1 Year Later
Remarkable that it's been over a full year since I last posted.
This year was filled with a lot of emotions. What did we even do? I got my first dose of the vaccine in April.
We had 6+ weddings? Brandon's in CO, Senan's on the Cape, Trafficante's in IN, Stevan's in Chicago, Timmy's on the cape during Tyler's in MI (we split for those), and Megan's in NY.
We bought a house, and moved in at the end of July with the help of a group of 6 Ukranian men. Mark raised funds for his company (2-3x), which was a huge accomplishment. Also he graduated, and I threw a party for him at lamp lighter.
I hosted some of the CBVA volleyball gatherings over the course of the year, despite us being unable to get back in to our usual town space. Also traveled to 2 NAGVAs, including Virginia Beach and Seattle (where I pulled my back and we BBQ'ed). I met Daphne's bf during that trip, whom she's been with for over 1 year now. I've played 4 Yankees, and always broke pool, but never won.
We had a trip to Ptown for a week, with our Boston friend group which was full of drama.
Mark spoiled me for my birthday, hosting my friends for afternoon tea at the library and finding me a ps5. I've beaten both GoW and Death Stranding. I also completed Skyrim (again). I've taken to playing Poke Unite with Matt and Dan, an started Demon Souls and Tales of Arise.
Nanny died at the end of April. We held a memorial mass for her on her birthday. Either I haven't fully dealt with her passing, or I conceptualized her as gone a few years ago when she became severely demented. It saddens me that I don't often dream or remember her, while it was also sad to hear how much my sister and my mother do often think about her. It adds to my regular concern that I don't appreciate things and people in my life enough. We drove home for Thanksgiving.
We just returned from a 2 week vacation which was sorely needed. We went to a lackluster all-inclusive in Puerto Vallarta and didn't really go out on the town, as we were worried about getting covid in Mexico and having to quarantine (Omicron prevalence significantly rose during this time). The sun and warmth was appreciated though, as was the company (Kim & Stev). We went to a tequila tasting downtown, Mark and he got tipsy after like 12 shots. We then flew to Austin, staying one night downtown and then 2 nights at a luxury all-inclusive. We really enjoyed our time there, doing archery and hatchet throwing, it felt like an adult summer camp. We did yoga, meditation, learned about our chakras (from a woman with schizotypal personality disorder, according to Mark), The food was delicious and the decor enjoyable, with heated pools (this helped in the 45-50 degree Austin nighttime). I was frustrated not to get in too much alone time for reseting like I had hoped. We spent our final night in downtown Austin again, and we had delicious barbecue. Instead of exploring the dead gay nightlife at 10PM, I finished Witcher season 2. But I thought the city was really cool and want to go back. Finally, we flew out stupid early to go to Indiana for Christmas. We were only there for a few short days, but Mark was pretty distraught about having trouble with his family - his mom's health has deteriorated significantly, and his brother broke up with his gf/baby momma on Christmas morning. But we did get some time in with our niece, and a couple fun games in on Christmas. We also saw Wartman and Nikola, and Mark also saw Kendall.
So, TV shows:
Witcher
Ghosts
Squid Game
The Mandalorian
Hunter x Hunter (again)
Avatar (again)
Castlevania
Full Metal Alchemist (again)
Lucifer
Attack on Titan
My Hero Academia
Invincible
Final Space
Star Trek: Discovery
Handmaid's Tale
Rick & Morty
apparently His Dark Materials, Dark, Schitts Creek finale, Tiger King, and Indian Matchmaking were all 2020 lol.
Movies:
Dune (pretty good)
Free Guy (better than expected)
Mortal Kombat (terrible)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings (better than expected)
Luca (great)
Visitors:
My parents & sister
Kim & Stev
Richard
Kendal & Randy
Ruben & Farrell
Nadia & Matt
Books:
I think none.
This Christmas I focused on trying to show the important people in my life that I appreciate them, because I do. I did spend a good amount, but got quite a few gifts, and I believe I inspired Mark to do similar.
I've been frustrated by my career, achieving all of my objectives for the year and receiving praise from my boss, but feeling stagnant and like an underachiever at not having achieved management still at the age of 35. I may be shifting my focus a bit - what do I uniquely bring to the table? Alternatively, I've been looking more into a company idea.
I have diverse goals for 2022 - I told myself that COVID ruined 2020, and that I would do more 2021. I emerged a bit out of my cocoon, but not nearly enough in my opinion. My big next travel goal is South America. I've already started on volleyball goals with 4 scheduled tournaments. I have a goal of having more people over the house for dinner, including our neighbors, which we haven't had over yet. I have another goal of improving our home, and I've completed a few steps for that in the past few days. I want to spend less time on grindr. I want to better prepare for being a father. I want to improve my Japanese and fitness and my relationship. I want to give back more to the world. So many desires.