I'm not funny anymore.

I'm alive. I survived Halloween. Gross. The worst holiday ever. I don't know why I hate it so much. Maybe because it still scares the crap out of me, even at the ripe old age of 25. I'm shuddering. You can't see it, but I am.

I'm a blur. From school to the gym to home I go. I'm a car, fueled by delicious coffee. Maybe I am a hybrid. Probably not. I'm not trendy enough to pull that off. School is still burying me alive. However, the big Ozark Fitness launch is over. Thank the Lord. It was a huge success and a lot of fun, but good grief, I was wrecked. Especially after reading and writing papers like a madwoman last week. I actually pulled an all-nighter. Somehow those were a lot more doable in undergrad when I was 18. I have 2 more papers to write, two presentations to give, a stack of blue books to grade, and a myriad of side readings to do before I see Thanksgiving. Oh, and run a half marathon, get trained in RPM, and go compete for Team BAMF at the Heart of America CrossFit challenge. Ambitious, much?

I just realized I didn't eat one piece of Halloween candy this year. Seriously? Oh well. I had a giant bowl of Orange Leaf yesterday. One of my secret life goals is to see how much Orange Leaf I can fit in one bowl. And then eat it.

I wore my purple bandana last Friday to a team wod. I guess you could say I dressed up as Miranda Oldroyd for Halloween. It kind of helped. I finished the wod. And was subsequently sore to the touch for 3 days afterward. Recap: Sandy is heavy. 95lb is heavy. I suck at pistol squats.

I think there was a day I used to be funny. Unfortunately, that day is gone.

Live to Fight Another Day

It's been a rough week. I'm physically and mentally wrecked. And the scary part? I'm just getting started. I feel an avalanche of work coming down on me, and my knees are ready to buckle. So I'm giving myself a pep talk. It's sort of working. I've discovered that the major difference between Undergrad Amber and Grad Amber is a sense of self-discipline. Working ahead of time? Unheard of circa 2005. Circa 2010, I know better. Look Ma, I'm growing up.

This week has been crazy in terms of workouts. I taught my ATTACK class on Monday morning, then subbed on Monday night. Then took RPM on Tuesday morning, followed up with a heavy Crossfit metcon that evening. The past three days I've done one Crossfit WOD a day. I bought a purple bandana last weekend, in honor of Miranda Oldroyd. She's the bada$$ in the pic to the left. Unfortunately, the bandana didn't give me any superpowers. But it did make me work a little harder, if only because I didn't want to bring a bad name to the blessed bandana.

This weekend is going to be devoted to writing my second lit review. Of course, I need to finish the actual book on which I'm writing this review. I'm halfway through, and I really needed to cover some ground tonight. But my eyes. They just won't stay open. And I swear to all that is holy, my bed is CALLING me. I can really hear it.

This is going to be difficult.

Moving on. Fruity Cheerios are the best Cheerios. They taste like Fruit Loops, and they are supposedly healthier, although, I still wouldn't tout them as a "health food." But I tried them last weekend, and I'm a fan. They might even beat Team Cheerios. Do they even make Team Cheerios anymore? Geez, I loved those back in the day. And why the heck doesn't blogger recognize "Cheerios" as an actual word? Haven't those little o's been around long enough to warrant dictionary recognition? Where is the justice?

I'm out, peeps.

Weather, you fickle minx.

Seriously, I am so confused. It was 80-something over the weekend. Now it's 50. What am I supposed to wear? I guess it doesn't really matter what I wear since I'm either at school or working out. It's usually some mixture of seasonal clothing. Take for instance right now. Shorts and a hoodie. Weird.

This week has been pretty nice. It's a short week in honor of fall break. All hail fall break. Although I think the university introduced this weird non-holiday break to reduce the number of suicides around midterm. Isn't that right? Urban legend maybe. But still. Now we have one. And I don't have class until next week. Yippy skippy.

Babies are popping up all over. At least at the gym, where I refuse to drink the water. Disgusting. Never mind that it's currently physiologically impossible for me to be with child, I still stay far away from that drinking fountain. You can never be too careful. I guess it's really difficult to see myself in that sort of environment. The maternal environment. Or the spousal environment either. Hmm. I AM only 25, so there's nothing to rush into. But I can honestly say that I think I'd be pretty happy never getting married. Ask me again in 5 years.

There are some interesting things coming up in the next month or so. The big Ozark Fitness breast cancer fundraiser/launch event is at the end of the month. Then November brings the Heart of America CrossFit team challenge in St. Louis. Then there's the 5k Gone Bad CF event the week after that. The sky's the limit really. I'm also tossing around another idea for November, but that is by no means set in stone. Oh yes, I'm also running the Houston Marathon in 16 weeks. And finishing up my first semester of grad school. Busy gal right here.

And on that note...peace out, blog peeps.

Hello October

Since I've last posted, we've gone straight through fall right to winter. Really. It was in the 30s this morning. THIRTIES. Oh well. I'm really not complaining. I love it. I'll take it as cold as it can get but without the frost on my car. I tend to draw the line at inconveniences to myself. But I do love a brisk morning.

Last week really was horrible. Thank goodness for my excellent time management skills, because without that claim to fame, I would have died. Literally died. From brain overload. But I'm happy to announce that I survived, and I also got the grade I wanted on my review and presentation. Whew. It's nice to feel like I'm doing something right.

And on the flip side, I can't dwell on that, because now here's a whole new week and I've got to start on that now. Remember that time management thing I was talking about? Yep. It's golden.

I'm about to jet off to campus. Back to the grind. Monday, please be kind.

Sleepy September

My sleeping patterns have been way off lately. They started out relatively normal. Obviously, by NORMAL, I mean, I was sleeping way too much for the average grad student. I'd go to bed by 10 and then get up around 7. I don't know anyone who does that voluntarily. I figured that I'd eventually hit the wall of needing to get less sleep to do more work. That's sensible. Right? Right.

Well, I've found myself getting less sleep for sure. I'm probably down to 7ish hours a night, which I realize is still quite a lot, again for the average grad student. But it makes me cranky. I require a lot of sleep to be a functioning human being. Non-functioning Amber is a lot like messing with a very short fuse. One wrong move...KABOOM! That was me this week. Anyway, to add another piece to my sleeping puzzle, I've been sleeping away my Sundays. Last week I took 3 naps. I kid you not. And today I slept until 11:15. So my body realizes I need to function on a longer fuse and therefore attempts to catch up on the Lord's day. My body is smart.

And that lit review that was ruining my life last week? It's done. Well, a very rough draft is done. I can't look at it again for awhile, so it's just sitting right now. Ugh. My brain. My poor, poor brain.

But in happier, non-school-related news, it is the perfect fall day. I'm sipping coffee and thinking about how if I don't take advantage of it and go for a run, I'm an idiot. So, in a bit, I'm gonna suit up with Glenda (my Garmin) and go enjoy it.