2013 is over, and for the most part, I’m glad for it.
There’s a snow storm raging outside this weekend, so to distract myself from the reality of yet another winter weather advisory and the thought of single-digit temperatures tomorrow, I thought I’d look back on the last year, and maybe think of a few ways to make this next year better.
2013: The good
There were a few bright spots to the previous year that bear mentioning. I moved (a year ago this weekend it was 55 degrees and sunny) into a condo and out of my apartment, which gave me a good opportunity to imagine what it would be like to have more than just an apartment to try and maintain. I got a few new comforts, like a garage and a charcoal grill, and a few new challenges, like keeping two floors of carpet vacuumed and two bathrooms clean. I’m still working on that last part. Perhaps most amusing was watching my cat, who had never encountered stairs before, figure out how to navigate those.
At work, I moved up from remote support to projects, which was a goal that I had been chasing for years. Moving to projects meant that my days become a lot less structured, but it also gave me opportunities to really dive into things that I wanted to explore, but didn’t have the time to when the phone was always ringing. I went from a desk beneath a skylight to a 12×12 ft room with three other desks in it, but now I also get to sit across from one of my better friends, and former mentor. The work is still challenging, and it’s varied, and in my opinion, is a whole lot more fun.
The soccer team also scratched a few items off its collective bucket list: we beat both of our rivals, the team that cut me and three others and gave birth to this team, and the team that the rest of the soccer-playing coworkers are on. By the end of the outdoor season, we had beaten, at least once, every team that we had played against by then (although the win against one of them was more of a forfeit than a legitimate victory). I scored, on the Rangers no less, in about the most awesome fashion possible.
2013: The bad
In December, the condo I’m renting was sold to another owner. I’m still here, but my long-term plan of going from renting the condo on a month-to-month basis to buying a house in 2014 got thrown for a loop. I’m still working on sorting out the new version of that plan, and am contemplating moving back into an apartment for a year while I get everything straightened out. We’ll see with that one, I suppose.
Jetta had some rather nasty electrical issues back in late summer/early fall, and while it ultimately came down to a case of a failing battery exhibiting the weirdest symptoms, cosmetically the old girl’s not looking too good either. She needs a good wash and a coat of wax, and I’ve got headliner falling down in a few places. The car turned 10 this year, and still has less than 100,000 miles on it, but I’m starting to come to grips with the notion that the first car I ever bought will someday die. It’s not a comforting realization.
2013: The ugly
About a year after I did something screwy to my left knee and was out for the first month of indoor soccer, I broke my other leg playing indoor soccer in an exhibition game prior to the start of indoor. Relatively speaking, I’m very lucky; no surgery, no cast, and at this point I’m back on both feet with no major side effects. I’m still not supposed to run or jump for another month or so, but I’m not sure I’ll take the field in an indoor game before the season is over at the end of April. I like indoor a lot more than I like playing outdoors, and I was really looking forward to the season, but this season clearly isn’t the one for me. It’s left me wondering if I want to keep playing (it’s not a cheap hobby) and if I should, perhaps, look for another activity to occupy my time.
All in all, 2013 felt like a year spent stuck in neutral. I went an entire year without taking someone on a date. I haven’t really met anybody new, and I’ve watched friends get engaged. I’m glad that I was able to move up at work, but other than that and a couple of braces from my broken leg, I don’t really have a lot to show for this past year. 2014 needs to be different.
So, here’s what I want to get out of my 2014:
Get back in shape: the one good side effect from being on a broken leg and unable to drive for 6 weeks was that I suddenly stopped going out after work or ducking into the grocery store on the way home for some beer, and grabbing a snack as I passed the kitchen became a lot more work. As a result, I lost a respectable amount of weight, more or less by sitting on my butt watching Jeopardy and Netflix. I’ve lost some ground over December, but I want to make this the year that I get back in shape. I want to run a half marathon in the fall. I want to bike another metric hundred kilometers this summer. I want to be in the kind of shape that gives me the option to play soccer, whether or not I’m still playing by the end of the year. One of my friends is getting married in October, and I want to suit up for that in the most awesome way possible.
Pick up some new hobbies: I haven’t brewed a batch of beer since my birthday last May, and while I’m not saying that I’m done brewing, not by any means, I’m also hitting a point where I may not have the space. Brewing is fun, but I’d like to branch out and try something new. Hiking, maybe, once this winter is over. Learning to dance couldn’t hurt either.
Read more: this particular goal is already off to a decent start. When I was futon-bound, and tired of Netflix, I started working on the next Tom Clancy novel that I had borrowed from my dad. Having plowed through that, I’ve moved on to the next one, and wouldn’t mind getting the rest of the way through his collection by the end of the year. Reading isn’t something I’ve done a lot of outside of exam prep since probably middle school, and it feels like an infinitely better use of time than re-watching Mad Men or Archer, or trying to make it through the entire run of Cheers, which I’m beginning to think is an impossible task.
Get certified: in 2012 I got my MCSA for Server 2008, and then proceeded to take the next year off, aside from picking up a few minor certifications. This year I want to make the jump over to the 2012 MCSE certification, and potentially pick up my VCP certification. For the sake of setting goals, and spacing things out, let’s say MCSE by July 1 and VCP by December 31.
Meet new people: of the goals I have for this year, this one is probably the most difficult. I’m a pretty introverted person, and meeting people is not something I go out of the way to do. Networking is one of my least favorite activities, period. Still, if I don’t do anything my world will only continue to shrink, until I’m that 40-something who lives alone with a few cats, and I’d rather not have that happen.
Here’s to the goal setting, and the hope that 2014 turns out better than the last two years.
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