1999 was probably one of my worst years.  It included lots of friends moving away, a rather awful breakup, and 2 funerals, one of which was for a friend from college.  I was very happy to be done with that year.

New Year’s 2000 was celebrated with a few friends from Wesleyan hanging out in my apartment in Beacon for the weekend.  We play some video games, and went and saw Galaxy Quest on a lark after the new year.  That turned out to be one of my favorite movies.

My future game plan on Jan 1 2000 was pretty much 2 fold.  #1 go to the Sydney Olympics on IBM’s dime (I was on the olympics.com team already at that point).  #2 leave IBM as soon as I got back and join another tech company in either Boston or SF.  My friend Trey and I had some tentative plans to collectively move to one of those cities and be roommates.  The one thing I could have said with certainty in January 2000 was that I would not be at IBM 10 years later.  Man, predictions are hard. 🙂

The 2 events that most shaped my decade happened in 2001.  In January 2001, I made a decision to stay at IBM.  I had an offer on the table from another company that would have taken me to Cambridge, but staying at IBM meant moving to the Linux Technology Center, which I really wanted to do.  In June 2001 I met my future wife, Susan Tveekrem.  We met at my parents house in Vermont, and I can still remember sitting next to her on the ramp up to the deck chatting with her.  5 years later she would be escorted by her father down that ramp in a beautiful white dress.

The other 2 events that get honorable mention for the decade both happened in 2003.  In March 2003 the first MHVLUG meeting was held.  I consider creating and maintaining that group to be one of my major constructive accomplishments.  I learned a lot about people, group dynamics, and community building through that.  I also made an incredible number of friends through that group.  In September 2003, through some encouragement by Susan, I went back to school.  6 years later I’d graduate with a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Marist College.  Working on that degree defined a lot of the decade as homework and exams were often constraints on many aspects of our lives.

Susan and I celebrated the end of the naughts at our house last night, with about 10 friends, many made through or because of MHVLUG, playing games till about 2 in the morning.  Lots of great fun, and a good way to start off the Teens.