What a year! The most significant change in my life to share is that Renato and I got married in December! We had a small dinner with a ceremony that was short and sweet. This is also the first Mighty Hok Chronicles following a new format. I cancelled my Adobe InDesign subscription and I'm experimenting with new formats in the future.
Last June I had the chance to meet a few of my Development Seed colleagues for the first time in Washington DC. We spent the week working at the office and hanging out near Chinatown where we stayed. The Chinatown Metro in DC reminds me of blade runner.
Renato and I visited the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario, the largest botanical garden in Canada. It was really nice but we didn’t realize there were multiple gardens far apart and it took us time to walk from garden to garden.
Throughout August I remember ramping up my weekly running mileage with consecutive 30k Sunday long runs. I was also stressed waiting for a bathroom vanity delivery to start some renovations. Somehow they delivered it to a different city.
In September I endured a long month of bathroom renovations. It was very disruptive because I had to clear everything in the condo and the process took 5 weeks instead of 2-3 weeks.
In October, my niece Cleo was born! She was a tamago (egg) sushi for her first halloween. I also started two different courses: a Portuguese course online and a beginner JavaScript course.
Hurray for beers in November at Collective Arts brewery in Hamilton after running my tenth marathon. It felt good. I followed the 3:20 “pace bunny” and ran consistently throughout. We were a good sized group of about 10 runners until about 30k when I looked around and it was only me and the pacer left. The group had dispersed. The pacer suggested I stick with him and I’m glad I did because I could barely keep up in the last 5k.
December was a really busy month with Renato's family in town, our wedding dinner, Renato moving in, and our honeymoon trip. Here we are at Spaccio East, a warehouse and restaurant.
After returning from Europe in January there was much organizing around the house to fit a dining, living, and working area into a small space for two people. Through minimizing and consolidation, I think we managed well.
I visited Washington DC again in February for Development Seed’s first in-person team week since COVID-19. We had a lot of different sessions and activities. While in DC, I also had the chance to catch up with my friend Rachel. We roamed around the Botanical Garden and then aimlessly after that catching up on life. Renato also came by for the weekend and we visited the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Now it's March and I've been chipping away at this magazine for weeks. The hardest part about writing is remembering things in words. It's easy to recall moments but somehow difficult to write them down afterwards. March weather has also been snowy—moreso than January or February.