2008: a Retrospect

Well, it looks like some of my blogging friends (wezlo, Jamison, and Michael, to be precise) have put up year-in-review posts, so I guess I’ll bow to peer pressure and do one, too. Of course, I already posted a year in review post back in September. That is because September 1 is the beginning of the Orthodox liturgical year, and, honestly, I think starting a new year around the beginning of Autumn makes a heck of a lot more sense than starting it in Winter, but that’s probably just me.

As I said in that post, there have been a lot of new beginnings this year.

To start the year off well, I got married. Kristen and I had been dating for 3 years when I proposed to her in May of 2007 (the link is to my old blog; I haven’t yet figured out how to—or if I can—copy those entries over here). In January of this year, we finally “tied the knot.” I don’t know what I was really expecting marriage to be like, but I’m pretty sure it beats whatever expectations I had.

While being a newlywed has rocked, it’s also made this a challenging year. We have had to learn to live together, and to live on a more limited budget than I’d been used to. Of course, the challenges are definately worth it.

Not too long after we got used to living in our apartment together, though, we took a huge step and bought a house. This had been our plan from the beginning (when I moved into the apartment in November 2007, I only signed a 6-month lease), but we could have planned it a bit better. We had decided to take advantage of a 0%-down loan, and, as it happened, timed our buying a house right around the time that banks stopped giving those loans.

For our real estate agent, I looked up a guy I had played with in the orchestra at our former church. He was able to help us out immensely, from finding a good house in our price range to navigating the process of buying it. Between him and advice from some of our other friends and family, I think we ended up with a pretty good house; especially considering we bought it as a foreclosure!

Thanks to a little mix-up with our lender, I had a very stressful weekend a week or two before we were due to close on the house where I was afraid we were going to have to a) come up with 3% down in a few days (which was all our savings, and, at the moment, was tied up in CDs), or b) walk on the house, lose the security deposit we had put down, and figure out where we were going to live, since I had already notified the apartment complex that I would not be renewing my lease. However, our lender worked things out in the end, and we were able to get the loan after-all.

So, long story short, in April we closed on our first house.

I learned a few things in the whole process: while I think I could do well in business, I just don’t have the energy for it. I think if I were ambitious enough, I could make my way through all the stuff involved, but I’d honestly rather just sit at my desk and write programs. At the same time, I’ve also learned that I cannot afford to be ignorant. I need to start learning more about how money works, and how all these things connected to it work. Finally, buying a house is stressful, and I don’t think I ever want to do it again; at least, not until I have to.

We had about a month to relax and settle into our house when, in May, a big storm hit. Last I heard, we had a microburst, but the damage seemed too linear for that. Anyway, I have never been more grateful to have a basement than I was that evening. A couple people I know ended up with trees on their houses. One neighborhood got it really bad. Our Governer declared us a disaster area.

By the grace of God, however, we were spared much damage. In fact, the storm actually worked out well for us, because there were a number of small repair jobs that needed to be done around the exterior of the house. Thanks to the storm, however, most of those ended up being paid for by our insurance company. Most notably, we ended up just getting a whole new roof!

I guess you could say I have had a crash course in home ownership.

A couple months later, we welcomed a new addition to the family: our puppy, Luna. We picked her out from her sisters at an animal rescue shelter that had come to a local PetsMart. We’ve had her since July, and we’re still not sure what she is. The shelter said she was a Lab mix, and Kristen thinks there must be some sighthound and some terrier in her. She has been a ball of energy ever since she got used to us, and, while she is sometimes hard to handle and frustrates us, she gives a lot of life to our home. I can’t imagine our house without her, now.

During all of this, I was slowly coming to realize something: I didn’t want to write software in MUMPS for the rest of my life. As much as I loved the company I was working for, and the people I was working with, I began to realize that it may be time for me to move on, and get a job using a more widely-marketable language. No sooner did I mention to some friends that I was thinking about moving on than two of them told me their companies were hiring. I decided to send my resume to them and see what happened. Within a couple weeks, I found myself accepting a new job, and having to turn in my resignation.

While I was excited about the new prospect, I was very sad to leave my old company. I will always be grateful for my time there, the people I worked with, and all the growing I was able to do there. I live near enough to some of my former coworkers, I could hang out with them from time to time. I really should; they’re cool people.

I’m really enjoying my new job. I get to work in C++, which, while definately not at the edge of the curve, is still a widely-used language and will certainly make me marketable in the future. I’ve also gotten a little bit of experience working with ASP .NET and C#, and hope to expand my knowledge of those languages in the future. I like the people I work with here, too, both at the office and at the client site.

At the same time I started my new job, Kristen also started a new job. Because she works farther away, she has to leave before I would normally think to get up. This also means we definately have to go to bed earlier, which has been difficult for me to get used to. I prefer staying up late at nights, and sleeping in in the mornings. In addition, I had to install a doggie door after a particular incident where our dog ran wild in the house while we were gone. Now, she can come in to get out of the weather, but she runs wild in the yard.

Of course, there was the election and the economy, and, depressing as they were, I can’t just ignore them. I’m just afraid of what they’re going to mean for this coming year. I’m curious if, in the future, it will be 2008 or 2009 that people will pinpoint as the year the fecal matter, as they say, hit the oscillating rotary blade device.

So, going into this year, I remind myself that God is good. I thank him for all the blessings, and for the few sufferings, I’ve received in the past year, and I pray for grace to trust that whatever happens in the year to come is for our salvation.