Wow, I reached another palindrome age. I am continuing the tradition of posting on my birthday despite the fact that I rarely post on this blog anymore since I moved to the other blog. I figured I would keep all these posts together and maybe look back someday at all of them to see how the years flew by.
And boy did this year fly by. The thing is, not all that much changed from 32. I'm sure as I get older less and less change will happen year by year but it is still odd to me how little things can change in one year.
Let's start at the top. This is my first full year of marriage and I have to say things are great. Surprises me a little bit how smooth everything has been and how I seem to love my wife a little bit more every day. You think you reach the maximum level and then you just blow right by it.
She is still very busy with school so it causes us to spend less time than I would like. She is still splitting her time between work and school but I know she is eager to drop the work and do the school full time. The only roadblock at this point is my own job situation. We don't want her to give up her job if there is any chance I might give up mine. She is showing some real skill in her work and I have actually been surprised at times how much talent she is exhibiting.
And that brings me to my job. Funny, status isn't a heck of a lot different than last year. The reasons for me staying are the same. I have influence and I am important to the company. In fact, I'm about to undertake a key strategic initiative that has a real chance to transform the company. Whether we actually have the will to do it remains to be seen but I'm cautiously optimistic. I did get a promotion, and now am differentiated from some of my peers, but I still wish to get to the VP tier and I'm not sure when that will happen. I have started lightly looking around to see what other opportunities exist but that's all I have done. I haven't made the commitment to totally jump ship yet.
One thing I did accomplish that I posted about last year was running a marathon. I ran in the LA marathon a week ago. The time I had wasn't what I wanted but I finished it which was the important thing. I'll have to do it again just to get a better time so I expect that to be changed by this time next year.
If it were possible, I spent even less time in the gym this year than last. Of course that was balanced out by the fact I ran a marathon. Couldn't really get behind running on a treadmill so most of my exercise has been outdoors. Barely played any basketball this year. Can really only remember one time I even got into a game. I think that part of my life is over. Just don't enjoy playing pick up basketball like I used to. Everyone is just getting younger while I'm getting older :) Truth be told, haven't even followed the Lakers as closely as I used to. Part of that is just that they are frustrating this year. Actually upsets me to watch them. But it also may just be a waning interest.
Bandit is really starting to show his age. He had some problems this year. In one incident, he wouldn't eat and kept throwing up. He eventually got over that but he worried the heck out of us. Today, he actually has a problem with his left eye. It caused us to not do our original Birthday plans which was to go to Vegas. We hope it is nothing too serious, the Vet said it should hopefully be fine, but we might take him to a specialist in a week.
No movement whatsoever on the kid and house front. Neither are likely in the near term and it looks increasingly unlikely we will ever have kids. So don't hold your breath on that one.
That pretty much sums it up. Let's hope for another great year.
