Looking Both Ways

A few days ago I was in a meeting and found myself gobsmacked that 2007 was nearly over. It seemed to go by so fast and in the moment I felt as though not a whole lot had happened. That is until I actually sat down to take a look back.

2007 began with a very late evening at Poe's Tavern and later on in the day a bunch of us donned our Team Zissou outfits for the annual polar bear plunge on Sullivan's Island. The New Year started off with lots of stuff going on at work and plenty of fun outside the office. I handed in the final draft of my book chapter to Wiley and got busy with other things.

The next few weeks of 2007 are sorta a blur for me. I did a bender of about 6 weeks on the road speaking, meeting with clients, and some more speaking. I racked up about 85,000 Delta sky miles in 2007 which is a lot for someone who's not supposed to be on the road all the time. I visited a few old favorites and managed to see some new places too.

All in all, I did over 20 presentations during the course of 2007. I surpassed my goal of speaking at the major industry conferences and spoke at events put on by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), and National Association of Independent School (NAIS). This was also the first year that I did the Blackbaud trifecta by speaking at all three of their conferences (Vancouver, London, and Charleston).

One wise thing I did along the way was to buy a new digital camera and take it everywhere I went. I probably took about 5,000 photos. Some great ones, some not-so-good ones, and a lot of very random ones too. The addition of an Apple TV also gave me some fun things to do with those photos.

Then May came around and my days of living on Sullivan's Island were over. The townhouse I bought on the Ashley River was finally done and I was on the move. Then came a few months of painting, painting, painting, and dealing with UPS. I bought nearly all my new furniture, appliances, lighting, and other stuff for the house online. The problem was that the street was brand new and not in anyone's GPS systems. So I had to constantly deal with UPS not showing up, but they eventually started tagging my packages with special instructions. At some point I should probably blog about what I learned about DIY interior design.

The other positive outcome of spending my weekends painting and supporting the economy was that I didn't do much work on the weekends. (Shhhh! Our little secret.) I have been a recovering work-a-holic for a long time now, but I believe I have finally kicked the habit. It certainly was good for my personal life and probably improved what I was getting done at the office. I now have a few winter projects I'm working on at the house with some things also on tap for the spring.

During my business travels I also find time for a little R&R. I saw Lewis Hamilton get his second career win at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, but sadly this could be the last race in the US for a while. It was a pretty exciting F1 season despite all the off-the-track Stepneygate stuff. I also saw Rush, my favorite band, three times this year. My favorite show was at Wembley Arena in London and was probably the best I've ever heard the band play.

2007 also meant a transition in how the creative part of my brain works. I've always been someone that needs to be building something or creating something. And this need to have a creative outlet has shown up in both my personal and professional life. This has usually meant a combination of hands-on stuff and thinking stuff, but I've slowly worked myself out of the "goo" of things at work. I have replaced a lot of the hands-on creative expression with things in my personal life like photography, painting, and some other new adventures.

As the year came to a close there were plenty of things to keep me busy. The book chapter I finished at the beginning of the year finally made it into print with the release of  People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. I'll be spending the early part of 2008 promoting the ideas and concepts in the book. I'll also be doing a lot more writing on some weblogs and in printed media as well.

I'll be spending the last few hours of 2007 watching the Indiana Hoosiers playing Oklahoma State University in the Insight Bowl. IU hasn't played in a post-season bowl game since I was a freshman in college. And then I'll be ringing in the New Year with some friends and doing my best to stay out of trouble. Until then...stay tuned...