Wow, what a year. Seriously, I don’t think that any other year has been this…. filled. Normally I think a retrospective look at a previous year on New Years Eve is a cheap and silly blog topic for one to write about, but so very much has happened, some for the good, some not. More changes and new developments in my life have occurred in this one year than I ever thought possible. So, without further ado, I give you my 2009 year in review.
January – I got final word that I would indeed be moving to San Francisco from Atlanta, and flew out here for 2 and a half weeks to prepare for the move. Ctide, Tiv, and Bill were nice enough to let me crash on an air mattress at 15b during this time, since Harry had not yet moved out of the room I would be taking at 1250 South Van Awesome. These 3 guys end up being awesome friends of mine as well as great co workers.
February – After going back to ATL for a week to prep, my relo package finally gets approved and I pack up everything I think i need for the time being into two big suitcases and fly out to SF once and for all, and move in with Clarence, Regina, and Stan. The following day, however, I get a phone call from my family to let me know that Tucker is in the doggy ER and has to be put to sleep. He was 14 and had become quite sick the last few weeks, but at the time I had planned to come home again in Feb or March specifically to say goodbye to him, knowing he would not last the year. Sadly at this same time a round of layoffs run through EA and 85% of my old ATL office is let go, as is Clarence from the sims team :\
March – after several weeks of sleeping on an air mattress and living out of a suitcase, I finally get my relo bonus and go to Ikea and buy a while new bedroom set, so I can live like a normal human. After that I can actually consider myself “moved in” and actually living here. For me, it made it all “final”. GDC hits and over the course of the week I am introduced to one Mr. Alex Q Ryan who is a sort of a gateway drug into an entire social circle out here that I am flat out honored to be a part of, these people make life here awesome.
April – Ariel and I mend some bridges and talk for the first time in almost a year, and I fly her out here for a weekend. It’s rather nice having my best friend back. Sadly my room mates had to entertain her for the whole weekend, as 6 hours after she arrives I promptly get alcohol poisoning and spend the rest of the 3 days violently ill and in bed.
June – I go to E3 for the first time since 2005 and have a BLAST. The following week Ariel comes out to visit for a week and do some much needed catching up. The day after she leaves, however, I return from my week and a half vacation to work and am promptly laid off from Rupture, just in time for my birthday… fortunately days later I met Allie. I think if she had not been around during this time it would have been a lot darker for me, but she definitely made it all the more bearable, and then some!
July – Two weeks after much frantic job hunting, early in the month I am back at EA. This time at our corporate office running PC/MAC Compliance within EA Cert, in no small part thanks to several people I used to work with who had great things to say about me!
August – I fly back to ATL for the first time since January, and pack up my old apartment and put it all into storage. I am officially moved out of ATL now, aside from a 16 x 5 storage facility full of boxes I have there.
September – PAX09 was even more fun than 08 was! Sadly, the day I return Allie and I are no more, as she had decided that an acquaintance of mine was apparently a more attractive proposition…
November – Another round of layoffs cut through work on a random Monday morning, affecting my entire Department, including our managers. Miraculously I and one other person are spared the carnage, and are shifted off to a new team. Now, who knows what is in store…
December – I go home for the first time since last Christmas, something I never though would take so long, and see my family. So much has changed in the city since I was last around it’s almost alien to me. After some careful consideration I decide that I am visiting my family, not going home. Home is now SF, and I have no regrets at all about that. This is an amazing city with so much to offer, and so much fun to bed had. I only wish I was a few years younger when I had moved out here, as I fear I won’t have enough time to experience all the fun there is to offer here before I have to start settling down in life and think about the future and stop living in the now. That’s my goal for 2010. Experience the ever living fuck out of California!
On a side note I’d like to thank my room mates for taking me in. They have become a surrogate family to me out here, and have made this transition so smooth. They really do feel like family to me!
