The Occasional Solipsist

Well, no more sitting on the fence for me, no sir.

Yesterday I officially hit the ripe old age of 31.

So no longer can I kid myself that I am only a year out of my twenties: although my appearance and behaviour would suggest that I'm closer to a teenager, let alone what my emotional maturity says about me.

I usually use birthdays as a time to look forwards, imagine what the future might hold for my career, my life, the world around me. But I've been heavy into introspection lately, and find that this year I am doing a lot more looking behind me, maybe with good reason.

This past year has seen some major changes in my life, most notably the birth of our daughter. Between her, my wife, and work, there's not a lot of time left for anything else anymore, and that's just fine with me.

My web business has both grown and taken a hit this year: My business partner and I have shelved taking on major projects for the time being and have been taking on only small jobs, because both of us are working as consultants for an up and coming technology company. It's scary putting a potentially lucrative career on hold in the hopes that the company you're directing all your energies into takes off, but I've never been one to shy away from a good challenge. My only major complaint is that I have set up my career such that I don't have access to any security, benefits, vacation, all of which I will soon require as the sole breadwinner. But we'll see what happens.

And that's about all you'll ever see written here about work, as I'm not in any hurry to get dooced.

We've spent some money we could've saved instead this year: renovated the bejesus out of the 80 year old house we own; we bought a new car, officially called 'The Wagon Queen Family Truckster'. If you don't get the name, go rent the original Vacation.

I gained a little weight this year, and noticed a few new greys, some in more palatable places than others. I've stopped going to the gym and started practicing more yoga to pick up the slack.

I've blogged more often and with far less focus than before. On any given day, I might blog about my daughter, my wife, whatever game I'm playing, Smallville, or ranting about how silly the people that occupy this world are. Its kind of become a crap-shoot blog, and that's ok, because I'm all over the place, so why shouldn't my writing be?

But maybe being thirtysomething won't be so bad after all. When I look behind me, I see that I have a full, rich life, replete with reasons to face each new day with a smile.

Besides, it worked out all right for Timothy Busfield.