2006: Personal Journal

my brother Daniel holding my daughter Emma for the first time, with a very excited Maddie sitting nearby.

Out of all my Columbus living years, 2006 likely ranks as the most insane of all — which is really saying a mouthful. As a result, it’s probably my favorite, too. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t necessarily the “best” or “most fun” among these years; it just happens to be the most absurd. Some of the things that happened this year I still can’t quite believe. But I was proud of myself too, for the most part, in the moment, with how I was handling everything, thinking even at the time, man, you’ve still got it! Regarding things like the bicycle odysseys and the nutso work schedule and a whole lot of other stuff. It felt like a nice return to form, and rivaling years like 1998 or 2001 on the personal accomplishment front. To this day some of what I pulled off in 2006 feels surreal. Most of all, my daughter Emma Lucille was born, which on its own is reason enough to consider this the all-time highlight.

Incidentally, I did initially fret when posting the first of these yearly online journals that maybe this was a step too far, that nobody would care about this junk. To my suprise, though, they consistently pull in way more traffic than the non-personal, events-calendar page I also create for every year. I don’t exactly believe these entries are incredibly remarkable or anything. It’s more like how they always say people want some kind of story, to draw them in. And I think maybe the daily journal entries…