In last year’s curation, three of my five artifacts involved Jenna, but it could have easily been all five! This is the person who I tell everything to (usually multiple times so my storytelling becomes annoying) and do everything with (our marriage motto is “Everything Together,” and we hold true to that mantra). So this year we had dozens of experiences that we shared, but for the sake of time and space, I’ll focus on two.
We joined the UFC gym! I’ve been hitting the heavy bag for twenty years now, but I was never formally trained. I’d watch YouTube videos and get tips from guys at my gym who boxed, but I never had formal lessons. Jenna bought me some boxing lessons at a UFC gym for Christmas, and the lessons came with a month trial membership. The boxing classes were some of the best workouts I ever had, and when Jenna joined me with a guest pass, she fell in love with it too. We both joined the UFC gym for the summer, and boxed at least three times a week! We even brought friends to the gym with us when they were visiting (the pics are from the day we brought our friend Lacey). I obviously loved learning some actual boxing techniques after all this time, but I also loved that Jenna and I went to the workouts together and motivated each other. We’d always choose heavy bags next to one another, and when I was getting tired, I would look at her hitting the bag for inspiration. She is always my workout role model!
Above: in front of the Kilkenny Hurling statue during our bike tour. Right: the cliffs of Moher
If you know my wife, you know she is always planning our next vacation, so last summer we went to Ireland. I have been crushing on Irish culture for a while, and Jenna was also interested in exploring the country, so it was an easy pick. Although I killed the vibe a bit by smashing the side of our rental car on our second day there, the vacation was really fun. We explored the cities as well as the countryside and ate lots of Irish delicacies (Jenna was really just looking for a good salad, but I had lamb stew and Guinness stew, I had an amazing seafood dinner in Dingle, and we both ate many Irish scones). It’s funny how some of the places I wasn’t excited about ended up being the most amazing (like kissing The Blarney Stone) and my belief that nature and outdoor parks are better than cities was once again proven true. The Cliffs of Moher were amazing (even though I was marginally nervous about falling and dying), and I loved that we were hiking outside. Here are some other small details I recall.
Our bike tour of Kilkenny, which felt like Jason was just an old friend showing us around his neighborhood.
Watching hurling and falling in love with it. (Quick note: You play for the County you were born in. You can’t get traded to another team. So when you root for the County you’re from, you know everyone on that team is from that County. Also, all the players are semi-professional, so they also have day jobs. They look and play like professional athletes, but they’re also electricians and doctors and the like. Such cool guys to root for!)
The fact that you hear seagulls at night in Dublin.
The cabbie who drove us from the airport and overcharged us.
This really doesn't scratch the surface of how much fun we had this year. We went exploring St. Augustine, Florida on bikes (and found some great tacos), we celebrated tons of birthdays and milestones (Brian and Kristen's engagement and Jackie and Mike's wedding), and we competed in athletic events (you'll see The Cow Harbor 10K and The Rugged Maniac in the page about my "Babylon friends"). Long story way too short, t was an amazing year with my best friend, and one small web page just can't capture it all.