New Year's Revolutions

Man, just like that it's 2010 and I'm wondering where another decade went and how fast this one will go. When it's 2020 how wistful will I feel then when I'm all grown up?

But what a year 2009 turned out to be. I feel better off, after a little examination, and want to share highlights (for lack of a better word, these aren't uniformly the best things that happened all year, but just what somehow simmered up to top of mind) in a blog-friendly list format:

* I realized that there are three men vying for influence in my wife's life. Though I can't quite peg the ranked order, I think it goes something like this: her dad, me, Jonathan Adler. Nearly everything Jill's trying to persuade me to do is somehow (and I suspect subversively) put there by Mr. Adler.

* Once elected, President Obama took pains to express that everybody should get more education. If we're all smarter, it's better for the country. This seems intuitive and I like the general anti-laziness attitude. So I did my part by enrolling in business classes at Penn this fall. It's good for the overall perspective to have serious goals outside of work and my marriage. 

* Skiing and scuba diving are becoming increasingly important to me in terms of feeling like I'm maximizing my free time. 

* Still haven't felt the urgency of the spirituality bug, outside of communing with nature in it's grandest places.

* People think Seth Godin is smart because he's got a large, naked head which would seem to indicate cranial capacity. His ideas are actually stuff we've all thought already.

* SnagIt is worth $50.

* I'm mostly converted to black coffee after hearing from my brother Pete that it speeds up your metabolism. We were on vacation in Palau and having good conversations over regular breakfasts of the sweetest fresh fruit you could hope for served with strong, dark coffee from Indonesia. This is a vivid memory.

* Then in the Dominican Republic the coffee was served with heated cream every morning and I cheated on black coffee for a week. This was also delicious.

* Pearl Jam still rocks in concert. Maybe harder than ever. The show in Philadelphia was sensational.

* The beach in Delaware is more beautiful with nobody on it, which is another way of saying that timing is everything.

* I can't drink like I used to. Hangovers lurk in the single-digit quantities of drinks and this is probably a good thing so long as my path to moderation continues. I occasionally forget this increasing truth and the results are predictably disastrous.

* I'm still amazed by people with 'green thumbs.' I'd like to add gardening to my repertoire.

* I'm also committed to seeing more live music this year and watching less TV.