Today is my birthday. It’s only a day after Matt Mullenweg’s. As a little gift to myself and to him, I’m publishing a little post to reflect upon turning 35.

This past year was especially busy and special. I travelled quite a bit. Visited the family in Texas a lot. Spent some quality time with my aging grandparents. We roadtripped to Maine, Montauk, and traveled to Cancun for a lovely beach wedding. 2023 was full of plenty of ups and plenty of downs. We even roadtripped from NYC to Texas for Christmas and rang in the New Year from Washington DC.

I’m a little tired. Ready for much needed rest as winter begins to rev its arctic engines 😅

Initially, I had planned to plan a big birthday party for turning 35. Instead, this birthday weekend consists of a low-key weekend staycation at a mystery hotel in the city (planned by my partner)! Tomorrow evening, a few friends and I will get together for drinks, but nothing huge is really planned other than the standard social meetups.

I’m really looking forward to focusing on my health (yes, this includes my mental health as well) this year. I want to do more hiking and more exploring this year. If you too want to do more hiking and live in the tristate area, lemme know if you’re looking for a hiking buddy! I’m also beginning to feel the pains of growing older ever so slightly. So, I’m eager to stay in shape so I can continue doing what I love doing most.

Now, that I’m halfway through my 30’s, it’s time to organize my time and resources to spend a good deal of time with loved ones, re-connect with old friends and maintaining my current relationships. I hear it gets harder to make friends as you age, so I’m taking stock of who’s in my orbit now and trimming the fat so to speak.

In other news, this blog itself got a facelift. I was thinking, a new year calls for a new theme. Frankly, every time this blog gets a new theme, I get a renewed sense of urgency to blog more myself. Last year, I published about every other day. My big goal for 2024, it to double that.