Hey, so I've decided to go back to writing on my blog. Writing here has helped me sort things out for myself, I've been going back to my old posts and I must say that I'm glad I didn't just delete the blog.
This thing here is just going to be me putting whatever comes to my head, there's no thread or order or purpose other than to help me organize what's going on in my life at the moment.
If you are still reading this, um, thank you?
Anyway, since my last post a lot of stuff has happened so I wanted to write one of those posts to catch up on the latest.
Let me go in chronological order
2016
Trump's victory in the 2016 election was a surprise. I didn't think he was going to win, so I spent a lot of time and energy trying to make sense of it. How did it happen? I read a lot of different explanations but after a lot of digging, and a lot of reading I understood the obvious reason. It's racism. Maybe I should explain myself, list the books make the argument, I might or might not. If I do, it would be entirely for my own benefit, I know better than to think I can change someone's mind on the internet about a subject as touchy and explosive as this.
I have put a reading list at the end of this post if you are interesting in knowing more about how racism got Trump elected.
2017
Jolyne came out as trans to us. It was not easy or simple for any of us, but our first reaction was "we will love you and support you no matter what" and that was that. I set out to understand everything first before making decisions.
In 2017 we had a big trip all of us went to Europe. We flew to Spain, visited Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona. Then we took a train to Paris and finally London.
During the trip the Unite the Right Rally happened in Charlottesville, as well as the attack in Las Ramblas Barcelona, I was meeting with my cousin in Barcelona in Las Ramblas the night before the attacks happened.
2018
In 2018 I started working for Amazon. This is something that I had wanted for a long time. It felt like a big win for me. I have a lot to say about working there, it's most definitely the best job I've ever had but it's the most challenging.
In the summer Martha and I took a big trip to Budapest.
2019
In 2019 we bought a house! Buying a house in Seattle is hard. We got lucky we found something we wanted after years of trying and failing we found the perfect house. Well, nothing is perfect but this is the only place we saw that we both said "this is it, this is the one" as soon as we walked in.
In 2019 we got Petunia. I didn't want a dog, but now this dog pretty much owns me.
Amazon sent me on work trips to Vancouver, Canada, Toronto, Madrid for a couple weeks and Brisbane, Australia.
Martha planned an awesome trip for the whole family to Munich during Octoberfest.
2020
We started the year with a trip to Copenhagen with a brief stay in Iceland late February early March, this is right before the pandemic started in earnest in the US. We thought we were going to be stranded in Denmark but we made it back and then Covid started.
This is the year I decided to learn to ski so that I could go with Gaby.
During the pandemic I made bread, beer and learned to mix cocktails.
Jolyne started her transition after months of therapy, the change in her personality was like night and day. It's like she is living her life as her true self and wow I have absolutely zero doubt that it was the right decision.
2021
Went to Jackson Hole WY during the winter break.
Went to Orlando FL for 2 weeks during summer break
At work I started working for a new team. I became part of AWS Fargate.
In November I went to Fort Lauderdale thanks to my sister the city of Tamarac put my name on the wall of Tamarac residents that served overseas, although technically my zip code was 33071 when I was deployed, it's close enough. My name is engraved in the park at University and Southgate. My sister is big into Girls Scouts so there were some people there from her troop. I can't say enough nice things about my sister she's been nothing but nice to me (well, most of the time) since forever. Thank you Caro.
2022
Winter break we went to Park City Utah to ski
In April Amazon sent me to Dublin, Ireland I took Martha with me it was a good trip, a few days of being a tourist and then work.
In the summer we want back to my homeland, no, not Venezuela, Florida silly! We went down to Disney World for a few days.
In October it was my 20 year Anniversary. I am the luckiest man alive for having this amazing woman as my wife.
In the fall I almost burned myself out working. I was doing too much at once.
My dad was diagnosed with a very treatable form of cancer, I freaked out anyway.
Wife suggested I take a month off work. So I took November off to spend time my family. The outcome was the most memorable vacation of my life. I had an awesome time disconnecting from the office and connecting with my family and with Florida in general. I gotta say the vacation was too good because it has taken me a while to get back into the normal rhythm of life at work in Seattle.
Now it's December and it's back to normal life. I have my personal goals and things I'd like to do next.
1. Improve as a person. Yeah it's sound corny or whatever, but it's the truth. I can always be a better person, a better father, husband, brother, co-worker and citizen. My intention is to always strive to grow.
2. Professionally, I want to get promoted, I want to become a Principal Engineer at Amazon.
3. I want to write. Write more, write better.
A brief Summary of my Readings
I read a few books since 2016. I have done what I like to call "Rabbit hole explorations"
If you are interested in my full reading list, you should check out my GoodReads and friend me there.
Understanding Racism and Trump Reading List:
- The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
- White Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to talk about Racism
- Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
- Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
- Fear: Trump in the White House
- What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays
- Born A Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
- So You Want to Talk About Race
- The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America
- Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
- How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
- Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy
Silicon Valley and Capitalism Rabbit hole:
TODO (I'll add a separate blog post)
How to improve myself Rabbit Hole:
TODO (I'll add a separate blog post)
Understanding Trans* reading list :
TODO (I'll add a separate blog post)
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