Sometimes I Do Stupid Sh*t

November 8, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

Hiya!

We’re having a lazy Sunday morning over here (the best) after a pretty full week of everything.

~~Inda and Loony and~~ Indy and Luna and I went out to the greenway back by the old Wench house on a rather gray day so the dogs could get out some energy.

Pretty sure this is what Pooh and Piglet would look like if they were dogs!

It was pretty eventful since Luna, who HATES water, tried to follow Indy across a creek and got herself stuck. Rather than helping her, which is what kind and normal people would do, I sat there, laughed and took a short video of her trials.

Don’t worry, she figured it out and is safe and sound and was only a little traumatized from the water.

I also hit up the library for some quality ~~people watching~~ paper writing time. Also I needed to try out some of the other kooky chairs. Priorities y’all .

Then, Steve and I decided to go work out. Smart idea right?? Wrong.

Since it’s been a while since we’ve visited the gym, we both tried to make up for lost time by working out extra hard. Bad idea.

I ran so hard I gave myself heartburn and other gastric issues. Apparently 9mph is pretty fast?? Steve overdid it on the leg press and strained his knee a bit. I was going to do a bit of strength training after the run but couldn’t function/breathe so I went and sat in the sauna until I could walk around without dying.

This is my “Oops WTF did I just do” face.

We grabbed some beers with Matt and Lisa decided to not move again for the rest of the night.

How was your weekend festivities?

So Umm Hi

November 4, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

How’s it going?

Hope things are going well 🙂

Things have been a giant 💩 around here so the blog got pushed to the way way back burner. The daily routine has settled into what could be called ‘normal’ and a lot has happened since September!

So imma spam you with pictures from the last month and a half, brace yourselves, you have been warned.

~~We’ve~~ I’ve been watching a lot of college football

Luna has been gazing out the window and dreaming of freedom. Her wild side cannot be contained in a mere apartment.

Lisa and I had a fun girls night! We made full use of the rooftop patio at Raleigh Beer Garden 🙂

Steve and I flew to Little Rock to surprise the fam! It totally worked and was an awesome trip. We decided to investigate the local alcohol scene there and tried Lost Forty Brewing…

…and Rock Town Distillery! Look at all dat moonshine that’s gonna grow up to be wiskey (We tried all 15 of their liquors to make sure they passed expectations, which they did and now we’ve saved you a trip to Little Rock. You’re welcome)

Luna’s sleeping habits got weirder.

We went to a local farm and picked apples, pumpkins, roasted hotdogs and smores, and went on a hay ride *cue nostalgia and pretending to be 7 again*

Said apples were used to make my first pie (yes it was from scratch and it turned out fabulous) Vodka. Vodka is the secret to pie. Like anyone is surprised.

(those are supposed to be bats on top, alas my artistic skills are severely lacking)

Grad school has been grad schooled

Michael and I went on a ~~super fun~~ trip to DC for ASSIST promotion. We were so excited it just couldn’t be contained!

Aaaaaand Steve and I went as zombies for halloween in what was the best. costume. ever. Seriously.

even zombies need to take the dog out

Whew. That was a lot and pretty sure there’s a decent amount missing but that’s what we’ve been up to!

TTYL

Adulting

September 12, 2015 / Amanda / 1 Comment

How do you get motivated when you have no motivation?

Adulting is hard….cleaning, showering, exercising, working, paying bills, eating, and it just never stops.

Adulting is hard..I hate adulting

I’ve been pretty lazy about this whole half marathon training thing. I’d like to completely blame it on the fact that I may or may not be able to afford the trip out to San Diego to the run the thing in the first place. It’s hard to stay motivated to genuinely ‘train’ for something when you’re not sure you’re even going to run it!

But, because we’re being honest here. I’m going through a bit of a lazy spell. The motivation to work out every day just isn’t there. Hell. The motivation to shower and cook and survive every day just isn’t there either.

Trigger warning about depression and possible spelling errors ahead.

Can’t medication be a magical cure all?? Seriously, that just needs to happen. The alternative is just too much work. It’s really frustrating when everything is going great and your life is chugging along like The Little Engine That Could and then all of a sudden your sweet childhood book looks something like this..

Not gonna lie, August was a little rough in the PhDeviant household. Puppy + ACL surgery + Last min trips + start of school = a household just trying to make it through each day in one piece. A whole month of that usually results in forgetting how to return to functioning normally.

Aaaaaaaand that’s exactly what happened.

So much energy was spent on making sure each day was accomplished that now that the pressure is off, my brain is kinda off in no-mans-land

My instinctual response to winding up on a deserted road is to resort to ‘depression-state’ or the lesser known ‘lack of motivation state that leads to depression state’. Either way, it’s not awesome.

The best thing to do at this point is to just continue on with life as though nothing is different and the motivation will come back at some point I think.

To end this post on a happier note, here’s a Calvin and Hobbes quote because those are awesome

The Start of Something New

August 30, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

Hi peeps!

Don’t worry, I’m not talking about anything crazy here, just the start of the new semester. Since the summer is officially over (at least here in NC) I figure it’s about time to get on a ~~semi~~ regular posting schedule again. Ya know, in addition to organizing everything else and setting up for the upcoming year

So. Let’s see.

Last week I joined the ASSIST Center at Sourcing at MAGIC (not an actual magic show as in two sorcerers battling it out but a textiles and fashion expo) in Las Vegas!

Our research was being highlighted as the latest in wearable technology so we were front and center of the thing! Here’s a picture of me, taken with a potato, wearing our EKG shirt at a corner of our booth. I may look less than thrilled as this was the last day of the expo and we had just seen……

BRITNEY SPEARS LAST NIGHT!! ❤

Insert girly freak out here

It was everything my 10 yr old self could have asked for and then some! I didn’t have much of a voice the day after due to all the loud singing and such 🙂

We also made a point to drink some obscene slushies every night (can you tell I’m really good at taking pictures with my potato??)

Which eventually led to decisions like this….

Apparently balloon hats are rather suspicious to airport security, although FYI they will let you on a plane with them.

Steve had a great time trying to herd two dogs (the puppy is pretty high energy) with a bad knee, but I’ll let him tell you about that experience.

Anyhoo,

Classes are back in action (I’m taking one class this semester) and it’s weird having to be responsible and make good decisions again…i.e. my half marathon training starts this week…..after not working out for….2 months??….it’s gonna be awesome…..

I’ll be back soon with more!

A New Addition

August 10, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

So it’s been pretty quiet over here on the blog but it definitely has been anything but quiet in real life! As of last Friday, we are now a 12-legged family….

This cutie is Luna! She’s about 11 weeks old right now and is a very exciting addition to the Steve/Amanda household. Indy has adjusted about as well as could be expected….

Especially since she’s Luna’s new favorite chew toy, but overall they really get along well! Indy has taken on the role of “Mama Dog” and is intent on showing Luna what’s what in life. Indy has also taken on the role of treat thief and shameless beggar whenever Luna is around, so we gotta work on that a bit.

In people news, Steve had reconstructive surgery on his ACL that he tore in Prague. It’s been my job to dispense ice and narcotics at regular intervals for the last week or so.

Since Steve is out of commission (he’s just now starting to hobble around on crutches) puppy wrangling/herding has been my new 24/7 job in addition to my grad school job and my Steve’s caretaker/”responsible adult” job. It’s a lot to take on at once and I haven’t slept much, but every dog and Steve is worth it!

I’m just going to finish off this post with a bunch more pictures of Luna because the world needs more puppy pictures!

She has questionable sleeping techniques…