2021 was a shit year. 2021 fue un año de mierda.

What more can I say? ¿Qué más puedo decir?

My mom died. Two really good online friends died. I lost two of my closest friends due to political issues and/or they couldn’t deal with my depression and anxiety from all the shit going on in my life. I stupidly accepted a Ph.D offer in a state I’m miserable living in that doesn’t even pay my monthly bills. Mi madre falleció. Dos buenas amigas de internet también fallecieron. Perdí dos de mis mejores amigos dado una ya es antivacuna y el otro no pudo aguantar mis problemas de salud mental. Hice un gran error por aceptar la oferta de doctorado en un estado donde estoy miserable y no llego a finales del mes.

Let’s just get to the good stuff.

Setmeravelles’ Brightside Awards for 2021:

Best Artist: The Killers
Entertainer of the Year: Cast of In the Heights.
Best Movie: In the Heights
Best Actor: Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Best Supporting Actor: Gregory Diaz IV, In the Heights
Best Supporting Actress: Olga Merediz, In the Heights
Best Director: Pedro Almodóvar, La voz humana
Best TV Series, Drama: Cobra Kai

Best TV Series, Comedy: What We Do in the Shadows

Best Limited Series: It’s A Sin

Best Retro TV Series: Devious Maids/Friday Night Lights (tie)

Best Rewatch: Scrubs

Best Lead Actress, Comedy Series: Jean Smart (Deborah Vance), Hacks 

Best Lead Actor, Comedy Series: DeRon Horton (Lionel Higgins), Dear White People; Kayvan Novak (Nandor), What We Do in the Shadows (tie)

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy Series: Laurie Metcalf (Jackie Harris), The Conners

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy Series:  Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent), Ted Lasso 

Best Lead Actress, Drama Series: Jennifer Aniston (Alex Levy), The Morning Show

Best Lead Actor, Drama Series: William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence), Cobra Kai

Best Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Mädchen Amick (Betty Cooper), Riverdale; Georgina Amorós (Cayetana Grajera), Élite (Tie)

Best Supporting Actor, Drama Series:Brian Geraghty (Ronald Pergman), Big Sky

Best Actress, Limited Series: Sandra Oh, The Chair

Best Actor, Limited Series: Olly Alexander, It’s a Sin

Best Series Finale: Superstore

Worst Acting: Genie Francis (Laura Collins), General Hospital, Ingo Rademacher (Jasper Jacks), General Hospital (tie)

Worst Artist: Adele

Best Female Artist: Mariah Carey
Best Male Artist: Álvaro Soler

Best Discovered Artist: J.C. Stewart

Album of the Year: Pressure Machine, The Killers 

Song of the Year: 96,000 from In The Heights

Single of the Year: Dustland by The Killers f. Bruce Springsteen 

I always do these memes, since 2003 (and the awards started in 1997) to commemorate the end of the year. Siempre hago estes memes, desde 2003 (y los premios empezaron en 1997) para marcar el final del año. 

The first, the places I slept in 2021/ los sitios donde dormí en 2021: Champaign, Illinois; Mt. Washington, Kentucky; Lincoln, Nebraska; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Ellison Bay, Wisconsin; Galena, Illinois; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Lawrence, Kansas (I was supposed to have gone to Michigan this week, but no, omicron everywhere and snow cancelled that…)

1. What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before?:  Sell a house, spread ashes.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?: I watched Friday Night Lights if that counts for anything…

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?: I don’t think so.

4. Did anyone close to you die?: My mom. Plus online friends Esther and Margaret 😥

5. What countries did you visit?: Only US 😥 FU Covid.

6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?: A golden retriever and no Covid worries.

7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?: April 7, the day my mom died.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?: Getting accepted to three Ph.D programs.

9. What was your biggest failure?: Chosing the wrong one and will be forced to leave next May leaving everything in my life a huge ???

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Depression and anxiety.

11. What was the best thing you bought?: I paid off my mom’s car so it’s mine.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My aunts for helping me. My boyfriend for always being there.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?: Donald Trump and his supporters. (keeping from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. Scary!) Adding ALL REPUBLICANS for 2021. At this point, if you support him, you support bigotry and everything the US stands for. If you’re a conversative who is also appalled, though, I still respect you even if I disagree with you. I do not respect Trump and his minions. Keeping from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021. I will keep Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera, Mariano Rajoy, and all of VOX and their supporters.

14. Where did most of your money go?: Travel, café con leche, books (kept from 2015 and 2016) (and 2017) (and 2018) (and 2019, 2020…)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?: Travel that didn’t happen.

16. What song will always remind you of 2019?: 96,000 from In the Heights.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Sadder
ii. thinner or fatter? Thinner
iii. richer or poorer? Richer because life insurnace…

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?: Writing, travelling.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Dealing with anxiety.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?: I spent it with my boyfriend and hiking.

21. How will you be spending New Years? Eating grapes at 5 PM Central Standard Time, which is midnight in most of the Iberian peninsula.

22. Did you fall in love in 2021?: I continued to be in love.

24. What was your favorite TV program?: Cobra Kia. I also watched Devious Maids and Designing Women for the first time.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?: My best friend became an antivaxxer.

26. What was the best book you read?: The Meaning of Mariah Carey, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, Trespassing Across America and Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas, Sing You Home and Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, A Time for Mercy by John Grisham, The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, Los perros del paraíso by Abel Posse, Euskadi en Llamas by Ramón Belaustegigoitia, Seva de Luis López Nieves, La colmena de Camilo José Cela, Los girasoles ciegos by Alberto Méndez, El beso de la mujer araña de Manuel Puig, El color de verano de Reinaldo Arenas

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?: Umm, Lil Nas X? It was the worst year or music.

28. What did you want and get?: Coffee. A Democrat President.

29. What did you want and not get?: A golden retriever, stability.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?: In the Heights

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?: 40, travelled from Nebraska to Illinois.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?: No Covid.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019?: Preppy-casual

34. What kept you sane?: My boyfriend, Netflix, travel, and Jordi (my iPod).

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?: David Villa…I really didn’t fancy anyone?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?: The lack of protocols over Covid and how one party politicized a virus.

37. Who did you miss?: My mom, Fallon Fey, my golden retriever, and Spain

38. Who was the best new person you met?: I guess some of the grad students are pretty cool.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019: Don’t apply to a Ph.D in a red state.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: “I missed a lot of life, but I’ll recover” Petals by Mariah Carey (1999).