Only Breathing With The Aid of Denial

Sunny in Vegas

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:32:57 GMT

For the very first time, the background on my gmail account is showing that it's sunny out today. Which is a really odd thing considering that it's sunny here somewhere around 300 days a year ...

HBP Movie and Associated Ramblings

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:44:36 GMT

Okay, so this is like 2 week old news, but I really was planning on posting it sooner. I swear lol.

Being the nerd I am (and I'm sure that most of you reading this are too) I went and saw Half-Blood Prince at the midnight premier. It was crazy, you know? At just the theater I went to (which admittedly, I think is the biggest/best in town) between 11:59 and 12:30 there were THIRTEEN theaters playing the movie. That's quite a few thousand nerds who all saw that movie at once in just that one building. I wonder how many people actually went and saw the movie that night. Jeezy.

I was going to make a Gryffindor scarf since I finally learned how to crochet last year (after countless attempts at learning from multiple people over the years lol) and I'm actually pretty good at it now. I didn't think of it till too late though (like the night before hah), and even as good as I am at it now, well I still can't make a f-ing scarf in 5 hours - I got two stripes done before I gave up lol. But I did wear my awesome Gryffindor shirt that I bought a couple years ago. It was while I was wearing this shirt out in public - not at the theater around all the crazy costumes and other decked out fans - that I made a discovery about myself. So I'm kind of a nerd, and as much as I almost hate to admit it to the world, I love Twilight (mostly hah) and have been spending a ridiculous amount of time in that fandom over the last few months. The only 2 fandoms I've ever REALLY gotten into are Twilight and Harry Potter. So that night it occurred to me that while I was completely fine sporting my Harry Potter shirt for the world to see, well, I wouldn't be caught dead in a Twilight shirt. Even in the private of my own home. I think tha's pretty amusing.

But anyway, back on target. The movie experience.

Overall I thought the movie was really good. In all honesty I enjoyed it much better than I remember enjoying any of the previous five. But I'm not entirely sure of the reason for this. I dunno if it's simply because the movie was actually better - or, what I think is more likely, since it's been 2 years since I've read the book I'm not as sharp on the details so I wasn't nitpicking the whole thing. I just sat back and let myself enjoy a good old Harry Potter experience for the first time in years. I really do miss Harry Potter. A lot. I actually just managed to finally finish reading Sorcerer's Stone last weekend (after being halfway through it for 6 months), and hopefully I'll be able to finish rereading the series this year. I'd really like to get back into fandom. *sigh*

There were two notable things that happened with the crowd that night that amused me and I want to share with you, dear interwebs. (And actually the entire reasong I'm posting this now long winded entry). Both of these happened before the movie started.

1) When they were doing that whole pre-preview random junk on the screen, someone randomly yells "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" a la Harry at the end of PoA. The entire theater laughed and burst into applause. It was hilarious.

2)After the previews, in that moment of silence before the beginning credits started some girl yells "When I say Harry, you say Potter!" Only to be immediately cut off while yelling her first "Harry!" by someone else yelling "SHUT UP!" ... which the entire theater applauded. THAT was gold. I'm sure that first girl was angry/mortified lol. I got a cramp from laughing.

Anyway. That's my two cents for the moment. Now I should really go study for the statistics test that I have in 4 hours *sighs again* Summer school is both a blessing and a curse I tell you.

Art Dump: 2007-2009, The Previously Unposted Works

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:32:31 GMT

I haven't been drawing much in the last couple years, mostly due to college I'm sure. But I've been posting my art even less. So here now, I give to you some works from the last 2 years that never made it past the pages of my sketch book. They're mostly just crappy pencil doodles, but I still figured I'd share

James and Wendy doodle, January 2007

A mermaid - March 12, 2007. OMG her tail took me FOREVER. Also, I kind of feel like she looks like Ron Stopable from Kim Possible, but maybe thats just my imagination haha

Meghan Artwood - March 12, 2007

April 2007. I was having artists block and asked verstandverlust to come up with something for me to draw. She said an elephant with wings ... this is all I came up with lol. I still like it for some reason though

Ginny Weasley - May 2007

Hermione Granger - May 2007

Luna Lovegood - June 2007

Self portrait, June 2007. My hair was growing out from being really short, and apparently (as I've been told recently) it was ridiculously ugly.

This is an actual picture of me from around the same time ... so you can make your own decision about my hair lol

July 2007

July 2007

Bethany Fisher - August 2007

James Sullivan in the 1840s. Drawn September 2007 from a pic in my mammalogy book lol. I'm really happy with how this one turned out

Triwizard Champions, January 2008. I really like how this picutre has turned out too far, but I think I'm too scared to finish it lol

Me and my then boyfriend's cat Norman - May 2008. God I miss that cat lol, she was amazing, my baby D:

Ian McDermott - November 1, 2008

Me at work, Jan 09

Couple watching the (nonexistant) sunset - April 09

Sailor Jupiter. I'm kinda going through right now and doing a Sailor Moon thing, I drew Rini a couple weeks ago, then I drew this. I think I'm gonna keep this up. I like drawing Sailor Moon stuff - it's what I started with when I started drawing way back in 3rd grade, so I like seeing how far I've come.

Also, as an added bonus, an idea for my

I like the general idea of it, but I'm not fond of how the wings turned out. Its for my mother - I've got the purple ribbon there for pancreatic cancer. I finally came up with an idea for a tattoo that I really, really like and I'm probably going to get it within the next month, I'll post pics once I do :D

Art: Sailor Moon

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:23:11 GMT

Older Chibiusa

Books Read, a History

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:45:56 GMT

Books I've read 2002-2009

2009

(1)Gossip Girl - Cecily von Ziegesar [3/4]
(2)Already Dead - Charile Huston [3/5]
(3)Secret Vampire - L.J. Smith [3/8]
(4)Daughters of Darkness - L.J. Smith [3/9]
(5)Spellbinder - L.J. Smith [3/10]
(6)No Dominion - Charlie Huston [3/16]
(7)Half the Blood of Brooklyn - Charlie Huston [3/18]
(8)Every Last Drop - Charlie Huston [3/20]
(9)Dark Angel - L.J. Smith [3/22]
(10)The Chosen - L.J. Smith [3/23]
(11)Soulmate - L.J. Smith [3/24]
(12)Untamed - PC and Kristin Cast [3/31]
(13)Strip - Marna Martin [4/1]
(14)Hunted - PC and Kristin Cast [4/6]
(15)The Awakening - L.J. Smith [4/6]
(16)The Struggle - L.J. Smith [4/7]
(17)The Fury - L.J. Smith [4/8]
(18)Dark Reunion - L.J. Smith [4/9]
(19)City of Glass - Cassandra Clare [4/11]
(20)Huntress - L.J. Smith [4/11]
(21)Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding [4/17]
(22)Black Dawn - L.J. Smith [4/17]
(23)Witchlight - L.J. Smith [4/28]
(24)Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich [4/28]
(25)Twilight - Stephenie Meyer [5/8]
(26)New Moon - Stephenie Meyer [6/4]
(27)Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling [7/18]
(28)Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer [8/18]
(29)Beauty - Robin McKinley [9/4]
(30)Companions of the Night - Vivian Vande Velde [11/12]
2008

(1)Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine [3/6]
(2)The Princess Bride - William Goldman [3/?]
(3)Marked - P.C. and Kristin Cast [4/21]
(4)Betrayed - P.C. and Kristin Cast [4/23]
(5)City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare [5/19]
(6)Chosen - P.C. and Kristin Cast [5/20]
(7)The Host - Stephenie Meyer [5/27]
(8)Twilight - Stephenie Meyer [7/1]
(9)New Moon - Stephenie Meyer [7/3]
(10)Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer [7/9]
(11)Accidentally Dead - Dakota Cassidy [7/12]
(12)Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer [8/3]
(13)Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen [8/22]
(14)Midnight Sun - Stephenie Meyer [11/25]
(15)The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling [12/13]

2007

(1)Bloody Bones - Laurrel K. Hamilton [1/1/07]
(2)The Killing Dance - Laurrel K. Hamilton [1/16/07]
(3)Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris [1/19/07]
(4)Greywalker - Kat Richardson [1/25/07]
(5)A Great And Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray [1/31/07]
(6)Twilight - Stephenie Meyer [2/5/07]
(7)New Moon - Stephenie Meyer [2/9/07]
(8)Companions of the Night - Vivian Vande Velde [3/31/07]
(9)Hairstyles of the Damned - Joe Meno
(10)Blue Bloods - Melissa De La Cruz [4/29/07]
(11)Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach [5/28/07]
(12)Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris [6/10/07]
(13)Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling [6/23/07]
(14)Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - J.K. Rowling [7/22/07]
(15)City of Bones - Cassandra Clare [7/30/07]
(16)Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer [08/09/07]
(17)The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova [8/14/07]

2006

(1)Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling (01/--/06)
(2)Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling (01/--/06) & (08/--/06)
(3)Companions of the Night - Vivian Vande Velde (06/14/06)
(4)Howl's Moving Castle - Diane Wynne Jones (06/16/06)
(5)Flipped - Wendelin Van Draanen (06/17/06)
(6)Twilight - Stephenie Meyer (09/06/06) & (09/13/06)
(7)New Moon - Stephenie Meyer (09/07/06)
(8)The Silver Kiss - Annette Curtis Klause (09/15/06)
(9)Sunshine - Robin McKinley (9/25/06)
(10)Peeps - Scott Westerfeld (10/28/06)
(11)Blood and Chocolate - Annette Curtis Klause (11/1/06)
(12)Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K. Hamilton (11/10/06)
(13)The Laughing Corpse - Laurell K. Hamilton (11/12/06)
(14)Circus of the Damned - Laurell K. Hamilton (11/14/06)
(15)The Lunatic Cafe - Laurell K. Hamilton (11/16/06)

2005

(1-3)HP PoA(01/--/05), GoF(12/24/05), HBP(07/17/05)
(4)Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk (04/--)
(5)Eragon - Christopher Paolini (05/--)
(6)Eldest - Christopher Paolini (10/21)
(7)Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - Mathew Stover (05/21)
(8)Star Wars: A New Hope - George Lucas (07/--)
(9)The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (01/--)
(10)The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis (07/16)
(11)One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kessey (04/--)
(12)Dracula - Bram Stoker (01/--)
(13)Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (08/12)
(14)Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore (12/--)

2004

(1)The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien
(2)Memnoch the Devil - Anne Rice
(3)HPOotP
(4)HP SS
(5)HP CoS
(6)Moby Dick - Herman Melville
(7)All American Girl - Meg Cabot
(8)The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
(9)The Scarlett Letter - Hawthorne
(10)HP GoF
(11)The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket
(12)Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
(13)How to Deal -
(14)Taming of the Shrew - Shakespeare
(15)Macbeth - Shakespeare
(16)Hamlet - Shakespeare
(17)Othello - Shakespeare
(18)Dragon's Bait - Vivian Vande Velde
And Parts of: Dante's Inferno, The Canterbury Tales, The Bible, and Beowulf

2003

(1)Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
(2)Tale of the Body Theif - Anne Rice
(3)Haunted - Meg Cabot
(4)All American Girl - Meg Cabot
(5)It Happened to Nancy - ? (it was for school)
(6)Harry Potter SS - JK Rowling
(7)Harry Potter CoS - JKR
(8)Harry Potter PoA - JKR
(9)Harry Potter GoF - JKR
(10)Harry Potter OotP - JKR
(11)Holes - Lewis Sachar
(12)A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare
(13)Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice
(14)Princess in Waiting - Meg Cabot

(15)Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand
(16)Gossip Girl - Cecily von Ziegesar
(17)All I Want is Everything - Cecily von Ziegesar
(18)You Know You Love Me - Cecily von Ziegesar
(19)Because I'm Worth It - Cecily von Ziegesar
(20)The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas

2002 (incomplete)

(1)Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare
(2)Julius Caesar - Shakespeare
(3)To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(4)Companions of the Night - Vivian Vande Velde
(5)Kissing Doorknobs - Terry Spencer Hesser
(6)Stuck in Neutral - Terry Trueman
(7)The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice
(8-11)Harry Potter SS, CoS, PoA, GoF
(12)House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
(13)The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
(14)Princess in the Spotlight - Meg Cabot
(15)Princess in Love - Meg Cabot
(16)A Walk to Remember - Nicholas Sparks

Sorry for the spam, I just needed a place to put this ^^

Books 2009

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:11:43 GMT

I've just decided that my goal for the year, besides the obvious one of getting into nursing school for January, is to read at least one book a week..

Considering that it is now the 11th week of the year, and I have only read 5 books, this may prove to be a bit difficult. but then on the other hand, I've read all 5 of those books in the last 7 days, so perhaps maybe not.

Books of 2009
(1) Gossip Girl - Cecily von Ziegesar [3/4]
(2) Already Dead - Charile Huston [3/5]
(3) Secret Vampire - L.J. Smith [3/8]
(4) Daughters of Darkness - L.J. Smith [3/9]
(5) Spellbinder - L.J. Smith [3/10]

It's not a very impressive list so far, mostly young adult stuff. But well, I already read half of Emma in January, so when I finish reading that it'll add a little more character to my list. Maybe I'll make that my next project. I also plan on rereading the whole Harry Potter series. Already started it actually, but I'm only about halfway through Sorcerer's Stone and I've read it so many time already that my mind just wanders so it's kinda difficult to keep reading. I imagine it will be like that until I get to Goblet of Fire.

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:29:51 GMT

I can tell that it's late and I've been doing too much reading. Also that I've been spending too much time on the internet.

I just read the word 'locates' as 'lolcats'

Twice.

ART: 2 Originals

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:15:35 GMT

Okay, so as promised, here is some art.

They're not anything special, just a couple of pencil sketches, but I like them and it's nice to have something to post after such an artistic dry spell. It's nice to even have anything finished hah.

Original characters Ian and Meghan.

Two more original characters. James and Wendy from my other story. Yes, I realize that James and Ian look fairly similar. They don't in my head, I just can't draw them very well. That and it's pencil so you can't tell that they have different color hair.

Are any of you going to be going to Azkatraz? I'm kind of interested in it now but I'd like to see if any of you that I know will actually be there :)

Hopefully the End of My Hiatus ...

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:35:12 GMT

This has been one long, hellish week. Yeah, I know it's Tuesday night (er, well Wednesday morning at this point I suppose), but for the last few months my work has been doing schedules Wednesday - Tuesday for whatever reason. So my work week ended tonight. Well that, and I somehow managed to get the next TWO DAYS off. I have a WEEKEND. Holy crap.

Too bad it will be spent doing sociology homework. Not that sociology is difficult by any any stretch of the imagination, I've just fallen behind and have a lot of stuff due by Friday. See, I'm taking it online, and instead of studying I keep getting distracted by the shiny interwebs. Homework is actually the reason I'm up at 3 in the morning, but see, I told you that I keep getting distracted by the internet ... look at me go hah.

But yeah, hellish week. Of course, since I work in a restaurant, a 2 holiday weekend meant CHAOS. It was pretty crazy, but for the most part I didn't mind all that much. It was a throw back of sorts to when we used to be busy all the time, all those years ago (and I can say this with confidence having worked in the same damn place for almost 5 years now). It's been so slow lately, and people have been terrible about tipping so it hasn't been too fun. I mostly blame the bad economy and all that. Yeah, I understand the reason, but that doesn't make it suck any less. I've got bills to pay too, you know? February is going to be a good month for me money wise though. This week I made well more than I usually do, and since my birthday was the 4th I've got a good amount of birthday money padding my bank account. Also, I don't have to pay my car insurance anymore starting this month - my step-dad (who my policy is through) made a deal with me: I clean the house once a week, he'll shell out the $200 a month for me. That's a pretty sweet deal as far as I'm concerned. I put in about 2 hours a week, so that's around 8 hours a month, and that puts me at getting roughly $25/hr, much more than I make waiting tables. Not bad. And he's getting a pretty good deal too since paying an actual maid would cost him more (and did a year or so ago when my parents hired one for a few months)

Moving on. Yes, I am quite aware that I have been HORRIBLY absent from livejournal for like 2 years now. I think that's going to be changing here soon. I've spent most of the last month sitting right here in front of my computer on the internet (*coughstudyingcough*). I'm actually going to go renew my paid account (which expired well over a year ago hah) as soon as I'm finished posting this (I want my icons back D:) But anyhow, basically when you get down to it, I simply miss livejournal and all of you friends I've made here. I want back into this world, so look out, here I come.

One thing I've noticed though, a lot of people are gone. I really need to go and clean up my friend's list. My profile has a good deal of strikthroughs on it. But also, quite a few of you have changed your names so I'm not really sure who you are anymore. A few I figured out just by sifting through a couple entries, but a few I'm still uncertain of. So if you changed your name, and you read this, please just drop me a comment and let me know who you are. I would really, really appreciate it.

I don't know how much I'm going to get back into the Harry Potter fandom. I think that will probably always be my first love, but well I've been out of it so long I don't know how interested I'm still going to be. Actually, who am I kidding? Yeah, I haven't been active lately, but I'm sure once I get even slightly into it my love and interest will be immediately rekindled. I did read some fanfiction the other day, James/Lily/Sirius, so I'm taking baby steps I suppose. Hah, I actually started reading Philosopher's Stone again at the beginning of January (because yes, even though I'm American, I am super cool and have the UK version of 4 of the books [thanks Uncle Clay!]) I stopped reading it though when I decided to go on a classical romance kick and read Emma ... which funnily enough I'm actually only halfway through too. I think school actually got in the way of my reading, which sucks because I made a new year's resolution to read more books this year than last (total '08 = 15). I haven't finished reading a book that actually counts since I finished Pride and Prejudice in the end of August. (I've read Midnight Sun and The Tales of Beedle the Bard since then, but I don't think either of those really count)

I actually really want to reread the whole Harry Potter series this year. As many times as I've read most of the books, I've actually only read Deathly Hollows once (gasp, I know). And that was the weekend it came out, I haven't read any of the books since then. Since I was slightly disappointed by it at the time, I figure it deserves a reread. I know it's probably not nearly as bad as my first impression of it was. Books, CDs, and the like have been making bad first impressions on me for a while now, I'm not really sure why. Deathly Hollows definitely deserves a reread - anything by JKR deserves a reread.

As depraved as some of you might find it, I'm actually going to be delving into the Twilight fandom. The horror, I know. I've liked the books for YEARS though (see, look) and as completely terrible as they ended up going (I alternately stared in abject horror, or laughed my way through Breaking Dawn), I've been poking around in the fandom the last week or so, and it actually seems really promising. I somehow - thankfully - managed to stumble upon a group of intelligent fans rather than the ones I found at the twilightlexicon forums all that time ago that caused me to go running. I've read some really great fics in the last few days, and have a list of recs for more going so I'm pretty content. And hey, I can copy longer fics into word, save them as plain text files, and put them on my Reader so I can read them anywhere I choose and not have to sit in front of my stupid computer (which is actually very uncomfortable, and my knees and ankles are sore from sitting on them for so long cus my desk is about six inches too high)

As soon as I get some of my stuff out of the way (i.e. homework), I'm going to post some art I have sitting around. I have 2 pics sitting in my photobucket account ready to go, and a few more drawn up that need scanned. Since I'm not quite sure where my scanner is at the moment, and it's been fickle with my laptop lately anyway, I'll probably just post the two.

That'll probably come tonight, I'm not anywhere close to tired yet and I've got plenty to do to keep me awake, well probably till tomorrow night.

TL;DR version.

Hello livejournal, I'm back.

Some of you have changed your names, if you are one of these people I would really appreciate a comment letting me know who you are. Thanks a bunch :)

Art soon

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:50:41 GMT

Friends! I need your help!

Ok well I suppose it's not really help, but more advice and recommendations.

I just got a Sony Reader for my birthday, and its super cool. Most books you have to buy, but they seem to be about the same price as their paperback counterparts so it's cool I suppose.

However, with the registration of my Reader I get 100 free classics from the eBook store. And the offer is only good until the beginning of May. I can't for the life of me think of 100 classics that I might want to read one day, so this is where you all come in.

Recommend your favorite classics to me please :)

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:23:39 GMT

I return from a ridiculously long break bearing art!

This is Meghan, the main character from my story ZeridinXVI

This is a redo of a piece I did back in November of '03 or something like that. I have it tacked inside the front cover of my notebook for this story and I've been intending to remake it for ages. I just finally got around to it last night. I had intended to post both pictures for a comparison, but my scanner wasn't working last night and I traveled to Virginia today to visit my dad and I am sans original. I figured I may as well post this here though.

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:43:54 GMT

THINGS I DISLIKE TODAY:
-I'm at school at 830 am
-My school's ridiculous parking lot
-The stupid rodeo that is making that ridiculous parking lot even more ridiculous
-The fact that I didn't sleep last night
-Studying for finals
-My ex-boyfriend and his silly girlfriend
-The lady at the table next to mine who won't stop clearing her throat every few seconds

THINGS I LIKE TODAY:
-The weather. It's cold, but not too cold and I get to wear layers
-My hair - it's being cooperative for once
-Cheerios
-Old attempted Harry Potter fanfiction that I found in an old notebook
-Free software trials
-Caffeine
-Finally being able to wear my glasses again
-My statistics class - for being so easy it's almost stupid
-The fact that the semester is over in a week

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:16:12 GMT

My sister in law [well don't think she's technically my sister in law, she is my brother in law's sister and I don't think that actually counts as anything... whatever] she gave me an Adderall so I could stay up late tonight and study for my anatomy test tomorrow. Well its working very well, I'm not tired at all.

Except that I keep getting distracted by photos and myspace and dumb stuff like that. And well now livejournal is distracting too. Why does livejournal say that livejournal is spelled wrong? that's dumb.

I've still got like 5 hrs before the test. Thats enough time to read 3 chapters right?

OMG ASHLEY YOU FAIL

So yeah, I'm doing the summer school thing. For 5 weeks I took Anatomy and Physiology I [June 9 - July 12 I think it was] M-F 8am class, with a 2+ hr lab afterwards M-W. Then I still had my job to do, but since I was in school I wasn't doing that as much as I should have been, I kept giving up shifts and the like. Then like a week before the class ended I found out that A&P II was full for the fall so I'd have to take it in summer school too ... so make that 10 straight weeks of that schedule and another $600 to pay for it. D: I got a B in A&P I though, and that was without any sort of curve or anything so I'm pretty happy with it. That and it was just nice to pass a class for the first time in a year [I didn't actually fail any mind you, I only finished 1 in that time frame though and I got a D+, which isn't a fail, but I don't really consider it a pass either] So now I'm doing this school stuff, and I think I'm on course to get a B again, this teacher curves but I'm not studying as much as I was before. I've actually been kinda sucking for the last 2 weeks [well see, here I am in lj land when I should be reading]

So since I wasn't working much during the first class I'm all sorts of poor right now I'm trying to work my ass off to get money, but well the economy sucks so 10% is pretty much the average for tips these days. It sucks a lot. Same crappy people, less money. Great. I should start working in the kitchen again, I get paid the same there no matter what the customers do - well thats still less than I get with crappy tips so scratch that. I'll deal w/ crappy people for 25 hours a week, its really not that difficult. I still end up averaging like $17/hr so thats not bad I guess.

Lets see, what else has been going on in Ashleyland. I've been dealing with issues of the boy sort for the last 2 months, and thats been driving me CRAZY. Boys can be so freaking annoying sometimes. And I've learned that being in love is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But on the other hand, I finally got to fall in love and that was kinda cool. Well and I work with the boy so all that drama bled over and is making drama at work for ma and frankly I'm just sick of dealing with it. I hate my job, and now I've learned that most of the people I work with are two faced gossipmongers and I really don't like any of them anymore. I've lost a lot of my work friends to random drama in the last year - but I guess that means that they just weren't that great of friends to begin with. But they were the main group of people I was hanging out w/ for a long time, and I did consider them more than just work friends. The really important ones are still around, so thats nice. So basically I can't stand most of the people I work with. Then I work w/ 3 of my siblings - yeah its horrible - and they were involved in a lot of the gossipmongering and telling people that I have to work with things I told them in confidence BECAUSE THEY'RE MY FREAKING SIBLINGS and you know I should be able to trust them. But no. So then that led to all sorts of family drama - and well since my mom died in January my home life as been a little shaky for a while anyway. Its really weird for me that my step dad has a girlfriend - and has since March I think, maybe it was even late February, I don't remember exactly when she showed up. [ha and its even weirder when I tell someone something about her and I'm all like, "yeah my step dad's girlfriend" cus that just doesn't sound right lol]

So for right now I'm going to try to concentrate on getting this class over with with a good grade, then I'm going to go find a second job [and maybe another one to replace the current one] and I'm going to save up as much money as quickly as I can. As soon as I hit a certain amount I'm going to put in my 2 weeks and move across the country to live with my grandpa in New York. I've been planning on moving there for like 3 years now, its just finally the time to do it. Though it will be weird cus the boy was supposed to be going with me when I was planning on going this summer. And well I still don't know where things are with him [we're not together anymore, but well things are complicated and I'm just gonna leave it at that], and he doesn't know how soon I'm planning on going. I don't think he'll want to go w/ me anymore though, but in reality thats probably not going to be too bad for me. I need my fresh start.

I feel like I'm kinda running away from everything, but really, I've been planning this move pretty much since I graduated high school [which was 3 years ago now, ick I'm starting to feel old and that should not be happening at 21] All the drama going on right now is just making me feel like I really need out of Vegas [and most people that I've been talking to agree with me] so its not really running away. Its just what I need to be doing right now.

But also b/c of all the crap in my life I'm definitely falling back into internet escapism a lot more in the last few weeks. So I'll probably be much more active on livejournal for a while. I'll definitely have to weed out my flist to see what I even still want to read haha, I haven't been active on livejournal in like a year and a half. I'm sure theres probably some Harry Potter crap that I really won't care about as much anymore. Don't get me wrong, HP is still great, but I'm just not as into it as I was before book 7 - and though since I haven't been around much I can be sure about this, but I'd imagine that the fandom has probably died down a bit in the last year anyway.

So whats been going on dear flist? Anything interesting on the great interwebs? Anything fun and exciting [or anything at all I guess] been going on in your lives? Any interesting websites, fanfiction, new fandoms, new anything that I should be aware of? Anything of interest IRL like books or movies? I'm bored w/ my life lol.

I really do miss livejournal so much D:

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:32:11 GMT

ok, I haven't been doing much art for the last year or so ... I just simply haven't had time. But I drew and colored this about a month ago, so i figured I'd share.

This took FOREVER to color. I used marker, but its all individual dots - like a billion of them. The color is a little off in the scan, but whatever.

I have a few sketches and such of other stuff I've done in the past few months, so I might get around to scanning them sometime soon. Don't hold your breath though.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:37:48 GMT

I have been keeping a journal for the last 9 years. I just started journal number 10 a couple days ago. Heres some statistics on my writing habits:

Number of Journals - 10
Pages written - 2038
Over - 2893 - days

Average pages per day for the whole time - 0.7
for the last year -1.4
last 3 weeks - 7.1

I think I tend to write more when I'm upset hahaha

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:50:20 GMT

Hello livejournal land.

So, tonight I went and got my nape pierced. Its awesome. I've wanted this piercing since I was like 13. Its awesome too 'cause it doesn't hurt at all right now. But considering that I only got it 2 hours ago, I'm sure it will later. A lot. But my friend said that when she got hers done it hurt a lot, but it didn't really bother me at all - it basically just pinched a little. That brings me up to a grand total of 10 piercings now - 4 in each ear, my belly button, and now this. And my hair has has just finally grown out enough since I hacked it all off last year that you can actually see my ear piercings now.

Sorry if the pics a bit big ... I don't know how to resize it without the program I usually use and I haven't had time to put it on my new computer yet. And my new computer haha is an hp tablet notebook and is quite awesome. I just finally got it like 3 weeks ago. I'm in love with it

Also, I've decided that I'm moving this summer. I'm probably going to move to Rochester NY where I have some family, but I may go somewhere else. I want to go to nursing school, and that I can do anywhere. Its kinda odd though 'cause my boyfriend wants to go with me. Now, we've only been dating 4 months or so, so it kinda weirds me out a bit. It seems really sudden. But he was my best friend for ages before we started dating so I dunno. We've been getting into a lot of dumb fights lately so I'm just sort of hesitant about the whole thing. I don't want to just leave him though you know? I figure though, that if I move where I want to and he comes with me and for some reason we break up - I'm still by family and I'm where I wanted to be, its not like I'm moving for him.

Anyway, I'm sleepy so I'm going to go take a nap or something.

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:31:28 GMT

Hello all

Sorry I haven't been around forever, I've had a lot of stuff going on in my life in the last few months.

I don't want to go into all the details about it right now, but I need your help for something.

Ok, back story. My parents got divorced 15 years ago. My little brother and I have been living with our mom and step dad Steve almost that entire time (save maybe a few months) and only seen our father a few weeks a year and maybe gotten a phone call or two a month. Right now we live in Nevada and our dad lives in Virginia. About a month ago my mom died of cancer so technically my dad should take care of Jake (my brother) But hes on track to graduate high school next year (as a junior) and has pretty much everyone he knows and cares about here. Add on top of that that he doesn't really care for my dad's new live-in girlfriend or her two children. He does not want to go, to have everything else taken away so shortly after such a major loss. Steve is more than willing to take care of Jake for as long as need be, Steve has been a father to us when our own dad hasn't.

Right now my dad is being a huge jerk and trying to take custody of Jake and its escalated to the point that he has done and said some pretty nasty things and because I've voiced my opinions at him hes cut me off - which is super nice of the guy. There is all sorts of legal action being taken, and my dad has threatened to come out here this weekend and take Jake away.

But anyway, this morning I got an email from his mother that says:

Dear Ashley and Jacob:

"Blow, blow thou winter wind,

Thou art not half so cruel

As a child's ingratitude"

" As You Like It", William Shakespeare

Still and always love, but with great sadnesss.

Grammy

I very much would like to say something rude to her, but you know she's my grandma.

So this is where you guys come in. I think the best course of action is to respond to her with another quote that says something along the lines of not voicing your opinion when you only know half of the story or minding your own business. I can't come up with any though - I've looked on google and such, but no luck. So if any of you know of any quotes I could use, that would be wonderful

And sorry - ended up writing a little more of my life drama than I intended

On a completely different note - I'll hopefully have some art to post in the near future - just as soon as I get my scanner to work.

Also, how have you all been? Anything interesting going on in your lives?

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:57:23 GMT

Holy crap guys.

HI

I just realized that I havent posted in over three months - thats crazy.

I've had a lot of crap going on this year - some really good, some really fucking terrible thats kept me away from the internet. Last semester was all kinds of crazy - but I passed everything yay. This semester I am taking:

Eng102 - because I massivly put it off for 2 years lol
Womans Studies - because it totally counts as 2 classes at once
Animal Behavior
and Mammalogy

They're super awesome, but yet again keeping me busy. But at least this sememster so far I don't really have any silly boy to keep me occupied - not that I'd mind one or anything lol

I did a lot of cool hiking and just hanging out with friends this summer. You can go see pics over on my myspace. I've actually kind of become obsessed with taking pictures lately. I'll put that down to dating a photography major for a while though.

I have a little bit of art done that I'll try to post here soon - as soon as I get off my lazy ass and scan it.

Anyway, what have you guys been up to? I miss you all terribly, and I shall try to be around more often.

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:23:34 GMT

So Flavor Flav came into the Applebee's I work at today. I was not impressed. Honestly, before he showed up I had no effing clue who he was. Everyone was like "OMG" and such, but I didn't care. I wanted to tell him to move his damn Escalade from my ToGo parking spot as he was not placing a ToGo order. Wayne Brady was in last week, and that was cooler.

Also - Michael Jackson made an appearance at the Childrens Museam here in Vegas today (I found out from a friend who works there) I also find that more interesting than Flavor Flav

Anyway. Not much going on here. I've been spending most of my time at work or hanging out w/ friends (as I keep getting comments about it when I actually am home, things like "Oh yeah, thats what you look like, I almost forgot" silly family) We've gone hiking a lot and I have a crap load of pictures I might get around to posting a few of them.

I like summer xD

Sun, 27 May 2007 06:35:26 GMT

My friend Karen told me that Midol actually works awesome like its supposed to, so I decided to buy some and give it a shot. So far it seems to be working just fine. I decided to read the box, just you know, wondering what was in it that made it so special. Basically its just Excedrin with a diuretic, but whatever.

However on my little exploration of the box, I come across this lovely detail.

"Ask a Doctor before use if you have:
-Difficulyt in urination due to enlargement of the prostate gland."

Um... what? This is on Midol. I suppose theres really nothing in it that men can't take - but really, how many men out there are taking Midol to releave their aches and pains?

Just weird, and I thought I'd share

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:41:10 GMT

Okay, so my cell phone number is [area code] 219-5050.

Last night I discovered [via late night tv comercial] that a local phone sex line has the number [area code] 216-5050

...

This explains some of those random late night calls.

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:09:19 GMT

My computer apparently thought it'd be funny and delete most of the folders from the folder "My Pictures" I am currently missing most of the pics I have saved off the internet, every single one of my original pieces and every single one of my photos, which is to say everything I had on my camera for the last TWO YEARS that I saved on my computer before selling it to my brother. I'm seriously about to cry. Its all fucking gone.

HIATUS

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:45:58 GMT

So, yes. Hi. I am still alive here somewhere. I'm just drowning in all the crap I have to do. I've had so much to do lately I haven't had time to see my best friend in a week or study for my physics test that is apparently tomorrow [I didn't know this cus I haven't been going to class cus I keep going to work instead]. I don't know exactly what it is that i have been doing. I think maybe working too much - I worked 35+ hrs the last 3 weeks [on top of going to school full time mind you]. Or maybe I've been spending too much time with Josh, but I really don't think thats it - I've only seen him outside of work maybe 5 times in the last few weeks. I know I haven't been on livejournal AT ALL in the last probably 2 weeks. What the heck am I doing with my time? sheesh.

Anyway, so yeah, I'll probably be pretty scarce for the rest of the semester cus its finally getting to the point where I'm going to have to start learning stuff and I'm going to have to keep working pretty much full time. I don't know when I'm going to have time to see May, Krista, and Josh or sleep let alone devote any time to lj.

So I suppose this is notice of a hiatus until further notice. School is over like May 9th, so maybe I'll be back then-ish. I still check my email pretty much every day if you want to get in touch with me [paintisevil@yahoo.com], and I'll probably still spend a lot of time on AIM while I'm working on homework in the library so feel free to IM me [my sn is paintisevil cus I'm just so creative like that]

And Karen if you read this, I just thought of my Companda randomly and thought you should know that. Also, you left two of your shirts here. Also, you can keep my books cus I bought them again cus I wanted to read them. Also I still want those other books you said you were going to send me. Yes.

And then just for my own reference - my to do list

+Laundry
+pay tuition by 3/1
+clean room
+wash Marvin
+thank yous
+BIO ---TEST MONDAY
--ppt6
--ppt7
--ppt8
--ppt9
--ch 7 pgs 125-144
--ch8 pgs 144-162
--ch15 pgs 301-316
--ch9 pgs 164-174/184-186
--flash cards
--lab 7 for Tuesday
+CHEM
--read/notes Ch4
--ch4 hw [3/5 by 1030am]
--Hneut lab for Tues
+PHYS -- TEST TOMORROW D:
--lab 16 for Tomorrow
--lab12 for Tues
--4.8-4.13 + odd problems
--5.1-5.8
--6.1-6.3

WORK SCHEDULE 2/27-3/4
M __ 4TG
T __4TG
W__1130FLOAT/6XPO
T__5H
F__1130/4TG
S__12TG/5XPO
S__4XPO?

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 04:51:23 GMT

ZOMG GUYS.

I GOT AN 'A' ON MY PHYSICS TEST ... AND THIS IS BEFORE THE CURVE. OMFG.

That totally makes spending my 20th birthday studing completely 100% worth it.

I think I'm in shock.

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:33:57 GMT

So wanna know something fun? I've had a cold so long [over a month now] that its migrated to my eye and given me pinkeye. BAH! Its all itchy and swollen and boo. It should be better soon though since I've got my antibiotic eyedrops, so whatever. Its anoying trying not to touch stuff though

Me: Urgh! I look like Quasimodo!
Mom: Don't be ridiculous. You haven't got a hump.

God, I love my mother.