(As opposed to most of the content on this site, today’s post is going to be completely about me. No refunds after this point. If you’d prefer, here’s a random post.)
Got engaged this year. You’d think that would be life changing. Not life changing in that my actual life would be different, but life changing in the sense that I would feel somehow different. But I don’t. At least not about my relationship with Katie.
But people treat me differently now. My family, especially, is a little less…worried about me – I think. And that’s nice of them – both to worry in the first place and now to let me go – but it’s not just that. It’s like we’ve all been initiated into a different club, one that I for the first time, wasn’t in before them (my brother was married July 2009, sister November 2011).
So much more happened than that. Let’s review, in as chronological order as I can remember:
Chicago Interview
Was flown to Chicago for a real interview with a big company. They paid my expenses for the trip, too. Offered a hotel room, but I stayed with Katie’s parents. Although I ended up not getting the job, I felt wanted, and a bit special.
The trip was fortuitous as I was also able to ask Katie’s dad Michael for permission to marry her. It felt great to be a little traditional, and I knew she had hoped I would ask him before I proposed to her. Thought of myself as quite manly that day.
The half marathon
My rotund ass made it through my fifth half marathon just after that trip. I huffed and puffed my way to another 2:21, though it should be noted that I ran in Vibrams. (It’s harder okay? You try it.) Anyway, I survived and my dad again beat me. This was my last road race of the year.
The Proposal
The ring, purchased between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2010 and safely hidden from Katie in my office, was beginning to call out to me. I didn’t quite get all ‘Precious’ about it, but was having a progressively harder time waiting to pop the question.
The moment arrived when I saw a midnight screening of Scott Pilgrim by Andrea Beesley-Brown. One of Katie and my memorable first dates was a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show in Manhattan, during which we both kinda knew the other was the one.
And Scott Pilgrim is awesome.
We drove to Tempe and walked to the park, coffee in hand. Katie, ever the smooth one, jokingly asked “are you going to kill me” as we walked past shadows toward the picnic tables near the bridge. I smiled, sat her down and launched into a completely forgettable speech that neither of us can recall. Whatever I said, it worked. She said yes and we chest bumped, then high fived and then walked around for about 15 minutes, both eagerly awaiting our chance to broadcast our news to our friends. A flurry of texts, tweets and phone calls later, we walked hand-in-hand toward Madcap Theaters and sat through about half the movie.
It was simple, it was cheesy and it was very much us.
Mikey’s Bachelor Party
A few weeks later my childhood friends Kelley, Brian and Mikey (along with their Dad Dave and Mikey’s almost father-in-law and brother-in-law) came down for three days of Spring Training awesomeness. We hit up the Giants in Scottsdale, Angels in Tempe and Mariners in Peoria. We all had an absolute blast without hookers, blow or excessive alcohol consumption anywhere in sight.
Engagement Party
Thanks to Jonathan Kressaty and Melissa Conrey (I’m likely missing people. Sorry.) for throwing a fantastic shindig at Majerle’s in Chandler. We visited with friends, the Robinetts made it and Katie had an especially good time. I learned that Katie is tough to carry when very tipsy and that she handles hangovers like a champ.
Two Months With Vin
During most of this excitement, I was working with Vin Vallejo of Pro Fitness AZ as part of their Fat Loss challenge. Vin offered me free entry, along with five-times weekly training doing everything from punching bags to ring pull-ups and sprints to jumping rope. I threw up the first four Mondays, nearly passed out every day and ended up GAINING inches overall (my muscle gain was more than my fat loss, which is good). I didn’t come close to winning the contest, but I left stronger and, for first time, with pec muscles bigger than my gut.
Chicago Trip
Oh, and then we drove to Chicago and back. With a dog. Three days of travel (EACH WAY) to Katie’s parents home to fill up on art, sculptures and a surround-sound system that Michael and Frances couldn’t fit in their fifth wheel. Now permanent RVers, that Charland parents gave away almost everything they owned. We slept on floors, visited friends in the city and left with a carload of cool stuff.
We also discovered that I start to freak out after being in a car for more than 12 hours. Less than that I’m okay, but more than that and I get a little…skittish. It was great to stop in Oklahoma and stay with Stephanie, though we had to sneak Layla in during the night. The dog has serious abandonment issues.
(Katie and I have now driven to Chicago and back, Los Angeles and back (lots of times) and San Francisco and back, all in her 2009 Cube. We also lived in a 710-square-foot studio apartment for six months. If there’s any better tests to ensure we’ll get along while married, let me know.)
The Rest Of Spring
April and May took me to Houston for a speech, to south Scottsdale’s SkySong for Bob Diehl’s first TEDxScottsdale and a few local speeches. I’m sure I’m forgetting something awesome.
Mikey’s Wedding
Memorial Day marked the wedding of the last Robinett boy, as Mikey married fellow teacher Molly at a beautiful rock quarry in La Conner north of our hometown Kent. We had Nerf gun fights, I tried to avoid the pizza and I took my place as a groomsman next to his two brothers. We danced, we laughed and we had a blast. Katie didn’t make the trip.
Summer Brought Hell With It
And then the heat hit. June, July and August were spent mostly inside, as I detest the unbearable heat that smacks me in the face like a super-strong retarded kid. We took trips anywhere we could, and I made it to Disneyland with Don Crossland. The trip marked my second time at the happiest place on Earth, first since fifth grade, and not a damn thing changed. It was great. I tried dramamine for the first time and was pleasantly surprised to have it work, allowing to ride Space Mountain and anything I wanted without fear that I’d ralph all over the kid next to me.
Don was fully prepared to shove me out of the car if I puked during a ride, so I’m glad to have avoided that. I swear I rode the Octopus as a kid all the time until I busted my eardrum in high school. Now I get all dizzy whenever I go on rides. My inner child hates me.
Domino Project Street Team
I’ve been a fan of Seth Godin since I discovered Tribes. After listening to it almost five times while training for my first half marathon, I knew that I very much wanted to meet the man behind such great ideas. Then he released Linchpin, and my desire to work with him increased.
Enter the Domino Project. Envisioned as a way to bypass the middle man and publish directly through Amazon to readers, the Domino Project was Godin’s attempt at reinventing the publishing industry, or at least a small part of it. One of the reasons authors publish with large companies is because the individuals lack the money for large marketing pushes to attract readers.
The Domino Project Street Team looked to help with that. Recruited by Amber Rae, our group of around 70 people, along with a much larger group of hand-picked influencers, worked together to promote, question and start conversations about the books published by the Domino Project. The first release were quite successful.
As the experiment went on, the principal organizers and book creators finished their six-month commitment to Seth and moved on, leaving a leadership hole filled by me and Megan. We talked with Seth before each release, cajoled other members to write reviews and had a blast. I learned a ton about how damn hard it is to get people to buy books and also discovered that already having an audience is a prerequisite for being a successful author. The free books, helped, too.
StorytellersAZ
Inspired by the Domino Project, I finally got around to creating a podcast. My plan was to meet twice a month with other writers, salesman and storytellers and use the group to solve each other’s problems. At the end of our conversation, we’d head into the podcast studio and make two, 15-minute episodes to be published once a week.
We just released episode 27 and I couldn’t be happier with the group. Our numbers range from four to ten people every other week, but all are quality individuals with excellent ideas to add.
It is through this group I realized that most of my volunteering had been done out of guilt, which enabled me to say goodbye to a few things I didn’t like doing and hello to less things that I do.
PodcampAZ
While the event didn’t happen until mid-November, I spent most of the year leading the PodcampAZ team toward the fifth tech event in as many years. Thanks to the hard work of Chris Lee, we had a bit more money to spend than previous years, and took advantage by buying cool gifts for attendees, throwing before, during and after parties and hiring EventDay to handle all registration.
While this isn’t the first time I’ve planned events like this, it was the first time I was in charge of a team that was as dedicated as I was. We managed to rebrand the event as TechPhx while pulling off one helluva event, complete with about 200 attendees. It felt great to put a little trust in others to get stuff done and I was rewarded with a great weekend and plenty of praise.
Logan’s Wedding
A short seven days later, my sister had her wedding in Seattle at a former cafe. Katie and I both flew up, stayed at my parents’ house (in separate beds, of course. We’re not married yet.) and danced, talked and partied the night away with family friends. I paraded Katie around to friends and family and she was in all the family pictures, so I suppose this means there’s no turning back in getting married to her in March.
My sister looked great, the pictures captured everyone perfectly and her new husband Nick provoked many laughs (unintentionally, but the laughs were mostly with him) during his vows.
I’m very proud of my sister, but even more so proud of Nick. How he managed not to snuff her during the long years of dating, I have no idea.
Train To Portland
Next we spent a quick three days in Portland. Katie and I stayed with Amanda Blum, attended a Winterhawks’ game courtesy of Kelley Robinett and relaxed most of the days away. We would have liked to walk around a bit more, but unseasonably heavy rain (it usually stops for a while, this went on and on) coupled with us forgetting to hit my parents for rain gear kept us inside and loving it. Very gracious of Amanda to open her home so close to Thanksgiving for us.
Thanksgiving At Home
Katie spent her first Thanksgiving in Kent with me this year. 2011 also marked my first trip home for Thanksgiving since I left for Arizona nine years ago. My LAST Thanksgiving at home involved a high-ankle sprain, broken nose and hospital trip, so I’m happy to say this one went by less painfully. We ate until we were stuffed, watched too much Law and Order and endured the annual Christmas tree hunting trip to tease my family about every year.
California Christmas
It’s a rite of passage to spend holidays differently with your significant other, and this holiday season marked my first time ever away from my parents and Kent in 30 years. Seriously, I had NEVER spent a Christmas that I remember away from my home in Kent, WA. In fact, up until December 24, 2009, Christmas Eve was the only night every Hurst kid slept in my parents’ house. 2010 marked the last time my parents and I were all in our home for the night and this year, it was just my parents. My siblings visited both Eve and Day, but slept at their in-laws or at their own places.
The times, they are a changin’. And I’ve changed with them.
My New Year’s resolution? Finish my books. Yours?
