Greetings,
I hope this warm, engaging form letter finds you well and deftly eludes the clutches of your overzealous spam filter.
Before I dive into this year’s recap, I do want to apologize for last year's broken links. I assure you that the intern who pasted in those local blogspot links received a vigorous coaching session on attention to detail. One silver lining though (for all you aspiring marketing managers to consider), I’ve never had more replies, so the mistake garnered me more engagement than usual.
I know we’re all into big data so let’s start out with a few stats looking back at 2021:
Work emails sent: 4005
Miles run: 567.8
Tweets (@CourtneyMFK): 316
Instagram (courtneyfollowsparlor) posts begrudgingly posted: 26
Spotify Wrapped accurately forecast: 1
In 2021, I continued to mostly work from home and mostly stay home in Cambridge, MA. Things at Dimagi are still busy with Covid response, international public health and the process of rapidly growing a remote team.
I did get to Louisville, KY a couple times to see my Mom after we were all vaccinated. She lives there in indentured servitude to two large golden retrievers who can miraculously shed more than their entire body weight each day.
This year I completed Dry January again, with a fair bit of complaining. I complained every bit as much about ‘Every Day May” (run every day in May) but apparently not quite enough to complete that. I’ll try to complain more bitterly next time.
In June, Keri & Caitlin hosted me in Philly and I got to go to a big fun party with loads of their friends and family (outdoors). It was my first gathering in ages and I had the time of my life, but failed to remember to take any photos. Here’s Keri dropping me off at the train station to head back to Boston:
July 10-11 I went to NYC for Drew Jones 50th! Thanks to Cara for organizing the shindig and to Drew for outliving all our predictions. It was a blast hanging out in Prospect Park and seeing old friends. Thanks to Avi for hosting me for the weekend!
Later in July, my Cousin David, his wife Janet and their kids Evan, Hayley and Lauren swung through Boston after some time out on the Cape and we had a fun day in Charlestown, MA checking out the USS Constitution. Now that Lauren is officially much taller than me, I am back to my rightful place as the shortest member of the extended family:
July 18th at 4:00pm Parlor Sports finally opened back up and my life returned to some semblance of normalcy. (I’m there for most Eagles games and some Celtics games as well. Plenty of green and frustration to go around.)
I also spent some time in the summer at the beach (Oak Island, NC) with my sister and her family, but again forgot to take any photos so you’ll just have to trust me on that. My mom and her sister Aunt Vicki joined us for the first time in years and had a complete blast with all the grandkids.
I went on this fun hike in August in Amherst with members of my running club:
In November, Julie and I finally ran that Nashville Half Marathon we signed up for in 2019. I had fun and vowed to never do that again.
For Thanksgiving I went back to Louisville to see Mom and lots of aunts & uncles and family. My sister and cousins and I celebrated Thanksgambling at the track. We were all thankful no one lost too much. Here’s me with Lindy and my cousins’ daughters Elise, Lauren*, Gracie, Claire & Haley*.
(*Be sure to congratulate Lauren & Haley on the rare double-mention, a major achievement!)
Now to round out the year I am once again back in Raleigh, NC and Lynn, Robbie, Kate and Lindy (and boss cats Cosmo and Venus) are taking good care of me. Robbie feeds us all four or five home cooked meals a day. Lindy has me in an intensive immersion course on the Marvel Universe and Cosmo is working on reducing my screen time by standing on my laptop keyboard (even as I try to send this).
Give me a shout if you’ll be near Boston and want to catch up over a coffee or a beer. Wishing you health and joy in 2022.
Peace on Earth,
