She Does Better

Emilie Burke

Laundry, Max Out Week, Time for another adventure

// Life Lately

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Life here has been a lot of heads-down work and, for that I’m incredibly grateful. things are hard in a great way right now, and I know there are changes around the corner.

As a friend reminded me this week, I have three incredibly stressful things going on right now- a deployed husband, just starting a new role (same company), and am planning a move (!!)- so I need to give myself grace. While the imposter syndrome is high right now, I can recognize that I am still executing.

Well.. on the things that matter? Let’s just say laundry is not one of them. Given my dressing for one, and my dog’s current adventures away from home, I’ve been putting off folding laundry. The pile got so big it went from two baskets to the couch plus two baskets.

A couple of months ago, I times how long it takes me to folds a basket of laundry and it was less than half hour. This is when I confirm to myself that I am my own biggest enemy. I KNOW that folding a basket of laundry only takes 30 minutes, so why do I let that basket of laundry eat up my brainspace for so much longer than that?

I don’t know, but I do. I let this pile grow and grow.

… until I couldn’t take it anymore and spent last Saturday turning it into this. It doesn’t even look like that much this way. This is on my for thinking now was the time to wash all the towels. I didn’t even realize I did that.

Given that I’ll be traveling (again) for two weeks this month, my coach said this week would be a good one to max out for most of my lifts to give me a solid baseline as we head into the last quarter of the year. Most of my lifts are working with a 1RM that is a year+ old.

I was really, really pleased with my numbers.

  • Squat: 190 lbs (up from 172)
  • Deadlift: 240 lbs (down from 245)
  • Bench: 127 lbs (up from 90)
  • Press: 90 lbs (??)
  • Total: 647 lbs
My weight has been all over the place for the last six months

Everything but the deadlift was a lifetime PR. If I’m being totally honest, it brought me a lot of comfort to see these numbers go up since my weight hasn’t been heading in the direction I wanted it to. Getting stronger without gaining weight is great, but I really would love to drop some weight.

This was my alarm this morning. Today starts more travel aka another adventure. NYC-Brazil-Newark-Sav-MOVING. Let’s do it.

Some detours around San Francisco and back home

// Life Lately

Reading Time: 3 minutes

After two weeks away from my pillow and bed, I am home! (Almost a week ago, but who is counting?)

As much as I do enjoy the opportunity to see and be in new places, I savor being home. In my space. With my routine.

These sunset views from my apartment in San Francisco didn’t hurt, that’s for sure.

While in SF, I got the chance to take a quick detour to Vancouver, BC (Canada!) for a conference. There was a Mumford and Sons concert going on at the venue next door, and you could see the whole thing from my room!

It’s a little hard to see in the picture, but this was the view from my room! You could see the big screen and enjoy the show! We got there for the last 30-40 minutes of it, but it was a fun extra.

Serious question: How do we really feel about the whole t-shirt and blazer thing that people do in tech? I had someone suggest to me that it’s actually pretty childish looking, but it also seems to be the norm.

Levis – Allbirds – R. Riveter Floral Otto – Blazer (Similar)

The conference had a bunch of vendor booths. For obvious reasons, this was my favorite one.

Back in SF, I tried to spend a lot of time just savoring the views and enjoying the city.

On my one day off, I did do some exploring of Pier 39, but I also spent a lot of time recharging.

I finished reading Heartland by Sarah Smarsh, and it was a really interesting read. The book is memoir meets coming of age meets Hillbilly Elegy but in Kansas. I would recommend.

Big thanks to my mother who has been sending me lots of dog updates. Bo seems like he’s just fine in New Jersey and not missing me at all.

The following week, we took a quick trip to Colorado. I often say that CO is the most beautiful state in the country. Just look at those mountains!

The trip was super quick, though, and before I knew it I was flying back to SF.

Because of the time of day and the direction of our flight, I got to watch our plan chase the sunlight for a bit and that was pretty cool.

I savored the last couple of days of those spectacular San Francisco views before coming home last weekend.

Right now, I’m sitting in the chair at my front door watching the sunrise drinking my morning coffee. As great as those views are, nothing beats home.

Screen-free trip to San Francisco

// Life Lately

Reading Time: 2 minutes

On Sunday, I flew to San Francisco (via Atlanta). I was a bit nervous, but I had crushed through my todo list. Spent most of the alternating between my book (currently reading: Heartland by Sarah Smarsh) and starting out the window.

So pretty, right?

Landed in SF and enjoyed the Embarcadero a bit.

Digging the views from my apartment..

I’ve really enjoying the sunrise/set kick I’ve been on lately.

A Weekend in DC

// Life Lately

Reading Time: 3 minutes

If you think I have a packed travel schedule, you should meet my best friend Blair. 

You see, Blair and I have been friends since I was 15. Since then we’ve maintained our friendship mostly through weekly hour-long phone calls catching up on line. We never went to the same high school, never went to the same college, and never lived in the same town post-grad, but here we are with a decade of friendship under our belts. They say if you’ve been friends for more than 8 years, you’ll be friends for life.

Trying to coordinate a weekend for me to visit DC, something we’ve been trying to do since the beginning of the year, was a bit of a puzzle between C’s training timeline, my work travel schedule, and B’s work travel schedule.

Weekend before last, though, I was finally able to make it out there. While all I wanted to do was hang out and catch up, we also had a weekend full of adventures!

On Saturday, we want to a Nats game! Baseball games are incomplete without a hot dog with ketchup! The Nats lost miserably to the Dodgers, but the game was still fun. We spent most of the game in hiding from the sun hanging in the Bud Light Lounge area. 

On Sunday, Blair and I went to brunch, at a cool restaurant whose name I can’t remember. Mango mimosas were perfect. Afterwards, we bought meandered around DC. I wanted to pick up seasonings at Trader Joe’s while there (since there isn’t one here), so we made a stop for a dozen seasonings. We also got temporary tattoos (you know, apply water and hold for a minute) because.. why not?

We don’t have scooters in Savannah, but I’ve been dying to ride one to understand all the hooplah. 

Verdict: THEY GO WAY FASTER THAN I EXPECTED. They were fun, too, and relatively affordable compared to Lyft for short distances. That being said, I recognize how dangerous they can be. 

I don’t know how to ride a bike, so I couldn’t really get turning to work out well, but I could move in a straight line!

For dinner, we made homemade pizzas on fresh dough! One of my new things is adding eggs to pizza. You need to make a bed for it, but so so good.

We don’t have decade-long friends where we live, but the friends who knew you when you were in high school saw you in a special time of life that we’d all probably want to forget but we can’t because they still remember.

It was a great weekend, and it was great spending it with such special friends.

August Wish List

// Life Lately

Reading Time: < 1 minute

For two weeks in August, I will be away from my house, which, as I’ve shared 392847803459 times, is incredibly stressful for my routine-driven self.

Here are some things I’d like to see happen this month:

  • Finish 3 books
  • Finish my needlepoint project
  • Get to page 180 in Starting Strength
  • Remove all affiliate links from this site
  • Strategic (Career) Planning the rest of the year
  • September + October talks written, designed, and coded
  • Summer Bucket List progress
  • Make 2 open source contributions (1 Meltano + 1 dbt)
  • LOTS OF SUNRISE WATCHING

Cool things that happened in July:

  • Finished 3 books- The Woman in the Window, Big Little Lies, Before We Were Yours
  • Lots of cool things shared in general-purpose life update– Sav Bananas Game, Cooking School, Dad visited, Watched The Lion King
  • Visited CLE & DC
  • Tried out 2 new churches
  • Contributed to dbt utils
  • Watched more than one sunrise per week
  • Read 80+ pages of Starting Strength
  • Only used the dryer once (air-dried clothes otherwise)
  • Got my wedding album in the mail!

Great month!

Picture: Sunrise yesterday (July 31)- I lost track of time this AM and didn’t step outside to watch.