I am at a rare quiet moment after an outrageous year in the life of Matt Smith. If someone were to have warned me this time last year what 2007 would become for me, I think I’d change lives to avoid the chaos.

1. January: Anyone who has ever sold a home know how much drama it is to sell a house. You have to go through a gazillion steps negotiating with the buyer. It was around-the-clock paperwork, meetings, and home repair. Since I already had a 40-hour-a-week job, this meant that I had absolutely no free time to keep any since of normalcy.

I hit rock bottom one night in mid-January when I was replacing the wax seal beneath the toilet in the master bath. I didn’t turn the heat on at the house because I’d spent way too much on the heating/cooling bills on both of my homes. So I wore my winter coat and a beanie to keep me warm. I drained all the water I could out of the toilet before I unbolted it from the floor. Then I squatted down and wrapped my arms underneath the toilet and hugged it into my chest. I stood up and lifted the porcelain throne four feet off the ground and gallons of ice-cold water spilled down my pants and soaked my socks. I set the toilet on the bathroom counter so I could clean myself up. But there was no towels in the house because I had moved out nine months before. So I had nothing to do but to continue working through the dark of the night absolutely wet. It was miserable.

2. February and March: The free minutes in these two months were entirely absorbed by wedding planning decisions. By the beginning of March, I knew that I would never get a divorce just to avoid all the drama of planning another wedding. To keep Candyce from losing her mind, I helped her with her senior thesis and took responsibility for coordinating family coming into town. Work was intense because I was trying to launch a website on time, something that never ever happens.

3. April: Launched a website (http://ym.lifeteen.com), got married, went on a honeymoon, and then moved Candyce into my house. I spent many nights in April breaking down boxes from wedding gifts and packing them into my recycling barrel.

4. May: Our staff went from 3 to 2. This severely sucks when the 3 of you were doing the work of 10 people. So it was up to me and Greg to solve the world’s problems every day we stepped into the office. Candyce finished and presented her senior thesis, and then graduated from college. Did I mention we just got married? Because that was a big deal.

5. June, July, August: Candyce and I suspended reality by living at the beach for the summer. It was a leisurely life at the end of the day, but my “day life” was loaded with solving major dramas with our websites and servers. Not fun. I got lots of exercise riding my bike up and down the coast. I listened to Kanye West all summer, mostly the song “Stronger” because it’s a cool song and I needed the encouragement. At the end of the summer, Candyce and I helped her little sister get settled in Arizona to start college.

6.  September-November: My brother and father spent 3 weeks in town to help me do a major renovation of the main floor of my home. After they left town, I committed nights and weekends to completing the remodel. Although I enjoy the work, it’s uncomfortable to live in a home that isn’t complete. You feel like you are camping in a house. Which is fine if you are a guy, but a girl (wife) doesn’t think it’s so rad.

7. October: I continued remodeling inside, and spent an hour each day trying to figure out why my damn pool was green. I planted the front yard with winter grass.

8. November: I started writing for the Phoenix Suns. I continued remodeling the house. We traveled to Pennsylvania and New York for Thanksgiving for Johnny and Ali’s wedding. I turned 29.

9. December: December was insane at work. Actually, pretty much the whole fourth quarter at work was outrageously busy. I juggled seven large, important projects everyday for three months. Insane! Candyce and I went to several Christmas parties, and hosted a big party at our house. We hosted my Dad when he came into town too.

    So there you have it–the year that almost made me go crazy. I haven’t had time to learn a lesson here; there’s no moral to this story. I’m just an exhausted man taking an hour to write out my thoughts. Now it’s time to pack and head out to California.