Happy New Year You Arrogant Prick!

I'm not entirely sure what started my train of though leading up to this blog post but at some point I had a moment of thought where I wished I could kick myself in the face. I suppose I have had quite a bit of ambivalence towards the concept of New Years resolutions mostly because of what I always hear from people: I want to lose weight, I want to stop cursing so much, I want to remodel my kitchen - whatever it is. While I don't want to discount anything that's important to people I have to say that it's always seemed to me like the things I hear are either really superficial or just said to try to impress the people they're telling. I have to admit that I haven't made ANY New Years resolutions that I can remember for the past several years and the reason I would give you is that I was unimpressed with what I heard from others and didn't want to be part of that method of thinking. So at some point over the past week or so I've been thinking about it and I've come to the conclusion that I'm an arrogant prick. Maybe instead of being so concerned with boycotting the status quo I should have been looking inside myself for the things I need to change or improve. This made a lot of sense to me - hell resolutions should be about self improvement or improvement for the greater good and there's no reason why I can't make a resolution(s) that accomplish that without broadcasting it to the world... Oh crap... Now I really feel like an ass. Certainly that's what most people do right? I mean if my resolution is to be more tolerant of people, for example, that isn't something that I'm seeking credit for so I wouldn't even say it out loud - yet if I wanted to lose 20lbs I would probably announce that so when I started looking slim & trim people would take notice and compliment me. So there it is, I welcome the New Year with the realization that I'm an arrogant prick - I've not made resolutions to change anything about myself and yet I'm far from perfect. Before you click over to your Facebook friend list to unfriend me though I will say that I do try on a daily basis to do what I can to be a good person, a constructive member of the world, and practice what I preach health & exercise-wise and I think that, for the most part, covers the large majority of what resolutions generally revolve about.

So here's my resolution - well my PUBLIC resolution: I resolve to have resolutions - I've come up with a few things that are important to me that I'm going to either change, improve upon, or strive towards but they aren't things that I expect to receive recognition for - hopefully I'll feel good though and can make some people in my life feel good as well. Another thing, I'm writing a blog post once a week period. That's 52 blog posts in 2012 and if Saturday or Sunday rolls around and you're looking for a blog post from me but haven't seen one please call me out on it! I'm gonna start right now. This whole self chastising resolution rant doesn't count!

Blog post #1 of 2012:

Happy New Year!! What a crazy year 2011 was and I'm sure 2012 will have surprises of its own but I'm really looking forward to seeing what it holds! First a couple of highlights & lowlights of 2011:

-Rang in 2011 in Orlando, FL

-Took a long surf trip to New Zealand

-Got into arguably the best shape of my life

-Tore cartilage in my knee

-Had surgery on aforementioned knee

-Ran a respectable finish in a 10K 8 weeks following surgery

-Bought a piece of property for my business

-Had to seek legal counsel related to the property purchase

- Began construction of a new building for my business

There was a lot in between but those were the standout items of 2011 as I remember them at the moment. 2011 ended pretty crazy for me as well leading right into 2012. My brother, Kevin, and I closed up our shop just before the Christmas holiday like we always do but then we had to completely empty the building where Hatteras Island Boardsports has resided since 2002. For the most part this went really smoothly but it was a lot of work and wasn't so fun but we put our heads down and powered through it in about 3 days of packing, storing, trashing, & recycling. No sooner were we finished (on Dec 30th) than I jumped in my car, back still throbbing from carrying heavy boxes, and drove up to Raleigh for the night with my cousins then up the following morning, New Years Eve, at 4am to make a 6am flight to Austin, Texas to visit my friend, Amanda, and her sister, Laura, for New Years. I treated myself to a first class upgrade for the long portion of the trip from Raleigh, NC to Houston, TX and fell promptly asleep but woke up just in time to look out my window to see the day breaking on the last day of the year - it was pretty and made me smile. I was supposed to be in Houston at about 8:30am then fly out at 10:30 and be in Austin at 11:30am but tiny droplets of water made a mess of this. Fog delayed my flight out of Houston, then they changed the gate, then they delayed it longer, then delayed it longer still, then changed the gate again, then apparently played rock/paper/scissors over where the plane was even going to go and finally cancelled my flight to Austin. I dragged my tired ass to a very long line expecting to be told that I'd be put on another flight or at the worst that I'd have to rent a car and drive the 3 hours to Austin and stood quietly and watched customer after customer walk away from the counter with disgusted looks on their faces. There were some irate folks spewing some pretty hateful verbiage towards the poor people manning the counters and I decided that whatever happened to me I was going to be nice about it. When I finally had my turn at the desk I tried to smile and said simply "rough day huh?" to the woman behind the counter. Somehow by the will of (insert your favorite religious icon's name here) she managed to get me on the last available seat on the last available flight to Austin.

Upon arrival in Austin (at 8:30PM!! When I was supposed to be there at 11:30AM!!) I was shocked to find my bag patiently waiting for me completely intact - this was a concern because I was traveling dressed comfortably but not appropriately to go out on New Years Eve. Amanda had actually gone to the mall and purchased clothes for me to wear in case my bag didn't come - the stakes were serious I'm telling you.

Ok so here I am, 9 ish pm CST, been up since 4am EST, and I'm getting ready to go out for NYE. Anyone who's ever been out with me for New Years knows that I don't sit quietly in my pj's dozing and trying to keep my eyes open long enough to see the ball fall on TV. Amanda very politely offered to let me rest while she got ready to go out but I declined, got myself showered and dressed and started sipping on a cocktail. Between then and the next morning was a typical New Years blur of drinks, dancing, drinks, photos, drinks, a boisterous recognition of Happy New Year, and... well... drinks.

New Years day was beautiful and, although it got off to quite a rough start, we managed to retrieve the car from downtown Austin where we abandoned it for a cab ride home, have a little nutrition to revive our abused bodies and throbbing heads, have a fantastic brunch at Moonshine Grill and even take a nice walk on the Greenbelt

Rather than recount my entire trip to Austin I'll just say that it's a fantastic city. If you're the get outside and run/bike/swim/hike type you'll love it. People out running & biking everywhere and the sidewalks, trails & pedestrian lanes & bridges to support it. There was a playground my niece & nephew would have loved and it was swarming with hundreds of kids having a blast. All the restaurants had tons of different and healthy & vegetarian choices on the menu - I guess this might be expected in the city where Whole Foods is headquartered. Austin is also renowned for its music scene. South By Southwest is a huge music & film festival that takes place in early spring that I've always wanted to go to but have an even greater renewed interest in now that I've spent some time in Austin. Austin City Limits is another music festival which is supposed to be great as well.

I generally think of Texas as a haven for meat eating, Wal-Mart shopping, ultraconservative, racist, oil drilling, ravenous football fans (yeah that was a bit exaggerated I admit) but that's not what Austin is so I highly recommend it.

Alright I'm gonna leave it there for now - remember to stay on my back about posting once a week it's good for me to vocalize what I'm up to. Even though I leave a lot of stuff out of the post for personal reasons when I read back over it I remember for myself everything that I didn't write down and hopefully the people I shared those experiences with remember as well. Happy 2012! I hope yours started as well as mine has and I hope we all have a great year!