Merry Christmas 2018

...or, the Year of Nick.

Nick and I met on February 7, and it has been an absolute dream from that moment on. Just one of the many complementary ways we intersect: He's an avid collector of jazz vinyl, especially Blue Note...and with my radio background, I'm able to give him lots of technical pointers about the right turntables, styli, etc. He's teaching me about Grant Green; I'm teaching him about Shibata needles.

Much, much more about Nick and me, but it'll wait until I talk to you in person. Suffice it to say...it's good, it's good, it's good.

And that helped make 2018 an excellent year in O'Neill world. At Aimco, we had a stable and prosperous year. I got an ATD Best Award as one of 45 companies around the world demonstrating an outstanding integrated approach to talent management (with great results to boot), and I got an invitation to speak at the 2019 ATD Conference. (ATD is the premiere organization for learning and development worldwide.)

I made it to Hawaii twice this year. First, a fantastic Memorial week with Nick on the Big Island, even as the volcano erupted. We got the best of all worlds - we actually saw the eruption, but as we were staying on the opposite side of the island, we also got to swim in pristine waters. With dolphins. Really fun, and a special thanks to Ed Mace for making the vacation super special at his Waikoloa hotel.

Second, I barged in on Jim and Joe's Hawaii Thanksgiving by jetting over to Honolulu for a fun four days at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. From that great base of operations, we checked out all sorts of shopping and North Shore attractions. Always great to hang with the little brother.

All sorts of intersections made for fun experiences in 2018. For example, our partners for our leadership program at Aimco, Blanchard, just happened to have tickets to a Broncos game against the Rams... and nephew Aaron just happened to have that one single weekend in the fall semester available for him to fly up to Denver for a bucket-list time of our lives.
Yep, we lost. Yep, it doesn't really matter. We actually got to go on the field and Aaron got to see some of his favorite players extremely close up.

So, the Year of Nick; the Year of Intersections; the Year of Good Stuff. I hope your year was fun and fulfilling for you...and if not...there is always 2019. Moving forward!