In a year, I’ll be 30. Saying that out loud a few weeks ago did freak me out a little bit. Thirty is young! Worst case, I’m about 50% into my life span and best case, I’m 30% there. Ages 0-19 took forever. I couldn’t wait to grow up and the last 10 years actually went by slowly. It takes me a while to recount my favorite moments of my 20s. so much happened and I loved almost all of it. The past year specifically has been one of my favorites but I also let myself get just a little bit bored. A good overall summary of my last 12 months on Earth would be:
- I traveled a lot and spent more money on travel than I responsibly should have
- I continued my beer hobby at the expense of my health and finances
- I worked very hard at my primary and secondary income. My primary work life is better than ever and my secondary is struggling quite a bit
- I further improved my ability to take care of my things, upgrade to more mature hobbies and toys
- I actually grew my social circle and at least solidified some of the friendships I have with people local to me mostly by the continued absence of social media usage (that began in late 2013)
Travel:
Traveling the world is an addiction that I never want to be freed of. Planning or lack thereof a trip to see a new place or a familiar favorite away from your home and comforts is exciting. There’s the moment when you buy the transport ticket or map out your route online that things begin to feel real. I prefer traveling alone but have spent a lot of time with Heather going to places and we are very good travel buddies, even before we were dating. From March 2014 to May 2015, I visited Belgium 4 times and to France, Turkey, Sweden, Copenhagen, Munich and Netherlands once. I was in San Francisco a lot last year and that role has tapered off for the time being.
Belgium has become my favorite place away from home. I could foresee living there one day if work every needed me to relocate. The people, food, scenery and culture are addictive. You’re an hour from France, 2 hours from Amsterdam and a train ride away from London from Brussels. I committed to one Europe trip a year for the foreseeable future. I wasn’t responsible by visiting my European friends so often last year and in 2016, I’ll visit Belgium and Champagne one time and that’ll be it for overseas travel. I am planning a 2-week long Road trip in January down to the Florida Keys, over to Austin via New Orleans and a few days on the Bourbon trail and home via Nashville, Columbus and Niagara Falls.The project manager in me is really enjoying the planning stages.
Work:
Speaking of project management, work is going very well. I have a new manager, a new desk and an evolved role. September 7th marks my 5th anniversary at this company. It’s the longest full-time job I’ve ever held. Part time blogging still trumps it but I love this company, the people and what we create. Map-making is essential to everyone that is mobile. The freedom to move is one of our slogans and I help facilitate that along with a few thousand experts.The work we’re doing is changing the world.
Aside from the day to day work which can’t be discussed openly, my skill set as a project manager has grown immensely. I never thought I’d master Microsoft Excel but I have. Being organized at work has helped me in my personal life. Documentation, communication, organization and attention to detail. These are good traits to have and they are reinforced daily as I navigate the corporate hierarchy to get things done.
Beer:
It’s hard to talk about the last year without thinking back on my exploration of craft beer and the people I befriend through the hobby. There have been some realizations toward my inability to lose weight because I refused to reduce beer consumption or the resale of my car being lower because I drove so much for beer events and there’s the financial loss when you tally up what you spent at one single brewer in 2014 and the total is around $6,500. That’s one brewery. That’s not the gas and travel expenses I incur by going to Europe, Chicago, San Francisco, the trading of beers and the UPS bills, the mental time spent every night on forums reading about beers. That’s money spent at one brewery.
It really is depressing.
The last 3-4 years as a beer rater on RateBeer has been great but being able to put money down on a house by now if I wasn’t in this hobby is a realization that I think on almost every day. I haven’t spent money on alcohol in one full month. I aim to continue that with a few exceptions. I can purchase a keg of IPA for my Kegerator every 4-5 weeks ($150) and I can participate in shares of beer once per month (less gas usage) and I can take 2 trips per year for beer (Chicago, Belgium). There are other things I can do like exercise my buying rights in a few beer, cider, mead clubs I’m a member of and buy the minimum of the allocated bottles I’m owed (I can buy 6 of one beer but I choose to buy one instead) but the spending is way down.
Health:
The other result of this new financial break is that, since March, I’ve lost 20 pounds of body fat. I could lose about 50-70 more but I’d be extremely skinny at that point. It’s a journey worth continuing but I’m not stressing about it every day. I weigh myself every few days and stay the course. Some rules I setup:
- No drinking beer during the week..maybe 1 glass of beer on one week night a week
- Whiskey (one dram) is fine every night if I’d like as it has 60-80 calories
- Very light vegetarian breakfast
- Cut out almost all bread and dairy (except cheese. i love cheese)
- Salad every single day for lunch
- Salad or similar calorie dinner
I’m now a Chandler:
Finally, this isn’t something that was taken lightly. I spoke at great-length about my name change a month ago and I’m re-iterating it here. Adam Chandler. It sounds great and more importantly, it’s my dad’s family name. If I ever started a family, I’d be passing that name. Pretty big. I don’t think there is much to say about this that hasn’t already been said but I love the new name and I’m happy to share this name with you all and that the domain name was available :)
Closing and Thoughts on 30:
This past year was such a whirlwind that I don’t quite know how I’m going to top it over the next 12 months. As usual, I spend my birthday alone. I like the time to reflect and since it’s just like any other day, I read and write and sip on some wine and ultimately, take everything in while in a place of solitude. It’s going to be a good year. Another year at TomTom, in New Hampshire, with my new car and taking on more photography gigs. Less travel but more learning. An intense focus in increasing my knowledge and maybe turning some hobbies into some extra money on the side. I’ll keep losing weight until I’m 50 pounds lighter and I hope that extends my life and I’ll feel much happier about my impact on the world and saving a bit of money on clothing.
That’s all for now. Thank you as always for taking the time out of your day to read my rumblings. It means a lot to me. Of the thousands of readers, I may only know 2-3 of you but it’s a great thing to have you visit once a month to see what I’m doing. You have my gratitude.