The year that was 2015.

2015, like 2014, was a stable year.

I’ve been at Yahoo for over two years. I’ve been living not just in San Francisco, but in the same apartment, for over three. I’ve been working for bay area companies for almost four. This stability for so long makes me fidget.

A lack of travel early in the year exacerbated that feeling: travel was especially light at the start of the year. I had the shortest trip to LA in January, and made it until May until I had (had) to book a last minute nine-day trip to Mexico City. I might go back; the set of reachable, cost-effective destinations from SFO that work as a vacation for me (usually: big cities, culturally removed from my norm) is alarmingly small.

Starting August, I squeezed London (for SIGCOMM and a visa renewal, a short break to Montreal, then finally Tokyo then Yokohama for IMC then RAIM and IETF 94 respectively in November. Upcoming travel? This year I’ve already passed through Portland, and I have another mini trip to Seattle planned. As for later in the year though? I’m not sure. IETF 96 is in Berlin, and SIGCOMM is in Salvador, Brazil (though I’m considering switching it out of my rota), and IMC is in the least exciting of the set so far, Santa Monica.

On running: I logged 1,072km in 2015 (a reasonable 666 miles, if you’re into US measures). Two big things contributed to that total: first, being stationary at the start of the year gave me time to run; second, I set myself the challenge of running a marathon. On the way toward that, I completed Bay to Breakers again, beating last year’s time by 4 minutes 41 seconds. My weekends were then spent gradually working up to distances over 30km in prep for the full 42km effort and, in the end, I came in with a reasonable time of 4 hours, 10 minutes, 23 seconds. I had quietly hoped for a sub-4-hour effort, but this was good by me. Odds of running another marathon any time soon? Slim to none. But I plan to at least run Bay to Breakers again this year, and certainly complete a half marathon race. I’m also planning to ease into cycling after about a decade of regular running, and I’m reading everything about bikes at the moment.

So, 2016, and what it’ll offer, is a bit of a mystery even to me. I have a feeling I’ll have to shake something loose, change something up. What that turns out to be might only be visible in hindsight. Let’s see, shall we?