@sassykuhl's first tweetup

Sooooo I went to my first tweet up this week and I have to say it was a pretty cool. When I first heard of the tweetup (a meet up arranged on twitter for fellow tweeters), I thought, "Well, what's the point of that? All you gotta do is call some friends arrange a place to meet and show up." I see the bigger picture now especially considering I don't have any local friends.

I've been living in Spain for over 6 years now and while I do know a lot people (working in the high networking business of recruitment) I rarely see people outside of work which is mostly in Gibraltar. I ended up meeting some great people and a lot of them were small business owners who I can relate to. Networking is key in this location and in this economy for that matter. I even met another Canadian who told me the funniest story I've heard to date of how he ended up in Spain. It was worth the trip just hearing that. 

Thanks to this tweetup, I've met three other Canadians. All of us went out for breakfast, talked about Canada, Spain and work as we all work in similar areas. All this from deciding to go out for a drink at a bar at an event arranged by a stranger for strangers. They are not strangers anymore and I look forward to the next one to see who else I meet. I feel a little less of a recluse now. This is good.

That is all.

If you are in the Marbella area and interested in networking with other local professionals, follow @tweetmarbella to see when is the next tweetup.

My New Year Resolution

Soooooo tomorrow is New Years and what on Earth have I done over the year? 

Well, I got a new job. Two actually. And I still have them both. You can imagine the stress. Especially since the year started in the hospital with our new little girl catching a deadly strain of pneumonia. That was scary. The year has pretty much been kids and work which is not bad because the job has been extremely rewarding and the kids are doing great.

This is the end of the year though and like everyone I feel the need to promise myself next year is going to be better. And maybe I should because other than healthy jobs and cool new work this year has SUCKED!

I could promise to quit smoking or even lose 50 pounds (wouldn't that be nice), but all I really want is to be bloody happy. Even in a new, healthy body would I be happy? Who knows!

But then how do you quantify happiness? How do you know if you are actually working towards happiness unless you are happy. Then you have already achieved it, have you not? And will it last or is simply a burst of serotonin that somehow got away with positive affect. Again, who knows!

So maybe I should just aim to have as many happy little moments as possible, be aware of them when they happen and just enjoy them when they are there in 2012. That's what I'll do.

Happy New Year everyone!