Afternoon Baseball

For me, 2005 was travel, new jobs, new locales, new friends, new experiences, and change on a grand scale while doing my best to keep all the good old friends, places, and things with me. 2005 was, quite frankly, the most exciting and action-packed year of my life. For all that, I am quite fortunate and grateful.
The amazing thing about all of this is that I know personally of many people who had more successful, exciting, adventurous and/or fulfilling years. And I know people who didn't do much new at all but still had great years. So there's lots of ways to get to where you want to be.

I got to live in five different states, visit four states and another country, and work at three jobs that I love(d) and truly wanted to do. I was in Minneapolis, Chicago, Baltimore and London in a 22-hour span (not as fun as it sounds). I made treks to Van Cortlandt Park to see a cross country team that is running like I always knew they could, and trips to Philly for running and a job interview (the latter of which preceded a trip to upstate NY the very next day, where I actually got a job). I went on a little college tour in Conn. and Mass., and I've driven 230 miles home in the middle of the night where I've been the only car on an interstate for miles at a time. We won't talk about the flat tire and my headlights going out -- merely an aberration in solid travel.

I graduated college (and I've been back about 4 times to party) -- and parlayed that into something in journalism, which was the only goal I ever really had. I had incredible roommates and great people everywhere else, and I'm doing a decent job keeping in touch. I was able to enjoy college without running, but also get in a PR in one of the best-managed races of the hundreds I've run.
I went to baseball games at Yankee Stadium, the Metrodome and the University of Missouri (the last to see a Frontier League team lose 18-8 and the mascot and ballgirls foul up the t-shirt toss). Through Bronson Arroyo and his Northeastern girl, I learned how much traffic Google can truly send your way. I saw the Mall of America, a lot of London, my friend's new apartment with his fiancee -- and all of them were equally cool.

In the end, though, not everything should be about change. So, I'm going home for New Year's Eve, where I'm going to go over to Mike's place (now just his parents' place, cause we're old), have Chinese food, play Madden on a freakin' huge screen and hang out for the end of a year and beginning of a new one. It's something I've done for 7 or 8 years now, and I don't think a year could be complete without it.