Flattening the Curve

My my,.... where does the time go? 

Since writing my last post in this informal online journal of a 'blog' here 9 years ago, I have:

• Gotten married (8/2012)
• Become a university professor (2/2013)
• Left Korea (summer 2014)
• Played in the World Championship of Ultimate 'Frisbee' (Lecco, Italy; summer 2014)
• Bought a 4 bedroom home outside of Atlanta (Stockbridge) for $129K -- insane.
• Sarah and I took 2 of maybe 20 (if I were to guess) full-time jobs in the ultimate Frisbee industry in the US 
• Sold house; left jobs; moved back to Minnesota to start work for Anytime Fitness (under the umbrella of Self Esteem Brands)
• Bought house in Richfield, MN
• 2-week long Serengeti Safari and backpacking!
• Completed TEN ultramarathons ranging from 50k all the way up to 100 miles
• Supported my wife as she CRUSHED grad school (including an internship in at the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland)
• Became an uncle for the tenth time over!
• Got promoted to International Market Director with Anytime Fitness
• Survived Covid spring and summer in Minnesota
• Rented out MN house and gone full rootless, remote-working vagrant style with my wife and dog!

Whew - it really has been a wild ride with each of those bullet points above representing entire chapters... but since those blog posts don't seem to have been written, let me just say that they each included dozens of legit life-adventures, impactful friends, life-altering lessons, growth and hard-negotiated family decisions that led us to exactly where we are meant to be.

I can't imagine being much more succinct than that, but let's call it caught up for now and pick up right where we currently stand: nearing 40 years old and a decade of marriage; dual-income / no kids and just loving every minute of life we can get our hands on!

It's not been almost one full year since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic and workers were sent home from offices all over the country - the US was among the last to have to do so. We went home on Friday just the same as any other day, but before the weekend was over, 'work from home until further notice' had been announced for both Sarah and myself... and nearly everyone in the country. Governors began shutting down businesses, issuing 'shelter in place' orders in an attempt to 'flatten the curve' of Covid cases into a more gradual and manageable volume that would not overrun hospitals at any given time.

Just before that order kicked in, we saw the writing on the wall and cautiously absconded off to Alabama to shelter in .... a much warmer .... place with Sarah's family for about 8 weeks. It seem ridiculous now but we were all thinking that we might get called back into the office at any time and made our way back to MN. Weeks stretched into months, stretched into quarters and has now reached a full year. It was a year unlike any other in so many ways.

It was a year full of political divide, vitriol, claims of 'fake news' and no one being quite sure who should be allowed to post what on social media. When does 'protecting the public from blatant misinformation' become nothing more than (powerful, rich) private citizens getting to decide what information is shared? George Floyd's killing just 10 miles from our house really accelerated the pace of the political divide and the country simply became a place where each person got to decide their own truths while dismissing anything they didn't like as 'fake news', 'brainwashed' or 'racist'. It was a disastrous year in American history but we can only hope that something better will be born from this epic mess!

After the summer in Minnesota with little changing, it became clear that the 'new normal' (a very hot 2020 buzz phrase) would be to work remotely for the foreseeable future and we took a big gamble. We put our house up for rent, found the ideal renters for an 18-month agreement and headed off to spend the winter in Alabama once again.

Of the many ideas that we explored on how to capitalize on our new-found freedom, three rose to the top:

• Digital nomad life in Sarande, Albania! Who wouldn't want to live on the Mediterranean Sea for like $700 a month while getting paid in USD remotely?? We got very close to pulling the trigger on this one but Sarah's job at the time drug their feet in getting the approvals done.
• The prospect of Full time RV'ing was something that really excited me - camp site to camp site all year long!
• But where we landed in the end was Airbnb hop monthly rentals! Wherever we lay our heads would be home... and with our renters in place paying our mortgage plus some cash flow, the options were pretty wide open!

Being back out on the road for the next 10 months inspired me to pick this block back up - which I'll do from our first monthly stay just outside of Orlando, FL for the month of March 2021! Stay tuned (yes, both of you!) ;)

With my ultra mentor and great friend, Barbara, the day after my first 100 mile finish! 26th Place overall in 19 hours and 17 minutes!

Sarah and I doing our thing in Switzerland - summer 2014

More rock climbing in these past 3 years than in the prior decade combined! Tons of work getting done with my crew Tim and Margo. Including 3 separate trips to the Red River Gorge and countless visits to Vertical Endeavors.

Sarah and I got to crash Broey and Maria's honeymoon trip in Tanzania!! Shown here in our Safari truck deep in the Serengeti. ONCE IN A LIFETIME trip (that I hope to do again) :)

Of 10 ultra marathons completed in the past 3 years, I've placed top 10 in 7 of them and even won the last two I ran outright here in the Southeast!

Representing Korea at the World Ultimate Club Championship - Lecco, Italy 2014.