2011 was an awesome year for me.
FIlled with mostly ups, and not many downs.
Let’s hope the trend continues in 2012.
January
I rung in the New Year with close friends in Milwuakee. It was a blast.
January was a big month. In December, I’d left my awesome job at McNally Smith College of Music to embark on a journey back into “agencyland” where I took a position at OLSON. I met so many new people and learned some great stuff.
I also coached little snowboarders with the G-Team. That was fun.
The Egyptian revolution was happening during this time, and I was pretty emotional about it all.
February
I got the creative/entrepreneurial bug again and came up with the concept for InboxCupid. David Dellanave did the programming, Blake Bensman worked on some of the marketing support stuff and Eddie Machado did our design. It was an awesome project to work on and I’m glad we took it to market. We got a bunch of press and launched with a story on Mashable.
I moved into a new apartment in Uptown.
March
Did a couples trip to go snowboarding in Lutsen with one of my college friends and our girlfriends. It was really mellow and a nice way to get out of town for a weekend. Looking forward to more.
I also went to Chicago for Saint Patty’s day with some friends from Minneapolis and met up with some friends from Egypt.
April
Ah….April. The month of Coachella. I had the time of my life there with 3 of my closest friends. We got to see some great acts including: Kanye West, The Black Keys, The Strokes, and Kings of Leon. This was a trip to remember.
May
My brother decided to pick up his things and move to Cairo. It was a big change for our family but a great decision for him.
For Memorial day, we went to Denver and instead of just partying in the city, we ended up doing some whitewater rafting and camping in the mountains. Although we still partied in the city one night.
I bought my Ducati. And now I can’t ride anything else…well, maybe a Triumph. We’ll see.
June
June was cool. I decided to resign from my position at OLSON and “freestyle live” for a while. It was a great decision. I continue to learn more about myself (how I want to work/what I want to do/what makes me happy). After I resigned, I started focusing on clients for New Economy Labs.
In June, I also decided to sell my car and live carlessly (haha, get it?). My goal was to go for a month, I ended up going for four.
My friend Greg began working on opening his second location of the Urban Bean. It was fun to watch the progress and be there from day 1.
I also went to an internet dating conference in Brooklyn, New York. It was my first time staying in Brooklyn (usually I’m a Manhattan guy) and I loved it.
July
My 25th Birthday. Time flies.
I had a huge dinner at Ichiban and about 30 guests came (whoa). We partied downtown at Brit’s and The W. It was a great mix of friends…old and new.
August
August was filled with motorcycle rides.
Some friends got hitched. Congrats again Tia & Travis.
I started working on some very cool projects as well. Most are still top-secret but one of them isn’t. Chris Mcduffie and I filmed our mini-documentary…below is a still from the video: Socializing with Kareem Ahmed.
September
In September, I began teaching a course at McNally Smith College of Music called “New Media Studies.” I never thought I’d be an instructor but, hey, you only live once. I ended up learning so much from this experience that I’ve signed on for another semester.
It was my brother’s bday, but he was in Cairo.
October
In October I was highlighted in Metro Magazine in a feature titled: The Opportunist. It was lovely. Thanks to Megan McCarty for writing that.
This was also the month for Mimi’s birthday. We had a ton of fun and I actually did a good job of picking out presents (for the first time ever). Her friend Jordan came to town and we surprised her. Wee wee!
My sister also celebrated her birthday and that was enjoyable. My mom and I came to dinner with her and her friends at the Chambers Hotel.
I also got to visit LA on business/pleasure. I had some cool meetings with TOMS and Thrillist. I stayed with my good friend Tyler and celebrated my friend Kasey’s birthday while I was there.
Too much time and energy (and money) was spent, but I ended up with the perfect costume for Halloween. Rick Sloth/Ross. I DJ’d a friends party pretty lazily.
November
Movember.
Mobeque.
Mother’s birthday.
Mustache (below).
Went to Denver for a big project and ended up getting a day of snowboarding in. Saw a couple of friends while I was there but this visit felt like the blink of an eye.
December
Traveled the world and visited London, Paris, Florence, Zurich and celebrated New Years Eve in AMSTERDAM.
What a life.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to all who have supported me, inspired me, or pushed me. I owe each and every one of you.
May your 2012, be as blessed as my 2011.
CHEERS.