Archive for the 'life' Category

And a happy Valentine’s to you as well.

Published
by
ashley
on February 16, 2009
in i am ridiculous, life and marques
. 0 Comments

This weekend, I felt like the following five things:

1.  A big giant ass because Marques totally knew what his Valentine’s Day/anniversary present was (the complete series of The Wire) and I didn’t even wrap it in a inconspicuous manner (you know, the old box-inside-the-box trick) and when I DID wrap it, I had to wrap it in CHRISTMAS PAPER with doves on it saying ‘may peace be with you’ (none of that religious Jesus paper in this household, no sir.  Other Christmas paper themes that I have banned include anything to do with Santa Claus, anything elves, anything poinsettas, basically anything to do with Christmas.  The only reason that we had dove paper was because we got a free roll at World Market and I cannot pass up anything free.).  He was very happy with his present, though, because he loves The Wire a LOT and I actually love The Wire too but I did technically fall asleep during some season 1 episodes and honestly, sometimes I get a little confused as to who people are and their real names versus their street names.

Anyway, I was a bit disappointed because the other night he had guessed it was The Wire.  BUT I suppose that’s what happens when I buy people’s presents 6 weeks beforehand and I can’t keep things a secret.  Here are some sample statements I told Marques about his present:  “You’ll like it a lot, it’s like one of your favorite things,” “Hey baby, let’s watch The Wire on OnDemand OH WAIT I should’ve gotten you The Wire for Valentine’s Day so we don’t have to wait 4 weeks for new episodes,” “I spent between $65 and $95 for your present,”  “It’s no bigger than the Baking with Dorie Greenspan book and no smaller than your average hardcover book.”  I mean, honestly, how could he not have guessed what it is?  I try to plan ahead for things and always fail miserably.

2.  Unable to breathe. I’ve been sick all weekend, culminating on Friday with a fever that made me delusional that Marques was actually in the kitchen making me dinner (he actually did).  I rarely ever get SICK sick - I normally just get a slight case of the sniffles or a tummy rumble and it usually happens if I don’t get enough sleep.  I like to think that I am like a robot in that I need a certain number of hours of rest to recharge, otherwise I am less than at optimal perfomance and that’s when the germies swarm in.  But this weekend, I was sick-sick, in that I had a fever and I moaned and groaned the entire weekend.  Friday was the worst - I got off the metro with chills and feeling just awful, but I was determined to eat red velvet cake ice cream at The Dairy Godmother to kick off Valentine’s Day weekend. And I did, but then I quickly had to pump myself full of over-the-counter medicine.  Now I just can’t breathe out of my nose, which is fine, who needs to breathe anyway?  Needless to say, this weekend was chock full of the sexy.  If by sexy you mean my blowing my nose every 5 minutes and occasionally having snot trickle out of my nose without my knowing it.

3.  Very loved.  Even though I’ve been sick, Marques did a really great job taking care of me.  He made my favorite sick dinner on Friday (chicken and noodles) and did laundry and cleaned the house a little.  He made me bowls of cereal and took me to see Coraline and was really just the kind of boyfriend mom’s wish their daughters had.  I think he’s just preparing me for spring training, where my kind sweet loving boyfriend will disappear into a puddle of Albert Pujols goo.

4.  Who the f is Daniel? This feeling would only make sense to Battlestar Galactica watchers but seriously, WHAT BATTLESTAR?

5.  Very full of sugar.  Marques bought me KitKats, my favorite candy EVER, and I made a pineapple cake for us due to a severe craving brought on by multiple viewings on foodgawker.  I have to make the Daring Bakers challenge sometime this week too, and let me just tell you right now that I might as well just apply it liberally to my hips, the amount of cream and chocolate in this recipe.

Our anniversary is Wednesday, though - that’s three years together for those of you keeping score at home.
Three years is a really long time for me and I’m grateful everyday to have a boyfriend who so willingly puts up with my annoyingness.  Though I am still annoyed that even after three years of keeping the lights low so he has to squint to read, Marques still doesn’t need glasses.  Science doesn’t work.

We could do it if we bought a loveseat

Published
by
ashley
on February 12, 2009
in life
. 5 Comments

These are serious times, and they call for serious measures.  Like asking ourselves, “If we got rid of the dining room table, could we fit in a 550 square foot efficiency?”

Marques and I desperately want to move away from suburban paradise.  There are pros and cons to moving, obviously - we’d be trading safety for possible muggings, but it also wouldn’t take me 35 minutes to get to work every day.  That in itself I would gladly be mugged for. As long as knives weren’t involved.

It’s a bit moot right now, as we are stuck in our corporate lease until July.  But we are already on the prowl for the perfect apartment.  Happy hour drinks last week with a work friend led us to fall in love with her Friendship Heights efficiency and has us wondering how much junk we would have to get rid of for our lives to fit into her square footage.  Could Marques and I go from a 1 bedroom down to an efficiency without too many problems?  These are questions that I am pondering.  Other than the lack of a wall between the living room and bedroom, her apartment had everything we need sans washer & dryer and was only in the mid-1300s to boot.  Utilities included.  We could potentially pay less to live much closer to my job, albeit in an apartment about 200 square feet smaller.  Who needs all that room anyway?  Haven’t you heard of this green movement?

Then today, I saw an apartment advertised on craigslist in Old Town which I immediately fell in love with.  For one thing, old-timey chandelier!  For another thing, fireplace and built-in bookshelves with hardwood floors!  I am in love with old apartments, the kind with the squeaky floors and uneven doorframes.  However, this place was missing a serious divider between the kitchen and the living room, so unfortunately, it was taken off my list.  Also, I forgot how truly awful parking is in Old Town and it would probably force us to have to move the car every 3 hours to avoid being ticketed.  However, bonus points for being so close to the Dairy Godmother.

Another co-worker of mine is in the Arlington camp, specifically the Courthouse/Rosslyn area.  So much that she made up a cheer for it which is basically just Court! House! Court! House!  I’m not adverse to living in Courthouse or Rosslyn, but I am definitely searching for just the right apartment this time. When we moved here initially, we rented over the internet because we couldn’t visit to apartment hunt.  I want to do things properly this time, with lists and pros and cons and driving around looking for FOR RENT signs.  I want an apartment that allows multiple cats without a multiple cat deposit, a place with hardwood floors and built-in bookshelves, that allows you to paint the walls and doesn’t raise your rent after your initial lease is up.  A place within walking distance to Metro, with a gas stove and big windows.  I don’t think that I’m asking too much, but maybe I am.

But at least I still have 4 months to find it.

This is the last day of our acquaintance, 25

Published
by
ashley
on January 6, 2009
in family, friends, i am ridiculous, life, marques, television, waylon and work
. 4 Comments

It’s 12:17 a.m., which means that today is officially the last day I can call myself 25 years old.

And in 24 hours, I’ll be 26.

26 is nothing.

My boyfriend is just two years from 30.  He’s the one who should be concerned.

I always tell myself every year that this is going to be the year when I grow up, when I stop playing so many video games and start contributing to a 401k.  Last year, I resolved to learn to like wine and to start appreciating mushrooms.  Still hasn’t kicked in.  Though I did try.  I still have hope for the wine, but definitely not the mushrooms.  Blech.

I’m also constantly concerned that this is going to be the year where I develop a severe food allergy, like to peanuts or to shellfish and I will have to be one of those people who carries an epi-pen around with them.  I am deathly afraid of developing a food allergy only because I am quite irresponsible and I realize that I will not be the kind of person who asks a restaurant to tell me the type of oil my food was prepared in (especially considering that we eat at a lot of ethnic restaurants where English is not the first language).

You hear stories all the time about some unsuspecting girl who dips a spoon into peanut butter, ready to savor the peanut butter goodness and when she brings the spoon to her mouth, her throat closes up and she dies.  And always, the friends and family attend the funeral and everybody commiserates - “She always enjoyed those peanut butter cookies from Subway” or “She loved dipping a spoonful of peanut butter into a bag of chocolate chips” and nobody knows how this allergy formed so quickly.

One of my resolutions for 2009 is not to cut my hair.  I can handle that, I think, because I want to make sure that my hair is long enough to curl or put up or whatever Lorrie wants us to do for her wedding in June.  But secretly, it is also because I am literally dying to have hair like this girl:

(sidenote:  Someone please hack into our Netflix queue and stop us from receiving British sci-fi shows)

By the end of 2009, by the beginning of my 27th year, hopefully my hair will be similar to that hair.  Fingers crossed.

I realize that none of us knows how many years we have in our lifetimes.  I am grateful that I’ve made it to 25 years and 364 days old.  I hope that when I’m 26, lots of things will happen.  I hope I become a better baker, and I hope my hair naturally grows into Gwen Cooper’s hair.  I hope that Marques and I will stay together for another year (really, no other man would put with my constant making-up-songs and burned rice and crinkle nose, not to mention my frequent pop-culture references) and I hope that we are both healthy and happy.  I hope that I do eventually get a new pair of Chuck Taylors as I am tired of walking around with wet socks in the rain.  I hope that I go on vacation this year to a warm and sunny beach with lots of mini-golf and spicy shrimp (though I do not hope I develop the aforementioned shellfish allergy).

On my last day of being 25, I will go into work, and we will publish a newspaper.  I will eat leftover rice for lunch with an orange and maybe some yogurt.  I will buy myself a green tea lemonade or maybe a salted caramel hot chocolate if it snows.  I will come home late to hugs and kisses from my boyfriend, and I will make us a big pot of turkey chili to ward off the cold.  I will maybe hit the treadmill, though it is doubtful because we’re receiving season 4 of Battlestar Galactica tomorrow (one thing that happened while I was 25 - my nerd quotient tripled.  I am the biggest geek in the world) and I’m sure that we’ll want to spend at least 2 hours watching it, curled up with Waylon.  And at midnight, I’ll be 26 (though not officially, that happens at 4:13 in the morning) and when I wake up, it’s more of the same.

I love my birthday.  I love my family.  I love my boyfriend.  I love my cat.  I love my coworkers.  I love my job.  I love my friends.  What it all boils down is that I am thankful that the year of me being 25 has passed and I still love all of these things.

(Now it’s 12:42 a.m. and I am that much closer to not being 25 anymore!

It’s the end of the year as we know it

Published
by
ashley
on January 1, 2009
in i am ridiculous and life
. 0 Comments

One of the best parts about the beginning of a new year is that really, it’s the best time to turn it all around.  There are ways to change aspects of your life that you don’t like, and this is the best time to do it because really, this is the one point of the year where you FEEL like you should change something about yourself.

For example, I’ve never seen the movie Groundhog Day.  This fact about me attracts much ridicule, especially by my boyfriend who thinks Bill Murray is a god among men and should be worshiped apparently, by watching one of his movies EVERYTIME IT COMES ON TELEVISION.

So maybe 2009 is the year I finally buckle down and stick Groundhog Day on my Netflix queue.  Maybe this is the year where I turn it all around and go from lackluster Bill Murray fan (Ghostbusters!) to OMG BILL MURRAY fan.

But probably not.

Lorrie and I started a project for 2009 - you can find it here.  It’s aptly titled The 2009 Project.  Perhaps one of my goals this year should involve finding more creative titles for websites.  But we have lists (I love lists) or our goals (I occasionally like goals) this year.  I’m pretty excited about it, if only because sometimes I really do need a shot in the arm, a kick in the pants, a cycle around the sun to force myself to change things about myself and my life that I dislike.

Happy New Years - do something amazing for yourself this year, even if that something amazing amounts to watching two Bill Murray movies.

Things that I am thankful for, in the spirit of the holiday

Published
by
ashley
on November 25, 2008
in cooking, family, friends, i am ridiculous, life, marques and work
. 4 Comments

1.  I am thankful every single day that I have all of my fingers, all of my toes, both of my arms and both of my legs.  I realize this is a silly thing to be thankful for, but I am lucky to have all of these extremities (especially since I hate wearing gloves).  My grandfather lost two of his toes in an accident when I was very young and I can remember staring at the shiny scar tissue, both awed and repulsed at the same time.  I am also a pretty independent person, so I would be quite unhappy having Marques open my peanut butter jar for the rest of my life.  So yes.  Thankful for fingers and toes and arms and legs.

2.  I am thankful to have a boyfriend who would spend the rest of our lives opening my peanut butter jars should any sort of accident befall me.  He would probably even make me a peanut butter sandwich if I asked him nicely.

3.  I am thankful that I have a body that it is working condition with no diseases or illnesses aside from the occasional common cold and , and that I escaped my college years without any sexually transmitted diseases, stomach pumpings from alcohol, or babies.

4.  I am thankful that I have a good job that I enjoy, with a really awesome boss and amazing, hilarious coworkers who like to talk about food as much as I do, and will eat all of my baked goods, even the ones I burn.  I know that there are a lot of people who have jobs that they don’t enjoy, so I feel doubly-thankful that I have never once dreaded going to work while I’ve worked here.  Except on days when it was 95 degrees outside, but that wasn’t really because of work, that was just because I didn’t want to be a sweatmonster while walking to the metro.

5.  I am thankful for Chuck Taylors.  I have been wearing them for quite a long time and this extended period of time has worn any natural foot arch down to nothing.  My feet are essentially duck feet without webbed toes.  So I am thankful for Chuck Taylors for continuing to support my flat feet… which they caused.

6.  I am thankful for kittens and puppies and sneezing panda cubs for being so adorable and providing me many hours of entertainment while at work.  Also LOLcats.

7.  I am thankful for my best friends, who still talk to me after all of these years.  They are all beautiful and fun and so funny and easy to talk to and there are no other people in this world I would rather drink a pitcher of margaritas with.

8.  I am thankful for food, in that I enjoy making it and eating it.  I love cooking and baking things - just last night, I made a giant pot of chili and a giant pan of coconut macaroons for my Mom as a Thanksgiving surprise (I was originally going to make them for Christmas, but I got too excited and made them last night).  I love trying new restaurants and new foods and I love McDonald’s ice cream cones (guilty pleasure).  I am very glad that we do not live in an age of Soylent Green and foods in pill form, even though that would be kind of cool and very sci-fi.

9.  I am thankful for David Bowie.  David Bowie is what I listen to when I feel like dancing.

10.  And of course, I am thankful for my family, who I get to see this weekend.  I have a small family, but it’s fun and not stuffy and not the kind of family that pressures you to go to Yale and not the kind of family that puts out wine and cheese for the holidays.  My family is the kind of family that you play Mario Kart on the wii and argue over board games.  I am really glad that I have the type of family I do, despite all frustrations (my grandma asks 56 questions to everyone, my mom texts me constantly and sends me picture messages of her cats).

So with those ten things, I am out.  I am leaving to go home tomorrow morning, spending 6 hours on the road.  I will spend my time seeing old j-school friends, my best friends, eating Thanksgiving dinner, baking cakes, watching movies with my mom, shopping and being pretty happy.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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.