On Why the 2000s Can DIAF

So, I think that I have spent every New Years Eve this decade hoping that the next year will be better than the last.

And it seems as if every following year seems to be as fucked, if not more fucked than the year before.

I don't think I am going to wish that anymore. Not that it was all bad ... I got married, graduated from college, got two awesome dogs. It is just that the bad seemed to overwhelm the good. I lost my grandparents on my moms side. I had two sinus surgeries. Countless trips to the emergency room for kidney stones. Watched people close to me suffer through painful physical and emotional traumas.

I spent pretty much the whole decade at the same place of employment, moving up and being an effective leader - only to be cut down in a pitiful manner. I feel like it is super fitting that I start my new job on the very first Monday of the new year. Change has been made and for that I am pumped up.

I got the chance to travel to some amazing places in the last 10 years. Tours to New York, Florida, and Europe with Chapel Choir. Trips to Texas and Chicago with J. There are SO many more places I want to go, but I do feel like I have been lucky to see the places I have so far.

I got to see many of my favorite bands ... Modest Mouse, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, REM, The National, Nine Inch Nails. I was never up front in the pit, but I always enjoyed the show, even from the back where the old people were.

And now without further ado ... some pictures from the 2000s