Joel Ballezza

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2020: Goodbye and Goodnight

Like a bad dream or a bad date, when 2020 was over I felt less motivated to reflect as I was to move on. From COVID-19 and the economic downturn to the isolation, cancelled everything and political and social unrest, 2020 seemed to be outdoing itself weekly for worst (unending) year ever.

However, after I woke up on New Year’s Day, 2021 I was able to find the courage to think back and look back at the past 12 months we endured. In truth, things weren’t all bad. I had paid down a sizable amount of my student loan debt, read or listened to a dozen books, investing in my physical fitness, grew my partnership with my girlfriend, and even improved my personal habits by adopting a new budgeting process thanks to Dave Ramsey.

What I recalled were gems amongst the hardship including the top five bright points in a challenging year.

2020, here’s to the good days!


Orcas Island 50K

Neither my girlfriend or I had entries to Orcas 50K this February, but on the off chance a runner wanted to sell their bib we put a call out to a local running bulletin board. To our luck, two bibs turned up. (Remember, this is pre-COVID, lockdown when running races and socializing.) After payment, Emily and I had race entries to this loved, early-season run. However, we lacked reservations on the ferry for our car. How then could we get from the ferry terminal to the cabins on Moran State Park? Our answer: bike it.

We parked our car on the mainland side of the dock and walked our bikes loaded with gear onto the ferry. When we arrived at Orcas Island, we hopped on our bikes and peddled the 18-or-so hilly miles to Camp Moran on the far end of Orcas Island. The race itself was what we have known it to be: scenic and full of amazing friends. This year’s twist was flooded trails. You see while race day was dry, storms the night before flooded the course making the majority of the trails look like crystal-clear streams. Runners had to tramp through these new waterways as we proceeded made progress on the 50K course.

Eventually though we finished the race and enjoyed a beer. After a shower and a sleep in the cabins, the following morning Emily and I rode back to the ferry and crisined what will forever now be called the Orcas Island Triathlon.

Adopting Maple

I adopted my first dog Luna nine years ago. Ever since she has been my adventure partner and constant companion. When Emily entered the picture two and a half years ago, she loved Luna like her own. I thought I was a dog guy, but Emily really loves furry friends, and maybe unlike me, wanted them all around 24/7 by the dozen. We had talked about the concept of adopting another dog as a sibling to Luna, but I always viewed it as future planning just like how one talks about fly fishing and retirement, or organizing the garage. That is until a friend-of-a-friend experienced an unplanned litter between their male Pomeranian and female full-sized Aussie Shepherd. (It turns out he actually impregnated two Aussies within a little over a month. The pup has spirit.)

Within just a week of learning of this opportunity, Emily and I were looking at photos of the eight-week-old puppies while also organizing with friends to adopt the whole lot. While I wasn’t sure how Luna would manage having a puppy in the house, I trusted that she would take cues from Emily and myself, and be the sweetheart packleader she is.

“Ok, let’s do it.”

At ten-weeks-old we picked up Maple from her mother’s family in Maple Valley. The five-pound puppy was chocolate brown, quiet and sleepy. Unlike when I adopted Luna at four-months who already had an expressive personality, this puppy was younger and let out fewer cues as to what her personality would blossom into over the next few months. I remember driving home and thinking, “…here we go.”

When we introduced Maple to Luna her older sister immediately showed interest and was gentle with her inquiring nose. My concerns that Luna wouldn’t take to having another female dog in the house were immediately put at ease. It all worked out. And it has.

Maple has grown into a hyperactive 30-pound nervous, brave, silly and spirited family member. Luna has remained her loving sister, even when Maple incessantly barks inches from her face each morning, or attempts to goat her into a game of tug-of-war. While raising a puppy has been work, it has also been remarkably rewarding. I couldn’t be happier that we welcomed Maple into our family. This was doubly rewarding because, due to a work remote format thanks to COVID, I spent nearly all of Maple’s first year of life at home with the little lady. I was privileged to see her grow. I even had the fortune of making a movie about the benefits of having a puppy during COVID. The Bright Side was featured in the June edition of the Trail Running Film Festival.

COVID Shutdown & Social Unrest

After a fairly uneventful January and February, March roared in like a storm. The previously isolated outbreak of COVID-19 started sweeping through the nation, and that reign took hold first in the Pacific Northwest. Governors put in place emergency orders closing businesses, cancelling events and ordering the public to stay home. My job switched to an entirely work-remote format. This reduced my 1,000+ mile monthly commute to just walking to the front bedroom, but it also created a sense of isolution. With the exception of running around the neighborhood or shopping for food, I never left the house.

Then things got even more intense.

The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police drove protests and vandalism to erupt in many cities. Fearing riots and theft, landlords threw up plywood over doors and windows transforming my home of Tacoma overnight. Every part of my life last spring was in flux and flush with anxiety. However, through it all I tried to remind myself that I was lucky to have a job and home, and family and friends. I took it a day at a time, and eventually I had enough space to realize the positive things coming from this change: a call for police accountability, and respect for all people.

Now working from home, I got to skip my 2-2.5 hour daily commute. If I do the math I estimate that in 2020 I saved over 300 hours of sitting in traffic inching along on I-5 North. This time savings is the equivalent of watching the cinematic treasurer Titanic… 100 times. This also meant I got to spend more time with my family. I could enjoy morning walks together and evening runs on my own at night. While COVID and the economic downturn were frightening, this also inspired a certain spirit of togetherness between friends with in-person hangouts replaced by group messaging.

“Crazy world”

“Hang in there”

“Let me know if you need anything”

These were the kind words that we shared as we saw the world around us change by the hour. Things were bad and worrisome, but last spring we also had simpler lives. We didn’t worry about shopping for fashionable clothes or having perfect hair (note: hair salons were closed for months). We just worried about getting a few extra rolls of toilet paper, and binging Tiger King. Life was tough and scary, but we were getting through it together, or at least that was how it felt.

Housework

With vacations cancelled and most businesses closed, we did what would be expected and worked on our house. Our first project was adding an above the oven microwave hood. That went fairly easy except for the part where I had to drill through wall tile. Brutal. Next up was replacing three large front windows from the original construction in 1948, and two side windows in the rear of the house.

  • Installed microwave hood and fan (special thanks to my Dad and brother Mike for coaching from NY by phone)

  • Replaced five windows including the conversion of a traditional double-hung in the kitchen to a garden box

When compared to the months-long work we did last year on the house, this project was pretty easy. Help from a few friends and one handyman and the old windows were removed and the new windows (plus a new garden box) were installed within a few weeks. The entire project was educational in that we learned how easy it was to punch giant holes in our house and how jury-rigged the construction looked when you peek inside the 1948-built wall. The end result was fantastic and the total cost was surprisingly reasonable due to our sweat labor, thrift and help from friends.

Outdoor Adventures

Once the lockdown took place nearly all of my planned races were cancelled, however that didn’t mean all hope was lost for normalcy. I got to crew my girlfriend as she ran the Wonderland Trail over three days in blisteringly hot July. Later in the month I got to celebrate turning 39 while finishing the Never Summer 100K in Gould, Colorado. In August I also climbed Glacier Peak as a one-day adventure, biked to Carbon Glacier, and sprinkled in the circumnavigations of St. Helens on the Loowit Trail and Mt. Hood on the Timberline Trail. Below are a few films that recap the prized outings.

Creative Life

While I wasn’t able to visit my family in NY or take trips abroad during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the extra time at home meant I could refine my filmmaking. In a year lacking much socialization, I am thankful I was able to make some of my most rewarding film projects. This included my first feature using my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K camera, the previously mentioned Bright Side, but I also was able to deepen my use of animations, sound effects and had my first use of a map visual artist from the production site Fivver. Below are my tip four projects from the year.

  1. Dick’s Long Ride: Tour de Volcanoes
    Edited from 30+ days of of GoPro footage, at 30-minutes this is my longest video project ever. I was proud of the narrative I was able to find within the content. This film was featured in the Trail Film Fest August Edition.

  2. Mt. Missteps: Episode 1: Broken Ankle Atop Mt. Stuart
    As my first contacted project, I was gifted stunning rescue footage and was able to weave that together with Zoom recordings to create an educational and entertaining film. This film was featured in the Trail Film Fest December Edition.

  3. Climbing Glacier Peak
    This is an ass-kicker of a run. I loved capturing each stage of the outing and pulling it into a memorable video.

  4. The Bright Side
    Created during the heat of the Pandemic lockdown, I crowdsourced footage from friends from across Western Washington. This film was featured in the Trail Film Festival June Edition.

Election Hope

As a backdrop to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn, wildfires, and social strife, we of course had the 2020 elections. After over two years of campaigning, voters cast their ballots in November. After nearly four years of Trump politics, lies and spin, I was pessimistic that the results would turn my favor. I knew that few presidents have been limited to a single term and that the pulpit of the position made it hard for challenges to break through the noise, even established leaders like Joe Biden.

(Side note: Joe was always my Grandmother Joan’s favorite. Love you, Grandma!)

While election day had it’s surprises, we didn’t have a definitive result by night’s end. However, it did look like Biden would win out. It would take several weeks before we realized that Biden would be our next president. After such a disruptive year this was a true gift. My girlfriend and I were having a fire outside on our patio when the news came in.

“The news channels have called it. Even Fox News. They called the election for Biden!”

This announcement occurred simultaneously to the now infamous Trump campaign Four Seasons Landscaping press conference inspiring countless Internet memes. Trump resisted conceding for weeks (and as of this second, still hasn’t), but the world knew the truth. I’m hopeful that a new direction for the country will start on January 20th.

2020 is over, a largely but not entirely terrible year where good things won out. Let’s roll into 2021 with hope that the pandemic will end, that cooler politics heads will win out, and that we don’t repeat the mistakes of last year, while amplifying the positive that came from 2020.