“Is it here?”

It was Thursday, March 19, 2020. It was COVID-19. Later that night, we would get a notification that school was cancelled until after spring break. It was here, and school administrators were scrambling.

That was two years ago. It feels like a lifetime ago, but also recent, a phenomenon that I’ve been fascinated by ever since. (More on that later.)

For almost 20 years, I’ve been posting yearly highlights at the start of a new year. I didn’t do that last year (for 2020), and I didn’t do it this year (for 2021). Instead, I’m going to give myself a mulligan and highlight a few memories from what was a rather challenging couple of years.

2020

Jessica visited Colorado to promote her new book. We ate one of the largest slices of pizza I’ve ever seen, she gave a great talk at BookBar, and then we had a couple of drinks and talked about old times.

I flew to London and took the train to Nottingham with Chris, Doug, and Henry for New Adventures . I didn’t know it at the time, but it would be my last trip for a long time.

The night before the conference began, David, Henry, and I took the train to Manchester to watch Manchester United lose to Burnley. We missed the last train back to Nottingham and ended up having a surprise adventure.

We unveiled Keybase Book, a website dedicated to educating people all about Keybase and what makes it great. You can read more in the case study. It was especially nice to work with Kelli on some fun design elements inspired by visual cryptography.

Black Lives Matter protests all over the country (and the world) demanded change. I was so inspired by the bravery of protestors, especially considering the prevalence of police brutality at the protests.

We unveiled a new website for Faculty, the first redesign since we launched.

I finally watched Ted Lasso and loved it. It was exactly the kind of show we all needed, with a protagonist whose optimism was disciplined and genuine, and who eventually won everyone over, including me.

We unveiled a new ecommerce site for Jessica Hische.

Despite a substantial increase in voter suppression, we overwhelmingly elected Joe Biden as President of the United States.

Both Pfizer and Moderna received emergency authorization from the FDA for their vaccines. Incredibly, Moderna designed their vaccine in just 2 days. (Pfizer’s timeline was surely similar.) Thank you, Kati Karikó for making such an incredible feat possible.

2021

Roost moved into a new, larger space in the Steel Yards. It has soaring ceilings and plenty of room to grow. I’m grateful that Roost survived the pandemic. For several months, Jace and I built custom-designed desks for the new space. I hope to write more about the design and the process, because I love how they turned out. We have 11 custom desks for full-time members and enough room to accommodate at least 22 part-time members. I also hope to be able to host more events now that we have more room.

In March, a devastating mass shooting took place at our local King Soopers. I was so grateful that Christina and the kids were at Roost on the other side of town rather than at home. Christina organized a lovely vigil for the community where she also gave a brief speech. (The video starts with Nicole introducing her.)

I got vaccinated in April. I would never have imagined being so excited about getting a shot.

Christina and I celebrated 20 years of marriage.

The Euros were a lot of fun. I almost won Guessi. I was 1st going into the final and guessed England to win (they didn’t).

The kids got vaccinated in November. I was so happy to finally have our whole family vaccinated.

We visited family in Tennessee over the holidays, most of whom we hadn’t seen in a long time. It was an extremely hectic trip, with no more than a day in any location, but it was nice.

Devastating fires destroyed over 1,000 homes near us. Our home was spared, but many families lost everything. My heart hurts for everyone affected, and especially for all of the local kids who have endured so much overwhelming tragedy during the pandemic.

At the end of the year, I met a neuroscientist.

To be continued…