2010 At A Glance

Wow. What a year. 2009 closed with a bit of apprehension after a long stint of unemployment which - believe it or not - really stunk. 2010, however, has been jam-packed with all kinds of excitement.

First and foremost, my fiancée became my wife! My Mother and Father-in-law flew in from Japan and we spent a lot of great time together.

My Wife took them around Vancouver for a couple days and then we all went to the Island to visit my Aunt. When we did the long drive from Vancouver to Moyie (about 10 hours) I forgot my wallet at home so we had to turn around about an hour out of the city so I could retrieve it. It's a long drive up through the mountains and we stopped in lots of little towns along the way. We stopped in Osoyoos and thought, in the heat of the moment, that it might be a neat place to live. Looking back, I think that passion has worn off.

The wedding came off without a hitch despite some weather concerns. My Wife's best friend was able to make it to the wedding along with her parents. A friend of my Mom agreed to put them up at her place and I know they just loved it.

My Wife was gorgeous in her gown - so much that I started crying, like a big well-dressed baby, up at the alter. As mentioned before, there were some weather concerns when we got into town but the weather on the Wedding Day couldn't have been better. Blue Skies in all directions and plenty of sunshine. The only downside was that my Wife and her parents were badly bitten by Sand Flies. The rest of us were fine; I guess blood was more exotic and rare for the sand flies.

Afterwards we spent a week and a bit going around Canada: Banff, Jasper, Toronto, Quebec City, and Montreal. It was a super fun trip with all kinds of adventures to be had along the way!

My in-laws were in Love with the Mountains in Banff and Jasper, and my Father-in-Law was really digging that Alberta Beef. We ate one of our dinners at Bumper's Beef House in Banff and it was quite a feast. Every day after that my Father-in-Law would enthusiastically suggest steak and beer for dinner!

In Jasper we saw a double-rainbow, but this was before that stupid video showed up on YouTube so I'm not going to make any comparisons aside from the one I just made.

Banff and Jasper are two beautiful places that I'd love to go back to sometime. My Wife did a great job of planning our accommodations and everything went smoothly.

So, earlier I mentioned something about 2009 being a little apprehensive. Well, there was the Recession and I hadn't worked in a while but at the end of 2009 I was setting things up for 7 months of solid Freelance work with New Machine Studios out of Calgary. That was a great experience and I learned a lot. It was near the end of that contract that my Wife and I got married, so there were many details to juggle all at once. On top of it all, I took a small contract on the side for the Space Centre in Vancouver. Then, as the work with New Machine was winding down I got wind of another project which I'm now a Lead Animator for until this coming Summer! The two projects lined up perfectly and I enjoyed not a single day of downtime between the two. My current production is reaching full speed now so things are moving along at a good pace.

My Wife spent some time in Japan this year so I was in a position to re-live the glory of bachelorhood, something that I have to face a couple times a year when she travels home on her business trips. After you've been living the good life it's hard to go back to Ramen dinners every night - not that I dislike Ramen. On the contrary, I find it to be delicious and versatile.

Christmas was fun. We had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend. They make a really cute couple and it's cool to see my brother taking kindly to all the little domestic responsibilities. They put on a terrific meal and we had a great time watching Holiday Classics and getting nostalgic with retro video games from our childhood.

After that party wrapped we headed to the Island for a few days to visit my aunt. Her boyfriend is busy moving in so our relaxing holiday consisted of a lot more heavy lifting than I was expecting.

I just put in my last two work days of 2010 and now I look forward, eager to see what 2011 is going to throw at me. If it's even half as eventful as 2010 then I'm all for it.

Cheers.