Time for grad school recovery

The last few months have been all consumed by grad school. During that whole process I felt  like this:

And I had to see things like this, which I hoped to never see again.

Oh silly pre-grad school Ashley would probably see that stack of books and think, oh wow cool! I want to learn those things! Post-grad school Ashley mainly thinks, OMG vomit, get those out of my face.

Anyways as of yesterday all my paper work has been turned in and signed. I am done. D-O-N-E baby, yeah! Now I feel like this:

If you are wondering, yes that is my computer mouse in my hand. I am sure there is some fancy way to time photos with my webcam but I haven’t figured it out yet.

Please, stare at those for a long time. They get better the more you look at them.

Now that I am done with grad school I am left with the sad sack of human that was chewed up and spit out by the fine institution I attended. Needless to say during the process of …

• Getting a new job
• Fighting the federal government trying to take away healthcare from women
• getting another new job
• conducting and analyzing research data
• writing my culminating
• writing my culminating again after getting it chewed up and spit back in my face by again that fine institution I attended
• Doing other weird things – lobbying, testifying and so on

… there was little self care. I went from a 85% vegan to a 100% pizza, fast food and whatever else was cheap and would fit into my mouth kind of eater. I also went from 8 weeks into a marathon training plan to absolutely no exercise.

Correct, NONE. That is pretty impressive really.

Now it is time to pick up the pieces and make my next moves when it comes to self care. During this whole process I learned a lot. I have changed my views about healthy living, well really living in general, and thus also what the purpose of this blog will be.

I am off for a run to try to get myself back into some regular fitness schedule. Look forward to more posts about my adventures in trying to figure out how to live like a human being again.

And now your moment of Zen, a sparkly GIF in honor of my shiny new degree. PS – nothing says higher education like sparkly GIFs!

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We’re not Detroit!

Good bye Columbus!

What a roller coaster of a day! The day started around 8am, with packing/truck loading started yesterday. Kevin and I packed our little hearts out, till ever last thing was out of there! Here is proof of the EMPTY apartment. Wait, who is that sneaking around the corner?

  

After packing, we were ready to go, but before hitting the road we went to Waffle House!

 

It feels like it has been forever since we visited the old WH. Back in BG, the staff knew us by name tandem, and now it has been months since we have eaten there. you can’t tell from these empty pates, but I am taking a vegan-cation till the end of the year. Still going vegetarian strong, but dairy has made its way back into the diet.

After everything was loaded we embarked on the wonderful drive to Cleveland. by wonderful I mean TERRIBLE, as I am not a fan of driving to point A Ohio to point B Ohio if the trip is over 2 hours.

After the long drive, we had about another 2 and a half hours of unpacking. Getting the bed into the apartment is a feat I am still not sure how we accomplished. This bed may never leave this room again.

After the unloading was completed we made one FINAL stop to Goodwill and then dinner. We DEVOURED our food at the Cheesecake Factory. It was AMAZING and not vegan. It was the vegan option possible probably.

Also, I discovered Bellinis, how fabulous!

Now here I am , in the mess of our apartment, filling out HR paperwork for my work orientation tomorrow, and I couldn’t be happier.

Good night folks, and here is your Cleveland moment of Zen:

Junk in the trunk

Today was a roller coaster of emotions. Around noon we picked up the truck and began packing. Here you can see me doing my best Vanna White to show off the many things we donated to Goodwill.

Kevin, our trusted driver, here taking one of our many trips to Goodwill.

Goodwill is an amazing organization and does a lot more than just manage the retail stores. I HIGHLY recommend volunteering with this organization! They go great work to ensure all people are able to live independently. Check them out here.

Soon our mood took a sudden turn for the worst. While packing, we had to make some hard decisions. Our truck was getting full and we just couldn’t take everything.

That is when we both looked at the tandem. Its so big, and hard to move and we have no place to keep it now. We both knew what we had to do, but neither of were happy.

 

We took it over to play it again sports and sold it. My face really explains the mood of the moment.

sad sad day … GOOD BYE TANDEM! You will never be forgotten

After all the packing we finally decided we could not get everything done tonight AND unload in Cleveland as well today. We decided to call it a night and go see the Black Swan.

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It was CRAZY! Check it out sometime this holiday, but be ready to have your mind messed with to the extreme!

Since the bed is already in the truck, Kevin and I created out own hibernation nest. You might ask, what is a hibernation nest. Well, as I mentioned before, we were worried about hedgehogs strange new burrowing in his bedding.

Turns out, when hedgies get cold, they start to hibernate. When they go into hibernation mood, they create nests! We decided to use Sand’s message and create our own nest!

And now, your moment of zen:

The crazy pony comes ALIVE

Lots to do tomorrow, night!