rip lehman brothers

today marks the 7th anniversary of the lehman brother holdings chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. i can't believe it's already been seven years! it was a pretty tumultuous time for me and many people i knew, and a day that would change my life forever (and empty out my 401k as well).

thinking back ...

• 7 years ago (2008), i was living and working for lehman brothers in tokyo. my friend, carrie, was staying with me for the week and i felt extremely lucky to have a close friend with me during those tumultuous times. it was also right around the time i met billy and emily, two of my closest friends in japan!
• 6 years ago (2009), i was back in new york city working for nomura securities and getting ready to launch the us index product. our offices were down in the world financial center, which is nowhere as nice as brookfield place is now, but i had a corner seat on the 22nd floor and views of the water. it was a bit distracting to say the least :)
• 5 years ago (2010), rose and i were planning our trip to colombia (october 2010)! as recent friends who did yoga together 2-3 times a week (i miss it ...), we decided to take a weeklong trip together to bogota and cartagena.
• 4 years ago (2011), jordan, forest, and i biked the new york century bike tour. that's +100 miles on the bike through almost all the boroughs (less staten island). it was brutal .. for jordan and forest especially because i was out-of-shape and riding a hybrid. somehow we are still pretty good friends :)
• 3 years ago (2012), kevin and i completed the new jersey gran fondo! well, we biked the first half together, and separated when i opted to do the piccolo fondo (42.6 miles) and kev opted for the medio fondo (62.7 miles). the following weekend, liz and tom, close friends from tokyo, came to visit and stayed with me for a weekend. the following weekend, kevin's younger brother, eric, came to visit and i met him for the first time. i remember it was like +100F all weekend (aka nasty). it was a busy month!
• 2 years ago (2013), we were in chicago celebrating the marriage of our friends, doshi and bijal. it was both of our first times attending an indian wedding (farm animal included, of course) and my first time wearing a sari! it was just a few weeks before our own wedding at the central park boathouse.
• 1 year ago (2014), we were preparing to move out of our union square apartment around this time. i was busy checking up on the renovation at the loft and attending weekly meetings with the architect and contractor. on top of back to back meetings that day, we had dinner at bobby flay's then recently-opened gato with friends. over the weekend, kevin did his second 70.3 half ironman down in princeton, nj. it was a pretty hot and humid day, and the bike and run course was really nothing to brag about, and he did really well :)