Go In Peace and Love: 2025 Reflections

I am delinquent to my usual annual review of my year. I'll blame it partially on the fact that I've caught up on making video montages for each year, and I spent much of my computer time towards the end of 2025 on creating my video, which is great. Also, I can partially blame it on a happy thought that I was just more excited to look forward and doing things, creating my story, rather than just documenting it. So I don't feel bad. Sorry, not sorry! That being said, I think there are a few really impactful things from 2025 which I would be remiss if I neglected to put into words before the memories and feelings fade completely. 

Resolutions for 2025

I set out at the start of 2025 to do some specific things which I pivoted away from, specifically around how to publish my book, and leveraging technology specifically for investing. I did publish a book, self-published rather than through a real publisher, and not the book I intended to publish - that one is still TBD - but a totally bizarre diversion from my usual writing. And it was fun! And it used technology in ways I hadn't imagined at the start of 2025. So while I didn't accomplish those specific things, I did my own thing, and isn't that really the point, anyways? 

What I did do which was aligned to my initial outlook for 2025 included dance. I performed two final performances with the Jubilee Dance Team before the group dissolved. I continued dancing socially and had probably my best Camp Hollywood yet, sharing it with a fellow engineering friend and feeling overcome by the sheer joy of the people there who are just there to dance. I know drama and political posturing exist in those groups, but I was largely immune to them, so all I saw was sheer joy for five days. And it occurred to me - shouldn't we always strive to have days like these? Even if not every day is joyful, finding days like those make the hard stuff worth it. What a revelation and privilege! 

I also set out to finish my family room and primary bathroom, and those I did and I love them. My bathroom, especially, is everything I dreamed it to be and gives me joy every day I get to wake up and use it and every night as I brush my teeth and get ready for bed. I am REALLY proud of my faux living wall made with craft supplies. It is the perfect proportion I was after, and it just feels right in that space. Home improvements, especially crazy ones, don't always work out so well, but the careful thought and planning and design iterations I toiled over paid off in this case, and that is amazing. As my friend Rachel said about it, "It's just so you!" And that's right. It's not for everyone, but it was never meant to be. It's my house, my castle, and my sanctuary. It may deteriorate my resale value, but I'm not selling right now, I'm living (here) right now. More of that, please! 

Life List #35 - Visit a concentration camp

From my Life List, I checked off one very important one to me: visiting a concentration camp. And I did it in the best way possible - with my sister, Christy, with whom we've shared book recommendations about the concentration camps and Jews during the Holocaust. The trip idea formulated out of my business trip to Milan, a city my sister strongly desired to visit. She decided to join me my last week there, and use my hotel room as a launch pad from which to explore Milan while I wrapped up my work there. Then, we considered going somewhere together - Greece, maybe, or back to Venice, a city we explored together for the first time years prior, with great memories. But when I suggested the more serious idea of going to Auschwitz, she was excited in whatever way is appropriate and not weird. I had heard that Krakow, Poland was a lovely city, but I just assumed that was something people said because what else do you say about the nearest major city to a place with such a devastating past as Auschwitz. I was wrong in all the best ways on that. 

It was a short flight from Milan to Krakow, but something changed when we arrived in Poland. Everything seemed happier, easier, safer, friendlier, better. Just better. I can enumerate ways but the parts don't seem to account for the whole, fluffy, happy feeling I had there. And I wasn't alone in that. Christy also seemed to love absolutely everything. We were so uncanningly happy in this town in which we didn't know the local language and barely understood the food. 

It started, I suppose, with the Uber ride to our hotel. The houses in the countryside were tall and boxy and somehow the most adorable houses I've ever seen. Like, I wanted to take a picture of every one of 1000 houses I suppose we passed. I would happily live in any one of those in a heartbeat. Turning into Krakow, a giant castle-like complex built of red brick greeted us. We later learned this was some utility company like a water works or something like that. What?!? 

I had booked the hotel with my excessive points, so it was free of cost to us, but they greeted us like VIPs maybe because of my status anyways. The woman who checked us in offered to make dinner reservations for us at the hotel's restaurant, and since we were sort of tired and unsure of going out on the town, we opted in. So after getting settled into the room, we prettied up a touch and headed downstairs. She escorted us into the restaurant and told the waiter to take special care of us. She even came back after we were seated to offer us a special Polish treat - she cautioned that half of Polish people love it and half don't care for it. My sister and I were also split right down the middle, I loved it and she didn't care for it, so I gladly enjoyed the half of hers she didn't eat. We ordered wine but the waiter offered us a complimentary shot of a special Polish liquor. We cheers'ed and gulped it down - it was pleasant but not our thing. The chef sent out a special small palate cleanser compliments of the house. Our appetizers and meals were all scrumptious and presumably authentically Polish. Who knew I liked Polish food so much? I certainly did not. After some equally delicious desserts and cocktails, we stumbled (from the food coma more than the alcohol) back into the elevator and passed out. 

Now, I will add that while my sister and I do have real empathy for the persecuted Jews of the Holocaust and are inspired by those stories of absolute resolutions to survive, so much so that we shared many of these stories between us, we also have a sometimes dark sense of humor. Comedic relief has been a way of coping with death and tragedy in our family, and making light of ugly situations is sort of what we do. So we knew we had to clean up our act out of respect while touring the camps, but boy did we let it loose before and after. 

The first thing I recall from our tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau was a constant feeling of having been here before. Not quite déjà vu, like I had lived this tour before, but more that everything made sense, I knew what to expect, it looked like I… remembered? It could be the effect of having seen pictures in various books, museums, video footage, internet articles, etc. I wanted to write it off as that. But the feeling was of such familiarity it was hard to write it off. It felt like I was remembering the images through the accounts I had read, as if I had lived those accounts myself, and now I was visiting the places I had visited before in my mind. That alone was a very moving and somehow comforting feeling - that the accounts were so accurate they felt like a memory to a first-time visitor, and all the more hope that such accounts will stand as evidence of the crimes that really happened and a hope that the human race will not go to such depths again. 

As a mere mortal, I think it is often hard for me, and probably most people, to comprehend large numbers. The individual accounts I had read over the years were painstakingly awful, but to imagine that those atrocities, or worse, since most didn't survive to tell their tales, to millions of people just can't be fathomed. If I read a thousand individual stories, that still would represent only a tiny fraction of the stories not learned. So I really appreciated some of the exhibits that attempted to show these magnitudes in ways we could come closer to comprehending. There were locks of hair that had been shaved off the prisoners upon arrival - most of which had been taken to factories for use in manufacturing - but even what remained was still an unbelievable amount. The shoes stripped of the prisoners, some plain and practical, others decorative and fashionable, all thrown together in a heap that still only represents a fraction, but imagining the pairs of legs belonging to people who boarded the trains and arrived to these horrors, the comprehension of the magnitude was more within reach. Then you turn the corner and witness a pile of kids' shoes - and that evokes a heightened emotion for so many reasons, as we continued to strive to comprehend. 

I also appreciated the visuals of the Cyklon B used to gas the Jews and other victims, and the models of the facilities, and the like. There was a scientific efficiency in the Nazi extermination efforts, and understanding the mechanics is a part of the equation to comprehending the horrors that occurred there, which the accounts tend not to know or detail.

At Birkenau, we had the opportunity to lay eyes on the buildings in which the prisoners were forced to attempt to sleep, many to a single bunk, and the bunks piled high and packed into the tightest of quarters. One could imagine the ease with which disease could spread in such conditions, the restlessness one might struggle with hearing the coughs, moans, cries and other human noises of so many people shoved together, and the utter exhaustion they must have felt to find some kind of comfort and solace in being in here, able to get off their feet and not be laboring, and maybe finding some warmth however slight. Much of it rendered me just speechless. 

Entering the gas chamber was downright unnerving. I knew I was safe, and yet… 

I don't ever want to do that again. I suppose most people don't. 

While the exhibits at Auschwitz helped me try to comprehend the magnitude of the human element, the vastness of Birkenau spoke of a killing machine that was still ramping up. I don't know what the Nazis would have accomplished had they not been stopped when they were, but it seemed like it could have been magnitudes worse than the already incomprehensible disaster it was. 

The end of our tour tied up with some reflections that these were fellow humans that did this to other humans, and that we need to remember so that we never repeat such atrocities. Capturing these quotes in photos and souvenirs was almost as important as visiting the place itself. 

As we headed back, we were mostly quiet, but I had to chuckle to myself at the playlist, which included, "I Want to Break Free," "Shotgun," "Rude," and "bad guy," as if the world was trying to lighten the mood with some comedic relief. Also, perhaps because I was too emotionally drained to care what people might think at that point, or maybe to fill my photo folder of something happier, I took a bunch of pictures of the adorable houses on our way back to the town. 

That afternoon, my sister had a few fun destinations she wanted to check out. We headed first to EL&N and had fun drinks and food there. Then we played around in the Be Happy Museum which was full of silly photo ops to be hilarious in. Around town, we found a Christmas store (we love that!) and heard a trumpeter play from the turret, which is just so right up my alley if you know my love of turrets and history of trumpet playing. We found ourselves double fisting drinks for some reason at whatever bar we landed at, and just genuinely enjoyed every moment of our short stay in Krakow. By the end of the day, we were devising how we could move to Poland. I've never loved a city so much in a country I knew so little about. 

Life List #33 - See the brilliance of the Milky Way

I revised my Life List at the beginning of 2025, and one of the newly added items was my pursuit of seeing the Milky Way in all its glory - as it had eluded me several times while visiting dark sky parks known for their glorious views of the night skies. Perhaps adding it to my Life List helped to make it happen, or perhaps my doubling down on my pursuit because I added it to my list is what did it. Either way, I was overjoyed to take in the views at the top of two different mountains in Hawaii, capturing beautiful photos and finally feeling satisfied by the view with the naked eye -twice. I wrote about that adventure here.

Other Life List-worthy Mentions

In addition to checking off two new things from my Life List, I doubled down on a few others. Self-publishing my book about Astoria was a second hit on #15 to Publish a book. I also had the opportunity to see a proper opera at the Syndey Opera House (my Life List called for seeing a "show" which I had done years before, planning the trip around a Postmodern Jukebox concert), to improve upon my #132. A trip to Hawaii is hardly complete without a luau, so I did #75 for a fourth time in 2025. 

As the Winter Olympics kicked off yesterday with the focal point in San Siro Stadium, seeing the stadium and the sites reminded me of how cool my time in Milan was. It feels like a decade ago, but it was just March that I spent a full month in Italy for work, during which my employee and I got to catch a soccer match at that same stadium. I had also toured the Duomo in December 2024, which featured heavily in the Olympics introduction as it is such an icon of Milan. I had visited Lake Como on both trips, but in 2025, my employee and I went to the spot where a Star Wars scene took place - the one in which Padme marries what's his face. It was beautiful! 

While I love taking pictures to help capture the amazing memories, sometimes the picture is missed, or is insufficient, so the moment needs to be remembered in other ways. After working in Australia for two weeks, Sam and I spent a few days back in Tasmania - a place even Australians rarely go once in their lifetimes, and this was our second time there. A moment I wasn't quick enough to capture in photographic proof was when a kookaburra perched on the railing of our house's deck. It was right there! And if you don't know what a kookaburra is, go google it real quick because they are the coolest looking bird in the world! They make a hilarious sound, like a monkey laughing, which we heard throughout the weekend there, but that was the only one we actually saw. What we did see a lot of were pademelons, a type of animal only found in Tasmania and of which we were not familiar previously. There were pademelons and wallabies all over the property of the house we rented. Unfortunately, they only came out at dark, so when we turned off all the lights in the house and stood on the deck long enough for our eyes to adjust, we could make out the shapes and the jumping motions, but the camera was rendered useless in capturing the sight. 

Honorable Mentions 

What else did I do in 2025? Gosh, it was really a full year, looking back. I started the year in Australia, so literally day 1 found Sam and I traveling from Hobart to Sydney, where I settled into the most amazing room at the W overlooking Darling Harbour, with its Saturday night fireworks. I went to the local Lego store which happened to be the world's largest Lego store, how I didn't realize that earlier is beyond me. Sam and I saw Hamilton in Sydney which gave me a unique perspective - actually there is a different caliber from what I was used to on Broadway compared to the Sydney show. Back home in Texas, I saw other musicals, including & Juliet, Mamma Mia, Waitress, The Outsiders, Beauty and the Beast. I went to the Fort Worth Zoo and also the Dallas Zoo for both daytime animal viewing and holiday Zoo Lights, and toured the fun (but very cold) ice sculptures based on the Elf movie at the Gaylord Resort in Grapevine. 

My sister in Tucson continued recovering from her medical issues, and it was great going out to visit and spend time with the family. 

Sam and I tried Pickleball at my local park, which was neat - until his strong man strength broke the cheap racket I had bought him. 

My parents visited for a mercifully short stay and we got to visit with my aunt and uncle just a couple hours south - well-timed, too, because my uncle passed just a few months later. When I learned the news, I put together a little video montage using some old footage of him and my Dad from their childhoods, and then added pictures from their young adult lives and more recent memories. I put it to the music of a male-sung cover of the "For Good" song from Wicked. I was really proud of that montage, and when I sent it to my Dad, he said it helped him finally to cry, which made me happy to be able to have helped him process his brother's death. 

I reconnected with my old MBA friend, Rachel, who lives in Waco. Talking at length with really smart people is so inspiring to me, I need to remember to do more of that.

I visited my sister in Raleigh, and we did a fun hike and went to a piano bar for tipsy hilarity. At App State, I got to do a shot with my nephew and his roommates, and take him and his girlfriend to the football game. 

My former dance instructor from Arizona came out to Texas for work and we got to catch up and go to a dance on two separate occasions. 

I finished the year in Tucson for an extended stay with my family. The kids surprised me with a trip to the observatory which was a great highlight. While wrapping up with a lunch picnic, one of the volunteer docents sat with us and in our conversation, he commented that I'd "make a really good docent," which reminded me of the joy I got from being a docent at the Poppy Reserve in California, and made me consider looking into something similar in Texas, even if it is Texas. 

I pursued my dream of owning land in Florida, carving out a fun extended weekend for myself there, falling in love with one particular property, and buying it. 

While working in Georgia, I got to see some F-22 and F-35 flybys and an F-22 launch, and I attempted to go swing dancing only to discover it was a West coast place, and tried it anyway. 

I also got to swing dance in Sydney when I went back for work, which was so much fun! 

While working in Australia, we had lunch right by the runway one day and got to watch the F-35s do touch-and-go's. 


All in all, I had a busy work travel schedule in between which (or sometimes extending and amending off those trips) I managed to take some really amazing vacations, do a ton of dancing, nerd out on airplanes, make some happy spaces in my house, and most importantly, spend time with friends and family I love. One of the most interesting parts of the Blue Zone theories and the Outlive book and the futuristic views being presented is that in all things, the importance of relationships of all kinds is pivotal, key to survivability and longevity and happiness, and only growing in importance. So this has been a focus of mine to reach out more, connect more, and appreciate more. And when I looked back at 2025, even though the romantic relationship I hoped would be my forever one didn't work out, I feel so blessed to have lived with intention, joy, and connection throughout. 

Go in peace and love. 

A Dancer, an Athlete

Another Camp Hollywood is in the books! This was just my second time attending. I lived in California when I attended last year, and was encouraged by my Arizona friends to attend when I visited the Kat's Korner in Phoenix. I enjoyed it so much that I bought the early bird ticket for this year before I even left.

Little did I know that I wouldn’t live in California when the event came around this year. But, I had my full weekend pass and my hotel room with the pool-facing balcony already booked, so I decided it was worth the flight from DFW.

Coming off my UK trip though, I only had one weekend of down time and that was obviously spent doing some productive things like unpacking, laundry, and packing. Being a morning person, these late starts for the dances - 8 or 9 or 9:30 - are past my typical bed time. Crazy people here will dance until 4 or 6 am and later! That's when I get up usually - the time to which I sleep in even! Add to that the intensity of attending 3 or 4 classes during the day, and the event is just absolutely exhausting.

I felt like I was dragging myself through the event all weekend. The feeling of freedom and having no responsibilities or requirements when I arrived Thursday quickly dissipated into pushing myself to attend classes and put myself out there at the social dances. Part way through the weekend, I concluded that I would enjoy the event more if I had a roommate or a "group" to belong to. Being a transplant everywhere I've lived in recent years means I don't have those strong relationships with anyone from my new home, and I wasn't really included in the coordination of my Arizona dance friends. As such, it was more like I ran into people. To her credit, my dance instructor in Texas, Linh, was very kind and thoughtful to add me to her group chat so I could have dinner with them on two occasions. But especially the last night, once I went to my room, I was on my own to get to the  dance, and the bed was so comfy, and I was enjoying listening to my audio book, and I was so tempted to just stay in bed.

Part of my struggle is definitely the lack of fitness. Our style of dancing is intense and a single song, especially one on the faster side, can wipe me out for quite a while. I sweat a lot and so I do things to accommodate that fact - changing shirts between classes or wearing layers so that the sweat doesn't get to where my partners primarily touch. It certainly didn't help that my back was hurting and is probably out of alignment, and my asthma inhaler stopped working. I'm so broken!

There were other times, though, that I, like, didn't want to dance. It's hard to explain the feeling. I logically know I love dance. I had re-discovered that fact years ago. And there were certainly times when I completed a dance with a new partner and felt exhilarated by the interaction - the exchange of ideas and clever leads and follows, smiling and laughing knowingly. Those moments, I know, are a big part of why I love dance. Having new things thrown at me or unfamiliar flairs that I followed without missing a beat is so exciting. But then I'd sit down and be completely out of breath, the sweat would pour out of every inch of my body, and I wouldn't want to dance again. There were also times in which I was dancing with someone and couldn't will my feet to move fast enough to keep up to the beat. I felt like giving up half way through. I didn't want to play anymore. I certainly enjoy watching people dance, and so I don't mind sitting on the sideline for multiple songs in a row. It just felt like every time I was asked to dance, it was hit or miss whether I'd make it through and enjoy it or whether I'd hate it and wish I hadn't even come. I can't make sense of it. Chalan came Friday night and his dancing is quite repetitive, which on the one hand is easy to follow and doesn't kill me, but on the other hand is a bit boring. Other than pretty limited repetition, I can't put my finger on any reason I wouldn't enjoy the dance. It was just waves of laziness, really.

It also varied a bit night to night. Some nights I was more enthusiastic about dancing and other nights it felt like a slog the whole way through. Maybe it was just a lot - the lack of down time I allowed myself. Which begs the question, how best to enjoy it, should I come again next year? Should I skip the classes, as many people do? I'd say no, actually, because I like the classes forcing me to go through so much physical exertion, leading me to dance with multiple people, and spacing out the exhaustion. Is it really just an extrovert thing - I need to have a more dedicated person or group of people to hang with to shake off my lazy indifference? Maybe; I can't see how that would hurt. I mean, I did enjoy getting dressed with the full space of my room and having my balcony to take breaks on, but there's no reason a roommate or group would have to take those elements away consistently. Largely, I think I would enjoy it more if I was more in shape and felt rested when I slept. I suspect that whatever causes my snoring to be intolerable is also causing the length of my sleep to be less restful than a sleep of that length should be. Therefore, I either need more sleep (hence skipping classes) or better quality sleep.

Several weeks ago at dance troupe practice, Linh had given us a little pep talk about how we were dancers and should therefore train, stretch and practice like dancers, like athletes. I was a little inspired by her talk, and certainly accepted it fully as truth. But while I started acting on the advice, I didn't continue it consistently. I do feel still agree, though, I need to treat myself like an athlete, take care of my body and health consistently and with more than just a decent diet. There is a big question mark as to how to get myself to do this more / better. Getting more sleep and being rested may be the key so I will start with that at the least while pushing myself to do something in the mean time.

A Year in Review: 2023

I set out at the beginning of this year to focus on four themes, which I'll summarize as:
(1) Live intentionally
(2) Re/connect deeply
(3) Get outdoors & "into" space
(4) Create ease

These four items have been starring at me from my little letterboard on my mantle, in plain view when I'm sitting in my favorite recliner sofa seat and where any guests can easily see it. I think I've done a pretty damn good job of all of them, although of course I could always do more.

Live intentionally

I started this year with a bad boss and was able to secure a position with a fantastic manager. That was a big deal for me; although it was a very tough decision in the moment, as time went on it proved to be one of the best decisions I could have made. Some ideas I had originated when I set my 2023 themes were also directly accomplished. I bought land, specifically 2.5 acre in the Mojave desert - I just absolutely fell in love with the location, situated just up to a mountain and looking down on the valley but isolated enough I could camp there and not see a single soul. Book and plan a vacation also was done in spades, I'd say. I just came back from a terrific holiday in Maui with my whole family, which I had largely coordinated. I had also had a great time in Las Vegas with A.J. while we were seeing each other, and then with Deric shortly after we became a couple. A fantastic trip to Colorado in August ties to the next theme, reconnecting with a childhood friend, Laura. I spent over a week in North Carolina with my sister, continuing our tradition of being the first to visit when one of us moves. I completed my downstairs bathroom wallpapering and installed a new light, and completed my master WC wallpapering. Some of the other ideas, though, weren't accomplished or adhered to, such as increasing my health routine discipline, having a mindfulness weekend retreat and a blog-a-thon. I'd still like to do those things regularly, and they would probably be good for my stress and health as I face new uncertainties next year.

Re/connect deeply

I've never been very good at maintaining relationships, but I did make an effort this year. The most triumphant being spending a week or so with my childhood friend, Laura, in her home in Colorado Springs. We had been friends in first and second grade, she lived only a few houses away from me, but after I moved away and even when I moved back, we had never really been close. We even went to the same high school and our circles of friends loosely intersected, but her and I were mostly acquaintances I'd say. Through one positive example in a world of negatives, I would credit social media for helping us to reconnect, as we followed each others' adventures and talked about getting back together some time, and this was the year I finally made good on that notion. I think we were both a little nervous about suddenly spending so much time together after years of barely knowing each other, but we had a brilliantly hilarious time and vowed not to wait so long to do it again. I also tried reconnecting with long-time friend and short-lived romantic partner, Rick, and we did have dinner one night while I was in Arizona for a charity walk I've tried to do with Allison most years, but that relationship still feels strained. It was great, of course, to see Allison, and she's another one I’d like to be a better friend to. Also on that visit, I went to swing dance with my favorite instructors, and they made me feel like a celebrity returning home. One of my previously favorite dance partners there, Miguel, encouraged me to go to Camp Hollywood and I knew I should, since dancing was also a thing I was investing more of my time into. I am so glad he encouraged me to do - it was amazing and I'm already booked for next year.

I also did a lot of dating this year, trying to find my next Mr. Right and it's been tougher than I imagined. I've had a lot of great memories and far too many
heartbreaking let downs. When I started this blog long ago, it was a dating blog, and I thought it would be fun to return it to one being single, but when I reflect on it, dating was fun back then and it has a more serious tone to it now. I'm not dating to make fun of it, I want to find my someone and that doesn't feel like something I want to poke fun at. Well, after months of ups and downs on the dating front, I am now with Deric, who may not be perfect, but he's at least my Mr. Right Now.

Get outdoors and "into" space

I never imagined how much of nature and space I would do this year. Shortly after the year started, by mere happenstance as far as I can tell, I saw a post - was it an

ad? - inviting volunteers to support the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. I knew about the reserve - my sister and I had visited it out of season but I had missed the blooms the prior year. I mentioned it to one of my employees who happened to be traveling for work with me when I saw the post, and she got so excited about it I cemented the idea in my head that this would be a great thing to do. And it was! I loved my trailwatch shifts - four hours, and I usually hiked about 5 miles, stopping to educate guests or take pictures for them. It was a great way to get my butt out of the house and into nature, and I intend to do it as long as I live here. I even got to bring several friends and employees out with me!

I did also do the space-y things I wanted to do - I visited the Griffith Observatory as a sort-of date with Kevin during one of their events, Above, and started watching their monthly show All Space Considered. I also managed to finagle a private tour of the Lockheed Martin Space site in Littleton, Colorado during my personal trip there.

I also set out on several stargazing quests. In late January and early February, I was watching weather and visibility to find a time when I could perhaps see the green comet. Conditions were poor over and over again, until finally, towards the end of its time in our sky, I camped out on my land in Mojave and was able to capture a view of it through my binoculars. Later in the year, Nadine and I camped out at Amboy Crater and watched the Perseids and Orionids meteor showers, catching dozens of shooting stars and one fantastic fireball. I was not so fortunate in my last attempt - I had booked a private stargazing and astrophotography tour in Maui but when we climbed to the summit at 10,000 feet, the stars were barely out and were quickly covered up - no such luck at capturing the Milky Way as is usual up there. Nevertheless, I learned quite a bit about the relationship between the Hawaiians and the stars, how they navigated by the stars and drew the first celestial maps, and all stars have a Hawaiian name as homage to their contributions.

Create ease

I probably did the least of this - certainly not all the things I aspired to do. But I have utilized AI and automation in ways to make my life better, and that was the objective of the theme.

Life List Update

While many things went well this year, I was worried that this would be the first year since I started my Life List in which I wouldn't have completed at least one thing from my list. Many years I complete several items all in one big vacation, or I complete a few items from various little efforts. To be fair, many of the easier ones are completed and that leaves more difficult ones or items that are specific to a location to which I haven't yet traveled. But, after my nephew joined me in Maui, we decided to go hiking on Haleakala. So I made the trek in the convertible once again through the twists and turns, but this time in the daylight and with company, and when we stopped in the visitor center we learned that the local Ne ne birds are the most endangered species of goose. We spotted several of them both while hiking and while driving, and managed to take a few blurry pictures of them, which I'll consider as checking off Life List item #93: Photograph an endangered species. So not a minute too soon, December 21st was the day that ensured this was not the year in which I didn't complete something from my Life List.

Final reflections

There have been many years with drastic changes in jobs and where I lived, but this year seems like even more change even though I stayed put in Palmdale. Starting with ending a nearly 10 year relationship, reconnecting with old friends, a small job change, investing in my swing dancing like I hadn't in several years, and really just finding myself again has been tumultuous. I'm not sure that I've fully found myself yet, but perhaps that is an ongoing journey always. I've cried a lot, sometimes for silly reasons, sometimes because life is just stupid hard, and sometimes for no real
reason at all. But I've also had the best of people around me and great times, amazingly beautiful moments and laughter that made my cheeks hurt. And I guess that's what life is all about, isn't it? As the last year fully in my 30's, I can definitely say that I lived.