1. My brother got married My brother (who happens to be the same age as me) got married to his long-time girlfriend. It made me feel old. I'm very happy for them. Now I say "my brother and his wife," which sounds awkward. My brother's wife corrects me and tells me "you are supposed to say 'sister-in-law!'" Never thought of it that way... 2. Mexican Wedding I had never been to a Mexican wedding. I went to one this year because my brother's wife, I mean, my sister-in-law is Mexican. Now I can say if you haven't been to a Mexican wedding, you haven't been to a wedding. I'll spare you the detail but will just say that the wedding had over 600 guests. The rumor has it that it was even close to 1000. 3. Trip to Mexico I took a trip to Mexico (see 1 & 2) in October. It was a good excuse for 1) me to take a vacation, 2) my family to get together, and 3) get out of New York for a little. In addition to the festive above, I enjoyed the resorts, sceneries, food, and people. I also learned that Mexican food is not terribly kind to Japanese stomachs. 4. New apartment My girlfriend and I decided to move to a new apartment. We've lived in our current place for almost 4 years now and decided that it was time we stopped paying rent. We looked around quite a bit (she did most of the work) and ended up finding a place that was in the same neighborhood. The thing is, because it's a new building, they keep pushing the move-in date. Hopefully, the move-in will be one of the Best 5 things next year. 5. Cannes Gold Last year, I worked on a project called Nike Lab (it was one of the Best 5). The same project ended up winning a gold at Cannes Festival. It might not be that big of a deal but it was an accomplishment and I have to say it made me happy.

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