Amanda Aiese Ford

Chronicles in Quarantine: Drawing my way through the day

Trying to navigate the weirdness that is 2020. Here’s a little project keeping me busy during this time! Hope you’ll show us some love along the way- no hugs- because ya know- social distancing.

Off to a rough start, all of our fish died. Long story short, the pet store sold us 2 devil fish that ultimately killed seven of our goldfish. SEVEN! 🐟 We have since gotten rid of those meanies, but now we have our lone survivor. Her/His name is Manchego and we’re sure Mancheggy is extremely lonely… OR WAS THIS MANCHEGO’S PLAN ALL ALONG?! DID MANCHEGO OFF THE OTHER FISHIES TO BE QUEEN/KING OF THE TANK?? 😱😱We’re onto you buddy! 🤔🤔

Annnnd using all of our cleaning supplies to scrub our house! Coop is beside himself, (big boy is terrified of vacuums, including roomba) and Rig is OBLIVIOUS. As if I wasn’t nutty enough about being clean- this has completely put me over the edge. You could now eat off our floor- I wouldn’t suggest it because the dogs will most likely get to your food first... but you know what I mean. Stay tidy kids

To pass the time/also to put a little excitement in our lives we all hopped in the car and just drove. No place special, just something really pleasant about feeling the wind in your hair. The dogs especially love it! Coop slobbers all over the seats, the car, the windows and I’m sure the people driving by. It’s the easiest way for us to keep the pups happy while also social distancing. Happy driving y’all. Stay safe!

Currently at war with the wasps swarming around our house! I know I should just let them bee... but I can’t because they fly too close for comfort and are trying to make a nest on our house. Since our beach trips are a no-go, I would love to sit out on my porch and eat my lunch, but the wasps will not let it happen! Coop hates the wasps too and tries to bite them- we don’t want him to get stung so we try to discourage it. Rig, on the other hand, thinks we’re all playing. She’s clueless.

I assume when we leave- the pups stare out the window until we come back. Or they sleep or jump all over our bed! A few things- 1) we walk them a few times a day, but sometimes we like to go for runs without them- it’s hard to exercise when you have to stop and pick up dog poop or pause to let them smell all of them smells. I realize they’re totally gutted when we leave them but they’re out-of-this-world thrilled when we come home. 2) learned how to animate today! Baby steps but it feels good to keep my brain functioning!

How I imagine their conversations with our neighbor’s dog go. Rig is “special” and we love her for it. She’s TOO smart!! 🧠 When she was a new little puppy, Cooper could not stand her. All she wanted to do was follow him around, play with him and weirdly enough, lick his mouth.😝 But now he absolutely adores her. 🥰 She does anything she wants to him and he just lets her do it. I love the bond these two created and feel lucky that they have each other 🐶🐶

We too jumped on the Tiger King bandwagon. We binged the entire season fairly quickly and continuously quote Joe and Carole. 🐶🦁🐅🐆
“Hey all you cool cats and kittens”
“I’m never gonna financially recover from this”
There’s so many good ones and they just make us laugh. The dogs are over it, we’re ready for season 2!

We’ve been mixing up workouts in our house!
Day 15: I followed along with an instagram live yoga workout on Y7 Yoda’s account. It was so fun and made me realize just how much I miss it! I also did a video chat yoga class taught by my dear friend Anastasia! The entire time Rigby was all up in my business. Always licking my face and laying on the mat with me. She’s a nosy pup!
Day 16: We have a pull up bar in our house that has recently been getting a lot of use. Someone can do 50+ pull-ups in one go, the other... see below*
Day 17: *1 pull up. Just 1. My arms don’t let me pull my body up. I started a pull up challenge... with myself... now that I’m writing it I’m realizing it’s not a challenge it’s literally just practicing. Okay I’m practicing to do more than 1 pull up in a set. Maybe 5. I’m hoping to be able to do 5 pull ups all together by the time this stay at home order is lifted.
Day 18: the only free weights we have in our house aren’t very heavy so we’ve opted to use the dogs. Coop is a bit over 100 lbs, (I do NOT pick him up) and Rig is about 40 lbs. so it looks like bench pressing with Rigby-weight has become the new norm. She also enjoys it. We think she does at least because she lets us do it. That or she’s actually just terrified. Stay moving, stay safe and stay inside- xo

Anyone else’s screen time go up 40 freaking percent!?! Yeeeesh I need to take the dogs for a run and quit scrolling!! I put a heavy time limit on my Instagram usage because I find myself on it wayyy too much! I now get logged out of if I’m on for an hour. It had to be done. Off to be productive!

Using this time for self care and putting on every mask I have- Because... why not?! I’m a firm believer in self-love and I feel very lucky to have friends that know so much about skin care and the beauty industry. I’ve learned clean green products are imperative for healthy skin as well as drinking tons of water. Sooo, no, I haven’t changed out of sweats for a few days but my skin is feel fresh and that makes me feel good

Rigby’s hair was too long. As much as we brushed her, she would end up full of knots by the end of the day. We finally ordered some puppy clippers and decided to shave her...

She hated it at first but was a real trooper right on through.

I think we shaved off at lease 3lbs of hair!!! She looks like a mix of a raw chicken and a newborn kangaroo, but we think she loves her new cut!

Our naked girl! She’s very pink and turns out all that hair was covering some lovely lady rolls. Hey! It’s her winter bod!! She’s definitely very exposed but we think she’s happy to be lighter. She does get the shivers at night so we have to wrap her in a blanket- any dog sweater recommendations?? We have one that’s a bit too small on her so she looks like Winnie the Pooh 😂😂 anyways enjoy our little pink pig! 🐷

In the age of binge watching shows, my dad kept telling us to check out Amazon’s Tales from the Loop. We were apprehensive to start it because we had not heard much about the show, but we decided to give it a watch. Holy cow I am so happy we did! This show is BEAUTIFUL. Visually- it is absolutely stunning and feels like something out of a dream. EVERY SHOT IS PERFECT! I mean it! Tales from the Loop hit me in a certain way that I was not expecting at all. I COULD NOT STOP CRYING!! It is not a soap opera, more like the twilight zone- but it just pulled at my heartstrings. I think also given the circumstances of the world we’re currently living in and missing our families and just life and being in love and getting older- I was a jumble of feelings. I think that’s a sign of a well done show- to pull those kinds of emotions out of its viewers. We very much enjoyed the series, although slow at times- definitely a must watch.

Routine- I’ve always been one of those people that thrives off of structure- I constantly make lists of everything I have to do, so when I cross things off, I feel like an absolute champ. My lists are starting to feel small and kind of silly, but I find them helpful: •wake up
•meditate (even if it’s for 30 seconds)
•make bed
•turn on the Spotify Lo-Fi cafe playlist •make coffee
•feed pups
•drink your celery juice •draw
•appreciate the sunrise
•eventually change out of my pajamas
Again, it’s small but it reminds me to take the time to keep it together and be truly grateful for my life, my health, my family and the place I’m in. Coop usually sleeps by my feet after he eats, Rig on the other hand- sits behind me and quietly grunts/barks/coughs until I play with her and “friz” 🥰

Rig has ZERO concept of personal space! Lolllll
She is my magnet 🧲 and follows me EVERYWHERE. It's very sweet and very cute, but she has hopped in the shower and the bath with me and seems very proud of herself when she does it! I wish she wouldn't because as funny as it might be, she's still a dog and runs around in the mud. I find that I have to wash her off, dry her and then re-wash myself. It's a pain and I love her, but she's nutty! She loves to have the shower water spray her in the face-

Once they get going there’s no stopping! These dogs are nuts, I love taking them running and we love using our Tuff Mutts leashes! I like that I keep my hands free and the dogs are just happy to go on runs! I don’t miss the gym as much anymore and I am happy to exercise with the dogs so much more. The only problem is when they both spot a squirrel, they take off faster than ever! 🐿🐿🐶🐶 This definitely beats running on a treadmill💗💗 these running buddies are helping me improve my mile time!

Out of gallery

Obviously 2020

ALL DRAWINGS ©2021 AMANDA AIESE FORD
ALL OTHER TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHTS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS

© 2023 by Sasha Blake. Proudly created with Wix.com