2024 recap

2024 has been a whirlwind year with lots of changes as we left Mexico and moved to Virginia.  It has been tough at times, but other times have been great.

Profesional goals

- Complete my TN project.

    I worked really hard on this project and got everyone on board that needed to be.  We successfully implemented it and truly changed the policy in this area.  I was very proud of the work we accomplished.  I have since learned that they basically undid everything after I left, but I am choosing to ignore that part.

- Complete my auto hot key project

    Similar situation to the TN project, but with perhaps a little more long-lasting impact.  My successors made a few changes after I left, but did not destroy the underlying elements of the program.

- Find an interesting bridge assignment in Washington

    Yes.  I am working on a project that we created with the Harvard program I did the year before.  

Exercise goals

- complete two power zone challenges on Peloton

    Nope

- bike 5,000 minutes on Peloton

    Nope

- keep my weekly Peloton streak going while on home leave

    Nope

- find a workable exercise routine when back in DC

    Nope

Travel goals

- take an adults only trip

    Sara and I took an amazing trip to San Miguel de Allende without the kids and it was awesome.

- visit at least one of the cute central Mexican towns like San Miguel se Allende or Guanajuato 

    Yes - to SMA

- plan a fun, enjoyable home leave vacation 

    We had a great home leave in the Midwest with visits in Omaha and Saint Louis, plus time in Texas and Virginia.  I got to see lots of family and friends and even sent my kids to the same day camp that I went to as a kid and they LOVED it.

- visit New York City 🏙️ 

    We spent four days in NYC in the beginning of November.  About 80% of the trip was 10/10.  Highlights include seeing Hadestown on Broadway (which the kids loved), a boat cruise around Manhattan, and going up the Empire State Building.  About 20% of the trip was 1/10 as the kids complained about walking or said they were bored or wanted to watch TV in our (tiny) hotel room.

Personal goals 

- manage/limit the stress of the transition 

    The transition was hard.  Harder than I expected/hoped, but not necessarily in surprising ways.  Its hard to move for anyone and really hard for kids.  And while our kids had moved before this was the first time they really understood what was going on.

- honor the end of our time in Mexico 🇲🇽 Give the kids time and space to say goodbye to their friends. 

    I think we managed this with special events to say goodbye to friends and classmates.  It was good to do, but it was also hard as each goodbye was painful and then not always at the end.

- see fall leaves 🍁 

    Yes

- visit a pumpkin patch 🎃 

    Yes - went to at least two

- attend at least one football game 🏈 

    I went to the Nebraska-USC game with my cousin in LA and the Alamo Bowl with the kids this week.

- attend a concert 🎶 

    Counting Crows in St. Louis with Sara and older boys

    Bruce Springsteen in Baltimore with Sara

- see my Dad and Sara’s mom at least three times each

    Yes, we met this goal!

- read 20 books 

    Working from home cut down on my reading a ton because I lost my morning commute audiobook time.  Now that I am reading longer books with the kids aloud, I have decided I can count these two.  So with that, I read 14 books this year.

Top books were

My Antonia by Willa Cather

The Great Brain series by John D Fitzgerald

2024 Goals

Each year, Sara and I identify a word which I try to make my mantra for the year.  The word (ideally) pushes me toward a destination.  Motivates me.  Inspires me.  Some years, it works.  Other years, it falls flat.  But each word lets me reflect on the journey I have had and the journey to come.

2023 - Explore

2022 - Inhabit

2021 - Support

2020 - Elect

2019 - Gratitude

2018 - Juggle

2017 - Survive

2016 - Support

2024 will bring us back to another year of transition. We will move from Guadalajara this summer and then spend a year back in Northern Virginia. The logistics of it all is overwhelming. We have to find a school, daycare, short-term rental house, long-term rental house, organize a month-long home leave, buy a car, transport Parker, before-care, after-care, extracurriculars, figure out commutes and work from home options. I have to figure out a bridge assignment to fill the time between arriving back in DC and starting Portuguese in 2025. 

It’s a year of transition and movement. Looking back at our prior transition years and seeing words like support (x2) and juggle.  I’m going to take a slightly different tact this year and choose the word “move.”  It obviously has the connection to our move back to DC, but also will (hopefully) inspire me to getting moving more in my day to day life. 

This years goals. 

Profesional goals

- Complete my TN project

- Complete my auto hot key project

- Find an interesting bridge assignment in Washington

Exercise goals

- complete two power zone challenges on Peloton

- bike 5,000 minutes on Peloton

- keep my weekly Peloton streak going while on home leave

- find a workable exercise routine when back in DC

Travel goals

- take an adults only trip

- visit at least one of the cute central Mexican towns like San Miguel se Allende or Guanajuato 

- plan a fun, enjoyable home leave vacation 

- visit New York City 🏙️ 

Personal goals 

- manage/limit the stress of the transition 

- honor the end of our time in Mexico 🇲🇽 Give the kids time and space to say goodbye to their friends. 

- see fall leaves 🍁 

- visit a pumpkin patch 🎃 

- attend at least one football game 🏈 

- attend a concert 🎶 

- see my Dad and Sara’s mom at least three times each

- read 20 books 

2023 recap

It felt really hard to get momentum this year. I never really made many of these goals a priority during the year (except bidding) and it shows in the results.  Anyway, here is a recap of my 2023 goals. 

 Professional Goals

• Get a "good" assignment - We bid this summer and I'd really like to get one of our top choices; find something that works well for our family.  I don't know exactly where that is yet, but that's the goal.

We did not get one of our initially top choices as we walked away from handshake day without a handshake offer.  But, after interviewing for a number of cool DC jobs, we got a late offer for a Fraud job in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, which we are excited about. First, we have a year in DC for language training and then Rio in sumner 2025. 

• Successfully transition to our new building - we move into a new consulate this year and this will cause a lot of logistical hurdles.  

Ha - the building is still not ready and it seems unlikely we will move in before I leave next summer. 

• Network better across Mission Mexico - this is slightly hard to define, but I'd like to do a better job of building on the robust network of work colleagues that I have at my disposal in Mexico.

I think I’ve done an okay job on this, with a few strong connections. 

Personal Goals

• Potty train Elliott - Elliott turns two on Wednesday, which means he will be almost three by the end of the year.  If we can potty train him, we can be out of diapers for the first time since 2015!

Nope. 

• Read 20 books in 2023.  This is a stretch, but achievable goal if I count audiobooks (which I reluctantly do).  I finished 15 in 2022.

Close, but not quite with 17 books. 

• Sub-goal - finish reading Civilization and the Sea which I have now been reading for over a year!

Finished

• Keep the board game group going - meeting twice per month.

The big board game group fell apart, but mostly because we started a weekly smaller game which has been great. 

• Take Jack to his first Nebraska game.

We took a great trip to Nebraska in September to watch the Huskers win. 

• Visit at least two new places to me.

We we to the beach in Nayarit in January, Sara and I went to Oaxaca in February and then I went back to a lot of places I’d already been:  Two trips to Mexico City, two trips to Nebraska, trips to Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, and a work trip to Boston

• Take an adults-only trip (currently scheduled for Oaxaca in February)

It was marvelous. 

• Finish all the challenges in the Through the Ages game on my phone.  (Note - I have been playing this game for about two years.  The challenges are exactly the right level of difficulty and entertainment.  I've been struggling with one particular challenge for about two months which I finally beat today!  I have two more challenges left to complete them all.)

I finished them. 

Exercise Goals

• Weigh under 230 lbs (losing approximately 15 pounds)

Opposite of this. 

• Ride RAGBRAI - This is the bike ride across Iowa every summer.  I've wanted to do this for several years and I have some friends from high school who I could ride with.  The logistics of the ride are challenging, especially coming from Mexico and will be challenging to do this summer given the number of managers transitioning out of the consulate this summer.  But, it would be great to do if I can pull it off.

I could not pull it off. 

• Complete at least three Power Zone challenges

I started several power zone challenges, but I finished only one. All that travel above got in the way. 

• Have two 30 day streaks on Peloton

Not quite. 

• Bike 6,000 minutes (I biked 4,000+ in 2022).

I did not make this either, hitting 4,555 minutes, with more than two-thirds coming in the first half of the year.