Living Life by a Theme

Welcome to my first blog post ever!  My friends Val and Dan talked me into the crazy idea of having a blog and sharing some of my insane thoughts about the world, with the world.  They began encouraging me to start a blog when they found out more about how I live every year of my life with a different theme.  The theme is kind of like a resolution for the year but with a new rule to live by.



Emily, Rachel, Jess, Tonya and Me at Jessica's wedding in Kauai



President Carter and Me before an interview.



I started living by ‘theme’ in 2007 as part of my recovery from a breakup with my college sweetheart.  It wasn’t a nasty hateful breakup, we just weren’t right for each other but it was still hard to move on and get over it.  Everyone kept telling me that the best revenge was to ‘live life well’ so I made the theme that year “Say Yes to Everything (that is legal)”.  It was one of the most fun years of my life and the best therapy.  I didn’t tell anyone that saying yes was my theme for obvious reasons, but it was a fascinating experience because as I said ‘yes’ more I had more opportunities and more invitations.  I went snowshoeing with my friends at least every other weekend.  I took my boat to Shasta for Memorial Day which was a trip I will never forget.  I saw Kenny Chesney with my best girlfriends, and Pat and Ron Jones who I absolutely love!  I went on a Trail Ride through Yellowstone with my brother, Jana and Bob Pohl.  I took my God-sons boating.   Saw two of my friends, Jessica and Geno, get married in a magic place called Kauai, HI.   I went to my first Santa Pub Crawl which was so much fun that I haven’t missed another Santa Crawl since.  I think out of all the theme years this is my favorite, and the closest to my heart.

2008 wasn’t as fun of a theme as 2007 but it served me well.  The theme for 2008 was “work, work, work”.  I worked two jobs as I have for most of my working life.  It was an election year and I sell political advertising and produce a political TV show so I was really busy working and making a living.  I also participated in the Leadership Reno Sparks program which was a life changer for me, great experiences and a lot of new friends.  And I was busy working as a real estate agent with 3-5 clients at all times.  And the biggest accomplishment was I bought my first house, which in itself was a lot of work.

JW, Me and Kevin at Coney Island

2009 the theme was “The Year of Friendship”.  I focused on seeing my friends more and building better friendships.   I was all about having experiences and bonding time with friends.  I learned I have some truly amazing lifelong friends that will always be there for me, and then I also learned that not everyone’s definition of friendship is the same and some people aren’t really as good of a friend as you think they are.  This lesson was priceless and something I really needed to learn the hard way.



Ron, Andy, Bridgt, Me, Shayna, Rob & Jason



Last year, 2010, was “The Year of Travel”.  It was amazing!  My big adventures took me to Italy, New York, Egypt, Jordan, and a little place in the Nevada desert filled with “Burners” called Black Rock City.  As I develop my blog I will write  more about “The Year of Travel”. 



Tom, Dad, Me & Mom



The theme for this year, 2011, is “Do what makes you happy”.  It is the end of February and all I can say is this year the theme is the biggest challenge I have had yet.