I haven’t posted in too long. Here’s my attempt at filling in the last six months!
Holidays
The 2015 holiday season had its ups and downs. I got to spend a lot of time with my family and my in-laws, whom I always love to see. Being an independent adult 1000 miles from home is fun, but there’s a certain warmness that only comes from spending a week as a carefree kid in the family house. Felicia and I got a chance to bring our families together over Christmas, which was really fun. We hadn’t done something like that since our wedding.
Of course, every family has its “family business” and mine is no different. Ours cast a shadow over the holidays, but in a way it also added authenticity to our time together. Being a family isn’t just about sharing the good times. Any group of people can party. Families struggle together through the bad stuff too. As much as nobody wants to deal with that kind of drama, at least we were able to do it as a family. We’ve been fragmented for as long as I can remember, so even though we didn’t have ideal circumstances I still found solace in the fact we were able to do something together.
Work
In October I got promoted at Amazon. My official title is now Software Development Engineer II - Test. I felt that I deserved the promotion earlier (especially after some shady annual review politics the year prior), but I appreciate it regardless. There’s no formal responsibility added to my job, but I’m continuing to take on new leadership roles organically, and I’m pretty satisfied with the salary bump. I’m almost three years into my four-year signing bonus, and with the recent performance of Amazon’s stock I’m making out pretty well :)
We’re churning out a pretty cool new project right now that should be available in a couple months. I was originally apathetic about it, but as I see it come along I’m getting more encouraged. I don’t know how much of that is just my emotional attachment to something that I have ownership of and how much of that is genuine objective coolness. I can’t tell you what the product is, but I’ll let you know when it comes out so you can judge for yourself.
Travel
In December Felicia and I went with our good friends Casey and Christina to Orlando to celebrate Casey’s 30th birthday. What more magical way is there to celebrate than visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!? If you’re into theme parks then early-December is the time to visit. Lines are short between the two major American holidays, and the Florida weather provides a nice respite from the Seattle winter. Of course roller coasters are my jam, but even if you’re not a thrill seeker you’d still love Diagon Alley. There’s nothing like a cold butterbeer on a warm, sunny day.
In February we spent a long weekend in Whistler, eh. 10 of us loaded up a few cars and convoyed up after work from Seattle. Whistler is an expensive destination, but thankfully the USD is strong so we were able to afford an awesome chalet just outside the village. There’s nothing like drinking ice cold Coors Light in a hot tub as thick snowfall surrounds you. The skiing itself was a mixed bag. The mountains are so large that you wind up hunting for the right microclimate. We found some sunny slopes on Blackomb, so we spent most of our time there. We also took a trip up to the Whistler peak and ran into the worst storm I’ve ever experienced. We were basically on the planet Hoth. The snow was soft and the slopes were steep, but with the gusting winds and lack of visibility we were in pure survival mode. By the time we made it down they had closed that lift for safety reasons :P
In March we headed to Vegas for the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament, as is tradition. It’s always a treat for me to see the ‘Cats play. Even though they couldn’t finish the comeback against Oregon in the semi-finals, it was still one of the craziest games I’ll ever get to see. We also got to daydrink on the lazy river during the day and catch a show at night. If you’d like to see people pushing the boundaries of human possibility and political incorrectness, then Absinthe at Caesar’s Palace is the show for you.
I’m heading to Japan very soon - stay tuned for my next post!
Health
I haven’t been to a doctor in 10 years. That’s mostly due to good genes and a sustainable lifestyle, and the rest is luck. It’s not something I ever really thought about because it was never necessary. Then I caught the flu in Whistler and came back down to Earth. I didn’t need any medicine and I got over it in a couple weeks, but damn was it demoralizing. I’m not looking forward to being sick again, but the silver lining from that event was a reminder not to take the blessing of consistently good health for granted.
I got my wisdom teeth removed in February. I put it off as long as I could, but the dentist was practically begging me to get them yanked so I finally had to pay the piper. I witnessed my brother’s experience with it as a teenager and I was mortified about the idea of puking from anesthesia sickness while my mouth was openly bleeding. Luckily none of that happened. I just ate a bunch of soft food for a couple of weeks and had to clean out my sockets every day, which was pretty gross. (One of my teeth was growing in sideways so it left a massive hole in gums which is actually still healing a couple months later!)
Lifestyle
I quit playing WoW in December, and with college basketball season now over, I’m finding myself with all kinds of free time. I’ve done a pretty good job of filling the void with wholesome, positive activities. I’ve been running and lifting weights regularly, playing basketball whenever the weather is nice, reading a mixture of fiction and nonfiction literature, and tinkering with various engineering projects. Hopefully some of these things will develop into long-term habits.
One of the books I recently read is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. There’s no revolutionary lesson to be learned from this book, but it did help me materialize some things that I’ve always noticed about the world and personal relationships. Attempting to synopsize the book would be an injustice to its message, but if you’re feeling unsatisfied with life then I recommend that you open your mind and give it a chance.
TGIBriday!
