Kristi-Sue is asleep. We’ve both had that experience on New Year’s Eve, where one of us is awake and the other is in bed because she/he is working the next day, and this time it’s her turn. It gives me a chance to reflect on 2015 before it goes away.

This year didn’t start particularly well. We both still were hurting from the loss of Dexter, the insane Jack Russell who was our friend for 15 years until he passed a couple of weeks before Christmas. But we went to Cayamo again a few weeks later and that festival (which we are going to miss in 2016) was tremendously good for what ailed us (OK, that’s my opinion, but it sure seemed like my wife had fun). And as a musician, I probably played more gigs in 2015 than any year in my life. And I felt renewed as a professional, as I watched Industry Dive grow into a real player in its field. That stands in stark contrast to the 15 years I spent prior to joining this no-longer-a-startup, where I worked for big media outlets that all were collapsing and struggling with the pace of change and often full of negativity.

I had so much fun with Teresita, too. We wandered off to the redwoods for the first time together and spent Thanksgiving with my family for the first time since my father passed. And by year’s end, she had finally, finally, finally gotten off the insane 4 a.m.-to-noon schedule that so often isolated us from each other. Seventeen years of that was about 16 years too many, as far as I was concerned.

Thus, we walk into 2016 with more optimism and joy than we’ve had in a while. We’re reaching the Magical Ages where you never know when something will go terribly right/wrong, but I’ll know we’ll face these adventures together, just as we always have. I hope you have someone like that in your life. And to you, I also say: Happy New Year and best wishes for 2016.