The LincolnInCleveland 2009 Annual Report

As we wind up 2009 it's interesting to take a few minutes to look back on the year behind:

Travel: Still haven't left the continent, but crossed off states #25 (Tennessee), 26 (Minnesota), and 27 (Wisconsin) on my list. I was in the air 25,465 miles for nearly 59 hours, bringing my total since 2003 to 151,102 miles, and 392 hours, equivalent to a little over 6 times around the world in 2 1/3 weeks. Since January 1st I spent 53 nights in 26 hotels, all but 5 of those being work related.

Highlights included two extended visits to San Francisco and a spur-of-the moment weekend in Philadelphia -- both cities that I last visited when I was much younger and very pleasantly surprised on my solo visits. Both cities are immensely walkable and there's something liberating about being in a city without a rental car or GPS. "Its amazing what you can find when you aren't looking for it" is my motto to justify not making plans before arriving in a city... and I've yet to be disappointed.

Thanks to a friend of a friend I visited all four of the Walt Disney World Resorts (Disney World, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios) for the first time while on business in Orlando -- have some great memories and Disney World brought back some weird de ja vu compared to the west coast's Disneyland. I also made it to Cedar Point for the first time...that's just pure awesomeness.

Oh, the places I've been... My travel by land and air through 12/29 - click for the big version:

Performing Arts: The beginning of the year saw the end of my challenge to attend at least one performing art event each week, every week, for a year. Not only did I complete this goal, recently my average attendance has been 2-3 per week, with a high in the beginning of December of 5 events in 5 days. And there are still events I was interested in that I managed to miss.

I discovered the musical Spring Awakening and stalked it across the country -- 6 times in 3 states, but the most amazingly memorable performance was when I was on stage in Philadelphia. Words cannot describe. I might still wind up in in Hershey or Cincinnati to try for #7.

The more you listen, the more you learn and I became a common sight at Cleveland Orchestra concerts. I discovered a passion for classical music that I am still exploring, through the Orchestra, CIM, and the [HUGE] number of organizations dedicated to the art in Cleveland.

I found that I prefer classical live and contemporary recorded -- my iTunes music collection passed the 4,400 track mark covering 400 years and virtually every known genre. The 20GB iPod I thought was insanely huge 5 years ago is now completely full... my iPod touch has a sliver of room remaining.

Singleness: I met more women in 2009 than the rest of the decade combined... but still haven't found someone with whom things have clicked. Maybe my standards are too high. I'm not lowering my standards any time soon. (I'm tempted to add that women tend to silently fall of the face of the earth making the not interested/interested but playing games/out of town thing so much harder to figure out, but that may fall into the category of "rash generalization")

I think that sums up the major areas in my life...


Lincoln