I’m turning 29 this year and it feels odd. Part of me still wants to be a kid and another part of me is happy to be on the last leg of my 20’s. This last year has been good to me. Not great, not bad, but good.
We purchased a house almost exactly a year ago. The same tug and pull that I have with exiting my 20’s and still wanting to be a kid I have with purchasing a house. I think it’s a smart thing to do in the long run but it also ties you down to a place and after already purchased a home in the past I wasn’t exactly up for another one. Houses are a lot of work especially when you work full time. At the same time I’m happy to have a place to come home to after a long day’s work.
That is exactly the type of feelings I’ve had all year long. A tug and pull. I’ve deliberately thought of ever decision I’ve made this last year wayyy too much. While it drives me nuts, I feel I end up making the best decision for myself. For example my wife has been asking me what I want for my birthday a week or so ago. While I can think of a lot of things I’d like to have, most of them are techy, expensive and unpractical. I don’t need much in life and I don’t want to fill my life with distractions of material goods. Being a tech guy, a computer and a phone is enough to distract me. :)
There have been a few hard things that have happened this year. We lost Fred, our puppy. While I didn’t think it would make much of an impact on me I miss that dog quite a bit. We also found out Beth had a form of skin cancer. Lucky for us we took care of it and there hasn’t been anything else detected thus far.
There have also been some up’s! We purchased a house, which is coming together quite nicely. We have finally gotten some furniture and started decorating things. We have continued to travel and exploring California. I’ve really enjoyed living in a new place mostly because I feel like I’ve gotten to experience things we normally wouldn’t have by staying back in Nebraska. For example, we went to Seattle for a mini-vacay over a weekend. This was a nice change because Beth wasn’t working throughout the trip and she got to enjoy herself. It would be manageable to try to do this from Nebraska but not as enjoyable as we got to travel down the coast while driving back.
Another thing that is good is I’m working for a company that treats me fairly. I’ve worked at a lot of smaller companies in the past and while some of them were great, I feel they are more or less like living in a small town. I’ll leave that up for interpretation. My current employer paid my way to go to New Orleans recently to attend a developer conference. I learn a lot while attending this and enjoyed the travel portion of it as well.
As of right now I don’t have many plans for my 29th year of life. The older I get the more minimalist I find myself becoming. I’d like to have a good balance of enjoying life but not cluttering it up too much. I’ve always had a goal of recording a very professional cd. This might be the year to make it happen.