2008 Year in Review

Once again it is time for me to piece together my “year in review”. For those who haven’t seen this before, every new year I take some time to reflect on the past year and take note of some of the major things that happened. I do this for several reasons:1) To keep a list for myself of things worth remembering2) As sort of a “Christmas letter” to people I care about3) To give myself perspective on my accomplishments and short comings to be learned fromI always find that when I sit down and piece this list together over the course of a couple of weeks, it always grows with a bunch of things I forgot about.Plans for 2008: (list from last year)For certain:[X] Atlantic City in January[X] Colorado and Vegas in July[X] More work[X] More Grad school[/] Buying a house[X] New Cell PhonePossible:[X] trip outside the US (not sure where yet. But I don’t really care; Ideas?)[ ] South DakotaSo yea, mostly everything I set up for myself I did. I didn’t follow through with South Dakota only because I wasn’t planning it (someone else was) and I would have gone if they followed through. The house….well……I spent the whole year looking. I finally found one and closing is set for late January. so it half counts :)Full list of 2008: (in general order)Got my Passport (was planning on going to Japan, but grad school got in the way)Started a new rotation (web 2.0 development)Atlantic City (lost for the first time)Poconos with the gang (Always a great time. More like a retreat for me)Played soccer this spring with my brother Chris. (first time since high school. Didn’t do too bad)TDC (project for my leadership program at work. Think 15 extra hours a week of work for the whole length of the Spring)beer golf (9 bars in 9 hours….score card included…..tacky golf attire encouraged)City Chase (Max and I did an “amazing race” type thing in Philly. SO much fun. Ran through eastern state penn, kayaked on the delaware river, strip bowling, giant snake down my shirt, dog food, etc.)Big wheel biker gang pub crawl (Came in 2nd place in the drag race on south st.)Keystone, CO for a Conference. Tons of fun, tons of water, furthest west I had ever been.Vegas. Learned to play black jack. Went from -$300 in roulette to +$500 in blackjack in 1 day. We spent that day doing hit and runs at 5 casinos. Took the Palazzo for $400 alone. Ate the best meal of my life (by far). First professional massage. Cirqu De Soli.Bought an iPhone. My first apple product ever. Prior to this purchase, I never cared about music. Now I do. Love that thing. It was a huge help in Paris.Niece was born. Alessia rarely cries and is always smiling. She seems to love staring at me. She’ll just sit there and look at my face for 10 min.2 grad classes in the fall. I am now half way done my masters.Finally found a house. Have been going through the mortgage and other paper work since early December. Closing is set for late January. If all works out, my 7 hour, $250+ a month commute to King of Prussia is about to disappear.Paris for a week. Musee d’Orsay, Musee l’Orangerie, Centre Pompidou, Sacre Coure, Espace DaliNew Years across the rive for NYC in Hobeken. (Though almost didn’t make it…..scary cross winds on the flight home)Max got engaged. Max called from Bosnia with the news. He’ll be over there with Sladjana until mid-January.Plans for 2009:new rotation at work: social engineerVA conference in late JanuaryMost likely a promotion at work soonmore grad schoolPlaying Rugby this Spring for my old teamMoving to KoPVa conference again this SummerPossible trip to CAPossible trip to the South WestSo that’s it. It was a year of ups and downs. It was rocky at times and very challenging. A much harder year than the one before. But still excited and with a lot accomplished. Here’s hoping that 2009 will hold better fortune.