As 2011 comes to a close I've been looking back on it and trying to find those memorable moments that stand out to me the most. There have been a few moments, some good and some bad, that I can immediately associate with the term '2011', and while I could easily get into all of that mess, my preference is to not look back and instead focus on what lies ahead of me. With that, I figured that to bring some reality and tangibility to my goals for 2012, I would write them down, make them public and leave them here for me to come back to when I am feeling like I need a refresher.
I've been thinking for a few months now about what I want my 2012 to be like. In past years I would think in terms of what I don't want, but something I've learned in 2011 is to look at what I do want and pursue that rather than attempt to evade what I don't want. My thought is, if I know clearly what I am pursuing I will have something clear to aim for as opposed to just trying to outrun what I don't want to be a part of. That began to make a lot of sense to me in the last half of 2011 and it is something I plan to continue in 2012.
In keeping with that principle, I am also of the mind that if I speak something enough I have to power to see it come to fruition. As I put my thoughts to work and turn them into words I have a chance to put my words to work and turn them into actions. And, the more action I take, the better the chances of my original thoughts becoming reality. So with that in mind, here are some of the things I will do, achieve, accomplish or complete in 2012 and, where feasible, when.
- January
- Drink no alcohol
- Eat no refined sugars
- Exercise six days a week
- Don't eat what I can't accurately measure the nutrition on
- Sign up for Krav Maga with my daughter Rebekah
- Get started with CrossFit
- Lose 10 pounds
- February
- Drink no alcohol
- Exercise six days a week
- Don't eat what I can't accurately measure the nutrition on
- Lose 10 pounds
- Finish Chalene Johnson's book PUSH
- March
- Start P90X2
- Start distance running
- Exercise six days a week
- Don't eat what I can't accurately measure the nutrition on
- Lose 10 pounds
- April
- Hike Mission Peak at least once
- Throw Sarah an awesome 16th birthday party
- Exercise six days a week
- Don't eat what I can't accurately measure the nutrition on
- Lose 10 pounds
- May
- Help the kids give their mom a memorable Mother's Day
- Hike Mount Diablo at least once
- Complete P90X2
- Start Insanity Asylum
- Exercise six days a week
- Don't eat what I can't accurately measure the nutrition on
- Lose 10 pounds
- June
- Enjoy a family filled Father's Day
- Complete Insanity Asylum
- Exercise six days a week
- Don't eat what I can't accurately measure the nutrition on
- Get under 200 pounds for the first time since high school
- July
- Earn my 32" waist
- Give Alaynah her own birthday party
- Give Rebekah her own awesome birthday party
- August
- Take the family to Yosemite
- Run a Yosemite trail
- Have all school shopping done
- September
- Give Adriannah a great birthday party
- Run Tough Mudder NorCal
- October
- November
- Host Thanksgiving
- Have all my Christmas shopping done
- December
- Attend a New Years Party outside of my own city
- Finish the year under 210 pounds
- Some time in 2012
- Pray daily with my family
- Find a church and become a member
- Read at least two self improvement books
- Own a motorcycle
- Replace my car
- Complete a 5K
- Complete a 10K
- Run a sub-six minute mile
- Attend a software developer conference
- Give a talk at a meetup or conference
- Go to a concert
- Go to an NFL game
- Travel out of state
- Learn a new programming language
I know it seems like a lot of this is wrapped around health. I'm of the opinion that I need to continually work on my health - physically, emotionally and spiritually - so I can continually improve myself. If there is one thing that I gleaned from 2011 it's that I need to become a better human being. I need to learn to be more patient, more kind, more understanding. I need to improve me. 2012 will be my year for that.
I expect some amazing things this year. And I am determined to see these through completion. My prayer is that I can look back on these things a year from now and be able to say that I've done them all. I'm certain that's possible.
I woke up this morning with a feeling of anxiety. This happens from time to time, but more recently it has happened more often. I'm not talking about clinical anxiety but more the anxiety that comes as a precursor to the culmination of a great journey coupled with major change in the usual surroundings of your life. Like when you're getting ready to start a new job or when you're entering into a new relationship.
But as I thought about all that could be causing me anxiety I began to realize that this feeling, this nervous energy that seems to overtake me, stems from the knowledge that where I am in life is simply not good enough. It's because I want more - I need more - out of life that I seek a higher level.
I'd be the first to tell you that if you are not happy where you are go find your happiness. Seek out with all your might that which you so greatly desire and aggressively pursue it until you've acquired what you seek. You only have one life to live and you're not getting any younger. So stop living your life wondering and wishing and start making the necessary moves to find that place in life you want to be. But today I've decided to change my attitude. Today I choose to be grateful.
As we enter into the last few days of Christmas and, realistically, the last few days of the year, I am reminded that there is so much for me to be thankful for in my life. I have a beautiful and amazing family. My children are all healthy, brilliant, creative, thriving children who have shown me this past year that they are tough as nails and soft as silk. I have a great relationship with them and they, with me. We live our lives together as harmoniously as a family can and we have shown over time that we are a tight knit family that is capable of withstanding the worst possible situations while still being able to celebrate the best ones.
I have a skillset that is heavily sought after and positions me to be able to take care of my children financially. It's good to be a tech head in Silicon Valley at this particular time in history. I love what I do and because I'm in a rather niche market, I am actually pretty valuable. This is a good thing.
I have a wonderful home for my children that is warm, inviting, filled with the sounds of playful screams, craftily composed piano tunes and strong voices that are right on pitch. The creativity flows through my house in every aspect but none stronger than music. I am reminded every day just how blessed I am to be surrounded by such musically inclined kids.
The basic necessities of life are always at our disposal. We literally want for nothing. No, we don't live a high roller lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination but very seldom do we have to tell ourselves "no". All in all, life is pretty good.
So as the week winds down, and Christmas lists get poured over and things get bought and the "want meter" is showing elevated readings, I want to take a minute to slow down, consider what I really want the most and enjoy the last few days of this year with an attitude of gratitude. Yes, there is going to be an extraordinary amount of change coming very, very soon. I am preparing myself for the coming year because it will open with change right out of the gates. But for now, or at least the next couple of weeks, I will be thankful. I will choose to be happy with what I have and I will choose to enjoy my life exactly as it is.
A little while ago I was in need of a way to take tab separated data sets and make HTML tables out of them cleanly. Mostly this was from data copied from a spreadsheet, but sometimes copying from web pages or even text documents has brought this need up for me. So in keeping with my mantra of "Why not write a program to do that?" I decided to write a simple HTML table maker that will take in tab separated, structured data and return an HTML table from it, complete with column headings, a caption and a summary (sidenote: I know that table summaries are being deprecated... still, I included it because at the moment they are still in use for pre-HTML5 markup).
So without further ado, I bring you my simple HTML table maker. It isn't the most robust thing in the world, but it is still pretty neat. Plus? It totally serves my purpose to the tee. So if you don't like it, why not gank the code for it and make it better?
Another thanksgiving is upon us. It seems in recent years that we are cycling through holidays at breakneck speed, never being able enjoy any one particular holiday because the next holiday is already up in stores or being advertised on the Internet. This saddens me, especially at thanksgiving time, since we often times neglect the spirit of giving thanks for the rush of acquiring more crap on the morning after.
Being thankful is something I've tried to teach my kids for a while now. It's also something I've tried to live my life by as well, although I am nowhere near perfect at it so inevitably I overlook something I should be thankful for, usually in favor of being cranky about something else. This past 12 months it has been way easier to count my curses than it has been to count my blessings. But I've had a quiet last few weeks, time that I've been able to spend thinking about my life and the many blessings that surround me daily.
While the past year has been challenging, the blessings in my life have shown themselves to me clearly. Among these blessings are the tangibles and the intangibles, the valuable and the invaluable. Although I'm sure I'm forgetting many, it would be silly of me not to at least try to address the more prominent blessings in my life.
- My kids - My children have been the greatest blessing to me and continue to be. Not a day goes by that I am not totally and completely amazed by them in some way. Whether it be their creative outward expressions or their tender, sincere, loving hearts toward me and their siblings, I'm reminded everyday of just how powerful a blessing my children are.
- My family - My family has shown me this past year just what love is and to just what lengths they will go in order to care for me and my kids. When I say "my family" I am most definitely talking about my blood family (my brother, my sister, my cousins, my nieces and my nephews). But I am also talking about my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, my sisters-in-law and my brothers-in-law. My entire family seemed to rally around my immediate family this year and even through the hardest of times have stayed by my side.
- My friends - I'd like to think that everyone has friends. And although I have a crapload of friends on Facebook and Twitter, I can count the number of close friends I have on one hand. But this year my closest friends really showed themselves. They came out of the woodwork to encourage me, make me laugh and generally just have my back. I don't know where I'd be on this thanksgiving if not for my friends reaching out to me, talking to me and listening to me. You know who you are. I just hope you know how thankful I am for you.
- My possessions - I know that stuff is just stuff, but I count among my stuff the basic necessities of life: a house, a car, electricity, running water, etc. Yes, I also include toys and gadgets in my "stuff" (I mean who doesn't love their phone) but being able to keep my kids warm, fed, clothed and sheltered is a tremendous blessing to me.
- My skills - I love being a nerd. I've said it before and I'll continue to say it. What started out at a hobby for me has blossomed into a career. A well paying, lucrative career. I'm thankful that I've been blessed with an inquisitive mind and a passion for learning, and that I can leverage that into a skill set that continues to provide for my children.
- My health - I've worked hard to get myself healthy. I've worked hard to stay healthy. I'm blessed to say that I don't need medication everyday just to live and that I can experience life with my children with energy, fervor and passion, never missing a thing with them because "daddy doesn't feel like it today kids".
- My struggles - Anyone that knows me knows that I like to push myself to achieve things that I might not be able to achieve under normal circumstances. And most folks that know me know that I'm not one to get smacked on the chin without swinging back. This year has shown this more clearly than any other. The struggles came in droves this year, each one presenting a new challenge, a new problem that needed a new and different way to approach it. To say that this past year was trying would be minimizing what actually took place. Still, through each of the struggles came an equally rewarding victory and a promise of a brighter future. And for that I am immeasurably blessed.
- My failures - If there was one thing I can say I am more blessed by this year than last year it would have to be my realization of my own imperfection and my coming to grips with many of my behaviors, attitudes and actions that have led to failure in many areas of my life. It's been said that if you want to continue to get the same results of your actions simply keep doing the same thing. I realized this year that I did not want to keep getting the same results in life I've always gotten and that in order to change course I had to take a deep look within myself to identify those areas of myself that may have been preventing my own success. That has been painful to say the least, but it has also been an indescribable blessing in that for the first time in my life I've come face to face with many of my shortcomings and have been able to begin rectifying them. Change is good, even if it is uncomfortable.
There is so much more that I should be thankful for. But as I sit behind the keys staring at the emptiness of what will soon become the last few lines of this post, I'm reminded that I have a house full of kids that need their daddy's attention and affection. And that is a blessing I can no longer pass up.
Happy thanksgiving. May this holiday season be a blessing to you and may it open you up to be a blessing to others.
A little over a year ago I posted about an upcoming career change that I was embarking on. I'm not at all the kind of person that likes to bounce around from job to job nor am I a huge risk taker when it comes to matters of finance, career growth and personal change. However, sometimes life happens, and sometimes things happen beyond your control that put you into a position of having to pull back the reins and get things in order once again, even if you have to take a risk to do it. To that end, I am heading down a path that I've not even so much as entertained the idea of let alone had the guts to pursue. I am changing jobs again.
This change is much needed for various reasons which I don't need to go into here. But let me just say that while I look back on the last year of my work with mixed emotions, when I look forward I look on with excitement, butterflies and a determination to make some magic happen. I am leaving the comfort of something stable for the vast wonderland of something that is far from proven. I am taking a risk. A big risk. But one I absolutely need to take at this point in my life.
Starting next week I will be the lead architect and head engineer of a niche marketing company in Concord. I will be working a short term contact with long term potential and will be able to make an immediate, very visible impact of the business operations of the company. I will be a part owner and I will be responsible for making business, technology, architecture, implementation and deployment decisions the likes of which I've yet to do in my career. I'm more than a little nervous about that. But I am also more than a little excited about that.
There is just something about looking out over the great expanse of the unknown and seeing for yourself what that landscape looks like. Then stepping off the ledge of safety into that unknown, preparing to face all sorts of unexpected happenings and trusting in yourself to not only get through it but kick ass along the way to a major victory in your life. Yeah, I feel like a boxer throwing punches in the locker room just before a title fight. This is going to be freaking awesome and I am looking forward to it.
I do have to say however that there are some people I will miss from my current employer. While I've only been here a year I have had a chance to develop some strong professional and personal relationships with some amazing people that do some amazing things day in and day out. I've had to work with these folks daily, supporting them, being challenged by them and working with them collaboratively to achieve common goals and mutual awesomeness:
- Ravi - Dude, I don't know how you manage to do what you do every day without blowing a gasket. You only have two hands yet you work like an army of employees daily, getting things done by yourself that I've seen entire teams not get done at all.
- Jay - I've had more fun working with you, talking with you, debating with you and collaborating with you than anyone else in the office. You are a great developer and I see big things for your future. Also? Competing in triathlons? Bad. Ass.
- Fai - You are a gifted and talented front end designer and developer. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. You have an eye for style, color, relationships of objects... all of it. You were an asset to our company from the day you came on board.
- Kim - What can I say dude, you are just bad ass from top to bottom. You get things done, you handle your business, you see a need before the client does and have an amazing work ethic. Any company would be blessed to have you on their team. It has been a tremendous pleasure working with you. And don't cover up those tattoos. If there isn't a handbook saying you have to there isn't a rule saying you have to.
- Adrian - Bro, you made my job so much more bearable, so much more sane. I'm glad we had a chance to work together, and I am glad you always brought a positive spin to the table every single day. Even if things were awful in my office, you coming over made things better. I hope you realize what an asset you are. Thanks for making my job as wonderful as you did bro.
And there you have it... news of yet another change in my life. So many changes in such a short period of time... and they aren't done yet. Just you wait and see. 
When the movie "The Blind Side" came out my wife and I went to see it. While I loved the story line of the movie, and the character portrayals in it, there was a subplot to it that really stood out to me.
In the movie, Michael Oher, the character on whom the story is based, was tasked with reading and dissecting an Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem called "The Charge of the Light Brigade", a poem written about a band of soldiers in the 1850's that literally rode into the face of death at the command of their superior even though he had made a mistake. They knew they were going to die, they knew it was going to be painful, they knew it was a lost cause. Yet they rode, because that is what soldiers do. Their role as soldiers gave them no latitude to question the motives or commands of their superior. They had pledged to follow him and his orders, and do that they did.
There is a story about life in this. There is also a story about parenting, marriage, education, work and every other aspect of your life that can sometimes catch you up in stress, anger, frustration or doubt. At the end of the day, whatever your role is - be it husband, father, president, stock clerk or son - you have a responsibility to fill that role with every ounce of your being. That is what those soldiers did. And that is what I choose to do daily.
I am currently embroiled in one of the greatest challenges in my personal life that I have ever experienced. To that end, I am resolved to do what's right wholeheartedly throughout the entire ordeal. I absolutely need to. My wife needs me to. My kids need me to. My friends need me to. I need me to. Challenges, battles, sorrow and loss come. It happens. The true test of a man's character, as I see it, is not his ability to handle those times but the manner in which he handles himself during those times. When faced with certain loss, certain death, certain pain, will you press on anyway?
The Charge Of The Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Written 1854
Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Borrowed from http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html
Some things come at you hard and fast, and hit you in the face like a rush of ice cold water on a hot summer day. Others wrap their arms around you and tell you it's going to be ok while coaxing you into a peaceful calm. Still others reach into the very core of who you are and add value - strength, courage, determination, resolve - to an otherwise broken and fragile being. This poem, by Rudyard Kipling, is one of those that just encourages and strengthens me.
If
Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
If you are interested in learning more about this poem or would like to socialize and connect with folks who have delved deep into this piece, check out All Things If, a blog dedicated to this poem.
Someone on the Professional PHP Group asked the question yesterday about whether Dreamweaver has a utility to write setters and getters to your PHP classes for you. I know that ZendStudio has this feature and I am pretty sure that NetBeans has it as well.
But as I thought about this, I thought "How cool would it be to be able to take a list of PHP properties and build a class out of that list complete with your getters and setters?". That's when my inner nerd took over and I created a very simple PHP Class Generator.
It is not the most robust tool in the world, but if you are looking for a quick way to build out a class of getters and setters from a simple list of variables, this little tool might be right up your alley. I'd encourage you to play with it and see if it can help you. If it does, tell me about it in the comments.
Oh yeah, a major thank you goes out to Jason Memory of Full Throttle Web Solutions for his help and wizardry in all things regex.
This post is being written in response to the following email I received today:
Hi,
I came to you site via a search for something about chronic fatigue.
Based on your posts it seems your wife was doing pretty poorly and
over time has greatly improved. I also have CFS and it is really bad
right now. I wondered if you'd be willing to share with me anything
your wife did to help her improve (medical treatments and self care,
lifestyle changes etc.) I am desperate and rarely see anything posted
online about people who've improved so I really would love to know
what you wife did, didn't do etc. I really appreciate the help if
you're able to share some info. Thanks soooo much.
There were a lot of changes made in her lifestyle, my lifestyle and our family dynamic that have contributed to her (continuing) recovery. It would be unfair to say that she has completely recovered from this dastardly illness, but she has made huge improvements and advancements when it comes to her health. Several things have contributed to her improvement, some of which are:
- She saw a doctor who prescribed different medications for different symptoms of her illness. Out of respect for her I won't go into that publicly (feel free to email robert [at] robert-gonzalez [dot] com) but the medications she took helped her tremendously in the way of sleep, piece of mind and overall physical health.
- She became more physically active. I don't know if this was a matter of willpower or a renewed sense of energy but activity actually helped her get more active which continued to help her improve.
- She took on a hobby. Last summer she got bitten by the theater bug and began to devote an extraordinary amount of time to it. The demands of performing and rehearsing required her to devote all of her resources to it and, without really being able to NOT commit (without letting down her theater family) she just continued to indulge in her passion. This alone, I think, has sparked a tremendous amount of recovery for her.
- She has taken on a new outlook on what is and isn't important in life. That might sound almost lame to have to say that, but one of the things that seemed to cause her a lot of stress was worry over the things that were going on at home, with the kids, with our money and with our family. As she began to find peace in where we were, right where we were, the stress that she was feeling began to gradually minimize, freeing her to live without the burden of having to "perform" in order to maintain order in her life.
- She prayed. A lot. And so did her friends and family. If you are a religious/spiritual person then prayer will be invaluable to you. It was to her, and she would attest to that fact.
- Lastly, and probably most importantly, she had help. Lots and lot of help. From her family (the kids and I), her extended family (sister, parents, in-laws) and her friends. Many a night were we served by friends bringing meals over for us or family helping us clean our home or take the kids somewhere. I'm sure it wasn't easy or convenient for them, but in the end they showed our entire family what true love was all about by really stepping up and helping us out in pretty much any way we needed it.
I'm sure there is plenty more that has help contribute to my wife's recovery over the last few years. And while she has made tremendous strides in healing, she will admit that she still has bad days here and there. Still, she has plenty more good days than bad and she strives everyday to make each day count. She has become incredibly active in the kids' lives, education and hobbies. She has taken a renewed interest in learning and teaching and she has developed a penchant for spirited fun and adventure. She has also gotten some semblance of control over her sleeping patterns, started to watch her diet and began talking a lot with her friends and family.
Essentially she has gotten to the point where she is able to live life again in a healthier way that allows her to continue to live each day as fully as she can. Again, she still has bad days, but at the end of the day, she is doing worlds better now than she was just two years ago.
Thank you for the email asking this question. If you have any other questions feel free to email me directly at my email address that I posted inside of this post. Thanks.
As I sit down, lazing about toward the end of this, the first day of 2011, I find myself recollecting the happenings of 2010 and thinking of what this fresh new year might bring. I wish I could say, as I recollect, that 2010 was a banner year for my family and I, but the truth is 2010 was riddled with struggle, hardship, challenges and battles. It was really a hard year. And while I know that many people share this sentiment, I am not really one to dwell too long on the negative.
So with that, I'd like to remember a few things that happened this past year that were utterly positive and totally worthy of being remembered fondly:
- Sandi got a lot better
After a very long battle with illness and other debilitating health issues, Sandi's health started to improve dramatically this year. She'll admit that she's still not 100% better. But she would also concede that she is doing way better now than she was just a year ago. Thank God for that.
- I lost a crapload of weight
In March of 2010 I made a decision to stop being unhealthy and lose some weight. I had no idea what I was in store for, but I knew I couldn't continue to live my life how I had been. For those of you that were following along, you know that between March and July I lost 60 pounds on the Insanity program. My life was completely transformed because of this. But more important than the weight loss was the lifestyle transformation that took place in me, the most awesome thing being that as of the last day of 2010 I had not gained back a single pound I had lost. Hells yes.
- My family got bitten by the theater bug
Sandi, Sarah, Rebekah and Adriannah all auditioned for, and were cast in, Cinderella, a Stage 1 Theatre production. This was the first of what would become a string of performances they would be involved in until the end of the year. It was challenging at times, but it was very liberating for Sandi and the girls so though the nights were long the expenses high and the toll great, over the long haul, it was a win.
- Sarah started high school, AJ started kindergarten
As of this year I no longer have babies. This makes me smile. Sarah started high school this year, which is huge for us because it totally exposes how freaking old I really am. Wait, what? Did I really say that? What I meant to say is that it is huge because Sarah is moving into a new phase of her life. And so is AJ, who is now school aged. That means more work for Sandi and I, more work for the older girls and fewer and fewer years until all of the kids are off to college.
- I got a new job
In September I had the fortune of running across a Craigslist add that caught my eye. It was a Thursday morning and, without really thinking too much about it, I sent my resume to the email address in the ad at about 11:00 AM. Less than an hour later I was on a phone interview with this company. The next day I was interviewing in person with the VP. After the interview I was tasked with working as a contractor for them on a trial basis so that we could mutually evaluate each other. I fell in love with the work and, as best I can tell, they liked what I did. After my trial was up I was offered a job with them that was too good to refuse and, at the end of October I made one of the bigger life changes I've made in a long time.
There were quite a few other things that happened this year that were blessings to me and my family. Many of those things can be gleaned from Sandi's Facebook, where she has documented pretty well the happenings of our family for the past year or so. Or, if you know me personally, you've probably already been bombarded with all of the happenings in my life, both the good and the bad.
Regardless of the state of 2010, it is now entirely behind us and in the past. I'm really not into focusing on the past too much, so as of today, my eyes are set on 2011. I know that with any start to a year, change is bound to occur. However, I know that given the nature of the past few years, 2011 will necessarily have to carry with it severe, positive change if I am to expect to make it out alive or sane. I know things cannot continue the way they are, for the most part, if there is to be any thriving in the Gonzalez house.
So as I begin my journey into this new year, I'm preparing myself for significant change, adventure and excitement. And you know what? I'm way more thrilled about that than I have ever been before.
Happy new year. May your 2011 be the best year of your life and may you gracefully and peacefully release 2010 from your clutches, whether it was good or bad for you.
