Hi there and hello!

My name is Jeff and I am new to this blogging thing.  I have some family and friends who write blogs and I like the idea of having a recorded history of my thoughts, major and minor happenings in my life, etc.  As I conceptualized the framework for my blog I sought advice from my oldest sister Carolyn.  After talking with her (and spending a ridiculous amount of time finding a domain that was not yet taken!) I landed on “see life in numbers” as my title.  As you will read more below in my personal introduction, I am a “numbers person.”  I hate that label; not because it has a negative connotation (I am a proud nerd) but I hate it because it implies others are not “numbers people.”  That’s ludicrous.  Enter me.  As I document my life in this blog, I will frame everything in how I derive meaning from numbers.  If you are confused, just give me a shot.  I want to show how my life makes sense to me through numbers, and hopefully how you can make sense of your life in the same way. 

So who am I?  I like to define myself by those with whom I associate (see the section below about my family).  But for now I will give a run-down of my background, likes, and dislikes. 

Background: I am 28 and an Ohio native with most of my time spent living in Columbus.  I have also lived in Cleveland (birthplace), Dallas, and Charlotte.  But my heart is in Ohio.  I like having four seasons.  I like that I have an affordable cost of living.  I like personal space.  Tradition is very important to me.  Columbus is my home and I love it.  I also spent 4 years living in Oxford, OH studying business at Miami University.  I worked for 3 years in an external auditing role (obtained my CPA license, hence my love of numbers) before I transitioned into finance.  I work in the retail industry and love my work.  It’s fun, interesting, fast-paced, and relevant.  I am engaged to the most loving woman (wedding date is 7/12/14!) and we just bought our first house.  I am in school part-time in the evenings to get my MBA with an expected graduation of May 2015 (it cannot come fast enough).  With a new house, wedding to plan, and school I am very, very busy J  This is a good thing for me – I don’t like to be bored.  Oh, and I have a huge family and they keep me busy too (in a good way).

Likes:  Pizza, French fries, and bacon are my favorite foods.  I probably have each of them once a week (if not more).  I love to run (I have done 4 marathons – Chicago, Nashville, San Antonio, and Cleveland).  I like some non-traditional sports including broomball (ice sport popular in Canada) and disc golf.  I love spending time with my family.  They are the most fun and funniest people I know.  I love following the stock market, the amusement park industry, and anything Disney.  When it comes to music I am generally a lover and not a hater.  I like country, pop, classical, Christian, alternative, classic rock, and musicals.  For that I have my parents to thanks.  I drink a lot of coffee – preferably black.  I am Catholic and really enjoy going to mass.  It is so hard to find time alone and I really value the time I have when I am in church.  Since I was 4 years old I was obsessed with the weather.  I like all types – thunderstorms, hot sunny days, wicked cold, and snowstorms.  I am sure I am missing some major “likes” here but this is a good start.

Dislikes:  I do not like eating fish; I like shellfish, but not other types including salmon, sushi, etc.  Driving in the rain, especially when it is dark, scares me.  I hate leaving food/beverage places smelling like their products.  I am talking about you Starbucks, Subway, and Panera!  I dislike ironing.  I would do almost any other household chore before ironing.  A pet peeve of mine is when people leave garbage in my car.  I think that is so rude.  Lastly, I dislike grammar (ironic given this is my better half’s area of expertise) so please don’t judge the mistakes I will surely make in this blog.  I will leave this list short.  I try very hard to be a “glass half full” guy.

My Family:  Let me start with my fiancé, Anissa.  We started dating about 3.5 years ago and will be getting married in less than 9 months!  She is the love of my life and you will see her name often in my posts.  I am so lucky to have her in my life.  My parents, Jeff and Gerri, are incredibly smart, talented, and supportive people and I love them very much.  They just moved into a new house in Dallas and it really is a dream home.  I have 5 sisters and no brothers, and fall in the middle.  From oldest to youngest:  Carolyn (32), Aileen (31), Maureen (30), me (28), Amy (24), and Laura (23).  Aileen is an attorney and Laura is a teacher and they both live in Chicago.  While I wished they lived closer, I love going to visit them!  On to my Columbus siblings - Carolyn lives just down the street from me in Columbus and works in marketing.  Maureen lives about 25 minutes away in a different suburb of Columbus.  She works in Accounting (she and I are total numbers nerds!).  Amy, another teacher,  lives in Columbus but about 25 minutes away as well.  My family is very dynamic and I will have to do a more full post dedicated just to them.

Anissa and I from a couple years back.

 

 

Top Row Left to Right: Carolyn, Me, Laura, Amy

Bottom Row Left to Right: Maureen, Aileen

 

I don't have any recent pics of just me and my parents - so we will put that on the "future posts" list.

 

100: So now that you know a little bit about me, I will get on to my first numerically-related post.  As Anissa and I were driving home from Louisville, KY today after some friends’ wedding, we passed through Cincinnati.  The first couple years of relationship, Anissa was living in Cincinnati and I was in Columbus.  The two of us spent so many days driving between Columbus and Cincinnati on interstate 71.  Our apartments were ~100 miles away.  So what does that number 100 mean to me?  First, it means it took us about 90 minutes one way to see the other person.  That’s not too bad.  Until you do it every other weekend and then multiple it by 2 to include the drive home.  So 3 hours every other weekend were spent in the car.  That’s a lot of alone time with one’s thoughts.  So much so that Anissa and I dubbed I-71 the come-to-Jesus highway.  90 minutes is just enough time to really start thinking about things on a deep level.  And about halfway in between Columbus and Cincinnati is what I would call a radio “dead zone” where you cannot pick up major stations from either city.  Being alone with your thoughts that frequently and for that long can get scary!  What else can I tell you about those 100 miles?   I can tell you almost every exit between the two cities.  For example, Exit 65 is the Tanger Outlet center in Jeffersonville.  Exit 50 is Wilmington.  And Exit 45 is Caesar’s Creek, home to a bustling flea market and the Renaissance Festival.  And finally Exit 25 is King’s Mills, home to King’s Island and Anissa’s parents in Mason, OH.  Other than those there is a lot of farmland and interesting billboards.  But more than the time it took to drive 100 miles, or all the not-so-memorable exits between Columbus and Cincinnati, 100 miles to me meant getting to spend a weekend with my lady.  And while I will probably tell you most days how sick I am of I-71 and those 100 miles, I secretly have a soft spot for the 100 miles that kept us together month after month.  And look at us now – engaged to be married and new homeowners!

Until next time!