A Year in Review....

As I approach my 31st birthday, it is with great sadness that I say goodbye to my 30th year... I learned so much about myself and what matters and so many other things...

So I come to this point (I have to do it early since on my actual birthday I will be in Berlin - I know - poor me!) where I look back at what I accomplished... some things by myself... some things with the help of some awesome family members and friends...

I rang in my 30th year (which I guess technically is my 31st year on Earth... but I am not going to digress into math and crap) with a bang... in more ways than one. First off was dinner with some great friends, then a hockey game... well - then something that taught me that I still had it... after coming from a relationship (okay... marriage) where the complements ended in about 2002 it was nice to know that I could bag myself a younger guy... it gave me confidence - more than I had had in a number of years. That whole week was fun - carefree, just letting things be the way they were and trying not to over-think things. Carefree I am getting better at - I still have to work on the over-thinking part though.

Then came the biggest decision I had made on my own since moving to PG to go to school when I was 18 years old. I say this because it was bigger than getting married - because I didn't really make a decision on that one - it was just the next thing to do... and we did it... stupidly because that is what came next. I decided to sell the house, get myself out of a job that I had grown to hate and hate those I worked with and move. And although I miss my dear PG friends (and the ones that left PG before me for bigger and better things) I can't say that I have looked back since I got to Calgary.

Trust me - there were times that I wondered if I was doing the right thing... but the signs and the stars and all the other things that could line up just did that - they lined up. My house sold (not to the first offer - but to the second bigger offer), I got the one and only job I applied for in Calgary, I got a buy-out from my dismal job in PG, I found myself a pretty cool apartment in a great part of town... it all just worked out. For that reason I know I made the right decision.

Calgary has been awesome - so many things to do - catching up with old friends - making new ones. Theatre, sports events, random spur-of-the-moment weekend plans, sushi... it is all good. People really like me - I know that sounds really hokie - but they do. They like me for me... and that means so much to me. Because in everything that has happened - being me is the most important thing.

So, as I come up to my 31st birthday, I have a couple of countdowns on the go... six sleeps until my divorce becomes final, ten sleeps until I leave for almost a month in Europe, and sixteen sleeps until my birthday. Thanks to all that have helped me through this year... and here is an early toast to my 31st birthday.