Two thousand and twelve is complete. Dare I call it the best year of my life? Are statements like that too much hyperbole and cliché? If you’ll allow me a brief digression from my standard blogs, I’d like to take a moment to debrief with a year in review. I’ve always set goals for the year. But never in my wildest dreams could I have hoped to accomplish what I’ve accomplished in one short year. If you lend me a month, and count back to last year on November 24th, allow some movie effect smoke screen to fill the room, there isn’t enough bandwidth to cover all that I’m grateful for.
On November 24th, Thanksgiving Day last year I moved from my apartment of eight years in Washington, DC to a co-op apartment in a suburban middle class Long Island town where my then girlfriend had set-up shop with her pup two years before. Since I was running my business from my apartment, it really didn’t matter where that apartment was and the long distance relationship concept was wearing on us.
On December 28th, on a frigid cold winter-evening, I spent a lovely evening in the City with my then-girlfriend, her parents, my parents, and my sister and her husband, enjoying dinner and a Broadway show. That evening I would also propose to my then fiancée and celebrate with the aforementioned group, her best friends and siblings in suite at Ink48 on the west side of Manhattan.
Betwixt planning a wedding for the first few months of the year, Jaime and I would be fortunate enough to take our first cruise with close friends and explore the Western Caribbean Sea. In addition, having won a trip to Brussels at IMEX the October prior, Jaime and I would travel to Europe and explore by car just about all of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in an eight day trip over Easter break.
On July 1st, Jaime and I celebrated our nuptials with close friends and family at the W Hotel in Washington, DC. It was unquestionably the singular most magnificent day of my life, marrying the love of my life who I contend I’ve loved my entire life. And before we knew it, we were leaving for another trip. We celebrated our wedding with a spectacular Honeymoon on Maui and Kauai.
And if moving in, taking three extraordinary trips, proposing, planning a wedding and getting married weren’t enough – just after Labor Day we learned we were also pregnant! Jaime is due on Mother’s Day next year, May 12th. Learning we were going to be parents stands alongside my wedding day as being my most profoundly life altering moments and I can only expect they’ll be surpassed next Spring when she gives birth to our first son or daughter (it’s a surprise).
In the coming months we expect to sell our current place and move into a larger condo to expand for our budding family. How about that! If every year that follows brings half the joy I experienced in 2012, I’ll still be ever thankful.