This blog has been pretty quiet since April, but that’s because there’s been an amazing amount of stuff happening. So to sum up the year since then:

• May 4: Attended my brother’s college graduation from the University of Michigan.

• May 7: Celebrated 2-year anniversary of marrying my wonderful wife.

• May 10: Defended my thesis. (And passed!)

• May 11: Started a cross-country drive with my wife to San Francisco.

• May 11-18: Saw Akron, OH (Swensons!!), experienced Wisconsin squeaky cheese curds, saw the sun rise and set in the Badlands, walked the lava flats and climbed a cinder cone at Craters of the Moon (thanks to the wonderful suggestion of my former high school physics teacher), saw beautiful, amazing sights at Yellowstone, including my first bison calf and Artist’s Point (seriously, not to be missed).

• May 18: Arrived in San Francisco, moved into a temporary place.

• May 21: Started work at Dropbox, Inc. as a software engineer.

• May 26: Attended the wedding of two of my closest friends.

• June 11: Moved into a permanent apartment in the Castro.

• July 9: Attended my first professional conference, but as one of the people helping out rather than as an attendee.

• September ??: My graduate school’s board of trustees met and approved degrees granted over the summer, including mine. (Whoohoo! Now I’m actually a Doctor.) I got my diploma in the mail, but they asked for it back, saying they misspelled my name (they forgot to include my middle name). Maybe it’s a trick…

• September 22-27: Took a trip to Boston to help Dropbox with on-campus recruiting.

• October 7: 10 year anniversary of starting to date above-mentioned-wife.

• November 22: Wielded a hammer and anvil for the first time at the Crucible in the East Bay.

• December 31: Realized it’s New Year’s Eve and scrambled to write this post.

It’s kind of strange now to be on the West Coast after a lifetime in the East, especially in combination with no longer being a student (after 22 years of schooling!–enough is enough). Life is simultaneously more sedate in California and more exciting for being out of school, especially now that I’m working at a fast-changing tech company. I’m pretty fortunate to be extremely happy with where I am at the end of this year, professionally and personally, and I’m quite looking forward to the next year and what it’ll bring.