A New Month! Yeah!

My night was spent driving from North Liberty to Marion (for my co-worker's sister's wake (http://thegazette.com/article/20140429/Obituaries/304299973) and then down First Avenue to visit my mom. I thought a lot about my past as I drove down First Avenue. From cruising with Serbi in high school, to the old Sports Page restaurant that is now a different bar, to the old DeSoda's that is now an Aaron's Appliances store to the old McDonald's that is now called Club Basix to the Irish Democrat that still exists to the old music store that is now a secondhand store to the building that had a software company in it that I tried to get hired at (but didn't - I can't even remember the name of the place) to the old drug store that is now Barb's Computers to ... you get the point. There's a lot of history on that road and it had been a long time since I drove it from Marion to downtown. I thought about how all of those memories, while great, are not who I am today, in 2014.

In 2014, I feel like I have my life in order for as much as a human can.

• I have a great job - my 3 year anniversary is May 31, 2014. 
• My focus at work is on a project that is challenging and rewarding as it has challenged my definition of "documentation" each day. From 2/10/1995 until this project started in March 2014, I thought software documentation always was about the UI in the software. That definition has been thrown out the window. I am thinking at a higher level, thanks to the direction of my manager and co-workers. It's not about what the end-user does as far as clicking this and clicking that in the UI. It's about what happens when they click this and click that - what is the result, the outcome. 
• Karen and I are doing well. 
• The kids are doing well. 
• I am sober. 
• I play drums in Uncle Rico the Band and that's making me a much better drummer than I could have hoped for because, in previous bands, my tempos were not scrutinized the way they are with them. 
• I have the conversion projects - the CD, the cassette, the video - that keep me occupied.

In conclusion, I think May is going to be a good month and admit to being excited about all that I expect to happen between now and May 31, 2014.