His feeling was that you couldn't only measure how good a job was by how you felt in the morning—the more important consideration was how you felt at the end of the day.

I called my brother and told him I was thinking about living alone. "Really?" he responded. "I mean, I would never want to live alone, but I guess some people like it."

The idea was simple: to gather a group of women who would meet regularly to support each others' lives and careers by reading and discussing interesting books and articles, and by sharing thoughts, experiences, and resources. Steph and I hoped it might become something we'd want to participate in for the long-term, allowing us to track people's career development through various life phases and jobs.

This is a little humbling, because I never thought I would be the type of person to write this: My most memorable purchase in 2012 was definitely my wedding.