Look Back at 2008

Yesterday, we said goodbye to 2008 and “How you doooin’?” to 2009. Last year was quite a busy one for me. When I say busy, I’m comparing it to previous years where I did nothing other than scratch my butt and sniff my fingers. That’s only fun for so long!

I thought I would recap some of the cool things that went on last year. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and have even a better 2009.

• For my birthday last year my family presented me with a film class. The class ran from January 22 to April-something. We had to write a script and then as a class we decide which ones were going to get made. Andrea, my sister, was taking the class with me. We both decided we wanted to make our scripts. My film feel apart trying to look for locations. After that Andrea asked me to direct her short, Socially. Long story, short. We found the cast and filmed in early March. The short premeired to all of the other film classes on April 26th. Great experience.

• Next up was the SXSW film festival. I didn’t fully emerge myself in the experience because I had to work most of the week. But it was my first time since living in Austin that I actually experienced SXSW…other than the traffic. The biggest highlight, besides all the movies, was seeing the cast of Harold and Kumar. NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) is funny as hell!
• In May, we traveled to Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, SC and then to Mrytle Beach, SC. It was great seeing family members that I haven’t seen in a long time. I was pumped to go to Savannah only to be let down. It had some beautiful things to see but overall the place is a dump…think New Orleans but less puke and piss. I did have the best Guiness of my life at some Irish pub we came across. It was also on this trip that Alev and I decided that we were going to move to Raleigh, NC in the next year. We had done this before but we were determined.
• Operation ‘Get the F*** Out of Our House’ was in full effect. It was the biggest road block in us moving to the east cost. When we got back from our trip we hit the ground running. We fixed it up and put it on the market. Sucker sold quick!! I’m in no rush to buy another house anytime soon.
• We saw some changes in the transportation department. We got rid of the crap box that was our 1999 Tahoe (quick friendly reminder, even family members will dick you over) and replaced it with a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica. I also purchased my first Harley Davidson, a 2008 Nightster. Looking back at the bike purchase, not the smartest thing to do but oh well. That is something I’m known for doing.

• With little time left in Austin we wanted to make sure we did as much as possible with friends. Generally Alev and I are homebodies. When asked if we want to go out we would make up an excuse of why we couldn’t. But that is something we don’t like and have been working on for the past year or so. With that said, we made sure we didn’t pass any opportunity to do anything we friends. Even if we had to fight the urge to sit on our asses. We had some AWESOME times.  Too many pictures to pick through. But I will post the one I like best. It’s from Tubing for Nikka’s Bday. She had too much to drink.
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• I got 2nd place for BBQ sauce in my companies annual BBQ cookoff. First time making a sauce! Whaddup!
• I experienced my first deep sea fishing trip. Sharon, Alev, Eric, and I headed down to South Padre for a weekend. We caught some kingfish and took them to a restaurant to cook up for us. Good times…no Great Times!!!

• After talking about it for years and years, we finally moved to Raleigh, NC. This is by far the biggest thing to happen this year. Everything feel into place and we made the move. Originally we planned to move sometime in 2009. If we had put it off till then we probably would not followed through with it. But we did move and we love it some far. Now we just need to get all of our friends to move up here and we’ll be set.

• We ended the year having an awesome Christmas. For the first time ever my family didn’t give any gifts to each other. We’ve been known to spend way too much money on past Christmases. So with our move, economy, and just cause we decided not to buy any gifts and it was the best ever. Zero stress. Bank account looks no worse than normal. We just enjoyed each others company and played some board games and Scene it! on the 360.

There you have it, a brief review of my year. I had a lot of great experiences this past year and I could be here all day writing about them. But that’s not going to happen. Just know it was a great year for me (not including the part where Andrea and I weren’t talking for a few months and missed out on spending time together before I left Austin). I only hope 2009 will be even better.

Happy New Year!