Edgy

I have been a little edgy lately.

I have seen people I don't care to see. I have been rejected rejected rejected for jobs, internships, etc. And I have been working non-stop with a hellacious sinus headache that just won't quit. (I know, I know. Like Jason never fails to remind me, whining will NOT make anything better.)

So...

Last night, I happened upon my apartment, empty. Free of roommates, free of friends, free of animals we are harboring temporarily.

This NEVER happens. (Which is fine by me. I'm just not into spending time alone a lot.)

I quickly gathered a few things, lit some candles, and drew a bubble bath (I had to use shower gel as bubbles, but the improvisation worked). I sang showtunes with my iPod at the top of my lungs, read a new vampire novel (Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs. Read it.) and giggled, and just focused on the more-serene-than-you-can-posssibly-imagine feeling of being enveloped in warm water. (I also played with the bubbles. Old habits die hard.) I closed my eyes and listened to notes wafting somewhere outside of my head; my mind cleared. The edginess dissipated.

I laid there for a good hour and a half; reading, singing, dozing, all wrapped up in my own bubbly semi-conscious world. And it was really, really lovely.

Thanks Tom Petty

Dear Tom Petty,

Thanks for being so right. The waiting IS the hardest part. Also, Mary Jane's Last Dance is definitely in my top ten songs I like to blast while driving alone. You rock!

Love,
Ashley

Rainy Days and Mondays

I have been incredibly melancholy for the past few days.

So, this morning, I am curled up on the couch with a HUGE fluffy blanket, sipping tea, and listening to the sound the raindrops are making as they clatter against my living room window. I get the grayness. I feel the damp, cold puddles. Yet, it's time to get up, to go on with the day, stop indulging the gray.

Perhaps today will bring something wonderful :)

Lessons I've Learned on My Vacation

1.) Manners never take a vacation. (Thanks, Mom.)

2.) Meeting the people that the people you love love is always a worthwhile pursuit.

3.) There are wonderful people waiting to be met EVERYWHERE.

4.) Sometimes, a little magic really is all you need.

5.) It really does just take faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.

6.) All time off should be spent with people you love and yourself.

7.) What makes you happy when you are 5 can still make you happy when you are 23.

8.) I love being able to see my friends succeed in their own lives. I think that is a really beautiful thing about being a grown up.

9.) It really blows to get vomited on while on an airpla

10.) Sometimes it is nice to take some alone time. Like reading at the pool. Or flying across the country. Or shopping for a bottle of wine.

11.) I neeeeeeeeeeed change. I am not so broken anymore. It is time. Much reflection has brought me to that knowledge. Now, how to make it happen?

12.) I love to bake. I love when other people like things I bake :)

13.) Getting away is good for your soul.

14.) Going home is good for your heart.

15.) Disney World truly is the most magical place in the world.

16.) Love comes in all shapes and sizes and forms. And it's the kinds that we tend to overlook when we are caught up in the quest for romantic love that make us better people and help us be whole even when we are worried that we never will be better or whole again.

Hiatus

The hiatus will be ending soon.

How soon?

Perhaps this evening soon.

Thanks

This has been an immensely trying week, but thanks to very many people who are here to extricate me from my bed and force me to back, surprise me with movie tickets, leave me notes, remind me how loved and lucky I am, it has not been nearly as trying as it could have been. So thank you for loving me when I really need it, for lifting heavy boxes and reminding me to eat and jamming out until 3 AM to Madonna. I am just the luckiest. I love you guys.

Moving

Moving is equal parts sucky and awesome.

On the sucky side though, I don't have internet at my new place yet. So I can't update with regularity until that is remedied :)

Soon though, blog friends. Soon.