And one minute later it was over--he's officially an Eagle Alum.
I give the school credit--they did the best they could to make it special while keeping everyone safe.
Ok, we can't go to an Angels game but we can still pretend to be there (and an idiot) on Zoom.
The only theaters open early summer were drive-ins. We started hitting Mission Tiki in Montclair.
Having some KFC in the park, high above Salt Creek Beach in Dana Point.
A final shot at the entrance of the school before we headed home.
We were able to scroll back on the livestream playing at home and get a shot of Ryan coming through.
A handful of teachers watching a stage and a camera--streaming the entire thing live. Heartbreaking.
The entire family just outside of the gymnasium before Ryan got to collect his diploma.
Smalls and Bigs outside of Staples before checking out #NuggLife vs. the Clippers.
The Clips added Kawhi Leonard this year, making them pretty damn good. Nuggs took it on the chin.
In their final pre-covid, hang
out in a crowd event of 2020,
Craig & Anhdai saw Sting's
musical, appropriately named
"The Last Ship".
Then just like that, hell froze
over.
With the world at home, we started up weekly FoolFest calls to enjoy cocktails and swap war stories.
Jack had to have some surgery that required a partial shave, so asked them to shave it all. Oops.
One last visit to the gym before the state (smartly) closed all gyms down for a while.
Grocery shopping was bizarre to say the least. Here's Ryan wondering when we'll get more TP.
Before long, every restaurant, theater, museum and school was closed. Every beach in OC fenced off.
Little did we know, this would be the last time we'd all hang out until mid-2021. Nice sticks, Al.
A heaping pan of Peppino Bread for the Super Bowl party held at Club Jacko.
Craig & Anhdai made a trip to LA to check out The Broad, which is amazing. Koons' Tulips.
Through the windows on one side of the museum you can see the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Hey look, it's mini Flip. This oversized dining room set at The Broad is just sooooo cool.
The epic Patrona Burger at La Tostaderia at Grand Central in LA. Basically cheese, shrimp and stuff.
We added a movie night with friends, which became known as Allie Wallie's Pandemic Playhouse.
One FoolFest included some Covid Caddies for the gang.
And a constant stream of beer exchange drop-offs kicked in amongst the boys. Mind Circus = Yum.
Global Citizen had a special broadcast of top artist to support frontline workers. Even The Stones.
Our local regional park had to rope off all areas where people might congregate. No bathrooms!
Some of the Foolfests got a little goofy. We did 19 FoolFests in all over the rest of the year.
No gym? No problem. The first of many hikes, this one at El Moro.
Each student received an individual blessing inside the chapel.
Here we all are together outside the chapel. It was really hot that day but Ryan was a champ.
Joe and Kamala emerged victorious. Dems held The House and eventually added The Senate. PHEW!
Our gym reopened with all of its equipment outside. It was actually a pretty cool way to work out.
The first Broncos pre-season game of the season with nary a soul in Craig's section. So sad.
A bittersweet moment, knowing what Ryan missed in losing a night like this.
When school ended, the school did a livestream show celebrating the graduating class of 2020.
Dreams of Bruin hoops championship and smoking hot classmates.
It didn't take long for a mask mandate to be put into effect. Craig at Vons.
Great, we're one hike into our new exercise plan and we have a rattler cross our path. Yikes.
Craig & the kids went to town for Mother's Day at the house.
Jonathan risked everything to make sure Craig & Ryan looked normal again.
Once we heard Ryan had gotten into UCLA, we had to visit the campus and get some good pics.
We're really proud of this guy. He worked his ass off to get into this school. Congrats, Ry!
The Bruin Statue at Bruin Walk, a stretch Ryan will probably pass many times the rest of his life.
Due to an algae bloom of plankton in May, we were treated to very rare bioluminescent waves.
Faced with a no-win situation with its graduating seniors, Santa Margarita mde the best of it.
One night we busted out to play a little corn hole on the baseball field outside of LNES. Bigs won.
Aaaaah, The Deuce.
A little Covid gallows humor with a few of the balloons for sure.
Pile of balloons back at the house for the graduating hero.
Later that summer, we had the DNC with the country literally spiraling out of control.
Joe and Kamala celebrating their nomination with masks in place.
The west side parking lot of El Moro finally re-opened so we could hike the trail by the water.
We decided to bust out one Saturday in July to give Heritage BBQ in SJC a try. Amazing!!
Sort of this little hill in the middle of a Laguna neighborhood. Craig misses this view from his office.
Ryan finally shared his sunset spot where he meets his friends.
Our annual Christmas Eve pasta and meatballfest. We had meatballs for about three months.
One day we decorated perhaps the ugliest Christmas cookies in the history of cookies.
The tree was fully loaded well before Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving meal for champions right here on Country Lane Road.
Zoe had to dine a bit removed after one of the friends she had been with tested positive. Crazy times.
The basketball team--with Ryan at the center, looking like the head coach.
Another one of our hikes--this one along Strands in Dana Point.
And here are Craig and Zoe overlooking beautiful Emerald Bay atop Boat Hill Rd in Laguna.
We pretty much hit every decent hiking trail in Laguna--here's one behind Craig's office.
It led to another amazing view of Laguna Beach below. Goodnight, sun.
The long shadow of Craig (you know, cuz he's so damn tall).
That point in the year when Ryan really had had about enough of this crap.
Anhdai enjoying another beautiful So Cal sunset in Laguna.
For Grad Night we brought in pasta and had our own party.
Anhdai and Ryan enjoying the backyard fire pit.
Covid buddies!
Craig ran into some ass on this hike trying to convince him he didn't need a mask. 700k dead later...
Another weekend, another Boat Hill Rd hike. This one on 4th of July and E-Bay is packed.
Each student got to pick a rock for a soon-to-be permanent display.
Ryan chose "Wisdom" and put in a spot that will be easy to find when he visits SM in the future.
November came and after the delayed mail-in count scared the living shit out of Craig & Anhdai...
The aftermath of another successful unwrapping festival.
The movie theaters opened to limited seating and Craig just couldn't stay away.
In a sign that he is just too damn loud, Craig got "sealed" inside his office.
The VP Debate where Kamala cleaned Pence's clock. "I'm still speaking...I'm still speaking..."
In what became the preferred trail during Covid, Craig and Anhdai atop the Boat Hill Road hike.
Weekly, seemingly daily pickleball sessions became the norm as Flip became the queen of pickleball.
Anhthy brough Anhdai into the pickleball loop and the rest was history. Her mind become pickled.
The boys outside their ballot drop-off center in Aliso Viejo. It was Ryan's first ever!
Gee, I wonder who this guy voted for. Note the handy mask stack on the left.
Most of the Jacko clan making their way back to the car at El Moro.
Christmas decorations were up super early this year.
We closed out a very strange year with a very strange event--watching live comedy from the roof of
the Irvine Spectrum. No laughter was audible. People honked their cars if something was funny. A
uniquely Covid experience. And thus concluded a year none of us will ever forget. And speaking of
conclusions--this is likely the final chapter of Main Events, as Yahoo is shutting down the content
management system this site lives on. But this bad boy will live on as a website, we just can't add
anything new. If I'm ever able to rebuild this elsewhere thejacobins.com will redirect automatically.
In the meantime, here's to a helluva lot of good times and good friends. Cheers! -c
Ryan has his suit and robe on, ready to take his slot in an event that would last nearly all day long.
It was strange but memorable event. Here were are in the queue as families went in one at a time.
On Wednesday March 11, we heard news that the NBA had suspended their season and Tom Hanks had Covid. Trump began considering not allowing flights in from Europe (where Zoe was studying for the semester). The next day, as the stock market began shedding off value like crazy, Craig and his co-workers brought in late lunch at the office and called it a day in a building they'd never return to again. By Friday both Craig and Anhdai were working from home and desperately trying to coordinate getting Zoe home from London, which happened the next day. It was a week that would change our year, our way of life and likely the results of the next election, just like that. What follows on this page are not the most exciting of events compared to the other years of our lives, but it quite literally is just about everything we did outside of camping out at home with periodic grocery store runs. And a truly momentous final chapter for the "Main Events" section of TheJacobins.com.
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