, and my younger one will handle being on her own in Southern Cal. 

4.) I've been torn with professional sports.  On the one hand, most of it hasn't worked and players and coaches have contracted COVID more than they should have.  But it's given me some diversion and distraction from the endless gloominess of our current affairs - even though my teams were pretty bad this year.

This is a number we're all looking forward to seeing (photo courtesy of © Lumikk555 | Dreamstime.com)

5.) People - stop calling cruises "floating Petri dishes"!  Getting coronavirus can happen anywhere.  And more than anyone, cruise lines are going to be extra-careful with health and safety protocols.  Otherwise, they'll be out of business.  And if you haven't been on a cruise, you can hardly criticize something you don't know anything about.

6.) Like nearly everyone, I haven't liked wearing masks, but I care about people.  I don't want to give or get COVID, so I'm willing to do this as long as it takes.

7.) In the next year, I hope we can see movies and theater productions in a theater, sporting events in a ballpark, stadium or arena and feel not the least bit of fear.

8.) I'm sick of Zoom/Google Meet and any other virtual platform.  But I won't be surprised if this is how we continue to meet in the future, even if it's safe to get together in person.

9.) Thanks to my JRS, I'm re-thinking of automatically ordering from Amazon (whom she calls The Bezos Empire) for anything and seeing if I can find a small business alternative, just so I can support those who really need the revenue. 

10.) Finally, I wish you a happy holiday season and good fortune for the New Year.  We all deserve it!