Common Cents with E-Money

And if the house wasn’t enough of a big deal… it was preceded a couple months prior by me running my first marathon. I finished the Pittsburgh Marathon in May with a time of 4:30:51. It is hard to overstate just how much work this required. Training involved running 4 times a week for about 4 months. The feeling I had when I crossed the finish line is one I will never forget. I did run the first half a little too fast, though, which meant that the entire second half felt terrible. I intend to run it again in 2026, and my goal this time is to train better so that I can enjoy it more. And it wouldn’t hurt to improve that time a little bit. My dating life is still stagnant. But given what was going on in the second half of the year, it didn’t exactly feel like a priority. From starting marathon training at the very end of 2024 all the way through my dad’s death nearly 9 months later… the first ¾ of this year was spent dealing with one challenge after another. But another Mountain Goats lyric is one that also resonates with me when I think about this year. We show great loyalty to the hard times we've been through.

As I start to write this, it’s 11:56 on New Year’s Eve. I’m sitting in my apartment in Avalon. I’ve been drinking, watching (500) Days of Summer, and chatting with Petey on the phone. This is the 20th year I’ve reviewed my past year. If you had told me when I started doing this that this would be how I would be marking the occasion of my second full decade doing it, I can’t imagine I would’ve been happy. That reflects a common refrain I’ve considered over the last year. That is, that I don’t feel like I’m where I need to be in my life. I’ve been going to therapy for more than a year now. I think that’s been helpful. I describe the main reason I go to therapy as “trying to find out why I care about the things I care about.” I think I’ve made progress this year in that area, but there’s a lot of work left to do. I started this year a little more secure in my job than I had been a year prior. Work has been fine this year. Just a couple weeks ago, I learned that I’m going to get promoted. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Let it be known that’s how I started the year 2025. Writing that last sentence. Anyway, when I talk about work with people, I always tell them, “It’s a lot less stressful than my old job, but a lot less fulfilling.” That remains the case. I still think that’s a tradeoff that I’m okay with. I was reviewing some old diary entries I had made in year’s past, and I was struck by how much of the stress I previously had was related to my job. I don’t have stress in my current job. Let’s hope it stays that way. I went to the NCAA tournament in Pittsburgh in March. That was a fun time. Got to see John Calipari lose his last game as Kentucky head coach, against Oakland at PPG Paints Arena. But the most memorable part of the tournament was getting to see South Carolina play in Pittsburgh. To be able to see my alma mater play in my hometown was an experience I’ll never forget, even though we lost. In June, I had another memorable experience. I traveled to Alaska, crossing off state #49, and ran my second half-marathon. I blew past my wildest expectations, and ran it in under 2 hours. Running has been a very gratifying experience for me this year, albeit with some difficulties in terms of staying healthy. But I’ve been working on training and pacing myself, and I’m hoping to complete my first full marathon in the new year. Alaska itself was incredible. It’s hard to encapsulate just how far it is from the mainland US. The I was there at the summer solstice, which meant sunrise was around 5 AM and sunset was around midnight. I don’t think I saw darkness the entire time I was there. Summer was filled with Pirate games. But honestly, it’s not the same as it used to be. I don’t have as many friends available to go to games with as I used to. That’s been something I’ve really struggled with. Many people in my life have moved on to the next phase of their lives. That’s understandable. But it draws a big comparison to where I am. In November, I went back to Nashville to see USC play Vandy in football. It was nice to be back in Nashville. But it’s definitely weird being back there. It’s not the same place as a visitor that it was as a resident. When I go there, it does remind me of everything I loved about that time of my life. But it also reminds me of a lot of things that I didn’t. At the beginning of December, I went down to Greenville for my friend Dustin’s wedding. It was great to see all my college friends again. I always get emotional after weddings, and this year was no exception. As I write this, this has come off a lot more melancholy than I would have hoped. Honestly, maybe that just reflects my overall mood. This year has been one where I have been struggling, to be honest. I’m lonely, Anybody who’s read the last 20 years of my musings can figure that out. What I learned this year though is that the only option I have is to try and make the necessary changes in my life to deal with that.

I thought of a bit of an analogy a little while back to describe this year. 2022 was a time when I was just out in the ocean, treading water, and finally got pulled into the rescue boat. 2023 was a year where I’m in the boat, laying on the deck, and just now I start to ask myself what I’m supposed to do now. With some stability in my professional life, I took some steps to try and grow in other areas this year. I continued efforts to lose weight that I had started in 2022, and by the end of May, I was down to just under 200 pounds, after having peaked at 250 in August of 2022. Many of my old clothes that were way too tight on me are back to fitting, I’m able to physically walk further without getting tired, and I got many compliments on how I was looking better. So that was a big plus. As part of this weight loss effort, I trained hard and was able to complete my first half-marathon, the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon, in May. That was especially gratifying. I’ve been running pretty consistently since then, and have already signed up to do a half-marathon in Alaska in 2024. So that’s been fun. I didn’t travel to as many new places this year as I have in some past years, but I still did a lot of traveling. I made a couple trips up to Boston to see Petey, went down to South Carolina for a USC game in October, went out to Denver to see Anne, and just yesterday went to Syracuse to check the JMA Wireless (formerly Carrier) Dome off the old bucket list (and got to see Brennan and Steph in the process). I went to 4 weddings this year. Mike and Joe each got married in NYC, and I also went to Dave’s wedding in Latrobe and my cousin Andrew’s wedding in Mexico. That was especially fun. I loved getting to put my mild amount of spanish language proficiency into practice. All those weddings did kind of exacerbate my (neverending seemingly) dating issues. I was especially unnerved after Joe’s wedding in September, and really felt like I needed to start proactively engaging in online dating again. I went on a couple dates in November, but haven’t had any success other than that. This would probably be the 19th straight year I complained about something in this regard, so let’s just sum it all up by saying that, frustratingly, the same issues I’ve been dealing with once again reared their ugly head this year as well. Relatedly, one of these negative experiences dating did inspire me to make a change I have been meaning to do for a while. I was especially disappointed after I got ghosted by one woman, so I decided this would be a great time to actually start going to therapy. I started going around weekly back in October, and it’s been helpful thus far. It helps to have someone to talk to. I’m OK.  I guess that’s the overwhelming emotion I feel right now. It’s fine. I’ve been worse. I’ve been better. The older I get, the more I get worried that I’m never gonna find someone to spend my life with. Dating has not gotten easier. In some respects, it’s even harder. I don’t know. But my only option is to just keep trying new things. I’m sure if I were to go back and read all these years in review, concerns about dating would be a recurring theme. I know there’s something that can be derived from that, but maybe that’s just too depressing to consider. That’s for me and my therapist to work out, I guess. My only option is just to keep moving forward, and that’s what I intend to do.

I moved out of Nashville on September 23rd. I’d been there for a little over 4 years. Nashville is a good city, and I have many positive memories from there. But Pittsburgh has always been home to me, and I am so glad to be back.

2021 was like a Diet 2020, in terms of Covid-19. The world wasn’t as earth-shatteringly upended by the virus as it was in 2020, but it’s not like it went away either. I was fortunate enough to get my first dose of a vaccine in March. I remember how relieving it was to get it. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The world hasn’t completely turned back to normal, but getting those shots definitely made me feel a lot more comfortable and not anxious about the possibility of spreading covid to somebody that’s vulnerable. In April, I went to my first sporting event in more than a year-the 2021 Final Four in Indianapolis. It was a nice little trip with Petey. It definitely did not feel the same as the other times I’ve been to sporting events, but it was just nice to be in the stands at all. I re-signed a 1-year contract at work that went into effect in June. With Petey expected to be leaving Nashville in 2022, I just don’t think my heart was into it when I was looking for jobs. I do seriously hope to find something new this upcoming year, though. Petey and I took a nice trip to the southwest in June. We went to Phoenix, where I was able to feel 118 degree temperatures for the first time ever. It’s such a weird sensation being in that heat, especially given the lack of humidity. It was also weird leaving a theater at like 10 PM at night, and walking outside to 100+ temperatures still even at that time of night. Our trip also took us to the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, and Petroglyphs National Monument. I was able to cross New Mexico off the list of states I’ve been to, which brings me to 46 now. Santa Fe definitely had a quirky feel to it that was nice to experience in person. I definitely made up for lost time when it came to traveling this fall. I went to NYC for Sam’s wedding, which was great. I also went to Columbia twice and saw USC beat Vandy and Florida. And I was able to spend a week in Pittsburgh for Christmas, which was great. I definitely have a feeling of restlessness as I enter 2022, however. I want to make some positive momentum in my life. I hope this next year gives me a change of scenery.

This year has been unlike any other in my life. The Covid-19 pandemic completely changed the way everyone lived, all around the world. And here in Nashville, we had 2 other tragic situations that made things even harder. January and February weren’t too eventful. I got to produce some Titans playoff postgame shows, which was fun. And I continued doing Uber and Lyft. Everything changed once the calendar turned to March. Specifically, everything changed on the night of Monday, March 2nd. I was working the overnight shift, when we heard a shooting come out over the police scanner. The address was literally right across the street, and there wasn’t a photog in earshot, so I went outside to see if I could get some video. I should’ve known better than to leave the station as a producer, because it was like everything after that point was different. Just a couple hours later, Nashville and Middle Tennessee was hit by a series of deadly tornadoes. In all, 25 people died. I stayed late at work that morning, and even got sent out around 8 AM or so to bring a camera battery to one of our reporters in the field in a neighborhood that had been hit. It was like a warzone. I drove over downed power lines and was able to see directly into somebody’s house, which had its front completely torn off. It was crazy to see. In another neighborhood, a restaurant that I had just picked somebody up at for Uber just 3 days earlier was torn in half. Almost 10 months later, some of those places have still yet to rebuild. Much of the reason they haven’t rebuilt yet is probably because of what happened about a week later. On March 11th, I was all set to go to the first night of the SEC Tournament. I was really looking forward to it. My mom had come into town, and we had good seats to the first 3 nights. March Madness is my favorite time of year normally, but this year it completely changed. That day, there had been rumblings that some conference tournaments were going to start going without fans because of the coronavirus. I had vaguely heard of the coronavirus through work, but thought it would just blow away like the other disease outbreaks I’d heard of over the years (SARS, Ebola, Swine Flu, etc.). None of those ever had a significant impact on my life, and I figured this would be the same. That all changed when I looked at my phone while at the games that night. Tom Hanks had been diagnosed with the disease. And an NBA game had been canceled because of it. Suddenly, the sports world was thrown into chaos. I remember being in the arena bathroom near the end of the night. It was a very weird mood. I think everyone could feel like things were about to change. I didn’t feel any joy about being at my favorite sporting event, because it felt like that was going to be taken away from me for a few weeks. Little did I know that 10 months later, I still haven’t been back to a sporting event. Since then, I’ve pretty much spent all of my time at work, at my apartment, or at Petey’s apartment. I’ve eaten in person at a restaurant once, but that was kind of a spur of the moment decision at a place that didn’t have table service. I had plans to come visit my family at Christmas. Those were canceled because I didn’t want to risk giving them Covid-19. I had plans to leave my job in June. That was canceled because the job market dried up, as well as the fact that this just didn’t seem like a good time to be switching jobs. At this point, I just want all this to be over. I want to be able to go out in public without wearing a mask. I don’t want to have to question the idea of whether it’s safe to eat at a restaurant, or go to a sporting event. At this point, some vaccines have started to be administered, but it will still likely be a few months before I’ll be able to get one, and before most of America will be able to put this terrible time behind us. Nashville was hit with another tragedy just 6 days ago. On Christmas morning, a suicide bomber blew up an RV on a downtown street that I’ve driven and walked down dozens of times. The scale of the damage is immense. Luckily, nobody other than the bomber was killed. But it could take years to rebuild some of the historic buildings there. Despite everything that’s happened this year, I was able to take a few trips. But they were limited in scope because of the times we live in. After 6 months without a vacation, I decided to take a solo trip to Oklahoma in September, crossing that state off the list. It was nice to get out of the house for a little bit. And the rural area I went to was very peaceful. And then just last week, since I wasn’t going to Pittsburgh, I had some time off. So I drove by myself down the Natchez Trace Parkway into Mississippi. It’s a very nice drive through rural areas, with trees bordering both sides of the road. I stopped for a night in Starkville, a town that I’d love to visit once again. So that’s been 2020. The Pirates were terrible. Donald Trump lost the election. And I spent the last 10 months just waiting for this terrible international nightmare to be over. But I should say that I am lucky in that I have not caught Covid-19 as of yet. And nobody I know has died from it. Plus, I’ve been able to stay at work. Other people haven’t been as fortunate. Here’s hoping the new year brings a welcome change for all of us.

This has been a rough one. If I had to describe 2019 in one phrase, it would be “treading water.” After last year’s developments with regards to Petey, I’ve been focused on getting to the end of my contract at work, which ends in June. Who knows what will come next. This year was especially frustrating work-wise, due to my schedule. When I took the job, I was under the impression that I’d be getting off weekends relatively quickly. I didn’t actually get switched to weekdays until December-18 months after I’d started. This caused lots of issues when it came to my personal life, and was really the biggest frustration I’ve had when it comes to my job.  I turned 30 this year, and I’d say I took it pretty hard. I think there’s this idea that when you’re in your 20s, it’s okay to kind of seem like you’re just having fun and doing what you want. But then when you’re 30, you’re supposed to settle down and have more of everything figured out. Granted, not much of the traditional “settling down” things appeal to me. I like my apartment. I like sleeping in. I like having the freedom to take lots of trips and I like the lifestyle I live. But there has definitely been this existential feeling ever since March that I need to grow up some, just because that’s what’s expected of you once you turn 30. I don’t know. I’m hopeful that a new job later this year can help me feel like I’ve got some more direction. That isn’t to say this year was all bad. I was able to take lots of good trips with Petey. We went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and got to explore some other parts of Louisiana. In the summer, we checked out Hot Springs, Arkansas. And earlier this month, we took a trip all around Florida. I really liked Key West, especially. It was great getting to see some new places I’d never been to before. As we wind down the last few hours of this decade, I’m reminded of where I was at the start of it. I am a very different person than I was in December of 2009. I guess that’s to be expected, though. It’s only natural to be more mature at 30 than at 20. So I guess that should give me some solace in relation to the existential issues I raised earlier. But I guess that also makes me wonder where I’ll be 10 years from now. God, I can only imagine what a 40-year-old me would be like. Hopefully we’ll have a 25th annual E-Money Year in Review to let me know.

2018 has been a year of change for me. My job search and impending move to Nashville occupied my focus for the first half of the year, and my process at settling in dominated the second. It took a while to find a job. I had started my search in November of last year, and after multiple phone interviews and 2 in-person ones, I was eventually able to get a job at WKRN, where I started in June. It’s been rough working here so far, to be honest. I’m working weekend mornings and weekday afternoons. I was used to having a solid Monday to Friday schedule, and going away from that has been challenging. I’m hoping to switch to a different shift soon, but we’ll see what happens there. Of course, the impetus for my move to Nashville has been my relationship with Petey. She’s an amazing woman who challenges me to be a better person. We’ve traveled so much the last 3 years, and experienced many great things together. But recently we came to the conclusion that there are some differences between us that affect our compatibility. I’m looking for a new place to live now. To say I’m disappointed by this last development would be an understatement. It’s always difficult to break up with someone you love. But it wouldn’t be fair of me to try and limit her. This has been difficult. I haven’t felt this way in a long time. There have been some high points throughout the year, however. Petey and I took some great trips. We went to Memphis in January, then down to Florida in March. I got to see my first Pirates Spring Training game, which was a lot of fun. And we went to both Disney World and Disneyland, as well as the Bay Area to see the Steelers play what appears to be their last game against the Oakland Raiders. What 2018 taught me is that I have some growing up to do. This time next year, I’ll be 30. That’s definitely been something that’s been in the back of my head. Here’s hoping 2019 turns things around.

Sorry this is a couple days late. It’s been a busy last couple of days. 2017 was an exciting year, I’d say. I did a lot of traveling. In late March/early April, this included a nice trip to New England with Donny. We went through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. We climbed Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire which was especially daunting. Next time I do something like that, I’ll definitely need to prepare more. The summer was filled with a number of Pirate games. It was my 3rd year of sharing season tickets. I must have gone to about 32 games in all. In late June/early July, me and Petey went on my favorite trip of the year. We picked up a rental car in Pittsburgh and drove all the way to Portland, Oregon. Some of the unexpectedly fun parts of the trip were in Wisconsin (where we got some authentic gas station cheese), Minneapolis (which is a much nicer city than I had anticipated), North Dakota (which is the home of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where was saw some badlands and a number of buffalo), and Montana (Missoula is an especially beautiful town that I’d love to go back to). The small part of Idaho we went to (Couer d’Alene) was not great. We ate at a shitty restaurant and a guy told us we’d need to pay 50 cents to take our picture. I know it was a joke, but if you’re gonna take money for taking a picture, have some standards. Maybe ask for more than 50 cents? The trip also took us through Seattle and Portland, which were both very interesting cities. I’d like to go back to the Pacific Northwest. Petey moved to Nashville for grad school in August, which was sad. But I’ll be joining her there soon, which fulfills a prediction I made in my 2013 year in review where I predicted I’d be moving to Nashville. It’s funny how things work out that way. This was a good year. I feel like I’m at a stable part of my life. Even though I’ll be moving soon, it’s nice to feel this way. It’s awesome to have Petey in my life and I can’t wait to see what the impending move means for my life. This is the kind of life I’ve been waiting a long time for.

I went to Colorado to visit my sister with my brother and a friend last April, as part of a longer road trip. We were driving from Utah, and went through Colorado Springs, headed for Denver. The Rocky Mountains were so much more interesting than the barren area we had gone through in Arizona earlier in our trip. Denver is a nice city. We checked out the state capitol building, and walked around downtown Denver a bunch. They have a nice public transit system, and we took the light rail out to our hotel. We also saw the Pirates play the Rockies at Coors Field. I had the Rocky Mountain Oysters (deep fried bull testicles). They were alright. Kinda tasted like fish. As a whole, I would say Colorado is a very beautiful state.

I’ve been to California once. It was on a trip with my brother in the summer of 2015. I don’t know how many opportunities I’ll have to head out to the west coast, so I wanted to see as much of the state as possible. We flew into San Diego. It’s an amazingly beautiful city. We saw the Pirates play the Padres at Petco Park. Petco is an underrated ballpark. I liked it even more than AT&T Park in San Francisco (where we saw the Pirates play the Giants later in our trip). Then we drove from San Diego to Los Angeles. We didn’t get to spend much time in LA, which I regret a bit. We did go to Hollywood Boulevard (which was an insane tourist trap), and saw the Hollywood Sign and Mulholland Drive, which was a pretty sight to see. We also checked out the iconic Randy’s Donuts, which was good too. Then we drove up to San Francisco. The drive between LA and the Bay Area was very interesting. It was the first time in my life I’ve been in a place that remote. You would just look 10 miles in either direction and see nothing. It was also the first time in my life I saw a real live tumbleweed. The Bay Area was nice. We went over to Oakland and Berkeley and checked out Cal’s campus. I, of course, had to go to the top of Memorial Stadium to see where the Golden Bears play. Overall, I really liked California. I’d love to go back because I know there’s a lot of the state I’ve still yet to see.

As always, you can read some of my previous yearly reviews by clicking here. This was a helluva year. I don’t know if this impression will still be felt years from now, but right now people feel like 2016 was just a ridiculously shitty year. They’re just waiting for it to be over. Between all the celebrity deaths (David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Carrie Fisher to name a few) and the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency (seriously, what the hell?), this year has been one surprise after another. Personally, this was a great year for me. My relationship with Petey is going great. We’ve been together almost a year now. We’ve gone on a number of trips (of which I’ll detail some later), and I really enjoy having her in my life. I don’t know where the hell I’d be without her right now. Speaking of those trips, I took a lot this year. Flexibility with my vacation days and just a general desire to go traveling made it so that I visited the following places this year: Columbia, SC (3x) Myrtle Beach (2x) Grand Canyon Monument Valley Las Vegas Denver Cashiers, NC (it was a wedding... and that’s a long story) Cincinnati Indianapolis Lexington, KY Washington,DC Pottsville, PA (for the Yuengling brewery) Wilmington, DE Cleveland New York City Detroit Winston-Salem, NC And I’m sure I’m missing something. It was a crazy year for traveling. I’ve now visited 29 states (on my way to my goal of all 50). And I had a lot of great experiences seeing the country, which Petey was oh so happy to oblige me with. Work was alright this year. We had some staffing issues, which meant that for pretty much the entire summer I was doing the 5 and 6 AM newscasts. Then once our staffing issues were fixed, I got switched to having the 4:30-5:30 AM part of the newscasts be my major job. Overall, it’s been a good year at work. I’m going to end 2016 the same way I started it, at my house. Last year was a brief get together with friends before heading to work. But tonight, I’ll be holding a party, and I won’t have to go to work on New Year’s Eve for the first time since 2011, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve been really lucky this year. I hope that luck continues in 2017. 

I went here on a trip back in April. I was coming from Las Vegas, and headed for Monument Valley (which is right on the border of Utah and Arizona). Northern Arizona might be the most desolate place I’ve ever been. It’s just desert, for 10 miles in either direction. There were a few points I thought I was gonna run out of gas, because it would be about 45 minutes between you’d see any sort of gas station.  I remember thinking of how different it must be to live in a place like that, compared to a big city. I remember passing through a town called Tuba City, which I enjoyed solely because of the name. We stopped at the Grand Canyon, because if you’re going to drive through northern Arizona, you have to do that. It was just so vast. Even as we were leaving and following the path of the rim of the canyon, it seemed like it would be perpetually on the side of our car. Monument Valley was fantastic. We drove through the valley itself right around sunrise, and it was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. The red sand on the ground makes my pictures look unreal.

I’ve been there 3 times, between 2009 and 2010. All of those times were for football games. I remember thinking Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa was really nice, but the crowd was kind of quiet. You’d think Alabama fans would be louder. I forget if it was on the way to Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, but I remember this small town. I believe it was the town of Brompton. I just remember it being a perfect example of a small southern town. We stopped at the gas station and it had one of those real divey bathrooms, with lots of old graffiti on the walls of the stalls that would make you feel uneasy. It seemed like the sort of town where everybody who lived there had been there their entire lives.

My dating life was a bit more active this year. There was this girl Raeann, that I went out with a few times but later turned out to be asexual. That was a new one. There was a girl named Mary Kate who I only went out with once, and this girl Roxanne that I went out with twice but there was never a spark. I’ve now been seeing a girl named Pietra, and it’s been going surprisingly well. We’ll see how that turns out. I had to get a new car earlier this month. Edmobile III bit the dust. Edmobile IV is actually pretty nice, so I’m OK with it. Overall, 2015 gets a solid A.

For the first time since 2004, Neil Walker is no longer a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. He’s been traded to the Mets for SP Jonathan Niese (whose name I’m sure I will misspell countless times.). Walker was a fan favorite in Pittsburgh. I think this was mostly due to the fact he’s a Pittsburgh native. But you can’t ignore that he’s been a solid contributor to the Pirates. He was drafted back in 2004 by Dave Littlefield, made his major league debut in 2009, and then took over the starting 2B job in 2010. That whole time, he’s been looked at as one of the players who could lead the Pirates back to the promised land. And he definitely did that. Neil had many great moments as a Pirate, a few of them coming on Opening Day. In 2011, he hit a grand slam against the Cubs. Then in 2014, against those same Cubs, he hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning. Walker was also known for his good defense. He wasn’t a gold glover, but he was steady. You didn’t have to worry about him at second base. At the end of the day, Walker was coming up on a contract year, and the Pirates had to make a move. I’m OK with it. But you have to admit it was special seeing a kid from Pine-Richland High School helping lead the Pirates back to the playoffs. I’ll leave you with a quote Neil made back before the Pirates ended their losing streak. And I think it illustrates just how special a player he was for this city. "I was 6 years old the last time the Pirates had a winning season, you know? But I'm from here, and I know the energy that our people have for the Steelers and Penguins, and I think the fan base for our team is just dying to give us that same kind of support. We are, too. It doesn't happen overnight. But there's talent here, and we're working toward that. And if I can be a part of that, of the Pirates winning again, that would be one of the most incredible things in my life."