Disorganized photos/really organized life

I haven’t felt that inspired to write this week, so I will share a few images of things that make me happy. But then just thinking of all of the pics I have that make me happy, actually stresses me out a little bit. I have soooo many photos both print and digital that I need to organize. Is that the case for everyone? Now that I am getting married this year, I feel I need to turn over a new domestic leaf. I don't think that it is kosher to have my old plastic laundry basket from college filled to the brim with totally disorganized photos and albums. Sitting next to it on a shelf is a Smirnoff box (taken from the ABC store during one of my many moves) also filled with tons of prints. They are so messy that at one point our Pit Bull, Billy, just reached in the box and pulled out some pics and scattered them all over the house. The prints stop in 2007 when my camera was stolen. From there they went online: Myspace, Photobucket, Facebook, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish. Why does the photo hosting web environment ALSO have to change so fast?! Now it seems most people are using Flickr or Picasa. So back to the ramble: then in 2007 purchased a Canon Elf since I loved the Cannon 700 series that I had been using at work. I have to be honest and say that I really do not like the Elf, but it may be my fault - I only learned how to use the Macro function a few months ago. I/we really want the Canon Rebel, but other things are taking priority at the moment:

- Trying to go snowboarding at least once this season (poor showing on my part that I haven’t strapped in at least once! This is my favorite “sport”)
- Weekend at Yogaville
- Outer Banks Girls Long Weekend (Happily Lent and my no drinking wine experiment will be over by then)
- WEDDING and all related $$$
- Ireland and maybe England this summer

Man, all costs aside, my life looks AWESOME! BYE!


The enthusiam of a child


I kissed this bad boy

I'm on a boat. Andy Samburg and T-Pain

Now all you know that SNL has been my favorite show as long as I have been anble to understand irony. Here's one for a laugh.

Roasted Nut Oils Fast Gaining on EVOO

Last weekend at a delicious dinner gathering, Amy introduced me to Roasted Walnut Oil in a salad dressing she was making. As a long-time extra virgin olive oil supporter, I was skeptical. However, the salad was delicious! This nutty full flavored oil is the perfect ingredient in any homemade salad dressing and since it does not solidify when refrigerated; it is the perfect way to make dressings that can be stored in the refrigerator. Although not much tops Tara's easy balsamic vinaigrette recipe, this new nut oil is fast gaining. I mixed it with some balsamic vineger and put it on my arugula salad just adding some shave parm and salt. Delicioso!

Tara's Easy Dressing: (Tara doesn’t know that I share this recipe all over with her name attached)
- Fresh Garlic cloves
- Balsalmic Vinegar
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Orange Juice (fresh or "Simply Orange" is best)
- Salt and Pepper
*Blend above at whatever proportioning you choose to taste

Ashley’s Easy (not anymore) Arugula Salad:
- Arugula
- Shaved Parm
- Salt
- Dash of balsamic vinegar
- EVOO or Roasted Walnut Oil
*Blend above at whatever proportioning you choose to taste

Hillarious quotes by Ren

"I found the meatballs!!!"

"Did you get the pills? How much were they?"

"Good news is... I got to see your pops last night and I inquired about the tiara."

In or out of context these quotes are hillarious to me.

Images Allowing Me to Let Go of THINGS

This winter has been about organizing and letting go of material items. There are quite a few things that I have been dragging around with me to home after home. One of those things was a box full of old mix tapes. In high school making mix tapes was one of my favorite things to do. That was preceded by middle school where my friend Brittney and I would have a blank tape ready in the boom box so that when our favorite song came on the radio we would be ready to record! So as I was cleaning and discarding I came across the cassettes, I popped them in to my stereo (yes I still have a tape deck) one by one, only to be greeted with total audio mush. None of them sounded like they did in the 90s. Some of them just slowly unwound themselves inside the tape deck with the dramatic orange backlighting serving as a knife rotating in my side as I watched hours of creative teen energy dissolve into useless plastic. At that point Aaron suggested that I toss the defunct tapes. His solution for my attachment to them was to take a picture before throwing them in the trash. So I dropped a few on the floor and I took some pics. Incidentally, this is also what I did last year when moving from my Monument apartment when I was having a hard time letting go of my late grandmother's ancient blender. It barely worked and the lid was missing, but it is the only relic I had left from her other than a broken rosary. Aaron was right then, I didn’t need the blender and having a photo of it felt just as good to me as actually having it in the kitchen cabinet. However, the same is not true of the cassette tapes. Shortly after that day, I was at the Valley Mall with my niece Christmas shopping. Since she is nine, stopping at Claire’s Boutique was a MUST. With my soul still smarting from the loss of my cassette tapes I was forced to face myriad tween accessories and products FEATURING images of cassette tapes. I guess they are trendy now? With the way mine fared I don’t see how that is possible, but anyways. I now have started a practice (that I can tell will be lifelong) of taking photos of things as I say goodbye, which is probably what I will do with my Polaroid once the film really and truly is impossible to find. How will I take a Polaroid of a Polaroid? Deep man. Deep.

Peter Gabriel and Gospel: A Formula

My current favorite composer:

Philip Glass:

http://www.philipglass.com/

Makes me wish that I was still a ballet dancer. So much can be done with his work.

No photos exist of this day. Old posts:

This is an experience that I had in 2007:

I have to quickly share that today at Lake Atitlan (in Guatemala) I went to the house of some shamans who maintain and worship/communicate with the most important Mayan saint of their village, San Simon who is a combination derivative of a Mayan god/Christian St. Sebastian and some random conquistador. These crazy cofradias - religious leaders - were in this room filled to the brim like a shrine with dried plants and herbs, candles, fake flowers, CDs hanging from the ceiling along with more assorted important clutter, including an ornate see-through coffin covered in bright fake flowers and blinking pink lights as well as some strands of dysfunctional lights. The object of attention was a short deity idol robed in dated western style men's ties, two cowboy-like hats with silk veils tied to them, a gold chain around his neck with a wad of Quetzales (cash) placed behind his central tie. He had a cigar in his wooden mouth and a platter of coin offerings as well as a special wooden holder containing a small bottle of moonshine style liquor and a pack of regular cigarettes! Candles of significant colors and sizes were burning to the ground as they knelt on woven prayer mats to petition help from Simon for a family that visited offering money and alcohol. Apparently their son was somehow involved or maybe injured by a gun. I couldn't tell what they were saying because he was chanting in his Mayan language with very little Spanish. They burned a large quantity of incense and replaced the fake cigar in the idols mouth with a lit cigarette. All this is being overseen by a visibly high or drunk shaman in the corner - very dazed. Just when I was wondering if they were going to dump the alcohol into the little wooden man's scary mouth, we were out! Down the steps into and open fire kitchen and back into the rocky street; from one completely inexplicable world to another. This is just a glimpse that I had to share - probably one of the most unique experiences I have ever had and I intend to write more about it.

A New Beginning

Last night I went through many old journals and notebooks as I was organizing. I encountered things as irrelevant to my current self as "sketches" and "poems." Except for only the most impressive ones, I ripped them out one by one and threw them in the trash. (!) I would have thrown them in the fire, but I was too lazy to start one. I have been wasting years on social networking sites; it is time to get creative and constructive with my internet presence. This is a long time coming. Time to bridge the gap between old Ashley and new: peace out dreamy journals, hello BLOG. Stay tuned and "PUMP UP THE VOLUME!"