The past year was (not just because of all the very public deaths of famous people and the less-than-preferable political stuff) challenging. This isn’t to say that I didn’t accomplish stuff, because I did. That’s mostly what this post here is about; highlighting the good stuff. The challenges are there, over the posts logged over the past 365 days for you to look over – there were a lot of challenges; personal, emotional, mental, vocational, relational. I think I talked about most of them.

Here’s the stuff I thought was cool:

Thing the First: I’m actually really proud of all the cool musical stuff I got to do this year, with a whole bunch of different people; I played public, occasionally paying(!) gigs with two (maybe three, if you squint) different performance groups in public venues. Not all of them were amazing performances, but if I think about it, I could point to something really cool about each performance (although I never really counted how many shows I played – it was a lot, though). I played in cities all up and down the east coast, from the DC Suburbs to Downtown Atlanta, and all kinds of places in between, from fancy auditoriums to living rooms and campfire circles. Every time was a privilege, and I learned a heck of a lot about performing with other people, with myself, and for and with an audience.

I also wrote some songs this year; some of them might end up being something. This is kind of a new thing for me, I’m still getting all of my bad stuff out the system before the good stuff can flow semi-reliably, but I’m learning. I didn’t really record or release anything this year with anyone (we were too busy playing shows), though I think that’s on the docket for this year. Again, it’s been a pretty cool learning experience.

This part of life has brought me so much damned joy over the last however many years; I’ve made so many friends, both musicians and fans all over the country; I really feel privileged to have been welcomed into this community of artists I find myself in.

Thing the Second: As much as I bitched about work here this last year, I think after sitting in my particular vocational chair for two years now, I think I almost know how to do what I do. Sure, I don’t *do* things so much as *direct* things these days – my *do*s are largely relegated to meetings, emails, and monthly and quarterly briefings, though my team and I have managed to accomplish a couple of pretty neat things over the last year, and we’re showing progress with my particular area of the agency infrastructure that has largely been coasting and limping along for a while. I don’t love it, but I’m starting to show competency, and being competent is something I do love. It pays the bills, which allows me to do all the other cool stuff.

Thing the Third: I managed to reorganize life a little bit so that the cash flow makes more sense, and be a little better prepared for what life throws at us. I make to much money to feel so damned poor sometimes, but I took some steps to fix that a bit. This is kinda new, but we’ll see. It’ll certainly help out with some of the other stuff coming down the pike soon.

Thing the Fourth: I don’t feel like a complete failure as a husband and father right now, which is nice. My kids, to greater or lesser degrees, are succeeding, and my wife hasn’t left me yet, or given me any indication she’s going to, despite my many faults. Everybody’s doing well in school, passing classes, and (as I alluded to previously), getting themselves accepted to college. I wrote the check for the deposit and to reserve a place this week, so that’s happening. I’ll figure out how to make it happen. It’s a good kind of stress, though, as it indicates that I didn’t completely screw the first one up.

Finally the kitten has chosen me as her favorite. That’s gotta count for something, right?