Another good one in the books. Facebook has a decent version of my year, which contains pictures (think: fun).

Goals. I set them a bit differently this time around and despite a few setbacks, all went pretty well. Less pressure to get things done, but I still managed to do better. Green = accomplished, orange = unobtainable, red = failed.

• Find a place we love and can afford to start a family in [link]. Found it and moved there. Crushed this one. Hello, Portland.
• Spend more time with friends. Going to take a pass on this one. I think I did a better job of it when we were still in VA, but half the year was spent moving and settling into a new town.
• Beat video games I had put down. Gaming lost a good bit of focus this year. I did beat one or two games, but ended up selling all of my unbeaten games before moving and focusing on one or two games online only.
• Keep up with reading, reviewing, and blogging. Read 16 books (versus 16 the previous year) for 5284 pages (versus 5292), wrote 65 reviews on Yelp (versus 36), and wrote 36 blog posts (versus 65), which tended to have a lot more substance so good enough for me.
• Perform better in athletics. Ran into some hurdles, but ran more (400 miles versus 350), biked more (3510 versus 2714), and ran my best 5k as an adult (18:24). All this while missing roughly half the year due to the broken wrist and moving. Great success.
• Eat smarter and lose weight. Ate smarter, but didn’t lose any weight by year’s end (did early, though) and am currently not in the greatest of shape. I blame moving.
• Strengthen our marriage. Read two books on the subject and am doing the best I can 🙂 Did it get stronger? Hard to measure, but she’s still putting up with me so and agreed to move across the country so I suppose it can’t be too bad. I highly recommend The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts. Note: there is a men’s version that is what I read. It is only slightly different.
• Overachieve at work. Easily worked harder than any other year. Did a lot of professional reading too. Feeling very good about my performance.
• Do less [link]. Did more (see above), but did so much less. Resigned from the running club and moved, which freed up a ton of time that I’ve been able to still completely fill.

Notable Events

• January – Mom became a 2-year survivor of Grade IV brain cancer. Doubled the odds at this point.
• February – Paid a visit to the family in NC, turned 31, and got new glasses.
• April – Competed in my first bike race, which coincided with visiting an old friend in Charlottesville. Celebrated our first anniversary by having an awesome bed & breakfast weekend, and went to Kentucky for a bachelor party.
• May – Parents stayed with us for a week or so, ran a fast 5k (18:24), broke my wrist, and scouted Portland.
• June – Worked from NYC (and saw a bunch of friends AND photobombed Hanson on national TV!) for a few days while piggybacking a friend’s work trip.
• July – Attended my cousin’s wedding in upstate PA/downstate NY, got my cast off, and went to Montreal for another bachelor party.
• September – Attended a wedding in Richmond, visited family in NC, got a new nephew, had an amazing going away party, and packed our things in a truck.
• October – Drove across the country, spent a week watching a stranger’s cat, spent a week watching our friends’ cats in Seattle, and lived all over the place.
• November – Tried my hand at cyclocross in the NW and spent nearly two weeks in VA for Thanksgiving.
• December – Attended our first Portland show (The Head and the Heart), spent a week in VA for work followed by a few days in NC with the family, had a quiet Christmas with just the two of us, did a handful of Portland Christmas things, and had an offer accepted on what’s looking to be our home for the foreseeable future.