Archive for the 'life' Category

Sometimes even I run out of words

Published
by
ashley
on November 6, 2008
in life
. 1 Comment

There are a lot of things I can say about election day.  First, clearly, I am happy because the candidate I wanted to win, well, he won.  By a landslide.

I spent my historical election evening at work, surrounded by my favorite coworkers.  I made Obama cookies and there were donuts and vodka and pizza.  Lots of yelling about who took what state and I spent a good deal of my evening updating House races and photoshopping states red and blue.

While a tiny part of me wishes that I could have been high-fiving people when Obama took Ohio, I was very pleased with the way things turned out.  I stayed until about 12:30, when I finally decided to call it a night and go home.  And of course, I was caught in the White House mob, which made me happy, seeing all of these supporters yelling and cheering and waving signs and dancing.  I waved and gave thumbs up and honked the horn, but eventually escaped to quiet suburbia where I ended up laying in bed for another two hours waiting for CNN to call North Carolina (they didn’t).

This is the first time where I voted and the candidate I voted for actually won and let me tell you, it feels awesome to be a winner.  There were a few blemishes to the evening (Prop 8 in California, Shelley Moore Capito winning in West Virginia) but for the most part, I was pleased.  I am hopeful for the future, though I feel as if our country has too large of a fissure to ever truly be united.

I still feel like I have to pinch myself, to remind myself that this election really IS over, that we won, that a black man is actually the President-elect.  That the country that I have done nothing but complain about for the past eight years has thrown itself into the history books.  That fifty years ago, black people couldn’t even drink from the same water fountain and now, we elected one to the highest office in the land.  For me, that is breathtaking, that is pauseworthy, that is amazing.  I am proud to be one of the people who cast my vote for Barack Obama, and I am hopeful for a more united future in whatever way we possibly can get it.

And I will be here with my fingers crossed

Published
by
ashley
on November 4, 2008
in life and work
. 1 Comment

In 2004, I spent election night in my college newsroom, waiting to hear who our next president would be. I was a fervent Kerry supporter (though my real love was Howard Dean) and I had my fingers crossed. Part of me believed that the Bush administration could be voted out, that America had had enough, that John Kerry could actually be our next president. I sat in the ancient newsroom on the third floor, with its 1960s Eames couches (I still lust after my old office couch) and its musty smell and watched the tiny TV with my fellow newspaper staff. All of whom had voted for Bush. I was dismayed.

And then, of course, Ohio was called for Bush, and the newsroom erupted in cheers. And I sat at my computer, all alone. And then I got up, dramatically, and went into the closest office to lay on an avocado green vinyl couch, heartbroken and disillusioned in the political system I worked so hard to change.

One of the Bush supporters, one of his most loyal, the one I had gotten into the most fights with that election season, came over to me and made me hold out my hand. I did, and he dropped a little silver Hershey kiss in it, and said, “I’m sorry.”

That guy is voting for Obama this year. People do change.

I’ve been trying to embrace a more bipartisan lifestyle, though sometimes it’s a bit difficult.  I keep an open mind with things and I’ve done a fairly good job not shoving my politics down people’s throats.  I’ve tried to be very low-key this election and I’m pretty sure I’ve come out of it without any enemies.  My Republican friends still like me, so that’s one good sign.

And tomorrow I vote, and voting makes me excited, it gets me energized and ready for (dare I say it?) a great leap forward into an unknown presidency.  I love watching election returns, all of the coverage.  I don’t know why I thought I would not have to work on election night (brain damage?) but I was originally dismayed to learn that I would have to work.  I was hoping Marques and I could go to a bar, get ourselves nice and drunk and silly and watch the electoral votes climb.  Or climb in bed and eat popcorn and hot chocolate, anxious and eager to see the winner, whoever it may be.

However, now I am almost overjoyed to work during election night - it’s not glamorous or relaxed, but I have to pinch myself sometimes because I am here, in Washington DC, in a political newsroom during the most historical election of my generation and it is a far, far cry from where I was 4 years ago.

It is humbling and it is exciting and I will be here, in front of my computer, refreshing CNN, listening to the news being created, history being written.  And I will be here with my fingers crossed.

Bacon-palooza is not approved by your doctor

Published
by
ashley
on October 30, 2008
in baking, friends, life and work
. 1 Comment

I will say this now - I am not that big of a fan of bacon. I don’t like eating it by itself (I don’t like breakfast meats in general) but I love it on pizza and hamburgers.

And, I suppose, now brownies.

This madness started two weeks ago when I posted the link to bacon cinnamon rolls. I was telling my co-worker Scott about them and he got overly excited. He does that and it’s cute. It was a late evening, we were the only ones left in our department. When it’s just us, there’s lots of food talk.

Scott’s reaction to the bacon cinnamon rolls pretty much went like this:

Oh. My. Gosh.

(revered silence as he stares at the picture in awe)

This. Sounds. So. Good.

So we started perusing the Bacon Today website, just checking it out. And I found their post about bacon brownies.

Holy. Crap.

A plan was immediately formed. I would make the bacon brownies and Scott would make the bacon cinnamon rolls. Team Bacon is go!

I did not make homemade brownies. I was tired, I had already made pizza, and my entire apartment smelled like bacon. My best baking sheet had a half-inch thick layer of bacon grease on it. So I pulled a mix out of the pantry. Mixed it right up, poured it in a pan, and crumbled some cooked bacon on top of it.  It looked like this:

Ignore that tiny little unstirred chunk of brownie powder.  Also, this looks kind of disgusting.

I baked them for 30 minutes then took them out to cool.  The bacon pieces had kind of sunk down into the brownies, but you could still see them.  I was hoping the time in the oven would cook the bacon pieces into crunchiness, but unfortunately, they were still kind of chewy.  Here’s what they looked like after baking:

I thought they were okay.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would’ve used more bacon.  The bacon definitely added a nice salty, smoky taste, but it was odd to eat a brownie and hit…. meat.

Scott really enjoyed the bacon brownies - he ate most of them.  Everyone liked trying them, though, and a lot of people who thought they would be grossed out actually liked them.  So bacon brownies = semi-hit.

This week, Scott made the bacon cinnamon rolls.  He just took a can of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough and rolled some turkey bacon up in it, then baked them.  Scott is clearly more health-conscious than I am because I used thick-cut fatty fatty bacon.  The bacon cinnamon rolls were good, too, even though Scott slightly burned them.  I’m the queen of burning things, so I had no problem there.  The turkey bacon had a lot more bite-give too - if he had used actual pork bacon, I think they would have been really chewy.

I couldn’t take a very good photo of the rolls, but here’s a photo I took on my camera phone:

So bacon-palooza is finished for now.  We might try to make bacon cupcakes, perhaps, but I think we need to give our arteries a good rest first.

Tell it to the mountains

Published
by
ashley
on October 14, 2008
in friends, life and marques
. 0 Comments

What does one do in the country?  Let me show you.

So aside from the depressing subconscious acknowledgments, I had a really nice time with my friends Lorrie, Jasmine, and Lorrie’s sister Stephanie.  Here’s a rundown of the weekend:

On Friday, Marques and I drove down through Charlottesville because we wanted our trip to be more scenic.  All we saw were Arbys and roadside barbecue stands, so that didn’t work out in our favor.  Plus it added like a half-hour to an already ridiculously long trip.  Marques was on a hunt for the Cheapest Gas Possible and so passed all of the stations that said $3.09 and $3.19 until we got to a tiny place called Troutville, where we were forced to stop because we were running out of gas.  When Marques saw that the sign said $2.99, I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier.  Maybe when the Cardinals won the Series.

So I get out and stretch my legs and contemplate a bottle of water from the gas station.  I go inside and what do I see?  A pan of homemade blackberry cobbler, warm and gooey and delicious.  Without thinking, I immediately buy a chunk.  It’s a small consolation that I happen to love food that comes from gas stations, especially nachos and Slurpees.  My gas station blackberry cobbler was really, really good.  Check it out:

Doesn’t that look delicious?  And not at all covered in botulism or any sort of gas station bacteria?  I thought I would regret eating this cobbler but you know, I actually didn’t regret anything of that sort.

We get to Floyd, I’m dropped off, kisses and hugs, and Marques goes on his merry way.  He went home to visit his family while I was visiting my friends.

After 80,000 pictures and a house tour and marveling at how incredibly dark it is in the country, we pile into a car and go to this place called The Pine Tavern, which pretty much caused me to gain 5 pounds.  It’s a restaurant that serves nothing but country-fied meals, and in large quantities.  We all got the family-style dinner, and we stuffed ourselves on roast beef and mashed potatoes and dumplings (dumplings = my favorite food that ends in -ing) and I even ate a small piece of fried chicken (I normally don’t eat meat off a bone except in the case of polla a la brasa) and brownies and sweet tea and it was pretty much like Cracker Barrel on steroids.

Then we went into the tiny town of Floyd, which has one stoplight.  Floyd’s got kind of a reputation as a hippie town, and since we passed by a table of ladies selling Obama merchandise, I kind of agree.  We grabbed coffee drinks at the coffeehouse and then sat and talked.  You know how ladies do.  After we got too cold to stay outside, we went back to Lorrie’s house and proceeded to play Rock Band for the next four hours.  I did a remarkable job singing Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive” which only confirms my suspicions that I should sing nothing but Bon Jovi songs.

On Saturday, we woke up to fill our tummies with even more country cooking - this time I ate a pork barbecue sandwich, more mashed potatoes, and a piece of pecan pie.  And then we drove around the Blue Ridge Parkway for a good three house, looking at the mountains and the sights.

Like this:

And this:

And this:

And we took about 85,000 pictures of each other in which I looked completely horrible in all of them.  Like I’m some wild tiger girl who doesn’t own a hairbrush or any kind of makeup and my eyes were always squinting at the sun.  Like this one:

(sidenote: I am wearing that shirt again today.  Don’t worry, I washed it and it’s clean)

And I took a lot of photos of leaves, because I love the fall.

Saturday night, we ate some Mexican and went back to Lorrie’s, where we all promptly fell asleep like grandmothers.

Sunday, we went down to the pumpkin festival in Christiansburg, where we made Jasmine go on a hayride because she had never been on (which is honestly ludicrous) and we were stranded in a pumpkin patch, with hay and pumpkins:

And then we all pretty much ate our weight in homemade kettle corn:

And then, alas, our trip was over, and Marques and I spent another 6 hours in the car.  Well, I fell asleep and woke up when he slammed his brakes on the entrance to I-66.  It was an enjoyable weekend, one I needed, one that refreshed me, but I am glad to be home in the city where there is Thai food and Target within walking distance.  That’s all one needs in life anyway.

Jesus is just all right with me (but not Bill Maher)

Published
by
ashley
on October 5, 2008
in baking, cooking, friends, i am ridiculous and life
. 2 Comments

Today, I am in a bad mood. I woke up in a bad mood. I am in a bad mood for biological reasons as well as just general annoyance at the world.

I always feel bad for Marques when I’m in a bad mood because I take it out on him. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that he’s pretty much the only person I see or talk to on the weekends and taking it out on Random Target Shopper is probably in pretty poor taste. Marques loves me even when I’m a grumpface, so I don’t have to worry about, you know, being punched in the face.

Not that Random Target Shopper would punch me in the face. But people are crazy. You never know.

Last night, Marques and I went to see “Religulous”, which, while I was watching it, I though was hilarious. But afterward, I realized it was really only mildly entertaining and I got annoyed at the premise. I am not a religious person in any way, and neither is Marques. It works out well for us, this heathen lifestyle. But I do have a few friends who are quite religious who are actually not nutbags, and so it was annoying for me to see Bill Maher find the craziest religious people out there. I understand it makes for a hilarious movie and all that, sensationalism, whatnot.  I just wish that Maher had entertained the idea that mostly, instead of crazy laws and guidances on how to live one’s life, most of the religious people I know embrace religion as a form of comfort.

That being said, some people are just really into their religion, and everything it entails.  Do I believe in creationism?  Goodness no - as much as I hated science classes, I seem to believe in it an awful lot.  But it doesn’t make people who believe in creationism stupid - it makes their belief system different.  I don’t particularly think creationism should be taught in any public school as it is not a scientific theory, but I don’t see anything wrong with creationism being taught in a public school under religious studies.  I think that people on both sides of the board think the other side is unenlightened, and that’s really the main problem with religion as it is today.  In my personal, heathen opinion.

Though I’ll be honest - Scientology is pretty hilarious.  Anything to do with aliens gets a thumbs up in my book.

Today is a lazy Sunday, spent with a giant pot of homemade marinara sauce bubbling on the stove for hours (pictures and recipe tomorrow).  I started making my cookies for Cookiefest tomorrow and I also promised Marques I’d whip him up a batch of homemade salsa (extra spicy).  We ate very poorly this weekend (I bought a bag of M&Ms on Friday night and they are…. almost gone.  Yikes) with greasy giant burgers and mall food so our tummies are ready for actual vegetables soon.

This week feels like a half-week since next weekend, I’ll be traveling south (yes, I’ve made sure my route south will hit as many Sonics and Sheetz as I possibly can) to congregate with Lorrie and Jasmine, two of my best friends.  I’m pretty excited to have girl-time as I never ever get to have girl-time because, well, I don’t know anyone here.  I’m really excited to see my friends, especially in such a quaint little town like Floyd.  I hope to get my hoedown on at the Friday night jamboree.

Please keep your Cookiefest fingers crossed for me tomorrow, as I am up against some pretty formidable opponents (or at least, they have easier ingredients).  Pictures of all our cookies will be up tomorrow afternoon.

Lorrie, you owe me some divinity

Published
by
ashley
on September 12, 2008
in friends and life
. 0 Comments

So I’ve had my website for quite awhile - I’ve been keeping a weblog since December of 2000.  That’s like, almost eight years.  EIGHT YEARS.

There’s a Sex and the City episode where Carrie’s computer crashes, and she gets all frantic and upset and everyone is like, “Well, don’t worry, you backed it up!” and Carrie’s face is like… back-up?  Wha?

It’s my fault that I lost 6 years worth of posts.  I was irresponsible and I didn’t back up my database.  Sometimes I’m glad that I didn’t back it up, because there were some pretty embarrassing things back in the day.  Plus, I think I’ve mellowed out quite a bit in the past few years.  There was lots of angst about whatever boy I was halfway in love with at the time, and lots of complaining, I’m sure, about whatever college paper I had to write that week.  Lots of nerdy college newspaper stuff too.

However, there are brief moments when I lament the loss of my posts.  Recently, one of my best friends, Tina, decided she was going to turn 15 years old and re-activate her livejournal.  This made me laugh uncontrollably.  But like a faithful friend, I read it occasionally.  Last night, I was browsing and I found the old livejournal of my other best friend, Lorrie (who now keeps a cute little blog here) and there was an old post taken from my weblog at the time. I read it and literally started crying from laughter.  I could not believe that I had forgotten that Lorrie did this.

Here’s the story:

Lorrie went to visit one of her friends at the time.  He lived on top of a mountain in Putnam County - coincidentally, the very mountain I grew up on when I was little.  For some reason, a reason I didn’t address in my post, and I can’t remember it now, her friend’s bathroom wasn’t working very well, and so Lorrie chose to hold it.  When she left, she was driving down the mountain and decided she just couldn’t hold it anymore.  So she pulls over on the side of the road to pee, but doesn’t want to do the sit-and-squat.  She finds this jar of divinity in her backseat (sidenote: The jar of divinity was MINE.  She gave that to me for Christmas a few days prior because I love love love divinity and I forgot to get it out of her backseat, but figured, hey, I’ll see her soon and I’ll get it then.  APPARENTLY NOT.) and dumped the divinity out and peed in the jar.

I know people pee in jars all the time, okay?  I mean, I’m sure there are plenty of Mountain Dew bottles out there floating in lakes and whatnot filled with pee.

Anyway, she is peeing, and all of a sudden, she hears these dogs barking faintly.  She starts freaking out and frantically tries to finish before wild dogs attracted to the scent of her pee come and eat her face.  She finally decides the best course of action at this point would be the seal up the jar of pee and throw it over the mountain into the woods.  After she threw the jar over the hill, she looks around to see if anyone saw her throw this pee-jar over the hill.  She then sees this gruff old mountain man standing on his porch staring at her, and she realizes this dude pretty much just saw her pee in a jar and throw it in the forest.

I cannot tell you how much I laughed when Lorrie told me this story.  I probably laughed a lot.  I thought it was funny enough to post it in my weblog, and then Lorrie thought it was funny enough to post my story of her story in HER weblog, so yeah.  If you post my story of your story of my story of your story in your weblog, well, we could do this forever, Lorrie.  Like a M.C. Escher painting.

I miss my friends every single day, feeling like parts of my body are cut off.  Some days, I miss them more.  Today is one of those days.  Today is a cloudy day, with spontaneous rainshowers, and I would like to be sitting in Lorrie and Jasmine’s living room, the one that was just around the corner, the one with the big comfortable pink pillows, the apartment where we used to drink and laugh and play midnight Monopoly until the room spun.  I would like to be sitting in that apartment, watching the first season of Project Runway, drinking lemonade-green tea, watching Lorrie sew.  I would like to be sitting there playing Disney’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom on Nintendo waiting for the parade at the end (there actually is no parade) and trying to beat Battletoads (that’s a really hard game, by the way) and touching Lorrie with our bellies (she hates bellies) and teasing Jasmine for saying the word “nut” all the time and impromptu Target trips where we load our cart up with clearance stuff.  I do not know why today I miss my friends more than I have in awhile, but I do.  I hope that where they are, the weather is not gray and cloudy like it is here.

I hope it’s not 80 degrees in the fall

Published
by
ashley
on September 9, 2008
in life
. 0 Comments

Oh man.  Oh man oh man oh man.  Fall is coming.

I haven’t spent an actual fall in DC, so I don’t know what it will be like.  Spending all of my falls in West Virginia, well, that can kind of spoil a person.  West Virginia in the fall is one of the greatest things in the world - the weather is perfect, usually 65-70 degrees, and the skies are clear blue with puffy white clouds.  The trees that cover the mountains that surround you are filled with color, bright yellows and reds and deep purples and oranges.  I’ve always said they remind me of Fruity Pebbles, but I do love a good bowl of cereal.

It gets chilly enough at night that some people light their furnaces in the evening, so when you wake up in the morning, you can still smell the smoke in the air.  Sometimes when it gets REALLY cold, you wake up in the morning and see little frost patterns on your windows, patterns that melt as the day warms up.

And there are festivals - the Pumpkin Festival was always my favorite, with pumpkin flavored everything.  Pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin fudge (amazingly delicious), pumpkin pie.  And football games - fall makes me think of high school football games, and sitting on cold metal bleachers wearing a hoodie, drinking a cup of hot chocolate.  Oh man, hot chocolate.

Fall means Halloween is coming, and Halloween means pumpkins and candy.  And then Halloween means Thanksgiving, which means pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes.  And then it blends into winter, and winter means Christmas and my birthday.  Fall also means scarves and jackets and Chapstick (I do prefer Lipsmackers in Dr. Pepper flavor) and lotion and falling leaves and snuggling under the blankets.

I’m hoping at least a few trees near me turn, but I have a feeling it won’t be enough, and I’ll get an urge to go in the wilderness.  Luckily, I have plans to visit Lorrie in her new country home in October, so perhaps that will be all I need.

In the meantime, I am making a giant pot of potato soup on Friday as an offering to the gods of fall - please please please let temperatures get below 80 degrees.