Almost Everything You Almost Missed
Lovers, this is my annual report. Enjoy a few 2021 professional and personal highlights you might have otherwise missed. (Psst! Yesterday paid subscribers received a bonus. Check your inboxes, or read it online.)
JANUARY 2021
Spoke at Starring Role: Arts & Entertainment in the Pandemic Era. My firm, FUNKY BROWN CHICK, joined Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and others. An artist & entrepreneur, I was honored to speak from experience about the arts’ economic and societal contributions. I write and perform one-woman theater shows that my firm produces. Theater creates jobs; my firm pays venue fees & hires lighting designers, sign language interpreters, graphic designers, and others for which my shows would not be possible. Additionally, my firm creates, implements, and develops strategy for arts organizations’ social impact campaigns.
Participated in Sundance Film Festival programming. It was a short film/video series featuring me, where I spoke about on-screen touch & intimacy, and how to make stages and screens safer.
Delivered a training. Addressing Title IX, I trained a large university’s sexual assault prevention team on key ingredients needed to create safer college campuses.
Hiked and trekked 34.44 miles (86,869 steps). When I wasn’t working, I was working out.
Grew my firm’s team. Hired our winter/spring intern.
Continued weekly nutrition classes. Kept going strong in my yearlong National Diabetes Prevention Program.
FEBRUARY 2021
Delivered a keynote at Eckerd College. I spoke about improving sexual and reproductive health on college campuses.
Sprained my ankle and didn’t tell anyone. I wrote about nearly seven months later. Suffice it to say being on lockdown was very hard on me. Being locked in my house and unable to walk was harder still.
Hiked and trekked 27.97 miles (70,536 steps). This was, of course, before the accident.
Stopped writing love letters. Tiny, Private Love Letter subscribers know that I went dark from February through September. Folks often say my writing sounds like me — they can hear my voice while reading. I was sad. I didn’t write because I didn’t want anyone to hear me cry.
Signed additional clients. Even when life is difficult, the show must go on. My firm offers data analytics and digital communications services (e.g. data mining, social media marketing, digital ads, website redesign project management, etc.). The firm also produces my creative projects.
MARCH 2021
💉 Received first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Let’s hear it for #PfizerPham! 🎉
Hiked and trekked 40.82 miles (102,827 steps). Mental and physical health can be at odds. Physically, it probably wasn’t a good idea to hike and trek on crutches and, later, in a walking boot. Mentally, however, I couldn’t hack being alone at home anymore. I guess, technically, I was taking it easy. The previous March, I logged more than 70 miles.
APRIL 2021
💉 Received second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Woo-hoo!! Get vaccinated.
Hiked and trekked 53.43 miles (134,480 steps). Re-gaining strength, I graduated from a walking boot to an ankle brace.
Stressed. For the next few months, I worked a lot. This is when I realized I needed to grow my team a bit more.
MAY 2021
Delivered a keynote at the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. At their annual conference, I spoke about re-thinking gender to even better serve all children in the U.S.
Celebrated Catsby’s 7th birthday. I love my sweet girl.
Hiked and trekked 83.91 miles (211,215 steps). With my ankle healed a bit more, I hit more mountains and trails.
Signed another client. This was a referral. Most of our new business arrives via friends and word of mouth. Send folks our way!
Served as a judge for the first-ever Good Sex Awards. Read and rated sexy literature.
JUNE 2021
Interviewed by Cringewatchers. Is it ever a good idea to have sex with your ex? Hear my advice.
Hiked and trekked 73.69 miles (185,516 steps).
Grew my firm’s team. Hired our summer intern.
JULY 2021
Hiked and trekked 91.13 miles (229,575 steps)
Grew my firm’s team. Brought on a business coach to help me strategize and think through the firm’s next stages of growth.
Listened. My coach said the best thing I could do for myself and my firm was to actually schedule and take vacations. We need downtime as much as we need work.
✈️ Traveled to Aruba. Took my first international flight since a 2018 trip to Montreal. The restorative break was my first real vacation since 2018.
AUGUST 2021
Hiked and trekked 66.15 miles (166,476 steps).
Got a new hairdo.
SEPTEMBER 2021
Got quoted in Cosmopolitan magazine. I wrote about it.
Started wearing hearing aids. Born hard of hearing, this is what it’s like to finally hear.
Grew my firm’s team. Hired an Associate and our Fall intern.
Moved. Call it the seven-year itch. I departed my beloved Silver Spring, MD, for Washington, DC. Support statehood for DC.
Hiked and trekked 56.53 miles (142,371 steps).
✈️ Traveled to Malta. I’ll share more details in 2022.
OCTOBER 2021
Received COVID-19 booster! With domestic and international flights approaching, and six months since my previous shots, I got boosted. You probably should, too.
✈️ Traveled to Mississippi. It was great to spend time with Jodi Skipper, and I’m extremely proud of her for writing such at important book, Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the U.S. South.
Hiked and trekked 57.16 miles (143,886 steps).
Signed another client. I love our data clients! For this national-level project, we analyzed nonprofits’ voter outreach and engagement efforts to help them develop strategic plans for 2022.
Rewarded my team. Promoted two team members.
NOVEMBER 2021
Spoke at a corporation’s annual meeting. I shared key steps companies should take to build more inclusive corporate cultures when it comes to sex & gender.
Grew my firm’s team. Hired a technology officer.
✈️ Traveled to The Netherlands. Amsterdam is echt mijn “second home”. ❤️ 🇳🇱 Ik mis it. Nog steeds spreek de taal en ik heb hier zo veel vrienden. Portugal is mijn toekomst, maar ik zal waarschijnlijk altijd een speciaal plekje in mijn hart voor Nederland hebben.
✈️ Traveled to Portugal. New beginnings. To lay the groundwork for dually basing myself in Lisbon and DC, I: filed for my Portuguese social security # (NIF); opened a Portuguese bank account; found an apartment in Lisbon to rent; and more.
Hiked and trekked 67.86 miles (170,964 steps). I’m usually waaaay less active during winter months. It was warmer in Europe.
DECEMBER 2021
Wrote a business article on Emaan Abbass and Ketish. When I lived in NYC, I worked full time for Inc. magazine. As a writer and business owner, I loved writing this new profile of a fellow Black woman-owned business for MILLIE. The publication focuses on women’s finances and co-bags with Real Simple magazine.
Hiked and trekked 67.78 miles (170,777 steps). My phone’s fitness trackers were basically like, “Did someone steal Twanna’s phone? The Twanna we know refuses to venture outside during cold months, but this bitch is walking everywhere.” I’m more active in Europe.
Built a fellowship program for my firm. Our inaugural fellowship programs begins in January 2022. More details then.
Internationalized my team. We’ve made adjustments. Starting in 2022, all of the firm’s positions will be based in Lisbon, DC, or both. Fluency in English will still be required. We’ve adding fluency in European Portuguese as a preferred additional skill.
Biked my ass off. Capital Bikeshare tells me, in 2021, I cycled 200 miles over 26.8 hours, spread across 86 different trips. Not bad. Sign up.
🛩 Returned to DC for the holidays. Filed for Portuguese residency via the Embassy of Portugal in DC. My firm will continue servicing clients, in the U.S. and Portugal, while I am dually based in both countries. I plan to spend at least half of next year in Lisbon. My goal is to buy a two-bedroom flat there no later than December 31, 2022.
Best wishes for a wonderful New Year, lovers. See you on the other side.
Love. Always.
