A very Happy Birthday to my lovely wife, Dia.
And with every birthday of hers that passes, another year of sobriety under my belt.
9 years & counting. 🍾 I mean...🎉
☀️
Livin' La Vida Luna y Luca
The kids' school was closed this week. Thankfully, our gym has a "Kids Activity Center". They loved going there while we got our workout in.
This is how we'd find them every time before leaving. Luca sitting on Luna's lap during story time. So friggin' cute.
2023 Highlight Reel
Before we get into it, I want to be super clear about this week's issue of SunShakShunday - this is a highlight reel.
A lot of what you're about to read is based on material success, which would be rendered meaningless if we didn't have our mental and physical health in the bag.
A handful of shitty things happened this year too, but I'm not going to get into that here. That's what my therapist is for. Talk to you soon, Dan.
Alright, let's go let's go.
Date Night + Another Honeymoon Phase
Dia and I got off to a great start in 2023 with our monthly date nights.
We were 4 for 4 before she quit her job and date night turned into our everyday life. 😆
Let's set the record straight about something: Dia quitting her job was not in the cards for us. It wasn't like we hit some financial milestone that made her income unnecessary. On the contrary, our family relies on her income (& benefits) in a major way. The stability she provides us with is what allows me to swing for the fences during every at-bat.
Dia quit because she was in a toxic work environment and we're fortunate enough to not have to tolerate anything less than an enjoyable experience.
With that said, I'm super grateful she got to spend ~6 months at home to focus on being a mom and reevaluating her career prospects. For me, it was another honeymoon phase.
My favorite part about her being at home was probably our 8a-11a window. We'd drop off the kids, head to the gym, and then eat lunch together before we parted ways to do whatever work needed to get done that day.
Half Marathon Training
Running the Jersey City Half-Marathon was terrible.
The race was on a rainy Sunday. The 3 preceding days: wedding on Thursday night, diagnosed with Strep on Friday, and stubbed my big toe on Saturday. 🤦♂️
Training for the half marathon, however, was amazing.
I used the Nike Run Club 14-week training program and I didn't miss a single session (~70).
There's something about "checking the box" that sits so well with me. I was especially proud of the long runs I did at night after the kids went to sleep.
Travel
2023 was a light year for us mainly because traveling with 2 kids under 3 is pretty fricken hard.
We took 3 trips:
First, we hit Philly w/ the Chao Family for Spring Break.
Philly w the Chaos
Then, we went to Mexico City for 2 weeks in July. 🥵
Mexico City
Finally, we took a Friends & Family trip to the Bahamas with the Patel-Malhotras in October.
Bahamas
Work Projects:
2023 was a productive year for me at work.
We completed 3 projects:
We're underway on 3 more:
I also materially participated (as a lender) in a few other projects:
Fostering Relationships
2023 was a great year in terms of strengthening / making new relationships.
4 main relationships come to mind:
My cousin-in-law, Chintan, took a consulting gig down the street from where we live so we made it a point to have lunch at least once a month.
We also went to a Yankees game (Legend's Suite) on his company's dime. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Highly recommend.
Dalwin Garcia and I met in an online mastermind group and made it a point to hang out IRL.
It only took a few lunches for us to decide we needed to be in business together. Since then, I've joined him as a lender on 2 projects and we're under contract to do a new construction project together in 2024. 💪
I'll put the last two relationships into one bucket: Mike Costello & Kyle Tillman. These are two gentlemen I attached myself to because 1) they're fun to be around / talk to and 2) they each possess certain qualities I want to emulate.
I met both in the same real estate investor group during COVID and spent all of 2023 getting to know them better on a personal level. It was weekly phone calls with Kyle and monthly man-dates with Mike. <- He's going to lovingly hate I called it that.
Did It For The 'Gram
If you made it this far...
🧿Here are my top 4 Shameless Flexes of 2023💪
1) Bought a Datejust for my dad from an anonymous Twitter account. And if that wasn't crazy enough, I paid for it with Bitcoin. 🚀
2) A pair of Porsches & Michelin Star Omakase to celebrate a win. To be clear: the red one was a rental for the day and the gray one is a one-year lease for Dia's birthday / our 10-year anniversary (coming up in Jan).
Celebrating the Win
There are few things more exciting than winning a split, double, double against a dealer showing 10 and ultimately busting.
It also doesn't hurt that this was a $1,000+ hand and 3 of my best friends since middle school were there to celebrate with me.
That's a Wrap!
This was a fun exercise.
All I had to do was log into my Google Photos account and start at 1/1/23. Anytime a picture with a meaningful story behind it popped up I added it to this post.
Encouraging you to do the same. Take stock of the year before it passes!
