Chad Things

Shayna and I just got back from one of the best trips I’ve ever had - spending 10 days in the beautiful mountains of Glacier National Park, Montana, where we celebrated the one year anniversary of our wedding honeymoon.  The trip was awesome on so many levels, including the camping, hiking, and majestic views, but mostly it was great to spend quality time with the wife in the great outdoors. I highly recommend everyone to go, whether you stay in hotels or in tents, glaciers or not. I cover more on the trip below, but first here’s why it’s awesome:

Why I love Backpacking

• Being surrounded by nature
• Tons of exercise
• Tons of sleep
• Campfires (and s’mores)
• Spending quality time with fellow backpackers
• Getting away from it all (people, technology, normal life)
• Everything you need is on your back or found in nature
• Food tastes awesome when you’re burning 2-3 times the usual amount of calories
• Re-appreciating how great showers, beds, and other comforts are when finished

Why I love Glacier National Park

• The view - mountains, glaciers, lakes
• The smells - fresh pine, cedar, sweet flowers, smokey campfires
• The hikes - Favs are Highline Trail and hike to Ptarmigan Tunnel
• The temperature - Hot enough to go swimming, but cool at night

When we first arrived at the airport, we got our rental car and drove to the town of Kalispel, the largest of many small towns in Flathead valley, just west of the park.  We stopped by a famous house, the Conrad Mansion, barely catching the last tour of the day.  It  was an impressive house and an interesting tour - built over a hundred years ago and restored to its original condition (we took many pics of this).  From there we drove to the hills to our first Bed and Breakfast, The Garrison Inn.  Our hosts Gene and Anne Marie were very nice.  Gene is also a professional chef and made us a delicious dinner and an amazing breakfast - probably the best omelete I’ve ever had (insanely fluffy, almost a quiche).

After the B&B we drove about an hour before entering the park.  We debated white water rafting and horse back riding, but decided water was too cold and horses were not my favorite.  We got lucky and found a spot in the Apgar campground, had lunch, then went for our first real hike to the Apgar Lookout.  The next day we moved a bit further east, getting a spot at Sprague Creek campground.  That day we did one of our longest and most beautiful hikes - Highline trail from Logan Pass to Granite Park Chalet, then on down to our car at The Loop, about 12 miles total.   We saw our first big animals - mountain goats.  Did you know they have bacteria in their stomach that generates heat?  That helps them survive the mountain tops during 40 below winters.  That night we slept super solid - 7 hours of hiking will do that to ya.  The next day I gorged on the breakfeast buffet at the lodge (totally worth it), then we drove over the to east side on Going to the Sun road, which was supposed to be awesome but all the road construction made the experience a bit annoying.  That night we stayed at St. Mary campground and were lucky enough to catch a performance by the Blackfeet tribe, the native americans who live east of the park.  They explained their music, competition dances, and costumes in great detail.  Big props to traditional Native Americans.  Afterwards we had our first campfire.  I love fires.

The next day we got up super early (6:30am) to get to Many Glacier campground to ensure we get a spot.  It’s the most popular campground in the park, and, like all but 2 campgrounds, takes no reservations - first come, first serve.  All spots are snatched up by around 8am-8:30am every day.  After securing our spot, we took the day off from hiking and explored the Many Glacier Lodge and surrounding areas (the great lodges are amazing).  I also explored my book and the back of my eyelids in the afternoon (gotta have naps on vacation, right?).  We had a camping stove issue that was resolved the night before (oh, thats how you clean it) and this was the first day we had hot meals from the stove.  Previously we snacked on bars, PB, fruit, nuts, broccoli and hummus, bread, cheese, crackers, and pickles, which were all good. Now we had hot oatmeal and other warm dishes like rice and beans and indian food. We saved the freeze-dried for backpacking. Our second day at Many Glacier we hiked to Iceberg lake. We wanted to hit up  Grinnell glacier, but that was closed due to bears.  So guess what we saw about 150 yards off the trail to Iceberg lake?  A grizzly bear and her 3 cubs.  Awesome.  We also saw a mama moose and her baby - from only a few feet away as they were on the trail.  The last day at many glacier was more chilling out, shayna did a short hike and I did some picture/laptop stuff.  That evening we had our first rain storm and were lucky enough to be able to watch it from the lodge.  Later after that we had another campfire along with s’mores.  Mmm-mm.

Saturday morning we left Many Glacier to start our backpacking adventure.  We drove to the Chief Mountain Trailhead, which is right next to the Canadian border, to enter the Belly river area of the park.  It was about 10am when we began backpacking, a mostly level hike 13 miles to our first camp at Glenn’s Lake Head.  Let me reiterate how unbelievably beautiful this park is.  Gorgeous natural diversity, from moutains, glaciers, snow, streams and lakes, to fields of grass and flowers, to rocky and dusty mountain tops, to pine and aspen forests, and more .. sometimes all at once.  The highline trail gave us a taste but being surrounded by nothing but pure nature takes it to the next level.  The next 2 nights we spent at Elizabeth Lake head campground (i say head since the bigger lakes have 2 campgrounds, one at the head where water comes in, and one at the foot where water exits).  Each night we had to store all our food, toiletries, even water in bear bags and hang them high up in the trees.  We also had to prep food and eat in common areas. It was a nice way to meet people - we met boy scouts, families, and several couples .. but not the most romantic.  Except the first night, where we had a campfire and more s’mores, we crashed pretty early - often before dark.  Once shayna was down for almost 12 hours, after hiking probably the most scenic hike on the trip, up to Ptarmigan tunnel.  It was 12 miles roundtrip, over half a mile vertical, with the most diversity and impressive views of any of our hikes.  It was tough, but thats how we like it.  Gotta earn it.  Other adventures included discovering amazing waterfalls, fording rivers, and dealing with hail storm on the last day hiking out.  The last 2 nights of our trip were just us appreciating showers, beds, nice meals, and relaxing.  It went by much too quick.

This trip was definitely a backpacking and camping trip first, and honeymoon anniversary second. I say honeymoon anniversary since this trip, being a backpacking trip, was more similar to our honeymoon backpacking adventure on Isle Royale (more deets) than our wedding  That said, wife and I had an amazing time together.  I feel so lucky to have a girl who is into backpacking almost as much as I am, even though she’s only been on 3 real backpacking trips! We both hope to do at least one major trip a year from now on.  So stay tuned for more adventures.

Well, I did it.  I got married July 31.  Officially and legally and in front of lots of family and friends.  It feels great.  The wedding was a whirlwind - so many people we care about all together in one place.  I felt like a kid in a candy store.  It’s been about a month since it happened and I am still a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience.  For the most part it went perfectly - We didn’t stress too much, things went as planned, we had gorgeous weather, everybody had a good time, what more could we want? Our really close friend, Juan, was our officiant (yay), his first. Shayna and I wrote and read our own vows to each other then immediately after the ceremony ran off to the woods for a few mins to absorb what just happened.  It was very special.  I was really happy that so many of family and friends could make the trip.  Most of them are not from the midwest and were like .. where is Galena? But Oak Hill was a perfect choice for a wedding venue.  Shayna’s family and my family really hit it off - altho the parents did meet back in March of this year, so it was not there first encounter. In fact, everybody hit it off.  Our picnic theme really brought everyone together - we had BBQ and games like badmitton, croquet, bocce ball, and bags.  Plus our guests are all cool and awesome and there’s no way they wouldn’t all become best friends.

The honeymoon was fantastic, too.  I’ll spare you some of the personal details and just tell you how awesome the midwest is.  Basically we took 2 weeks off after the wedding to go camping on Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, hitting bed and breakfast joints before and after.  It’s about an 8 hour drive from Chicago to Copper Harbor, Michigan, where we had to take a 3-4 hour ferry to the island.  Our room at copper harbor was one of our favorites of the trip - the crow’s nest at Harbor Haus restaurant was a giant round room with gorgeous views of the water.  And the food at Harbor Haus was some of the best I’ve had in the midwest - I loved their rack of lamb.  We spent 6 days on the island, 4 nights camping and the last night at the rock harbor lodge.  Shayna was a real trooper, pushing hard and not slowing me down, even though this was only her second backpacking adventure.  Yes, thats right, we backpacked. We carried all our food and gear that we needed for 5 days on our backs.  Well, we did eat sweet wild raspberries that we just picked off of bushes along the trail. But the rest we brought with.  The island has an amazing yet serene beauty.  As a national park there is verly little development on the island. Except at the 2 harbors (where this a lodge, restaurant, gift shop and general store) there is nothing - no cars, roads, bikes - nothing but boats, canoes, and backpackers.. and wildlife.  We hoped to see moose and wolves, but saw birds, rabbits, squirrels, a fox, a giant owl, a bald eagle .. pretty good, actually.   We mostly hiked but also swam (I loved dunking my head in the clear, cool, refreshing lake) and canoed (Shayna loves canoing) in Lake Superior. After the island we hit door county, wisconsin.  It’s a small peninsula in lake michigan with a bunch of cute harbor towns that’s been compared to old towns in new england.  Our other favorite room was at the Black Walnut B&B in sturgeon bay, the big town in door county. Our favorite meal (except harbor haus) was at the cookery, in fish creek, one of the many cute small towns.  Also, on the last day, we decided to take a detour and hit the New Glarus Brewerey (mmm.. Fat Squirrel) in the cute little swiss-german town of New Glarus, Wisconsin.  We enjoyed tastee beers then decided to spend one more night away from home. Lots of fresh beer had nothing to do with that decision.  Yay.

But not all our friends could make it to the midwest, so we are celebrating with them in California on September 18, cali style. We reserved a resort in the mountains with cabins, camping, swimming pool, music, and lots of shenanigans. Looking forward to that !!

Well, new-ish job.  Back in March I decided to enter the world of full-time employment again.  This is my first full-time job since I left yahoo in 2006.  Immediately after yahoo, I enjoyed time with friends and family for several months. In 2007 I traveled around the world.  Then in 2008 I decided to follow my girlf.. ahem, fiancee, the lovely miss shayna, to chicago where she began grad school.  Since I’ve been in Chicago I’ve pursued various opportunities in technology and business.  I spent most of 2009 doing entrepreneurial ventures with midventures, some successful, some not.  I met a lot of interesting people and learned that Chicago startup tech scene is quite different than San Francisco (aka silicon valley) in many ways.  Then, looking for something a little different (as I often do), I did some contract work in the agency world, working with BBDO and Whittman Hart, then landing at my current position with Critical Mass.

Critical Mass is great. No, I am not talking about the bike ride, although that is great, too.  My Critical Mass (aka CM) is a digital advertising agency. That means they primarily build websites and mobile apps, but operate more like an advertising agency than a technology shop. That means lots of client handholding, helping with strategy, extra creative power, and generally going above and beyond the call of duty. CM likes to say they create extraordinary experiences.  Their clients include big names such as Budweiser, Nissan/Infinity, USAA, Autotrader and United Airlines.  The last one, United, was and is where I spend most of my time. United Mileage Plus (UMP), which is actually a separate business unit from United Airlines, just launched a new version of MileagePlus.com designed by CM.   That made for a very busy month of June for me, Mr. Chad.

My role within the company is somewhat unique.  My title is Senior Developer, but I do more client management than i do technical work.  I also manage other CM developers working on United, and engage with the technical people on the client side.  As somebody who’s had experience in various roles and technologies, I am a good fit for this position. I enjoy the diversity it offers - I interact with a really talented and great team of people at CM, I get some freedom to manage my time and career, and the chicago office in general is a fun and creative group.  I hope the challenges keep coming !!

If you know anyone looking for a job, Critical mass is hiring.  Email me and I’ll put in a good word.

It’s official, Shayna and I are engaged!  Yee-haw.  Aww Yeah.  Hurray.  We decided over thanksgiving in Athens, Georgia, to get married.  At that time I was not ready to be publicly engaged, but now I am.  Last week we told parents and friends, and now I’m here to share some more info on this major life decision.

We’ve been dating since the fall of 2004 in San Francisco.  We met each other a few times at parties, but the first time I spent some time with shayna was when Tim Lang and I helped her move some art. She was in school at the time,  was looking for help to move some big pieces, so I offered my help and Tim’s van.  After that day I knew I liked her and soon we went on our first dinner date at Axum Cafe, an ethiopian restaurant.    When she graduated from school the following June, our relationship changed from dating to sorta-dating for the next year or so, since she moved away from SF and I stayed in SF.   I did visit her in New York, where she worked in a woman’s art program, as well as in New Orleans, where she was helping after Katrina.  I convinced her to return to SF for Burningman in August 2006 and we were officially dating again.  In Feb 2007, I started a 6 month trip around the world, 3 months of which was with shayna.  When I returned we moved in together.  During my trip around the world, shayna was accepted into grad school in Chicago, but delayed enrollment for a year primarily for me.  So in the spring of 2008 the time came for me to decide if i wanted to give up my home of 10+ years in SF to move to Chicago with Shayna.  I did.  Chicago was a very big transition.  Luckily we found some good friends fairly quickly which made some of the very rough patches in fall 2008 easier to swallow.  The summer and fall of 2009 were really good to us as a couple.  But it wasn’t till she left for Athens a couple weeks before Thanksgiving did i realize she’s the most important thing in my life and that I wanted to be with her forever and ever.

There was no tradtional proposal.  Neither one of us are too fond of traditions purely for the sake of traditions.  We believe in this day and age its more important to enter marriage with eyes wide open with both people knowing exactly what they are getting into. However, I did get down on one knee in our photo shoot in Athens, which I’ve called Engagementland.  A few of these pics were emailed to friends last week.  We also met with an artist from athens who is making us custom wedding rings - you can see pictures  similar to what we’ll have  in the Engagementland set as well.

As soon as we tell people we’re engaged, one of the next questions out of their mouth is “when’s the wedding?”  Well, it looks like this summer - July or August 2010.  Stay tuned for more on this.

What an awesome summer.  My first one in Chicago, and it went by so fast and kept me so busy I didn’t have time to write any blog posts.  ’twas full of chicago biking, sunshine, friends, and music - my favorite things.  I also worked on some good projects, and met many cool people.  Besides Chicago, I took a few roadtrips around the midwest, ventured to NYC by train, Atlanta by plane, and spent almost a month in California and Nevada.

One of the biggest things I did this year was help start a community garden.  Shayna wanted to grow plants for making fiber, and she found a couple other locals, Noah and Margaret, who were looking to start a garden.  With some grant money from Shayna’s school and a lot of hard work, we cleared land, built some beds, and planted many edibles, a few ornamentals (flowers and such), and fibers for making paper.  We busted our ass on the weekends in the beginning, but was definitely worth it.  I enjoyed being outside, working with my hands, meeting neighbors, and of course eating tomatoes, basil, and other herbs and vegetables.  We also made a smaller garden in our backyard, too, with our upstairs neighbor, Andy.  You can read more on the website Shayna and I put together - chadnorwood.comC/a>.

Summer had a cold start this year.  In fact, I think we only turned on the AC once this whole summer.   But that didn’t stop us from having lots of fun.  I already blogged about Indiana Dunes camping, but we also started out in may doing the Chicago critical mass bike ride.  I spent way more time on my bike than in a car, bus, or train .. the way life should be.  Chicago makes it easy - it’s flat and its never too cold at night. We rode to brunch, to the beach, downtown, to bars .. I even rode over 10 miles home at 4am from the south side of Chicago. I also rode crazy bikes at the Tour De Fat festival sponsored by Fat Tire beer.

Speaking of festivals .. Chicago wins.  Every weekend, all summer long, there are several street festivals in various neighborhoods throughout Chicago.  Blues festivals, House music festivals, Irish/Scottish/German/Polish Festivals, Beer Festivals, Ribs Fest, Wings, Taste of Chicago (biggest one ever), and the list goes on.  Chicago city law requires them all to be free, but they usually ask for $5 or $10 donation.  They always have street vendors - food, shirts, art, etc.  They usually have 2-5 stages where bands, djs, or somebody performs.  And the people go nuts if the weather is beautiful - unlike California, rainy days will keep you inside, but that makes the sunny days even more precious.

We also enjoyed many visitors - especially our SF friends !! Juan, Jason, Damian, Ramon, and Monica came out for a weekend making me feel at home.  We showed them the beautiful Millenium Park, the view from the top of the Hancock tower (2nd tallest bldg in chicago), the beach, summer street festivals, and chicago deep dish pizza.  A month or so later Checkoway visited and we had a similar experience - drinks, tall buildings, beach, and enjoying friends.

Shayna and I also loved the scenic and surprisingly comfortable 20 hour train to NYC for a wedding of an old friend, Sarah Bates, to Leo De Alvia .  I’m very happy for them and enjoyed seeing all our friends in NY.  In addition to NY,  I also made it to Atlanta for Fathers Day.  Got to give it up for good ol’ Dad !! And it was nice seeing my sisters families and nieces and nephew.  They grow up so fast. heh.

We had lots of fun with our new Chicago friends - monthly dinner parties, rooftop BBQ on 4th of July, lots of biking around to bars, cubs game, and other summer activities.  Best event with Chicago friends was the camping trip to Oregon IL.  Oh man was that fun. We camped and made s’mores over the fire, told stories and went on hikes.  But the main event was on sunday - the Demolition Derby.  Oregon is the home town of Miss Amanda, and she showed us how they have fun in the midwest - crashing cars.  Booya !!

One of my favorite trips this summer was Lakes of Fire - a regional Burningman in Michigan, about 3 hours from Chicago.  It was about 500 people (instead of the 40,000 at burningman in nevada), and it felt more like home than i could have imagined. I met amazing people, saw some cool art, and had tons of fun.  I especially enjoyed meeting the freakeasy and illmeasures peeps - they throw good parties in chicago for the bman crowd.

Last but not least was our trip to Burningman.  We joined Brasstax (our SF crew) in the Boombox camp.  It was my 10th year at bman, and altho i love it, i love my friends more, so i spent most of my time in the camp.   We flew to SFO on thursday, drove up early (friday before it started) and left 8 days later (sat night as they burned the man).  We assembled the boombox in 4 days and tore it down in 1.  We “burned” it … altho most of it was good wood so it got recycled.  I could go on and on about bman but pics are worth a thousand words.  Anyway, it was great to spend some quality time with my crazy friends.   After that I spent some time in California hanging out, Eumi’s and Lori’s bdays, a day hike at mt. tam, and did another trip to Tahoe for Fritz’s Bachelor Party.  I love tahoe - could be my favorite natural place on the earth.

The summer ended with one final trip to St. Louis for Shayna’s 30th birthday.  The main event was the city museum, which is my favorite man-made place on earth.  If you haven’t been, and you are still part kid, you MUST go.  It was also nice to do a road trip and see friends in another city.

Fall is supposed to be nice in chicago but pretty short .. in less than 2 months it will be cold for a while.  Then spring and summer again !!!  If you want to visit, plan now, cuz it’ll give you something awesome to look fwd to.

Cheers,
Chad

After almost 3 years, I’m back in the game.  I’m working with MidVentures.com, a startup company that does web solutions, community building, and incubation.  Small and young, there’s room for growth, further definition, and refinement, yet they already have had several successful projects and proven themselves in Chicago.  They focus on web 2.0 tech solutions, which is a great fit for my experience, but they have an eye for building out good ideas and working with the community (including many non-profits), which is great for where I want to go.  Technically I’m a contractor, working about 40 hours a week, but that may change in the future.

Since moving to Chicago last September I’ve looked into different career options before landing where I am now.  My job goal was to “gain experience in business roles while utilizing my internet, software engineering, and problem solving expertise” (according to my resume).  What that means is that I want to do new stuff, but not so new that I’m starting over with a bunch of recent college grads.  I wanted this new stuff to be related to one or more of the following interest areas: sustainability (help the world be a better place), business management (I want to own or run my own company one day), consulting (utilize the fact that my communication and social skills are above average compared to others with similar experience and skills), or any other area that is creative, challenging, and full of interesting people (my catch-all).  First I targeted a PM position at Google, but that didn’t work out.  I also considered getting an MBA, so I took the GMAT exam, which led me to train to be a Kaplan GMAT instructor (still in progress, stay tuned).  I also interviewed with trading firms (they attract a smart crowd), consulting firms (altho mostly use microsoft solutions in the midwest, which I don’t have experience with), and a few others.  I eventually came to realize I should work my strengths, bringing value, and then go from there.  That meant doing something internet and web related, so here I am.

I am very content with my accomplishments over the last couple years.  I traveled around the world, spent time with family and friends, improved my eating and exercise habits, ran a marathon, explored nature on many camping and backpacking trips, attended many music events and festivals, and spent time stress-free being happy.  I loved my time off, but without a full-time gig my brain felt like it was getting soft, so I am very excited to sink my teeth into work again.

I’ve been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions since December and have had trouble deciding.  Then I got caught up in Obamauguration, but now I’m ready to commit.  Better later than never. First, lets review last year, where I said to “consciously spend time on the things that matter.”  I still value the same 6 things to be the most important to me:

• Friends, Family
• Fun, Music
• Learning, New Experiences
• Exercise, Nature
• Giving Back
• Love, Honesty, and Respect

I also wrote down 5 things for me to work on last year, and I did work on them, but in hindsight I don’t think they were specific enough to make much difference. This time I’m going to approach it a bit different (I liked Sky’s tips).  The following are more specific goals that are attainable.

1. Get a Job
2. Maintain Health (keep back pains down, energy level up)
3. Do Yoga - Enough so I can do 60mins on my own accurately
4. Incorporate daily Mental Resilience and emotional control
5. Incorporate Green activities into my life (job, club, sustainability future)

Last night we got home from a 5 day road trip to our nation’s capital, Washington DC.  It was a long journey, 12 hours and 700 miles each way from Chicago, but I’m glad I went.  Obama’s inauguration itself was definitely the highlight, being on the mall with about 2 million other people to witness the change of power and the beginning of a new day.  It was also great to feel the spirit and mood of Washington - the town was excited, energetic, and happy.

Due to some car trouble, we didn’t arrive till late Sunday, missing the “We Are One” concert on the mall.  The Sunday show featured Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Garth Brooks, Tom Hanks, Tiger Woods, and more.  It also included a nice Obama speech and a test run of the jumbotron video screens and security, among other things.  Monday night we headed out on U street near 14th, and it was crazier than a friday night.  Restaurants had 2 hour waits, there were hundreds in line to get ben’s chili, and street guys were selling obama shirts, pins, posters, and really bad art.  We even passed a car just blaring obama speeches.  Not knowing how U street normally is, this probably does not impress you.   But trust me, you could feel the energy.  We ended up eating at some Italian place with a clueless bartender as our waitress, but that did not stop our energy from doing “OBAMA!” cheers (yes, that last person in the pic is the exclamation point).

Tuesday morning we woke up at 7am at our friend Becky’s apt (border of Adam’s Morgan and Columbia Heights).  We walked about 3 miles down to the mall, stopping for Starbucks and snacks.  When we were about a mile away it was so crowded the entire width of 18th street was packed with people streaming in.  We followed the stream to the Washington Monument, where 2 of our posse of 5 decided to setup camp.  Bobby, Shayna, and I ventured on towards the Capitol, mostly just to check things out.  We barely crossed 14th street at the north corner of the Mall (Madison Dr). I say barely because there were lots of camo-wearing army dudes that had zero understanding of crowd control and flow, preventing us from crossing easily.  Or perhaps they intentionally wanted to funnel thousands of people through small openings, creating artificial crowds irritated and confused to why people weren’t moving, you know, for security reasons. After getting through that, we ventured on as far east as 7th street, which appeared to be impassable. We retreated to the carousel on the south side of the mall near 10th st and setup camp. There were tons of people, but for the most part you could navigate as long as you didn’t try to walk in front of a jumbotron, as you can see in this google satellite picture.

It was almost 10am by this point, and the jumbotrons had been replaying Sunday’s show for the last 2 hours, but now they were switching to live action.  From 10 to 11am we watched various politicians and famous people arrive, including all those Senators, ex-Presidents, Bush, Cheney (aka Dr. Strangelove in a wheelchair), Bidens, and the Obamas.   Everybody got cheers but bush/cheney, surprise, surprise.  I was surprised that the boy scouts and girl scouts handed out thousands of little American flags for everyone to wave - very nice move.  About 10 minutes till noon Biden was inaugurated as VP, then Obama shortly after noon (altho Chief Justice Roberts redid the oath).  When Obama gave his 18 minute inauguration speech (nytimes interactive video), we all listened carefully.  We were surrounded by a million people excited to be part of a new era, despite the fact that it was 22 degrees outside and we had been walking and standing for over 4 hours. I was moved by the speech, I identified with it, and definitely felt the moment much more so than if I was just watching it on TV at home. I won’t go into details of the speech, but I will say that I felt hope and inspiration, I felt a reconnection to our politics and policies, and I felt sober and ready to face the future. I was not alone, and many were moved.

After the speech we started heading out, fighting confused crowds and poorly designed routes to our friends Becky and David by the Washington Monument.  Then we ambled incredibly slow on the massively crowded 18th street back towards Becky’s house.  We stopped to eat, rest, and warm up at a nice mexican mexican restaurant - sitting and eating never felt so good.  The rest of the night was uneventful, followed by a 11 hour drive home Wednesday (9am to 8pm) with our driving buddies, John and Cat. Go Team.

YES WE CAN.

This was a big year for me, the biggest thing being moving to Chicago.  I’ve said why I moved before, and even though its been 4 months since the move, its still too early to know how big this move is.  I do know that I miss San Francisco alot, mainly my friends.  So far I love Chicago and my new friends, but Shayna and I have had some ups and downs and I still don’t have a job.  I did take the GMAT, which is to MBA schools as SAT is to undergraduate college.  Studying for GMAT was a challenge, and I’m proud to have done well on the exam - gives me hope and reassurance to pursue my career change to business, MBA or not.  Even though I don’t have a job, 2008 is the year I decided I wanted a career change, a very big decision in my life. I’m still fine tuning exactly what I want, but I have been interviewing alot this December, trying to nail it down.  Another big personal event this year was running my first marathon.  I’m glad I did it, but I’m definitely not a marathon runner.  The race destroyed my knees, it took a couple months before I could run an hour without them hurting.  I still run (as well as goto the gym), mainly so I can stretch and stay healthy so my back problems won’t return. Nearly everyday I must remind myself to keep my back in check - I love being in my 30s.

This was also a big year for friends and family.  Otto Schutt, diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2007, passed away May 28.  It was heart breaking, but the man was well loved in SF, inspired many with his generosity and his mantra the last year, Give Thanks.  He brought people together and improved the world he left behind.  I give thanks for Otto.   With Otto’s passing I think of all the new lives that were created this year, too.  Fred and Megan had baby Bradley, my sister Leslie had baby Jane, Steve and Monnia had Estaban, the Kobergs had twins, Sue and Ross had Malia Fujii.  And there were many committing their love to one another - Rachel and Brandon’s wedding, Ben and J9 wedding, Mike and Ranu wedding, Jason and Anna Wedding, and AJ and Joann are getting married today!  And almost as important are the engagements - Eumi and Michael got engaged,  Amy and Matt got engaged, Sarah and Leo got engaged.  One of my best friends, Juan, had a big year with his first real serious boy, Jason.  It wasn’t all sunshine for relationships - Jason broke up with Monica - my favorite couple ever.  Luckily they have many friends to help them move forward.

And there are plenty of other events that happened this year - Erin Becker Graduated, Rosemary Graduated, Fritz and Sydney moved to Buenos Aires for 3 months (helping cement their relationship), Chips’ 40th Scavenger Hunt, Guille’s Brian’s 40th, My sister Lara bought a new home in Georgia, Tahoe with France and Snowcamp, Many hiking and camping trips (kings canyon, sykes, pascal’s bday),a week in Jamaica with midsummer crew (new friends for chad), road trip with shayna from California thru Yosemite to Chicago,  LA road trip with Juan and Shayna, Movies in Dolores Park, many beers at Zeitgeist and City Beer Store, Dressing up for Bay to Breakers, How Weird, BurningMan fundraisers, Halloween, Brasstax renegades on the pier, in GG Park, and by Candlestick Park, Tons of great music - Outside Lands (Radiohead, Black Keys, Cafe Tacuba), MSTRKRFT at Mighty, LA Riots at Rickshaw, MGMT and Beck at Aragon, Edit from Glitch Mob at Empty Bottle, Monotonix at the Hideout Block Party, Chicago bike rides with the BLVD Rollers, Chicago beach chilling, and many more events I’m sure I’m forgetting.  As always, a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out 2008 pictures.

And last, but not least, Obama.  Change for America.  That gives me hope, which we need especially with the financial downturn that happened this year.  Go Team.

Fall has left, winter has arrived.  In California, seasons are interchangeable, but in Chicago mother nature announced the end of fall last week with our first snow.  I must say I am very excited for winter and seasons in general.  For me, snow means fun snowboarding, white Christmas, and snowball fights. But before I get too excited about snow, let me recap the fall.

I enjoyed my fall overall, spending time with old and new friends, going on a few trips, and studying hard (gmat).  It wasn’t perfect - Shayna and I had some bumps in the road (moving and adjusting to new life can be stressful), but I feel that I’ve grown and learned something from it.  Our new friends have made adjusting in Chicago not only easier, but great fun. We’ve had dinner parties, dance parties, bike rides, bowling sessions, museum visits, and restaurant adventures (yelp reviews).  We also left town a few times, which is always good for the soul.

I’m not sure if its technically the fall, but Labor Day weekend was spent in Atlanta this year, the first time in almost a decade I did not go to burningman.  One of my high school friends, Jason Lichenstein, got married.  It was great to see several of my old high school friends, some I haven’t seen in like 10 years.  However, with everyone using facebook these days, I could find out what people are doing.  Still, it was nice to talk with each of them - Louis Merlin, Kieth Mannes, Bradley Grout, and Jason, of course.

Halloween was just what the doctor ordered this year - time with friends in our old stomping ground.  The weather was not entirely in our favor, it rained on/off all weekend in SF, but we drowned our sorrows away with beverages and parties galore.  I especially love tim and rick and zetta for hosting us and being good friends.  And fritz for opening his old and new place for hanging out, and brasstax for doing what they do best - halloween renegade.  For the complete story, view halloween pics.

Thanksgiving was a chance to spend some time with Shayna and her family in Washington DC, where she grew up.  Her mom made a wonderful dinner for 14 or so people (big ups to Rosalie) with the rest of the immediate family joining in for turkey carving.  I had some 50 year old Chivas Regal then chatted with Shayna’s relatives and friends of the family, all very nice and interesting folks.  Friday we toured some museums and our national monuments.  Walking around the mall. especially from national monument to the Lincoln memorial, I felt very proud to be an American, especially after this year’s election.  It sealed the deal for the inauguration trip - we are planning on driving from Chicago to DC to be part of the 4 million people in DC welcoming our 44th president, Barack Obama.

And the best for last - I became an uncle again on November 7 with the birth of Miss Jane Audrey Aiken. I’m very excited for Leslie, Michael, Katheryn, and Jane, and can’t wait to see them over Christmas. Yes, I will be going to Atlanta for Christmas, leaving the white snowy land of Chicago for cold but most likely a snowfree land in the south.

I bid you adieu, fall, and warm welcome to winter. “Wait till February” everybody says, when you’ll be begging for spring. Till then, I’m gonna enjoy snow.