2019 Year in Review
Jan 5, 2020 · Comments Year In ReviewFor reference, previous years: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012.
Time for my 7th year in review post. 2019 was a difficult year, with a lot of highs and lows. Ultimately, I’m trying to look at it as a foundational year - setting me up for what I believe will be an epic 2020.
House and Dog Adoption Woes
At the start of 2019, I was in a bad place.
We bought a home in September 2018 in a great neighborhood, close to downtown Madison. Great, right? Unfortunately, we were immediately hit with a very serious, unexpected issue that cost us tons of money and emotional energy, taking over 6 months to resolve. Having to go through it while starting two new, intense jobs and during the worst parts of Midwest winter only added to our stress levels. While we expected to have repairs/issues come up over time (it’s a older home after all), we weren’t prepared to get blindsided right after moving in. Viewing the situation in a positive light, it forced me to become exponentially more handy than I ever expected.
In order to lift our spirits, we adopted a dog. Needless to say, it didn’t work out, and we tried adopting another dog. That ended up being an even worse situation, and we had to give him up too. Ironically, the dogs just added to our overall stress instead of relieving it.
I wish I could expand more on these and other things that happened, but for personal reasons don’t feel comfortable doing so.
Improv Classes
Something that helped me get to a better place mentally was improv classes. I needed a new hobby and was always curious about it. I wanted something fun to do that would also feed back into improving my professional work as a presenter (I deliver talks, webinar presentations, and more at Ionic). I thought about joining Toastmasters (public speaking groups) again. While I do recommend them, I realized I wanted something a bit more fun and engaging (not to mention - challenging!).
Improv was everything I wanted and more - both for stress relief as well as pushing me out of my comfort zone. After taking the Summer “off” (details below), I retook Level One in the Fall, and plan to continue with Level Two soon.
Summer Fun
Despite the Big Bad Home Issue behind us, little annoyances kept cropping up, so I decided to focus a bunch of nights/weekends making things more “stable”: winterizing the home, a variety of yard work, and in general preparing for each of the Midwest’s four seasons. I thank YouTube and my father and father-in-law for their help!
With the house now in check, I told my wife, “let’s forget about a dog, home repairs, and other ‘adult stuff’. We need a break. Let’s focus on having FUN this Summer.” So that’s what we did.
We bought furniture for our spacious backyard porch, a new bicycle for me, and a second car (Toyota RAV4 Hybrid - two thumbs up). Getting to enjoy our backyard porch was so much fun. We pass through it leaving for work every day, but didn’t have the chance to properly use it due to the winter season.
Investing in a new bicycle was a great idea. Madison is one of only five cities to reach platinum-level status as Bicycle Friendly Communities. The network of bike trails in and around the city is impressive, and I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface. I biked to work as much as possible and spent many Saturdays exploring new areas of town. Now in winter, I’m itching to get back on it! I’d like to do Bike the Barns in September (a 34 or 56 mile ride!), so I’d better get on the trails come Spring!
We intentionally spent as much time outdoors as possible. Reading on the porch, attending Concerts on the Square, bike rides, and camp fires in the evenings. Several concerts in Chicago, including Riot Fest’s 20th anniversary weekend, my favorite hardcore band’s 25th anniversary show and Jay & Silent Bob’s Reboot Roadshow. Traveling around to Salt Lake City and Las Vegas for work conferences, and parts of California to visit friends.
In the Fall, I went “up north” by myself for the first time, working remotely and enjoying the peace that only Wisconsin’s Northwoods can provide:
Boundary Waters Vacation
Our major vacation this year, incredibly different than last year’s European backpacking trip, was camping in the Boundary Waters with my wife’s family along the Minnesota/Canadian border. This was no regular vacation: canoeing and backpacking through many lakes, completely off-the-grid, for about one week. It was challenging for sure, but very rewarding. Disconnected from technology and “real life”, all we had to do was eat, sleep, canoe to the next lake, and enjoy nature. To get back to basics like that is incredibly rejuvenating.
I’ll admit that I was nervous about the trip. While I’ve invested a decent amount of time into hiking and weight lifting the past few years, I’m not much for camping, which was absolutely more intense than the weekend camping I used to do in the Boy Scouts growing up. Funny enough, my favorite part was the portaging between lakes (carrying the canoe and all gear across land). While intense, often grueling work, I loved it! A chance to put all the weight training I’ve been doing into practice.
It was an incredible trip - we all said we’d go again!
10 Years In
July 2019 marked 10 years of my career. I’ve now worked for 3 great companies and with hundreds of talented people.
Reflecting on 2019 at Ionic requires a separate post because there’s so much I could write about. Overall, I love working there! It was a great year for personal growth: I improved my writing, presentation, development, and leadership skills while going through some intense highs and lows.
Third Time’s the Charm: Rosie the Dog
After our Summer of Fun, we made Dog Adoption Attempt #3. Fortunately, this time we hit a home run. Rosie is nearly the perfect “fur baby” - incredibly sweet and loving, very keen to endlessly snuggle every human she meets, and always up for adventure in the great outdoors. She’s a two year old German Shepherd and Great Pyrenees mix. Since I didn’t grow up with any serious pets, I never understood the appeal, honestly. That is, until we got Rosie. I love her endless excitement, happiness, and energy that are visible every single day. I’m grateful to have the means to rescue a dog and give it a wonderful life. What an incredible feeling!
Final Thoughts
The first half of 2019 was pretty rough, but I ended the year in a good place. I’m finally feeling settled into our new life in Madison, which means more time and energy to focus into making 2020 a success. Some ideas include turning our House into a Home (decorating, remodeling - aka fun projects!), revamping my exercise routines (biking! weights!), and getting back into app development.
Cheers to a happy, healthly, and prosperous 2020.
“Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.” - Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss