I watched Stranger Than Fiction tonight for the first time in a long time. Still makes me cry. Still makes me depressed. Makes me want to write, too, though. Maybe if I watched it more often I'd write more.
First snow of the year 3 days before it ends. It's been so unseasonably warm that I thought for sure we wouldn't see that. Here I am writing about the weather. The snow sucks. Christmas is still a shit holiday.
I traveled a lot this year and I wanted to compile a list of all the places that I went.
January:
Although not far I traveled with David and Laura to Lawrence to see Kawehi. The show was pretty good, a lot of jam bands played first and I'm not sure how I felt about that. She was really good though, super cute, my type, I ended up getting to talk with her a bit and get a picture after the show.
February:
I drove to Oklahoma for Miss V's birthday, she turned 1. Can't believe she'll be 2 so soon.
March:
Flew to New Orlean's for Ryan's bachelor party. I wrote about that a bit previously.
May:
Japan! I spent 10 days in Japan for the first time. I went to visit Jake and Alicia while they were finishing up their year teaching English there. I visited Tokyo, Saitama, Uji, Kyoto, and Osaka. I had a blast and I want to go back. There are some pretty fun YouTube videos here.
June:
Toward the end of June I flew to Atlanta and spent the weekend in Roswell and Alpharetta, Georgia for Ryan and Mallory's wedding. It was amazing. I'm jealous them.
July:
In July I went back to Lawrence to see some local bands play, another trip with a few friends that ended up being really fun. Got pulled over on the way back for expired tags (which, side rant tags expire in a specific month in Kansas not a year after you get them so my tags expired like 7 months after getting them.) The cop was convinced I'd been drinking and made me get out of the car, situation was high anxiety but I ended up not even having to pay for the ticket. The cute ADA in Lawrence threw it out because I literally got my tags renewed the next business day. Yay for being a lawful citizen?
August:
In early August I traveled to Memphis for Kaitie's wedding. Had a good time seeing Jake again, his family is so amazing.
At the end of August I took a trip out to SF to interview for a job. I didn't get an offer but had a good time while I was there. I love seeing Devon and Daniel and just getting to hang out on the coast.
September:
In September I went on an adventure to watch Oklahoma play Tennessee in Neyland. Robert got arrested and I had random makeouts with a girl I met. I got to see Courtney for the first time since I'd been in school. It was actually really fun. Oklahoma beat Tennessee in double overtime and even though I was supposed to be at the game and wasn't the night ended up being really really good. It was good to see my mom that weekend too.
October:
I flew to Tampa for Halloween. Had a really good time, got to see my friends again and go out and have a really good time including at Gurn's awesome house party.
November:
I visited Atlanta again with some friends to play cards. Had a blast.
I drove to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. It was good to see my siblings mostly doing well. I worry about Robert a lot even though we don't talk a lot. I should talk to him more. I'll probably regret it later in life if I don't do it now.
December:
I spent Christmas in Mississippi with my Dad. It was good to see him, it had been two years. I don't really care for the season though so that always puts a damper on things. It's crazy to watch families grow, my step brothers have had more kids and gotten divorces and things have just changed so much in two years. It's crazy.
Going to make a map...
Made some maps:
It has been an extremely satisfying year of travel. There is already a trip to Lawrence January 4th to see (3) Oklahoma play (2) Kansas in Basketball. San Francisco and Oakland on the schedule for January 8th as well. Hopefully it's another eventful year and I have another awesome set of maps at the end of it.
It makes me happy thinking about all the traveling I did.
This year has been a real roller coaster. When I started it I was determined to make all these changes in my life, and that didn't really happen. It did, and then it didn't and then it did again. For instance I set a goal to lose some weight. I dropped 30lbs in 3 months, but I put it all back on before years end. I wanted to complete my app, which I didn't do. I got a lot of work done but I got burnt out at a few months. Working 8 hours at Garmin and then 4 more at night everyday for a few months will shut you down pretty quickly. I ran my first race this year, the St. Patrick's Day 4 mile that they do in Westport in Kansas City. I played disc golf and regular golf (went to a driving range, anyway) for the first time. I played a lot of piano and learned a lot of Japanese, but I'm pretty rusty at both of those things again already. I rode my bike a lot in the Spring and Summer, that was really satisfying. It's surprisingly easy to put in 15+ miles and feel great.
It was a lonely year, but I think that's just what getting older and being single is like. I think my mom probably worries about me a lot. My family can't understand why I don't have a significant other, even Thomas is engaged now.
This next year I want to learn some things and actually retain them, piano, Japanese, programming. I've created a short list of schools I want to apply to get my MBA with a focus in Finance at: Arizona State, Carnegie Mellon, North Carolina Chapel Hill, and of course Kansas, because it's close I think I could get in without even taking the GMAT, which I need for the other schools, I've scheduled the test for March so I need to get to studying.
I need to email a professor about a Japanese course I want to take at the local community college, too. I could ride my bike there but, maybe not in the terrible weather. I've grown a lot mentally and emotionally. I can feel myself getting older though, they say that feeling really starts at 26, I'd be inclined to think that's true at this point.
Maybe I'll find something I'll be good at in 2016.
