I think I’ve just lived the best week of my life. <\/p>\n
From Phoenix, where I saw Andy, Arielle and my brother play soccer, to my birthday, which was made amazing by great friends and just an absolutely amazing Micky, to being in North Carolina over Thanksgiving, where I just had an amazing time, I was enveloped in a genuine sense of love and compassion that I don’t think I’ve felt for a really long time.<\/p>\n
It was in every way imaginable a reminder of how lucky I am. It’s the eternal cliche to not appreciate how lucky you are until you no longer have the opportunity. I didn’t fall into that trap in this instance. Instead I yearned so much for what I had lived for in a past life that I dreaded going back home because I thought it would never live up to the memories. Over the course of the last year, I would say that I’ve learned to put my memories in the right context, but that doesn’t mean that being in the moment wouldn’t be overwhelming. Somehow, someway, it was even better than I remembered. I think a lot of it is that I have amazing friends both in San Francisco and Raleigh who have created a wonderful network of nerds, geeks, jocks, and the occasional Saar (who of course gets his own category).<\/p>\n
I also was successful in my 33″ by 25<\/em> campaign. On my birthday I measured in at a lean 32 7<\/sup>\/8<\/sub>, and hopefully this Thanksgiving hasn’t been too harsh on that conquest! I just want to thank everyone who committed to giving to a charity. I know how lucky I am, but I’m also really excited that someone else will somehow benefit from how great my friends are.<\/p>\n Pictures are coming, and I’m sure I’ll be telling stories about all of the fun that I had to anyone who will listen, but before I crashed tonight (after writing some superb code I might add) I just had to share with the world that right now I’m genuinely the happiest person. It’s wonderful. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think I’ve just lived the best week of my life. From Phoenix, where I saw Andy, Arielle and my brother play soccer, to my birthday, which was made amazing by great friends and just an absolutely amazing Micky, to being in North Carolina over Thanksgiving, where I just had an amazing time, I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-3E","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1705,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2016\/05\/03\/im-leaving-tokbox\/","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":0},"title":"I'm leaving TokBox","date":"May 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Friday will be my last day at TokBox. It ends an eight year journey through multiple products, lots of different target audiences, four CEOs, and three different careers. I asked Scott if I could say a few words at my last team meeting. I didn't make it to the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2006\/06\/19\/week-3-san-jose-yosemite-trip\/","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":1},"title":"Week 3 - San Jose - Yosemite Trip","date":"June 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This was a good week for us at work. We've built a prototype which is going to get showed off at the IHE Workshop in Chicago. I guess that means we're officially a big deal. Our mentor is really excited with the work we've done. I think we've taken something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Extreme Blue Internship"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":539,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2012\/03\/31\/amelia-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":2},"title":"Amelia update","date":"March 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Amelia has had her surgery, and is doing very well. I was most definitely scared shitless on Monday of this week, but am now much happier, and most definitely relieved. They gave her a little belly button, and it's quite cute. That's the last plastic surgery that she'll ever get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":873,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/02\/03\/what-do-i-want-to-be-excellent-at\/","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":3},"title":"What do I want to be excellent at","date":"February 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We've got an amazing thread going on on amplifize focusing on a New Yorker article about the ill effects of working too much. I've ended up on the other end of the debate (as seems to happen a lot lately) advocating for overwork when applied towards achieving a degree of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1202,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/05\/25\/micky-sees-the-dream\/","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":4},"title":"Micky sees the dream :-)","date":"May 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we lived out the best of being homeowners in the Sunset. We woke up, and the kids sat in our bed, and watched cartoons. When we finally woke ourselves up, we got dressed, and headed to breakfast. But not in any old way. We hopped on our bikes, threw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Home ownership"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":175,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/09\/18\/making-a-wish\/","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":5},"title":"Making a wish","date":"September 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday night was Kadir Gecesi, and I asked my co-workers to join me in fasting that day. Kadir Gecesi was the one psuedo-religious\/cultural event that we celebrated as children. One prayed that night, and whatever was wished for would be granted (or so the story goes according to my mom).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}