All the Good Moments of 2020

Guys we did it, we made it through 2020, give yourselves a round of applause!  Was 2020 a total dumpster fire?  Of course, and not even your average run of the mill dumpster fire but a dumpster filled with festering turds set on fire, but 2020 had her moments.  Like Michael J. Fox I am an incurable optimist (narrator ‘she is not an incurable optimist’), so I decided to focus on the good moments of 2020.  And believe it not there were more than one or two!

J Lo and Shakira at the Super Bowl

Remember the Super Bowl?  I don’t, but I remember the halftime show!  Two strong, talented, gorgeous women over 40 performing on one of the world’s largest stages and KILLING IT.  I might be a smidge biased because Shakira and I share a birthday (and also a nickname, She-wolf), that birthday just happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, and I was turning 40 (I know, very hard to believe because I look fantastic), but that performance filled me with awe and hope for 2020…I was such a fool.

Megxit

I am so glad Harry and Meghan grabbed that little ginger baby and got the hell out of Buckingham Palace.  You will never convince me the RF doesn’t leak Meghan stories to take the heat off William’s cheating and Andrew being a full-blown rapist pedophile.  Who in their right mind would pick playing Ibble Dibble with an inbred family that continuously throws you under the bus over being Oprah’s neighbor?  And if so much of a scintilla of how The Crown portrayed the RF’s treatment of Diana (and just people in general) is true, I hope Harry and Meghan never look back.

The Crown

Speaking of The Crown, we finally got to the Diana years and they did not disappoint!  The only thing that got me through that slog of a first season was the promise of Diana content and I need more.  Unfortunately Covid cut filming short, so we’ll never know what we missed out…also unfortunately due to Covid I watched the whole season in a weekend.  No spoilers but I would like deep dive documentaries on the Billy Joel and Phantom of the Opera of it all.

Schitts Creek Emmy Sweep

Few things have brought me more joy over the years than Schitts Creek, and when I really needed a pick me up this fall, they truly delivered.  Yes the finale had already aired, but their mini Emmy “party” and witnessing how proud and joyful they were to watch their coworkers sweep the comedy categories was the salve my weary soul needed.

Sullivan’s

If you know me, you know I love Sully’s.  One of my favorite rainy day activities is sitting alone in my car and eating a Sully’s cheeseburger with extra cheese and fries (and a hot dog, onion rings, and two Pepsis).  Sullivan’s did us all a solid and extended their season to December 31^st, the longest season I can remember…fitting for the longest year I can remember.

Happy Endings got its Happy Ending

We finally got that Happy Endings reunion, Penny Hartz hive rise up!  Yes the reunion was only via Zoom, but it was weirdly perfect, just like the show itself.  A lot of shows gave us Zoom content during the pandy, and though I appreciate the effort, they all weren’t great.  I honestly think the Happy Endings crew produced a near perfect Zoom-union (term coined by Bravo).  If you haven’t watched Happy Endings yet (streaming on Hulu) I’m truly jealous because you’ve got three seasons of pure joy ahead of you.

Espresso Martini Kits

Drink kits and drinks to go, in general, have been a bright spot during the recent plague, and no spot shone brighter than Capo’s espresso martini kits.  I don’t want to sound like a lush, but I love this drink so much I would, in the words of 30 Rock’s Tracy Jordan, take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.  Thank you, Capo!

The Cameo Heard Round The World

For a lot of us, Real Housewives of various cities have been a life raft of normalcy to cling to in an otherwise abnormal year.  Listening to wealthy (and sometimes just pretending to be wealthy) elder harpies screech at each other is my preferred white noise.  Over the summer we were graced with the return of The Real Housewives Of New York, and I thought it would be fun to get a Cameo for a few of my friends.  Well the Cameo went viral, and instead of just cheering up my few friends, it cheered up all of Housewife fandom.  I got so many messages from complete strangers telling me the Cameo was just what they needed and hadn’t laughed that hard in months.  It makes forever being associated with Ramona Singer’s incontinence worth it.  You can read about it HERE.

Caught Up On NECN

The bad news is, Covid closed the Podcast Garage, where Maureen Dahill and I record Caught Up, the good news is someone on NECN thought it was be a good idea to give us a weekly web series… and now you get to see our adorable faces along with hearing our squawking.  Yes, I am biased but I think this is a very good 2020 moment!  And after taking off a couple weeks we’re back this Thursday, 7pm on NECN’s Facebook page, and our show is bigger, longer, and uncut…ok I know that’s a South Park joke but I don’t care. POSTPONED UNTIL JANUARY 14th.

Dolly Parton

Getting to simply exist in the same space and time as Dolly Parton is itself a miracle.  You could have been born at any point in the past or future, but you were lucky enough to be born during the time of Dolly.  The very existence of Dolly is a comfort, but knowing how much we needed goodness and hope during this crap-ball of a year, Dolly went above and beyond.  In 2020 Dolly Parton virtually read bedtime stories to kids (and adults) across the world, her million dollar donation funded research that lead to one of the Covid vaccines, she released a Christmas album, Christmas special, a televised biography, a new book, even saved her costar from getting hit by a car.  This woman is an angel and we don’t deserve her.

So those are some of my personal favorite moments of 2020, and I hope you managed to have a couple highlights as well.  And don’t forget to watch us on NECN’s Facebook page Thursday nights at 7pm!