Well, it has been a little over a year since I took a stab at an update here. It has been a year since I made one of the most pivotal decisions of my life by moving back to Virginia. I’d be lying if I said I 100% knew it was the right decision all of the time. There’s definitely been moments where I thought I made a mistake, and leaving during the various stay at home orders in California definitely complicated things. A year later and I can’t say that I feel like I received the closure that I would have otherwise hoped for with my friends. That said, a lot has happened in the last year, and most of it has been really good! I was fortunate enough to be able to buy my first home, start a new role at Meta (FKA Facebook), and I’m writing this the night before I overindulge on turkey, sweet potato casserole, and some type of pie that isn’t pumpkin. Before diving into some other thoughts, I just wanted to give a shoutout to a friend, Matt, who mentioned he stumbled upon this blog and got a kick out of it. Thanks for reading man, and I appreciate the validation that you can hear my voice through this writing. As I told Matt, I don’t consider myself a great writer, let alone a good writer, but I’ve always hoped that through excessive comma usage and phrasing that someone might read this as if I was saying these words.

I really didn’t anticipate writing a ton for this entry, but just wanted to put something down. With that in mind, I’d be silly not to plug the fact that I’ll be hopping into my friend Claudio’s music newsletter, Run It Back, with my second Christmas edition. I’m currently sitting on the first draft of this year’s newsletter and I’m not entirely sure what theme I want to hit just yet, but I hope I’ll find it soon. The saving grace is that the music has been picked out and I can’t wait to share the tunes with folks. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the first Christmas spot I did, you can do so here. Fun fact: You can, and you should, subscribe also on the top left! Claudio puts out a great weekly newsletter that’s helped me, and others, discover (or rediscover) some really great music. It’s always invigorating to see someone start something from scratch, and build it up to where Run It Back is at today. It is also an honor to be someone Claudio would ask to guest star among other folks with really great and strong taste in music!

To close things out here, I wanted to just do some form personal bulleted list dump of things that I’ve been feeling or thinking lately. I’m not sure if it’ll be a permanent fixture, but I feel like I’ll like the 140 characters or less/Twitter vibe:

You won’t be surprised by this, but I’ve already got my Christmas tree up in the house and I’m so stoked.
I’ve been really surprised by how much new music I’m discovering across TikTok and Instagram reels. Feels like creators have a better pulse on music than Spotify’s algorithm these days.
When I’m not listening to Christmas music now, I’ve been especially enjoying Taylor Swift’s re-release of Red, especially I Bet You Think About Me. While I’m not the biggest Miles Teller fan, I do really like both Taylor Swift and I think Blake Lively killed it with this directorial debut. This is way longer than 140 characters, but even as someone who is colorblind, the pops of red, the playfulness, and pacing of the video was just next level.
I smoked my first turkey breast on a Kamado Joe grill that I recently got. It turned out better than I thought. Really juicy, good flavor, but I need to figure out how to get poultry skin really crispy. The skin wasn’t rubbery, but I feel I missed the mark there.
I recently switched from being an IC to a People Manager. It’s been tough, but rewarding. The one thing nobody really talks about though is how lonely it is. That surprised me a bit.
As I alluded to in my last blog post, reintegrating with folks that I knew back in Virginia has been tricky. There are a lot more kids, and a lot less free time. I’m 32 (going on 33), don’t have kids, and live a lot further north than most of them. Sometimes it just feels like we are all at different points in our lives and that’s sad, but also okay.
Is it just me or is You kind of just like Dexter in a way, but Penn Badgley is even better at the creepy, attractive, weird guy than Michael C. Hall?
Currently Watching: Succession — Buckle up to cheer for people that are awful and suck.
Currently Listening To: Merry Christmas Baby by Otis Redding (Or my whole Christmas 2.0 Playlist that I’m piecing together slowly)