Tag!

I've been tagged by Mel, which means that you all (by all I mean the 3 people who read my blog) get to read 6 oddball facts about me and thus receive a small glimpse of my quirky nature.

1. Every night, almost without fail, I have really ridiculous dreams. I can almost always pin them to conversations or events that have happened the day before. Last night I had a dream that I was in Mexico at a Nacho stand where a shirtless boy was serving me custom nachos with olives and extra fresh squeezed limes on top. The olives kept falling through the bottom of the thatched bowl. The whole dream likely stemmed from the in depth research Ryan and I did into the calorie count of a new nacho plate at Taco Bell. (ask me about the green hanger, I'll laugh so hard I cry)

2. I'm super afraid of balloons. When I was in 3rd grade I went to a birthday party and participated in a relay race. My leg of the race required me to run to the other end of the yard and sit on a balloon until it popped. Instead I did a half squat and cried hysterically... my team lost.

3. I hate having my belly button touched. Even the mental image of (or blogging about) a finger in my belly button makes me want to gag. It makes me think of umbilical cords and abortions, both of which I cannot stomach. When I have a kid I'm closing my eyes until the cord is gone, I'd feel really bad if I puked on my baby.

4. I love lists. I am so scatter-brained and they make me feel a bit sorted. I have lists for everything. Lists of things to write. Lists of authors I like. Lists of things to do. Lists of quotes. Lists of goals. Lists of qualities I want in a relationship. Lists and lists and lists, most of which are saved on my computer in a folder labeled "lists," which is quite full and might soon require a subfolder.

5. I can't stand meatloaf. I don't know that anything else needs to be said about that because, well, it's meatloaf. Yuck.

6. I don't watch TV. Unlike most people who say they don't watch TV, I REALLY don't watch TV. The closest I get is my Sex and the City dvds, which is a show I started watching while working at Conroys, well after the show was off the air. Contrary to TV, I regularly watch waaaaay too many YouTube videos. In fact, here's one of my favorites.

Eye Candy

For a solid month now the weather has been changing.  So have the leaves.  There are two trees across the street that I stare at every morning when I pull out of my driveway, excited to see the daily progress of the leaves as they change from greens to yellows to oranges to reds.  Right now they are a deep crimson color, I have three of them sitting on my kitchen table.  I snagged them yesterday on my walk.  I decided that since the semester is over and I now have a large amount of free time that didn't exist before, that I would do things like that.  You know, walk.  And cook.  Sometimes both.  

So yesterday I looked up some recipes for basil chicken in addition to trying to mimic Chipotle's cilantro and lime rice (except with brown rice... verdict: not as good).  There were, of course, things I needed from the store, because why would I harbor a stash of fresh cilantro in my fridge?  I walked across the street making my way to Albertsons, but I didn't get far at all because I realized I didn't have my camera (or a sweatshirt and it was quite chilly), so I went home and retrieved both.  There were so many moments where I would stop on my trail to capture the contrast or how the light hit a tree at just the right angle.  A green tree next to a red one, or a bare tree next to a full one.  I love snapping pictures of all this fall, I have so many from years past but they never get old to me. 

I suppose my love of fall has a lot to do with the vibrant colors.  One of the things that I thank God most for is color (some might find that trivial, but I think when He made me that He knew it would be crucial to my happiness).  Often when I see fresh fruit or a healthy flower or a loud outfit I'm reminded that color is one of the recreational aspects of existence.  What I mean is that God could have made the world cold and gray, a sweater serves its purpose of warmth just as well in charcoal as it does in turquoise.  But God didn't create the world in shades of gray, He filled it with brilliant eye candy.  The beauty that leaves embody as they change is a wonderful reminder that He loves me, which is why I love fall oh so much.

On the Heels of Discovery

The following is a photo project I did with a piece I wrote.  The idea was to take a small portion of a piece and take it outside the confines of the medium (paper).  The photos are not in order of the stanzas.  Also, please forgive the horrible photo editing, consider the cause my and iphotos combined lack of skills.

The original piece reads as follows:

I sleep in heels, crossing my legs like a lady while I dream of dark things, looking and feeling

like a lady of the night, but still a lady.

I run in heels, catching the night bus at 3am outside the club in Camden Town so that I don't have to wait in the cold looking like a lady of the night, but still a lady.

I trip in heels, falling flat on my back and sullying my new dress, showcasing my goods to the 

world like a lady of the night, but still a lady.

I cook in heels, dancing and stirring and seasoning, playing the role of a proper and contented

housewife, fantasizing about the life of a lady of the night.

There's a Theorem that Says:

There's a theorem that says:

The shortest distance between two points is a point.

At a point I am on a plane with 

wings made of feathers and

a captain who speaks in

a language I can't understand.

At another point I wake up in

a toxic cloud, surrounded

by tainted dreams where

vacuums turn to snakes and

leave me cornered on 

the bathroom counter.

At some point I am

wandering along a hikers path trying

to find whatever point

I'm looking for.

All I find are bees.

I hate bees.

I'm still confused

about which one is which.

The Dawn of a New Era...

So we all know I'm not in Kansas anymore... or London, as the case may be (mere semantics).  So I've finally decided what I'm going to do with this here blog, aside from the obvious occasional updates on pivotal moments in my life.  This includes, but is not limited to: sweet trips I intend on taking, embarrassing moments that will inevitably occur at various points in my future, and important meals I may consume (because let's not kid ourselves about the importance of food in my life).  Oh, and when, by a miracle of God, I graduate from college, you'll all hear something about that too.

I've been doing a lot of writing, as is customary for any Lit. major.  But beyond writing critically, which I'm forced to do on a far too frequent basis, I've been writing a lot more creatively; if I don't want to be poor for the rest of my life I should attempt to make something of these random and tiny bursts of creativity, so from time to time I will be posting and thus sharing them with any and all of you who may continue to read this.  

The more I write, the more I love writing.  I am learning about the process in general and specifically learning so much about my own process.  I no longer look at my writing as simply a "before" and "after" because I'm actually grasping some of what happens in between.  Lately I've been writing a lot of poetry (which is weird, because approximately 16 weeks ago I was dreading taking "Intro to Poetry" and now I love it).  Poetry has previously never been my thing, but somehow it's managed to turn into it.  That said, poetry isn't for everyone, I certainly never thought it was for me and therefore will not be hurt if you have absolutely nothing to say on the matter.  But because the people who read this are people I love so much, I thought I'd be a little vulnerable and put it out there anyway.  Happy reading!

Always with love,

Ashley