panel on stage

My 2024 in review

I closed last year having felt that I set a new normal I hoped to continue in 2024. I was right.

I traveled a bit more, spoke a bit more, wrote a bit more, all while feeling more comfortable as a parent and a bit more certain where my company had to go. Plenty of vulnerabilities remain but I feel more comfortable in my life post-pandemic and post-kid. I am blessed, if challenged.

Below I share the highlights.

Here’s a look at some highlights, with a mix of personal and professional:

  • I won back-to-back flag-football championships for an annual NRG-hosted charity football game for members of Philly media
  • With Patrick, I crushed grapes for his wine-making the second year
  • Right before the year ended, I successfully sold a children’s board book (!) to a publisher, more TK on that
  • I attended a big regional discussion of economic mobility, a topic of great interest to me
  • I took my oldest kid to her first Phillies game
  • I took a tour of several old Pennsylvania whiskey sites, including the abandoned Broad Ford Overholt Distillery (below) and the site of the Old Michter’s Distillery
The abandoned Broad Ford Overholt distillery in western Pennsylvania
  • Though it didn’t work out, I did in fact source a whiskey to be the house rye of the American Rye Whiskey Museum, which I’ll return to someday
Downtheshore
  • I went downtheshore with family, like always, with a couple kids in tow
  • I went to my first seafood boil, hosted by neighbors
  • I tabled (again) at an annual neighborhood senior fair, this time talking about Technically’s 250-year vision making

  • My company’s annual All Team Day closed with our company holiday party at “Beat the Bomb,” a new play on an escape room (it was fun!)
  • My oldest kid was in a proper soccer league for the first time (she even scored a couple goals!)
  • I went to Oaxaca with my boy Sean (which included a dinner course with Chef Adhey)
  • I kept my drinking down and my activity back up, post pandemic
  • Childhood friends and I kept up our annual Personal Finance Day, to kick off the year
  • I voted and wrote about the presidential election
  • I made (instant-yeast) bread for the first time
  • I kept up my heavy book reading, crossing 30 books for the year (and no, not counting a few hundred children’s books!) and plenty of great journalism
  • I started the year with a post-pandemic birthday party at the Germantown Cricket Club bowling alley with my best buddy Patrick!
  • I got on a plane for Jamaica, Oaxaca, SXSW, Chattanooga
  • I organized, and hosted, my 20-year high school reunion!
  • I did tailgating at a Penn State football game to hangout (after said honeymoon!)
  • I went to a Sixers game with the boys for Patrick’s mini babymoon!
  • I went abroad (briefly) with SACM for the first time since before the pandemic
  • My youngest baby had surgery to insert ear tubes; it was scary but ok!
  • I used an angle-grinder to get myself out of a pickle, in which I lost my bicycle clock key

Now, a check on my resolutions for the year:

  • January: Make partner in a whiskey business. [FAILED] Whoops, this took a strange turn. After finding a sourcing partner (see above) and even looking at venues, my budding partner had a major life event, so this has been entirely sidelined for now.
  • February: Answer: What’s next for my book? [REACHED] After poking around, I’ve resigned to releasing this as an ebook in the new year (And so made it a 2025 resolution)
  • March: Have my byline published in a national publication as part of a new writing stage.  [REACHED] I cut it close, but I did get a whiskey story taken by Men’s Journal.
  • April: Publish another video with 100k+ views.  [REACHED] Not on one platform, but my 50k view TikTok also reached similar numbers on Instagram and Linkedin
  • May: Finalize a next phase for the Philly Tech Week transition.  [REACHED] It’s on-going and involved but I’m deep into this.
Three friends with a beer
  • June: Organize a monthly date with each of my three babes.  [PARTIAL] I didn’t do as much one-on-one with each of my kids but I fulfilled the spirit of this, including a beachy long weekend
  • July: Conclude my tenure on the Workshop Board.  [REACHED] Yes, I proudly transitioned off and have kept in contact with a school I care so much about.
  • August: Weigh 190 again.  [FAILED] Not quite, though close.
  • September: Determine what’s next for our Co.Author Writers Coworking Community.  [REACHED] Though it didn’t fulfill what my friend Eric and I wanted, I’m continuing on, with a re-signed lease and a new resolution.
  • October: Read sheet music well enough to play basic melodies on the piano.  [REACHED] I’m no expert but from where I started in the pandemic, I am an awkward amateur but I get the basics.
  • November: Travel Abroad.  [REACHED] Yes! Both with Shannon and to Oaxaca with Sean
  • December: Finish a profitable year for Technically. [REACHED] Barely, with a tiny tiny margin and technically, but hey we did accomplish this!

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