December 18, 2020 — I’m only a couple of days or so from departing on my annual drive to the family. I have a feeling there will be more traffic than normal since people are driving more, although I really don’t know. I know I want to avoid the weekend, at least on the way out. Hopefully, my decision is right.

Any way, I wish I had a playlist for the drive. I only have a tape player, and the radio too, but I have only two cassettes, one a Lana Del Rey tape, the other Taylor Swift’s second-latest album, folklore, which I really like. They are good, but I do wish I had the newest Taylor Swift album evermore on cassette (the one that came out last week, as opposed to the one that came out in the summer – folklore). Taylor has been really prolific. I really like evermore. To me, the newest one feels like a warm sweater on a cold day. I am just getting through the record, or for that matter the first of her 2020 records too, folklore, but the lyrics on the newest one seem like I could have written them, if I were good enough that is. A few of the songs remind me of this year, of the challenges this year has brought. That makes sense seeing as Taylor wrote the records as a response to this year. The records are serious, but thankful. I think that’s appropriate seeing as I live every day in a state of stress, but still have a lot to be thankful for. My health. My family’s health; my sister spent the entire year fighting breast cancer, and she’s done fabulously; my dad is still with us, and they said he only had weeks — that was shortly after the Christmas of four years ago. My house and other things; I still have them. My pets; they diagnosed my doggie Jasper with a basically unsurvivable cancer, but she’s still here too. My work; it’s taken a hit, but I’m hanging in. My friends; they are fabulous. So, actually, I am very blessed this year.

As a theme for all of that, one of the Taylor Swift songs on the newest record evermore stands out lyrically as a way to sort of scare away the bad. The song is called long story short. I love the end, the lyrics of triumph:

And I fell from the pedestal
Right down the rabbit hole
Long story short, it was a bad time
Pushed from the precipice
Climbed right back up the cliff
Long story short, I survived

No, this year isn’t over. This time isn’t over. But I’m using those lyrics as a prophesy. I will survive. I can’t wait until I can declare that for real. When I can, I swear I’m going to sleep for two days straight.

Oh and since it’s Christmas, I will play my favorite Christmas song. I featured this many years ago. I feel like I started out life as the little girl in this video. Some day, I’ll be able to do the guitar solo in this; yes, I really must get back to guitar. And I love magic. Christmastime is magical. For me, anyway. I thank my parents for the memories I have of being little at Christmastime; it doesn’t get better than how they made Christmas for me. They made me believe in magic, truly.

So in closing, I hope this Christmas brings to each of you all the health, love and joy, and of course, magic, you deserve. And long story short, happy 2021.