denim

i'm slowly pulling myself back together after sunday's race.  two nights this week i passed out on the couch and matt had to wake me up to go to bed, and it's like setting my armpits on fire every time i put on deodorant.  but my soreness is all but a memory and i'm even able to wear heels for short periods of time.  so to celebrate, i wore clothing and took pictures of them last night.  i dig denim.
details:
shirt-thrift
jeans-calvin klein, thrift
shoes-liz claiborne, thrift
bag-dooney & bourke, shop purchase

photo a day april

my instagrams for the month of april.  

okc memorial marathon

yesterday i woke up at 4:30am, after a fitful night of sleep to thunderstorms, so i could run the 12th annual oklahoma city memorial marathon.  yeah, it was a short night of sleep.  but it was worth it.  in 1995, i was sitting in my oklahoma history class when news hit that the murrah federal building in downtown okc was bombed.  it was pretty harrowing, even for a freshman in high school.  at the time, it was the most horrific terrorist attack on US soil.  and ever since i'd started running marathons, i'd wanted to run this one.  
there were a record number of 27,000 runners yesterday morning.  we were packed in like sardines.  but the 168 seconds of silence before the race start helped you to remember why you were there.  168-the number of innocent people who lost their lives 17 years ago.  the streets are lined with banners memorializing the victims.  when you are tired on mile 20, all you have to do is look up and see the names of the people who died that day to be inspired to keep going.  it was pretty cool.  
the day was dark and cloudy.  it rained on me from mile 11-18.  but it was my best race yet.  i finished in 4 hours and 15 minutes.  it was hard!!!  but amazing at the same time.  and i'm reminded of how blessed i am :)

the big day

this is it.  this weekend.  this sunday, the big day.  i run my fourth marathon. no lies, i'm a bit nervous about it, but soooooo glad it's finally here so i can get it done!!!  i do my final little training run today.  a wee three mile jog about town to rest and loosen up for the big race.  ahhhhh, i'm looking forward to monday.  
hope your weekend is eventful too!
details:
shirt-gap from yearsssss ago
jeans-vintage jordache, ebay
shoes-liz claiborne, thrift
bag-vintage dooney & bourke, gift from matt

shop talk: names and visions

often i get asked how i came up with the name for my shop.  that story takes us all the way back to 1998, physiology class senior year of high school.  these were the days before smartphones, texting, and high speed internet.  chat rooms were all the rage and you paid by the hour to be online.  yeah.  back in the old days.  my physiology teacher was an idiot so we basically didn't learn a thing.  my friend erin and i sat in the back of class and typed out messages to each other on our TI-86 graphing calculators and passed them back and forth.  then one day she put a bunch of glow in the dark star stickers inside the cover of my calculator and called it amandromeda (a combo of amanda and andromeda) because it was my constellation. i liked it so much that i assigned my first ever email account with that name which is why it's 2012 and i still have a hotmail.  i'm too lazy to make the switch.  so when it came time to decide on a name for the store, matt suggested amandromeda.  i thought it was a great idea.

and i like the fact that it doesn't limit me.  if one day i want to sell comic books, i can still use that name.  used cars?  amandromeda.  tanning salon: tropic of amandromeda.  restaurant: bistro amandromeda.  see?  it's so versatile.  
i really don't have a strict vision for my business.  some may say that's a bad idea.  me, i like to live by the seat of my pants.  i want this to be a fluid venture without rigid expectations or hard limits.  i can tell when my shop needs a shake up.  usually when i get tired of being there i realize i need to move the store layout around or gather more inventory or add something new.  i take a much more organic approach to my business than most.  because i know the moment i start taking it too seriously, i'll be ready to close up shop.  and i'm not ready for that yet.