As the end of the year approaches again, I start to think about how the year went in the big picture sense.  As usual, I’ll have my resolutions post next (the last blog-day of the year), but I do still like to take the time to review everything else.  At the top level, this year was pretty good – I’m happy, healthy, and able to keep a positive outlook.  On the other hand, there has been a lot of craziness, stress, and rough spots that made the year less than ideal.  I’ll talk a bit about each below the fold.

The Good Things

As I mentioned above, this year has been pretty good to me.  I’m in an excellent relationship and it’s great to have a consistent partner.  At the end of the day, I’m a lot of introvert to deal with and Brooke seems to be okay with that.  We’ve done a lot of different things together, talked a lot about the things we like, played a lot of games, watched a lot of movies, and generally had a good time.

I also got to do some new things this year – I went to Lock and Load for the first time, and had a blast there.  It’s really fun going to a convention knowing that everyone there shares one of your hobbies, and they are just there to have a good time.  I mostly enjoyed going to the different panels and watching people playing games in the Iron Arena.  Seeing all the cool paint and mod jobs was neat, and generally just chatting with other people was a good time.  While we were in Bellevue, we also got the chance to go to the botanical gardens, eat some good sushi, and get some very good clam chowder (oh, and there was also a pretty amazing hole-in-the-wall burger place, just down the road).  All in all, it was a pretty great trip.

I also bought myself a new 3D printer this year.  It was a great to put together, and is a definite bump-up in terms of technology and overall print quality.  There are a lot of new features I’m also looking forward to playing around with more in 2020, like multi-material support and new different filaments.  Between this and the chance to do a bit at the Longmont Tinkermill, I have some pretty neat projects in mind.

Finally, I’m doing better financially this year than I have for quite a while.  I got through the entire year without pulling money out of my savings account, but still managed to pay off my car and do a few nice things (including the aforementioned vacation to Lock and Load).  This makes me feel a bit more stable and that’s something I’ve sorely needed.

The Not As Good

Along with the good things have been a number of rough spots.  First and foremost in my mind is that I had a rough time at work the last few months – over the summer, three of my five employees left my team.  They have all had the opportunity to move on to great things, which makes me very happy, and I can’t stress that enough, but it did require a lot of extra effort (form myself and my remaining folks) to keep things moving, which was rough.  This alone was nearly enough to tip me over – I grow quite attached to the people in my life, and not seeing them at work every day was quite a blow.  This also brought a bunch of other stress and craziness – I ended up working longer hours, and driving to work to make up for it, leaving me with less time to spend at home, less exercise, less reading and writing, and generally less of my normal patterns.  Everyone at work has been extremely supportive though, and things have nearly worked themselves out – I’m just about back up to full staff now, and with a bit more training, I should be back up and rolling, but it was quite the diversion.

Late this year, I found out that The Rogue’s Roost is closing down at the end of the year.  This was quite a blow to me – it has been my local game shop for a number of years, and has always been a safe place for me to go and engage in my gaming hobby.  The people there have gotten me through a lot of rough spots, and though some of them have moved away and others I still plan on meeting up with as often as we can, having a routine and a place to be really meant a lot.

Final Thoughts

In addition to all the things going on, I also got a new housemate this autumn.  It’s been nice, but it also restricts my free time a bit as I build that new relationship dynamic into my life.  Still, I’m happy and optimistic that it’s going to be good, and I’ll have made a new close and trusted friend.

Overall, I’m optimistic for 2020 – if some of the things in my life continue to stabilize, I think I’ll be able to make it excellent.