January in Review

Before February gets going, I'm gonna be all over it and do a photo-review blog for what went down in my corner of the world in January 2011.

Rang in the new year with some friends who've become close over the last few months: Sam, Alex & Julie, as well as a couple of old book club friends, Casey and Ryan. We celebrated at an indie, dinner-movie theatre called The Enzian during their James Bond theme party. Casey, Julie and I got all dressed up in sparkling formal-wear, and the men all looked snazzy in their suits and ties!

Just 2 days into 2011 I had the pleasure of hosting my best friend from Down Under, Tamara! We had a blast together all week, catching up, playing with Heidi and Ashes, dining out, having PB&Js, playing Euchre and discussing our cultural and language differences. That weekend my Mom flew in town to run the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. I was supposed to run it with her, but I had to back out due to knee injury... She ran it, had fun, and Tamara and I supported her. The next day we all enjoyed ourselves at Universal's Islands of Adventure. We were blown away by the feature Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride inside the Hogwarts Castle!

During the Tamara visit I had to deal with Heidi having caught some gastro-intestinal parasites. Got her all treated for that, and she's doing MUCH better now. Still hanging around 55#, but she's already healthier.

Through the month I hosted a couple of euchre nights. I taught my new Euchre playing friends how to play bid-Euchre so we could have 6 or 8 people playing one big game instead of breaking into 2 smaller games. It's a lot of fun. I'm really glad I can get that taste of the Midwest down here through Euchre.

The Spring 2011 semester at PSU started on Monday, 10 January 2011. I'm taking 2 classes this semester: IST 552 Data Management and IST 411 Distributed Object-Oriented Programming. I LOVE 411 and am doing well there so far, but I'm praying to pass 552. The class overestimates the students' background knowledge and is very accellerated in pace...

I had a lovely Skype date with Miss Kristin! When I Skyped with her she announced that her and her husband, Aric, were getting a puppy - a Cocka-Poo! They've sinced picked him up from the breeder and named him Hiro, from the main character in the shoe Heroes. I've seen a photo, and he's just adorable! Can't wait to Skype with her again soon to hear all about their transition into puppy parenthood!

On Tuesday, 11 January 2011 my brother, Chucky, turned 22! I sent him a card, a book he requested ("The Art of War"), and a gift card to Target. I wish I could have celebrated with him in person, but when you're on opposite coasts of the country, it's kinda tricky and we make do. Happy birthday, Chuggy! Here's a favorite photo of the two of us, taken at Lana & Geof's wedding back in September 2009:

Last weekend I got to go skiing with a bunch of great friends from work; they are all in the IS Leadershpi Development Program with me. We had a blast! We stayed in an awesome, 5-bedroom cabin, tucked away in the woods, and we had 2 full days of skiing! Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

My parents bought me Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" for Christmas. I have sinced read it all the way through and am working to have my own Total Money Makeover. With all the student debt I have, this just made perfect sense. In fact, tonight I'm finalizing my Allocated Spending Plan for February 2011. It'll be interesting to see where my bad spending habits reside (I'm thinking eating out and groceries are my bane, aside from my car loan payment). Anyway, I like being organized and I like budgeting, so to implement his plan has been fun for me so far.

Last Saturday was my first Hackathon, hosted at Sam's house. He made a super cool white board, DIY-style that I got to use while Joel taught me how to do dynamic programming tables (part of my first IST 552 homework assignment). It was a lot of fun boucing ideas off one another for different programming projects and hanging out with like-minded career/student/developer friends. I'm excited for the next one and hope it goes from monthly to bi-weekly! Here's a photo of Sam displaying my dynamic programming table on his home-made white board:

The last big thing I did in January was epic! My friend Alex and I participated in our first Warrior Dash! On top of that, it was his first 5K! He picked a great one! We ran through mud rivers, crawled through mud pits (I'm talking several feet deep pits full of sloshy/suctiony/smooshy mud), climbed rope nettings, scaled balance beams, leaped over fire and swam through a muddy trough with barbed wire just over our heads! It was so adventurous and challenging and fun! I haven't seen my official chip time yet, but my watch clocked me at approximately 35 minutes. That's 5 minutes less than what my goal was!

The Crazy 80s Pub Crawl

Last night was the Orlando Pub Crawl's 5th Annual The Crazy 80s Pub Crawl! It was my first official pub crawl here in Orlando. It reminded me an awful lot of Purdue's Breakfast Club with all of the 80s-themed costumes (trolls, Hulk Hogan, spandex, fluorescent colors and side ponies) and 80s music! Great fun! Here are some photos:

Joel, Heather, Casey and I

Joel, Matt (Karate Kid) and I

I bumped into a real Aussie, Pete (Crocodile Dundee)! Casey and I had to take a photo with him since we both lived in Australia during Study Abroad trips!

Inga Visits!

I had the great pleasure of hosting one of my most dear friends last week! Ingeborg made a stop in Orlando on her backpacking trip along the southern US states on her way to Phoenix! It was amazing to see a friend from Australia (we were flat mates over there in Spring 2008 during our study abroad trips; she's from Norway). Of course we had kept in touch, but we hadn't seen one another in the flesh in 18 months! It was amazing to catch up with her in person. Here is the link to the full photo album.

We had something fun to do every day of her stay. Here's the run-down on our little adventure together:

Friday night: Inga arrives; we stay up way too late talking about EVERYTHING; we eat lemon poppy seed muffins with butter and jam; I unwrap all the little presents she brought me from Norway; we gorge on all the candies included in said presents; we have fun speaking "Norway-English," haha; we agree to sleep in the next morning.



Saturday: we slept in; she blogged about her travel to the US while I went for a run; we had pot pies for lunch (her first time having one; she's a fan); she made great friends with Ashes; and we went out for NORWAY NIGHT!



Several of my good friends from the book club joined us in showing Inga Downtown Orlando! We hit Latitudes (to get started), The Lodge (Inga's favorite), and Eye Spy (heaps of dancing); then we capped the evening with some good ole Jimmy John's (another first for Inga).



Sunday: met some folks from the book club for brunch at Hue, downtown. It was quite tasty, but took longer than anticipated, and so we were running behind time to get to the book club at Stardust. I was able to inform Inga of the book we were reading for January in time that she could read it, so she had fun taking part in the discussion with us. We had several new faces at both the brunch and the book club, but Inga was dubbed the "honorary, global book clubber," haha! After the book club we strolled around Lake Eola.



Monday: I had to work; Inga had a nice, lazy day. That evening we were originally planning to go to my Orlando Camera Club meeting to learn about HDR, but we got sucked into a shopping mode and hit Ulta and Ross that evening. We got a little crazy with our nail polish selections! So many to choose from! For dinner I took Inga to Panera.

Tuesday: I worked again, and Inga had another relaxing day. That evening I took a nap while she read, then we went to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. After CPK we went downtown, in formal-wear, mind you, to celebrate Joel's birthday at The Citrus Club on the top floor of the BB&T building downtown. It was really elegant, and we had fun chit chatting with Joel and his friend, Dennis. Happy birthday, Joel!



Wednesday: Again, work for me; Inga had a lazy morning; I brought home Jersey Mike's Subs for lunch, then she went to Waterford and I went back to work. That evening we lounged for a bit before going to Urban Flats for some flat bread, live music and she had some wine (as I was driving). Afterwards we went to Borders where I picked up the February book club book and she found a cool iPod case.

At one point through the week I took Inga to The Marble Slab. She was blown away by the concept, haha! She had a crazy concoction, but it really wasn't too bad, less the York Peppermint Patties, haha!



Thursday: after work Inga and I went to Amigo's for dinner where I ate entirely too much, too quickly, haha. Inga picked up heaps of goodies for the pre-screening of the movie "Dear John" that Joel got us tickets for. Ryan met up with us, too, and we camped out for an hour to get excellent seats in the theatre. I didn't cry, though my eyes got a little dewy. Inga cried, I'm pretty sure. We felt the movie was okay, and preferred "The Notebook." Fun time, nonetheless!

Friday: I took the day off to spend a full day with Inga. Ryan hooked us up with some good deals to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures. Ryan was a great "guide" to the parks. We hit up all the good rides and the longest wait, with one exception (the new roller coaster where they play your song during the ride), was 15 minutes! It was unheard of, I tell ya!



After much walking around, snacking, riding and chatting we got back to my apartment just in time for a quick power nap and prep for the Girls' Night I had planned as the last big to-do before Inga left Orlando. I had a few girls from the book club over, and Tiffany. We chatted, snacked on fruit and fondue, drank wine and had a lovely time painting our nails. I have a feeling there will be more Girls' Nights in the future.



Saturday morning we packed up and drove to Gainesville as it was her next stop and it was on my way to Atlanta to pick up Heidi. So we got a couple extra hours together. She DJ'd for me with the iPods. When we got to her hostel we said our goodbye's quickly to avoid bawling. I sure will miss that girl!

Thank you so much, Inga, for visiting! I loved having you in my home and company! Travel safely as you journey to Phoenix!

-Amanda

PS - Here is the link to Inga's travel blog if you're interested in reading (the second half of each post is in English) about her travels in the US.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

This is Mr. Bill Bryson:


Bill Bryson


I "met" him through a dear friend of mine, Kristin Folden. She mentioned his US travel book, A Walk in the Woods oh, about a year ago, and it's been on my list of books to read ever since (it's a long list, I tell you). At her and Aric's wedding she presented me with another Bryson book: In a Sunburned Country.


In a Sunburned Country

Considering that I'd been to Australia, a whopping year ago - so hard to believe that fact - I felt it appropriate to escalate the priority of reading In A Sunburned Country. So I did. And I was quite impressed. Bryson is one of the most humorous and friendly writers I've had the pleasure of reading. His stories and perspectives are interesting, and he tells stories splendidly.

I was really excited to read the book because I knew it would be like a memory-trip back to the grand world Down Under, and it was quite so. I loved reading every chapter and hearing about the places I'd visited and especially the places I'd been unable to visit. I learned a lot from Bill, too, and enjoyed recollecting my own personal travels in Australia.

I enjoyed reading all of Bryson's statistics. From animals to population to land mass to various comparisons to plants, Bryson put Australia into perspective with numbers. He painted such an accurate picture of the folks in Australia, too: so friendly, willing and kind to even strangers, their attitudes towards different things, even their fellow citizens who lived in different states. I was surprised to learn that Queenslanders were regarded as the quirky ones, haha.

I loved his stories from boogie boarding to being chased by dogs to the different folks he met along his journeys to all the parks and various sights he saw.

It was indeed a fantastic book for me to read, having spent 6 wonderful months in the lovely country. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Australia, especially interested in visiting Down Under.

Cheers!

Amanda

Random Blurb

Exciting news: Tamara is planning a visit in July! I can't wait to see her beautiful, Australian face! Mom just booked her flight for a visit in July while Dad and the boys are at Sam's wrestling tournament in Fargo! I can't wait to see my Momma again! And! Sam is due for a visit in August! I'm so excited to hang out with my kid brother!

Raven is heading back to the shop tomorrow. Hopefully they'll patch her up properly so she looks like the 5-month-old car she is.

Mom and Dad head out to the Grand Canyon this Friday! I am so happy for them and their big 25th Anniversary celebration! They deserve such an amazing trip like this! I'm also very excited to give them a gift from myself and my brothers. Mom and Dad are going to LOVE it!

I finished 1984 and am now reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I'll post separately on them later.

Sounds like I'll be seeing Angels & Demons with Tiffany & Co. (hehe, I love that) this weekend. It's one of my favorite books, and Tom Hanks can do no wrong. And, speaking of movies, Star Trek was great. The Twitter #annoyatrekkie was hilarious, too, haha. And The Onion's video about how it was actually entertaining was quite funny.

My weekend was fabulous! Friday night Jared and I had dinner at Amigo's - delicious and a step above Maria Bonita's. It was his treat because I was dropping him off and picking him up from the airport on Saturday and Sunday while he was flying home for a surprise Mother's Day visit (he's such a sweet son, isn't he?). After dinner we saw Star Trek, then called it a night. Saturday I took Jared to the airport, had an okay run with the OWR (went out too hard during the first 3 miles then sucked wind the last 3... still finished 2nd, though). Made friends with Brandie, the chick who finished the 6-miler in front of me, hehe, and we're planning a weekend run at Baldwin Park together. She's into some distance running, so I'm really happy we chatted; I'd been wanting a distance running buddy. After the run I met up with Tiffany & Matt at the pool for some basking. After showering up I headed downtown for a photography field trip with the OCC. We did a lot of shots of the city's architecture. The sunset on the skyline wasn't the greatest, but I still got a few nice shots. I'll post about that trip later. After photography fun I met up with Tiffany & Co. at Ember. We had a fabulous night! I'll post about that later, too. Sunday involved a nice sermon at Discovery Church (man, I love that church!), lunch at Crispers, some journaling, a movie (Closer; thoroughly unimpressive in my opinion - downright wretched behavior of the characters, actually), then I picked Jared up from the airport and went to bed. Overall, another excellent weekend!

The OCC meeting Monday was really cool. It was contest night, and while I didn't submit a photo, I did come away with some great news, but I can't share on here until I tell my Daddy about it. Regardless, the contest night was really cool: the judges provided feedback on the submitted entries for the open themed contest as the club president, Anna, went through the photos in a slide show. There were some really beautiful shots. Next month's theme is curves, and I'm definitely submitting. I have a few cool shots in mind...

I'm taking a training course at work this week (today through Thrusday). It's been a good brush-up on some classes I took during my freshmen and sophomore years at Purdue (the information systems side of the C&IT house). I really like the guy who's teaching, and it's a nice change in pace for a few days. It makes for a long day, but a good one, nonetheless.

By the way, it's been freaking HOT down here. Mid-90s since last week. Thankfully the rain arrived as of yesterday! Showers are expected throughout the week. I hope it is blue skies and heat on Saturday, though, because I'd love to be found soaking up rays at the pool!

Picked up some CDs from the library. Time to make an awesome running playlist and hit the gym for a bit.

-Amanda

Unstructured Post

It's time I catch up here with the random going-ons in my life. Currently I am enjoying a bottle of wine by myself for the very first time. It is a mark of fabulous independence. I'm drinking a 2008 Yellow Tail shiraz, a product of Australia! Obviously this makes me doubly happy. I'm listening to the soothing melodies of the Feist Pandora Internet radio station, and I'm having a delicious Greek salad. It reminds me of happy evenings during my final semester at Purdue.

I bought an iPhone a few weeks ago. As a Mac user it made a lot of sense for me to choose it over the BlackJack 2, which is Windows Mobile and basically identical to my old phone, the original BlackJack. Naturally, I love everything about the iPhone with a couple of exceptions. One, I can't get my Bluetooth headset to make a relationship with the iPhone; I think the iPhone only plays with a particular headset. I'm not sure. Two, no picture text messaging. Other than that I think it's genius. Apple knows how to please its customers. They create things that flow with the mind's train of thought. Their products just make so much sense.

Lately I've become obsessed with Pandora, the aforementioned Internet radio website. The best thing about the website is that you give it an artist or a song to work with and it plays songs similar to your request; makes for a great way to discover new artists and songs. I've been very keen on the Frou Frou and Feist radio stations. Look 'em up. At least check out Pandora. You can thank me later.

I recently received word on my high school's 5 year reunion. It's hard to believe that it was five years ago that I graduated from high school. It will always return to memory with a sense of pettiness. A couple months ago I had a discussion with an old friend about whether or not we would attend our high school reunions. We both agreed that we probably wouldn't: people only want to show off at these sorts of functions. However, I have been in touch with some old friends from school, and it may be a nice opportunity to meet up with them. Any way, I was originally set against attending, but I'm rethinking my decision. I doubt it, but it would make for a good reason to have a trip up to Indiana in the fall. I might go for that reason alone.

Orlando is treating me well. I'm making it a point to scoop out the interesting places to grab coffee, dine, and relax. Yelp has been a great aid in that endeavor. Yelp is a reviews website; a great source of information.

I officially start my mini-marathon (13.1 miles) training today. Since the new year I've been training several times a week, no slacking! I'm quite proud of myself. Now it's time to start upping the mileage! Speaking of races, Lockheed Martin is sponsoring me to run a corporate 5K race in downtown Orlando at Lake Euola. I'm excited for that one! As a side note for training, I've been doing a great amount of cross-training with cycling and swimming!

Great news: I'm going to be at Purdue on Saturday, 2 May! I'm running the Indy 500 Mini that morning, but the plan is that I'll be well trained and able to move my body later that night, haha. That's the current plan.

-Amanda

Sex & the City

One day, during the wonderful summer of 2007, a dear friend named Kristin said to me, "Amanda, every woman should watch that show." "That show" being referred to could be none other than Sex & the City (SATC). I nodded my head and brushed off her comment. I have never been the chick-flick movie type, why on earth would I watch "that show?"

I've been so transformed since having the pleasure of meeting Miss Kristin. You see, through our friendship I've learned quite a bit about being a woman. Being the only female in your major for college career can suppress your feminine side drastically. Ask any of my boys. So, Kristin helped me nurture my female self.

When I was studying in Australia, the SATC movie came out. Myself and all of my flatmates went out to see it (even the blokes!). As we were exiting the cinema I was completely taken by surprise as I realized how much I had fell in love with the movie, the ideas, the humor, the concept, the characters - everything about SATC! By the way, Inga pointed out that I was most like Charlotte, which I took as a compliment.

For Christmas of 2008 I asked my grandparents for my very own copy of the SATC movie. I was so excited to watch it with my best friend (who doubles as my mother)! There was something really special about watching that particular film with my mom. We laughed and had a great girls night in, despite being forced to watch the movie in my dad's office because his was the only dual-layer DVD reader in the house, haha!

A few nights after moving to the big, fabulous city of Orlando, where I reside as a single woman, I decided I must watch the SATC TV show. I was empowered as I purchased the first season. I am three episodes in and - no surprise - I absolutely love it. I even joined a Facebook group for SATC.

I think the aspect I love most about SATC is that everyone - young, old, single, married, complicated, happy, sad, ugly, beautiful, rich, poor, male, female, newb or veteran and everything in between - EVERYONE can relate to the show. It's brilliant.

Here are some Sex & the City quick links:

The HBO Sex & the City website.

The Sex & the City 2008 film IMDB website.

The Sex & the City Wikipedia article.

-Amanda

Purdue Graduation

I've done it! I am now a proud Purdue University alumna! After 4.5 years in Boiler Nation I am now pressing onward into the next chapter of life: The Real World. More on that later.

In case you're wondering, I've graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Network Engineering Technology (think design, implementation and maintenance of hardware for computer networks) and a minor in Organizational Leadership and Supervision.

A quick recap of my nine happy semesters:

Semester One: little freshman, triathlon club, NROTC, first triathlon, meeting heaps of new friends, started dating Roy

Semester Two: used to the college scene, still with Roy, triathlon club, NROTC, two more triathlons, WIT

Semester Three: first apartment, still with Roy, house parties galore, started getting into yoga, WIT President

Semester Four: dealing with a roommate friendship gone bad, more house parties, dabbling with running, WIT President

(Don't worry, my grades were still fantastic, tee hee!)

Semester Five: gained a new circle of friends, movie nights, started serving on the C&IT Industrial Advisory Board, WIT President, first studio apartment

Semester Six: developed a slight bout of Senioritis, WIT President, C&IT IAB, getting more into running, began to consider a Study Abroad,

Semester Seven: officially a senior, C&IT IAB, WIT President, finally turned 21, Breakfast Club, serious about running, pot luck roommate in a great, new apartment, started dating Adam, gained a new circle of friends

Semester Eight: in Australia, lots of traveling, met loads of new (international) friends, gained new perspectives on life and the world (see Australia blog for more)

Semester Nine: the home stretch, tried many new restaurants, celebrated my first one year anniversary, ran my first half-marathon, accepted a job with Lockheed Martin upon graduation

Ah... it's been a great experience. I love Purdue! I bleed black and gold! Here are some photos from Commencement in December 2008:

My family and I



My grandparents and I



My great friends Alex and Feras and I



My old friend, Tyler, and I



Me crossing the railroad tracks towards the south to represent the end of my undergraduate career and the beginning of my relationship with the Purdue Alumni family



Just a quick blurb about the actual ceremony - it wasn't as long as anyone expected - yippee! And that day was the coldest day of my life! -20 degree wind chill! No one who attended the ceremony that day will ever, ever forget how cold it was, haha! On a more serious note, I really enjoyed President France Cordova's words and the music. It felt so wonderful crossing that stage!

Thank you so much to my amazing family, friends and Purdue!

-Amanda

Black, Gold & Green

With the environmental crisis the world is in, I'm very glad to see that Purdue University is making headway in becoming Green. Upon my return to school in August, one of the first things I noticed was the number of recycling receptacles - but not just the number of them, the variety of them! The units have a section for newspaper, office paper, plastics and aluminum items! I think that's fantastic!

A couple weeks ago Purdue promoted being Green for a week, perfectly named Green Week at Purdue. I also think this is great. However, why just one week? Why not all the time? Clicking the image below will take you to the Green Week at Purdue website.



An article from a Green Week at Purdue Exponent paper listed several suggestions on easy ways to be Green. I'd like to point out a few:

*switch from standard light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs; this can save you ~$30 over the course of each light bulb's life because they use ~75% less energy than standard light bulbs

*avoid driving as often as you can; carpool to save money on gas and catch up with a friend; go in to get your fast-food instead of idling in the drive-thru line

*unplug when possible; energy is still drained when plugs are left in the outlets (BTW, in Australia the outlets have an on/off switch so you can leave the plugs in but not drain energy - pretty clever)

*use reusable grocery bags; they're light-weight, durable, roomy-when-used but still space-saving, and inexpensive (~$1/bag); if you prefer plastic bags, find ways to reuse them (small trash can liners)

*if you're not using something, turn it off; don't leave the kitchen light on if you're on the other side of the house

*avoid bottled water; purchase a few reusable water bottles (I'm in love with my RubberMaid Chug bottle! Click the image below to check it out.)



*see how fast you can shower (my record is 2:15 (that's minutes:seconds) - I'm serious, really!)

I'd love to hear your tips on how to be more Green - post a comment!

-Amanda