Looking back on it, the past 12 months have been a benchmark year for me, personally and professionally.  We’ll see how this new decade plays out, but at the moment this feels like the year where all the various ‘instruments’ that are playing the soundtrack of my life are starting to all play the same song.  Here are 10 examples to explain what I’m talking about…

10. Beatles Rock Band

Yeah I’ve been hip to the Beatles for years as a music lover, but a video game of all things introduces me to another 7 or 8 songs that I somehow missed, including this little ditty that’s instantly moved to the top of my playlist:

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun, if the sun don’t come

You get a tan from standing in the English rain.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen – I am the walrus, GOO GOO GOO JOOB

Expert texpert choking smokers don’t you think the joker laughs at you?  Ha ha ha!

See how they smile, like pigs in a sty, see how they snied.  I’m crying…

Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower.

Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna, man you should have seen them kicking

Edgar Allen Poe.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus GOO GOO GOO JOOB…

And if you don’t understand why I love that, you’ve COMPLETELY missed the boat on the nonconformist aspect to my personality.  Other video games I really enjoyed this year were Fight Night Round 4, and of course Batman: Arkham Asylum.

9. Love

So it was a little more than four years ago that I made this proclamation to my Circle (this is the Short Version): I’ve done Vegas/L.A./NYC/Texas/New Orleans/Miami.  I’ve done everything I feel I HAD to do as a bachelor, I’m ready to start working toward the big One.”  And as you would expect, the mental transition from “I’m just looking to have fun’ to “I’m looking for substance” has not always been a smooth one.  And that’s just the internal monologue; then there’s the whole ‘what type of woman really gets me?’ aspect.  As I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way), long term relationships are built on ‘clicking’ on several levels, not just one or two.

Four years into dating with serious intentions, this was the year where I finally identified my ‘type’.  With little exception, every woman who gets me (platonically, professionally, sexually, romantically) shares certain traits.  So that’s made it much easier on who to focus my attention on, and as a result, dating is actually fun again.  Not by coincidence I think, I was smitten twice in 2009.  As one of my buddies will testify, one young lady had me so smote I think I shattered the record for the number of times someone has listened to “I Saw Her Standing There” (#10) in one day.  Before anyone blows up my phone, nothing is imminent.  I’m just saying I’m on the right track (finally!)

8. The Ummah

#9 is moving in the right direction in part I imagine because I’ve steadily invested more of my time within my community.  One of my friends asked me how it compares.  The answer is simple: there are Muslims who drink and smoke, there are extreme fundamentalists (you’ve probably heard about them), and there are blue eyed, blonde white girls who are Muslim. In other words, Muslims come in every shape, size, color, and philosophical background, just like everybody else.

Other than missing a friend’s wedding, my first summer Ramadan wasn’t too bad.  I celebrated both Eids this year; I’ve taken the next step in learning Arabic beyond my prayers.  As it seems the attacks on Islam are getting more bold and out of pocket, I’m doing what I can to better myself as a Muslim, especially one with a certain level of visibility.  That visiblity this year was most related to…

7. Lady In My Life

Last night was definitely the most surreal night I had in 2009.  I show up a few minutes late to my own screening.  The usher leads me into the darkened theater, where I hear my voice booming out in Dolby Surround Sound.  I look up at the screen to see a giant closeup of my own face.  The audience laughs at jokes I wrote; the women ‘aww’ during the sweet romantic moment.  And the crowd applauds when my name appears on screen.

I walk out and people recognize me and smile at me.  And as I leave South Central, Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” comes on the radio.  And at that moment I realize, ‘I didn’t have to use my AK today either…”

(Oh come on, that last line was a little funny…)

6. Money, Money, Money, Money…Mo-Nay!

So here are a few of the financial decisions I made this year: I pulled from my 401k to pay off my film.  I turned down (hopefully) my first six figure offer because it was overseas and we couldn’t get the paperwork sorted.  I had to rob Peter to pay Paul in a few instances.  Or as I like to call them collectively, “Things You Absolutely Can’t Do Once You Have Others Dependent on You for Financial Stability.”  I’ve lost 20 pounds due to changing my diet (I’m more or less a vegan now), Aziz Manor will be rebuilt ‘just the way it was, brick for brick’ (if you can’t guess where that line is from, you need to leave now), and while I’ve gotten away with taking that risk once again, it was the last time, which leads to #5…

Which is where Part 2 will pick up!