2008: Part One

In November, as 2008 started to wind down to completion, and I started to reflect on anniversaries, I started to think about how I would remember the year that was 2008. Clearly already a big year in my life, the month of December obviously became one of the most transitional of my entire life.

But, throughout the drama and sadness, came a lot of good times and the opportunity to meet a lot of great people.  So, in the interest of recapping this year, join me in a look back at 2008 – in photos, videos, and blog posts, and I hope you’ll share some of your 2008 memories in the comments. This is the first in a two part series. With that, here we go.

January

• I started January in a new apartment, in a new job, and with a lot of questions. And, at this point, no blog, so nothing of interest to show you. Move along, nothing to see here.
• Well, except that Marissa was on her way to lifelong-friendy-ness.
• And by now, Caroline McCarthy has introduced me to Brett Petersel and the flood of awesome new faces has started

February

• This incarnation of tagsmith.org comes to life.
• … just in time for the Giants to pull off an upset win in the Super Bowl!
• We start to get acquainted with the new apartment
• First new job roadtrip to Santa Monica (I flew Delta and American and hated it)

March

• Bear Sterns fails, foreshadowing that the worst of the financial crisis is about to kick into high gear
• I meet Meg Fowler and Gradon Tripp and instantly my life is changed forever (theirs too).

April

• The longest single work day of my life (I got in at 5 to 9 am that morning)

May

• I finally meet Whitney Hess at the Web 2.0 Meetup
• The dba Tweetup – where I meet a lot of great friends for the first time – most notably Robert Murray, Tom Limongello, and Tony Bacigalupo.
• My first conversations with the incredible Shelley Greenberg start with this tweet (in response to a tweet where I asked what people were having for lunch).
• Marissa has a birthday, and I get an awesome photo.

June

• Internet Week
  • A legendary night at Mashable Exhibit Hall and TechKaraoke. (seriously, one of the most fun nights of my life)
  • I meet and see a whole bunch more people:
    • Courtney Skay (this tweet marks as one of my favorite tweets ever), who took a chance and showed up and by the end of the night was singing karaoke with 20 people she’d never met before.
    • Matt Zarzecki
    • Brett Petersel
    • Michelle DeForest
    • Vanessa Jupe
    • Steven Melfi
  • Another great night at the post-TechSet dinner
  • Meet a bunch more awesome people, including:
    • Laura Fitton
    • Maria Thurrell
  • Capped off by the Tumblr/Next New Networks Rock Band at MI-5
  • Highlights:
    • Epic Fail shreds
    • Famous by proxy?
    • Meeting the wonderful Gaia Borgias Brown
    • Ladies love cool Brett
    • The first picture with Caroline
• I throw my first Tweetup at Agozar which results in the first #techicecream
• We do lunch at MTV for the first time, which results in one of my favorite pictures of the year.
• Brett has a birthday, and of course, karaoke and pizza are involved.

Stay tuned for part two soon!