Crap! I'm 38!

Happy Birthday to me! :) Yep, March 6th I turned 38. It is ... odd. I never really thought about being 38 (or this close to 40). As a kid, I thought I'd be this muscle bound trombone player in a jazz band. Or.. something like that. Ha. I couldn't really fathom the 40's. But my plan has been to live to 120, so I'm almost 1/3rd of the way there! :)

I have no idea what I was doing last year at this time but this year I am really thankful for all of my great friends, family and my awesome girlfriend. I mean, I have some really great friends, and I love all of you!

I think I only have one somewhat regular reader of this blog so I'm giving a shoutout to you1 (And I love you MW! :) ) And oddly I only met you once I think. Ha.. But I'm very glad that we are friends, and you mean a lot to me. :) And whoever else is reading this.. THANK YOU! :)

I have a wonderful girlfriend. Really, she is amazing! And it's been 5 months! Now, I'm not some sopping teenager, who proclaims their love every couple of months, but.. I love where this relationship is. She is an amazing woman, and we just seem to ... click. Who knows what the future holds, but I'm definitely loving every minute that I'm with her now and excited about our future.


Two years ago I proved to myself that I could do a half Ironman. It was great. Growing up, I had watched many, many Ironman's. I watched Dave Scott win his 6th Ironman, and I was really hooked. Oddly, I never ever thought about competing in an ironman as I grew up. It wasn't until I heard that a good friend was doing the half ironman that I actually considered it. Don't know why, but I really never thought that I could do it. It just seemed like something that people on tv did. Ha. I mean, they always have the tear jerker, where the 80 year old complete her first one, or the one legged man completes the ironman, but I just never figured that that person could be me. So I did the training and completed the half for my own personal reasons, and also for the purpose of bonding with my friend. This was my best friend since 8th grade. I have had many great moments with him, but we weren't as close as we used to be, due to life.. He was in the military and traveling a lot.. living in different states.. had a wife and kids and.. life takes over.. Hard to remain the same as it was in high school. So.. I wanted a common activity to bring us closer.. to help us have common goals.. and I did want to get one half ironman under my belt. After finishing the race, I thought that would be the end of it.. But I want to do the full ironman someday, and the sooner the better. So I plan on doing that in 2013, so to train for it, I will do the half ironman this year and try to do a lot of other races this year. Should be an exciting year!



I know there were some out there that didn't think I could do it and that was extra motivation, but I put in the training and ended up doing fairly well (and by that, I mean I finished and didn't finish last in my age group!). Unfortunately I didn't keep up the same training regiment the year after. I mean, that was a lot of training for the HIM! I did do a lot of 5K's last year. My most ever, but.. I've decided that this year, I need the extra motivation. I have to stay young somehow! :) So I'm doing a 15K this year, and a half marathon, as well as a half ironman and some other odd races.

I am also loving my new love.. photography! I've really had this interest for six years or so. But I finally purchased the camera and took a class and am really loving all of the practice that I've done. I have a couple more high priced purchases (flash, fisheye, micro lense) and have found that photography is a fairly expensive hobby. But I do love it and am still learning a lot. I can't wait to see how my skills at photography progress over this next year.


Well.. that's deep enough for tonight! I'm loving life and have 80 years left, God willing! :) Hope to see a lot of my friends this year! Miss you all! Thank you!