Homepage Star Shaped

2023 was definitely a year, that's for sure, full of ups and downs as I fully embraced my phrase for the year, "challenge accepted". I did so many fantastic things in 2023 and hit some of the goals I've made, but it wasn't without its hard parts. Let's dive in!

The good!

• I ran a half marathon! I ran my last half marathon back in 2014 and I enjoyed it so much that I knew I'd want to run another one someday. Well, 9 years later, I did it! It was a way harder race than my first one and I was sore for days afterward, but I'm so glad I did it. Hopefully next time I train more so I'm not hurting after the fact!

• For the first time in my 17 year career, I got a promotion! I went from a senior front-end developer to a lead engineer, and I'm excited to see where this new role takes me within Lullabot and with clients in 2024.

• I spoke at 5 conferences in 2023, but I'll talk about those later on in the post.

• I wrote 13 blog posts in 2023, by far the most posts I've written in at least 10 years. I wrote reviews of albums I was too cool for in the 00s, posted two old mixtapes, and recapped a couple conferences I attended.

• I started playing D&D with a person I met through a local board game group. It's been fun playing with a group of people who are more heavily into the role-playing aspect of D&D, which means I've had to be more creative with developing my character's personality and backstory. It's been an interesting challenge!

• At long last, I finally got my tattoo fixed. I made the HUGE mistake of going swimming the day I got my tattoo in 2017 (I KNOW), so my hop tattoo has looked blotchy and weird for years. This year, I finally made the appointment to touch it up, and now it looks great! Next up, getting more tattoos...

• I attended one concert, They Might Be Giants, and saw one movie, Barbie. Both were excellent.

• I traveled a bunch: Palm Springs for the Lullabot retreat, Orlando for Florida Drupal Camp, Asheville with friends, DrupalCon Pittsburgh, Salem for Design 4 Drupal, Minneapolis for Twin Cities Drupal Camp, upstate NY for Rhinebeck, New York City, Bethesda for Drupal GovCon, and multiple trips to Providence and Boston.

The not good

• In the middle of the year, I discovered a moth infestation in my apartment. This has been so hard to deal with, even now--I had to throw out almost all of my yarn, a blanket my mom made me in the 90s, the Christmas stockings I've knit over the years, and a bunch of other things. I still have some yarn in my freezer and most of my clothes are still in plastic tubs, mainly because I'm scared the moths will return. I spent a lot of my summer really upset and freaked out that even more of my things would be ruined, but I'm crossing my fingers that I've taken care of the problem once and for all.

• Because of the above, my mental health wasn't the best in the second half of 2023. I spent the latter half of the year facing my shit head-on and dealing with things in my personal life that I've also needed to process for years. I guess 2023 was the year to do it! Even though I ended the year in a not so great state, I'm optimistic that the work I did on myself will pull me out of it and I'll build on the foundations I've created.

• We at Lullabot lost one of our coworkers, Hawkeye Tenderwolf, in 2023. I'm gutted that he's gone as he was a fantastic, intelligent, quirky person and he is greatly missed.

Speaking and writing elsewhere

As I mentioned above, I spoke at 5 conferences this year in 5 different states:

• In February, Adam Varn and I gave a talk at Florida Drupal Camp based off the post we wrote for the Lullabot blog, "New Things We Love and More Things We Want in CSS". (Read my blog post about Florida Drupal Camp.)

After that conference, I wrote a new talk, "Do you Still Need Sass in 2023?" and spoke at

• Design 4 Drupal in Salem, MA;
• Twin Cities Drupal Camp in Minneapolis, MN;
• Drupal GovCon in Bethesda, MD;
• and New England Drupal Camp in Providence, RI. (Read my blog post about NEDCamp.)

I am so happy to have spoken at so many different conferences in 2023 and I'm glad to have met so many new people.

As for 2024, I'm writing a new talk and am slated to give it at Florida Drupal Camp in February. I'm hoping to submit this new talk to other conferences in 2024 as well. Also, I'll find out in a little over a month if I'll be speaking at DrupalCon Portland!

Wrapping up

2023 was a strange year for me, a year where I worked on myself a LOT to get in the right space to make big changes in my life. In 2024, I'm hoping to make these changes and live the kind of life I want to live. I've also learned that perfectionism isn't my friend and it will be okay if I don't make every single change I want to make this year. Any progress is good progress and I've built a good foundation to make 2024 an excellent year.