Here's a really quick, get-up-to-speed rundown of events since Aug. 22 of 2013.
- 8 days later :: I flew from Atlanta to Milwaukee, and finally let this wonderful guy steal my heart :) Sappy, I know, sorry...ish. Commencement of long distance relationship!
- 5 days later than that :: I flew to Grand Cayman and interviewed for a design job.
- 4 days later :: I had the job...and then onset anxiety and stress because holy doodoo I was moving out of the country any day now.
- Two weeks passed and my best friends got married and there was a whole lot of "EVERYONE IS GROWING UP AND DISAPPEARING" running through my head.
I moved my things from Atlanta back home to Birmingham while awaiting Cayman Islands Immigration clearance (an absolute nightmare), and then I waited. And waited. And waited some more.
"Good things come to those who wait." I got migraines.
Finally, I became a resident of the Cayman Islands on Nov. 15 and started my new job 3 days later, and it's been busy! I've had a lot of visitors and then was spoiled to get to spend almost 3 months in the Caribbean with my guy :) I've probably logged at least 48 hours of snorkel time, and my freckles have multiplied (my tan, not so much -____- ).
I've also been taking a lot more pictures, mostly on the subject of food. Food is a big thing here, especially on Sundays. Sundays become a weird brunch-ghost-town. Nothing is open except restaurants, and almost every restaurant on-island has a Sunday Brunch event where you eat fancy little things and drink bottomless mimosas, and then you go to bars and keep drinking to ensure hatred of yourself on Monday morning. I can't keep up with all that. I eat the fancy little things, usually at a table for one, and I photograph every single cup and plate.
It started as an Instagram restaurant-journal-of-sorts, but then I needed more. I started actually READING my cookbooks. Seriously, follow along with your imagination here: hot Caribbean sun in the sky, waves crashing, toes in the sand, cookbook in hand << that dork is me (and sitting next to me is some hunky nerd tinkering with a million GoPro gadgets).
So, I'm learning how to properly roll dough and fold ingredients and pair flavors, and SOMETIMES I'm not EVEN using a recipe. I'm also around food all day at work (this is a terrible, terrible thing). Every time I think about buying something, Lemon Shortbread Cookies for instance, I decide that I'd like to learn how to bake them instead. My new motto :: BAKE, COOK, AND EAT ALL THE THINGS! or something like that.
So anyway, what do I plan to do with these new-found interests? I don't know. I know that I'm pretty dang good at taking pictures of food, and that my food is delicious, if I may toot my own horn. I'm still sketching clocks and doodads, though materials for prototyping are too expensive when you live on a speck of dirt in the ocean, and I'm still doing Frootshoots. To hopefully not sound super cheesy, you could say I'm still Designing Amanda. I'll make an effort to post more often, and we'll just have to see where that takes me! If you'd like to follow along in real-time, follow me on Instragram @amandapandamania and you can accuse me of eating too much and constantly making you hungry :)
Stay tuned!
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