An Update, It's Needed

It's been an eventful week or so, but I just haven't had the inspiration or inclination to write about any of it in detail.  I may need to up my coffee intake...

Here's a quick summary of what's going on in my world, and I'm sure I'll be writing longer posts on a few of these shortly.

• I'm moving.  I'll be leaving San Francisco, my home for the last 2.5 years, and moving back down south.  The actual move will take place between April 1st to June 1st, depending on work stuff.  I'll be in the LA area, and some of the places I'm interested in are Long Beach, Hermosa Beach, Marina Del Rey, Miracle Mile, and Downtown LA.  If anyone has suggestions on those areas, they would be appreciated.
• I got my eyes tasered.  On purpose.  Having dealt with contacts and glasses since the 5th grade, I finally had enough.  While I had been toying with the idea for years, the final decision came like a flash of lightning.  I scheduled the appointment to meet with the doctor and signed up for the first available opening.  Because I went with the PRK version of the test compared to LASIK, my recovery time is longer.  I am probably at about 20-40 vision right now, but with no pain or discomfort, and my eyes will slowly stabilize to 20-20 (or better).  The upside of the PRK is that my eyes will heal back just as strong as before the test, an important consideration if one engages in contact sports.  And speaking of contact sports...
• I am scheduled to fight in San Francisco on February 26th.  At 155 pounds. Hunger, I will have it.  Don't know anything about my opponent yet, but will get to fight in my own city, which is always a plus.  Only point of concern is that the eye surgery leaves me with only 10-14 days of hard sparring beforehand.  It should be plenty so long as I get in boss shape in the meantime.  I plan on being intimately acquainted with the many hills that San Francisco offers.  Joy.
• My good friend Susan thought my chili recipe sounded good, so I got an offer from her to cook it for her and her friends this coming Sunday.  I am proud of my culinary skills.  I hope they like fire.
• Going to do a kickass night hike and navigation course up Mt. Tam tomorrow night with my friends Clara and Ted.  Night hikes give me an opportunity to use my head lamp, and therefore, they rock. 

I suppose that's it for the major news.  A few of those events deserve a more detailed look, but I just don't have it in me at the mo'.

2009: A Year in Review

2009 was pretty decent.  I did some things well and others not so much.  I picked up some bad habits and strengthened and added some good ones. 

Adventure
This was a good year for expeditions, travel and adventure. Some of the highlights include:

Backpacking Trip in the Sierras with my Dad and Brother.  Survived a marauding bear.

Went on a kickass camping trip in Big Sur with good friends from Orange County

Rock and rolled up the 5th hardest day hike in the US with Kalvin

Kicked around SE Asia with Bryan & Britney for 3 weeks.  The adventures are here, here, here and here.

Athletics

Did decent, but not great this year.  Some highlights:

Went 1-1 in amateur boxing fights. 

Sparred with this world-ranked fighter

Ran my first marathon with Israel

* Unfortunately failed at my goal of breaking a 5 minute mile and getting enough fights to turn open class in boxing.  Next year.

Social Life

I made some good friends through kickball and the boxing gym, but need to be better about making myself available for social outlets.  Tended to do my own thing a lot more than is probably healthy.  Not sure if this is out of laziness or just a lack of a need for much social interaction.  Unfortunately have let quite a few friendships from Southern California slip quite a bit.  No real excuse for that when just a phone call here and there would do.

Reading

Finally knocked out some of the books that had been sitting on my shelf for a while, and read a bunch of others.  A complete list here.

Writing

I am pretty happy with how my writing has come along.  I think I have "found my voice" as they say, and it seems to depend entirely on putting myself down.  I'll roll with it.  Wrote two 20-30 page abortions that were supposed to end up as novels, which was a fail.  Maybe 2010 will be the year I can write a story that I can still stomach after the 10,000 word mark.

General Know-How & Competency

Picked up bits and pieces of knowledge and experience on all the outdoor activities

Learned quite a bit from reading the US Army Survival Manual

Learned that pretending to pick up a rock will sometimes dissuade a dog from attacking

Learned that you cant brake and accelerate at the same time on a motor-cycle

Financial
Paid off all credit card debt, and only owe a few thousand left on my student loans. 
Created emergency fund of a few months...not enough
Started using Amex for a lot more expenses in order to take advantage of rewards.