So long 2010

I once read that the most common first line of any personal blog is, "Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged!" and that is exactly how I feel about my blogging experiences.

It's been so long!

Last year I wrote a blog about 2009 (http://bit.ly/eociyv) so I think it is only fitting to start recapping 2010.

I didn't do near as much traveling as I did in 2009 but I still was able to venture out of Oklahoma for a bit.

In March I went down-under to Australia. Australia was a very unique trip. It was definitely a little outside of my comfort zone. The flights were between 15-17 hours at a time and a total of 24 hours getting there which was quite rough on the body, especially when you only have 5 days to spend there and come back to Oklahoma to go throught the jet-lag all over again.
In Australia, I got see a professional Cricket match in Melbourne, watch tons of rugby, try to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef and surf on the coast of Sydney. Australia, I could live there, but for future travels, I think I'll stick north of the equator.

I bought a car this year (nothing fancy, '03 Civic) but it was a huge upgrade from the 17-yr old 190,000 Honda Accord I was driving...how I was able to pick up a girl like Marek in that car is beyond me.

The OKC Thunder finished the 09/10 season with 50 wins...obliterating the season before's 23 wins. As I write this, they are 26 games into the 10/11 season and are 18-8 and on pace for 57 wins. The team is incredible to watch from the stands and I constantly remind myself how lucky I am to transcribe player interviews after the home games. Not only do I get to witness their dominance from the stands but I actually get to see their character "behind the scenes" and these guys are the real deal. Over and over I've witnessed acts of kindness from these players when the cameras are off...great things that just can't be found throughout other teams around the league. We are not only blessed to have a team from the NBA in OKC, we are blessed to have THIS team from the NBA in OKC.

Maps 3 passed in 2009 and we just had the one-year anniversary of the historic date. As coalition teams are being formed and locations/details are being hammered out, one bit of great news has come about...sales projections. The penny sales tax is generating more money then the analysts figured...and that's a good thing considering the haters of Maps 3's complained we wouldn't reach the $775million goal at the end...haters will hate.

Sandridge also began the destruction/construction of their complex:



This has been exciting/depressing to watch. I'm sure the final product will be MUCH better than watching the dilapidated buildings sit there for decades but (as a fan of history and urban development) it was kind of sad to see the buildings get knocked down and not put to use.

Devon is currently constructing their 24th floor (of 50). Cranes are now taller than the Chase Tower (Cotter Ranch) and everyday I get to walk in view of the entire building during my two block walk from the parking garage.
Project 180 started this year, "the three year, $140 million redesign of downtown streets, sidewalks, parks and plazas to improve appearance and make the central core more pedestrian friendly" which has completely put every downtown worker in a frenzy. It seems like every road is torn-up, closed or down to one-lane. Crazy stuff.

On a more personal level, dad was named Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine and the World Mayor Project named him the 2nd best mayor in the world...sometimes all the accolades still don't balance out the negatives said by the few online trolls trying to make a name for themselves.

I got my first dog this year! Mr. Bogart Cornett (Bouvier des Flandres). He is spoiling me on owning a dog. Best dog ever.



I am still working at Jones PR and recently got promoted to Account Executive. It was a happy/sad week as getting promoted is great, but the same week my working mentor, THE Sam Sims, moved on to another company...the random Family Guy comments around the office have now sadly stopped.

In world news, the BP oil spill this summer was probably the biggest man-made disaster Mother Earth has had to recover from.

33 Chilean Miners were trapped underground for 69 days.

The SF Giants won their first World Series since 1954 (I got to go to game 4 in Texas and watch Bumgarner dominate).

The Colts lost to the Saints in the Super Bowl. booooooooooo

Facebook surpassed Google as the most popular online site, currently boasting 550,000,000 and company CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Person of the Year.

So long, '10. It's been fun.

Cains Day 5

Today started with a breakfast at Hungry Jacks (what they call "Burger King") and on the tram to the airport to see if our flight to Cains is still intact.

We arrive, everything is a "go" so we head through the "security" they have and wait at the gate. The travel is starting to set in as I am quickly figuring out that I need a time of rest. The 3 hour flight did just the trick.

That flight I was able to put headphones on and listen to music for the first time in over week...and when I say "music" I mean truly recorded music. Those of you that have traveled (or spent much time around me) know that I love to just bust out/join in to any song being played or collectively sung in any group. Doug is the same way. We have had many tunes busted out in harmony (or our best rendition of harmony) along the urban city walks...giving more soul to these already vibrant downtowns.

We didn't know what to expect today (sound familiar?) with the weather and our goals of wanting to SCUBA today...if we were going to Scuba today HAD to be the day because of the general rule that you must wait at least 18 hours before boarding a plane after Scuba diving and we will be on a plane tomorrow evening so trying tomorrow is out of the question.

We check into the hotel, after a very political one-sided conversation had by our taxi driver about his dislike for former President "W", and head to a scuba check-in...not happening. The water is waaaaay too choppy today and no boats are going out to the reef. Our only option (and one that we took) was to make reservations for the tomorrow morning to snorkel instead...I've snorkeled before and know that it is awesome, maybe it is no match for Scuba diving but still pretty cool.

After getting the "no Scuba" news we head down to the beach to quickly learn that there is no accessible beach in this "beach town". There is a very large and very nice pool with lots of trees and grass and people laying out though. We see it...and move on.

After walking the pier looking out onto the "beach" which is blocked off and looks more like an enormous drying up lake, we decide to walk into a restaurant and order a drink and take some suggestions on what to do in this town. The waitress, Margaret, delivers perfectly on cue so I interviewed her:

After we left Splash, we walked over to the visitor's bureau and booked up tomorrow's afternoon with a sea-plane flyover of the Great Barrier Reef scheduled right after we get back from snorkeling and right before we head to the airport. It SHOULD work out perfectly.

After we booked the tickets, we took the visitor bureau lady's advice and headed to some rooftop-zoo thing in the city center...great idea.

In this zoo-thing we were encapsulated with practically no barriers to all kinds of huge parrots that repeatedly dive-bombed us, there was an enclosed enormous crocodile, koala bear, iguanas and a few kangaroo-looking wallabys hopping around too...pretty cool environment.

After that we headed back to the hotel to rejuvenate, write some blog stuff, upload photos/videos then back out to that Splash restaurant for some fresh seafood to the likes of chowder and prawn spring rolls...yum!

(Note: Against my best efforts and much valuable time spent on the computer uploading, videos and photos have been the thorn in my side. I spent hours on this trip trying to get the videos I want uploaded for you to see along with the blog but it just hasn't worked out too well. Most of them will have to wait til I get back to the states...the level of frustration is high against electronics right now.)