finally!

today is spectacular. it is probably the prettiest day i have seen since i've lived here.. a slight breeze is blowing through the 78 degree air, and the sun actually generates warmth, rather than just light. jennelle and i had to close at work last night and then open this morning, but it was slow so we got out early :) thank god! the beaches are filled with people, everyone is chipper, and it's lovely. tonight is nayana's 21st birthday party (black, white, and red themed), and i'm stoked.

today, chef's wife came into the restaurant with her sister, and it reminded me that erika has yet to visit me here! what the hell, right? seriously sis, it's almost been two years.. come visit me!

also, my blackberry broke once again, so i am without vocal communication. so sorry, family. i'm going to go now to try to get it fixed, but i can't guarantee anything. hold tight!

strings.

i don't know if it's because i've been listening to a lot of andrew bird lately, but i've had the biggest urge to start playing the violin again! i read an article that said andrew bird learned how to play using the suzuki method (like us!) and he plays with such a serene, exhilarating sound. i've also wanted to learn how to play the guitar for a very long time, so maybe this will be the summer of running and instruments! we'll see.

i'm also very much over working in restaurants. i found an internship at the JFK library for this summer which sounds really interesting. not so much fun or exciting but interesting. the deadline is next week though, and i need a letter of recommendation, so i don't know if i'll be able to get it in on time. we'll see.

two weeks left of school! i cannot wait. i realized the other day that, because of summer school, i've been in school since the beginning of july! ugh, i cannot wait to take a break. the apartment hunt has been so far unsuccessful, which is very discouraging. the market is so expensive right now! everything we've seen that's in our price range is disgusting, dirty, and in the basement, and any type of decent living is well over $2,000 a month. ridiculous.

finally livin' life...

saturday night epitomized everything that i have wished to experience while in college. jennelle and i met up with one of her high school friends at her adorable little house at lasell college and from there went to a house party in brighton (directly in front of where heather's car broke down while we were apartment hunting, actually! very cute neighborhood...) after spending a couple of hours there, we went to another house for another party, and then went back to the original house. i had the most fun i've had in a very long time, i cannot even tell you! i was with my best friend, we met a bunch of new people, and it was just a blast. eeee! i don't really know what else to say about it, other than i cannot wait to have more nights like that. three/four more months!

due to patriots day/marathon monday, we had a school holiday today.. jennelle and i stupidly left all of our homework and papers that are due tomorrow morning for today, so we've spent this entire holiday inside, attempting homework. this afternoon though, we decided to begin our eight week plan to be able to run a 5K! so stoked. a woman we work with told me about this program she started, and i looked into it and thought it seemed really great. i ran two miles the other afternoon and then did about twenty lunges, and my thighs want to kill me right now. it feels so good though.. such a boost of confidence (or maybe it's just the endorphins...)

a friend of mine is leaving for europe in a little over two weeks, and i'm surprisingly upset about it. i mean, i hardly get to see him as it is, but knowing that i absolutely won't be able to at all really saddens me. i feel a bit ridiculous about thinking this way, and i don't think i could ever tell him since i know i'm overreacting, but i can't help it! hmmm.

let's get out of here...

i was recently formally introduced to this man by zach, and i am hooked... he's fantastic! i remember josh ritter touring with him a bit last year, but even still i didn't give him a fair enough listen; however, this song is now one of my new favorites, and watching him play it live is even more of an affirmation of his talent. he's an incredible musician, and so multi-faceted, it's very refreshing. ladies and gentlemen, this is andrew bird, singing "oh no" ... enjoy!

how i'm feeling :)

damn you, saunders.

this has been quite the weekend. my roommates, myself, and three of our friends decided to get an apartment together next year, so we've been meeting with realtors all weekend. thursday night we met with john the rental agent, and he planned on showing us a 7 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 4 story, enormous house that we'd been raving about all week via craigslist.org. so we see it, we fall in love, but decided to wait until we see a few more properties before we settled for this place (saunders, we called it, after the street it was on).

the next day, none of us could get this gorgeous place out of our minds, so i called john and told him we wanted it, and he said to bring in a check as soon as we could, since our word alone wasn't enough to reserve it for us. fair enough. that night at work, he called me saying there was a group meeting with one of his co-workers about our beloved saunders. after a game of phone tag, a mix of bad news (apartment taken) and good news (they forgot their check book), we ran around like crazy people, making 1 AM and 9 AM trips to a plethora of banks, and managed to get our applications and check into his office by ten o'clock the next morning.

sadly, around noon on saturday, john called me and said his co-worker had gone to the group's house the night before, picked up their check, and called the landlord himself that morning to clear his peeps. so despite my flirting, our willingness to look at his nasty apartment, encountering weed-smoking angry tenants who tell their friends via cellular device about "las personas en la fucking casa. grr.", the girls' collective scrounging of $3300, and a desperate morning drive to allston, our precious saunders was stolen from us. i'm telling you, we thought we had it. we were convinced. and now we are running aground on the apartment rental shore. DAMN YOU SAUNDERS!!

we will never forget you.

you make my heart sang!

i don't know why, but knowing this movie was created gives me chills. i can't wait!

3.30

i turned in my "declaration of a major" paperwork today, which for some reason makes me feel so motivated. it's like i finally have a direction at this school, and that in itself is very exciting! last friday i had an advising appointment, and the advisor told me that i could potentially double major, if i geared down right now and did it. so, everyone, as of right now i am going to double major in american studies and anthropology. weird, right? i'm so excited though! when i was in the american studies office today, i got to talk to chair of the department (who is the author of one of my books !! ) and she was so excited to welcome me to the department. she gave me a booklet about the program, a quick tour of the department, and insisted that i call her by her first name. everything about that ten minute encounter convinced me that i'm doing the right thing.. i don't want to ignore the good omens :) i have yet to talk to the anthro people, since that major may turn into a minor, depending on how well two of my classes next semester turn out. a good amount of the american studies courses count towards anthropology too, so why not? plus, having a transcript that shows i doubled-majored gives me a huge leg up, especially since neither major can directly employ me with a specific job. it's all so exciting! i'm sure you could care less about my educational jabber, but it's consuming my life, so i don't know what else to write about!

i've been thinking lately too about the peace corps. i talked with a woman in sonoma about it briefly, and it sounds like such an incredible experience. she told me it truly is a lot of hard work, but it's so empowering, inspiring, and enriching, i would like to think i am a great candidate for it. what's also pretty cool is that if you enroll in a certain program, once you're done, they will pay for graduate school. cool! with this plan in mind, the anthropology degree doesn't seem too random. we'll see what happens though...

otherwise, life is good! work is slow, school is busy, the weather is getting better but still pretty awful, and i found a boy to have a crush on for the time being! semi-pointless, i know, but what's a girl to do? life can change in an instant.

xoxo

p.s. t-minus three months until we move out of this apartment! we don't know where we're moving, but i can't wait. i spent a large portion of this weekend looking for duvet covers, headboards, 800 thread-count sheets, lamps, all that good stuff :) so pumped!

bueno?

yesterday was phenomenal. absolutely wonderful. my first class was cancelled, so i got to sleep in, take my time getting ready, eat a good breakfast, and walk to school in 45 degree weather (i even wore flip flops for the occasion :) ) an unknown boy sent me a message that said "you're beautiful. what are you studying at UMB?" what a great day to randomly compliment someone, right?! so flattering! jennelle and i had a delicious sushi lunch, went home and did some homework, and then she made me a delicious cake (vanilla with chocolate frosting and sprinkles.. yummy!) before the delicious cake, though, i engaged in this fantastic conversation:

(phone rings)
"bueno?!"
"bueno? uh.. como estas?! eh.. feliz navidad!"
"HAHAHAhahahah!"
"oh, hahah, i mean, feliz.. huh? cumpleanos? FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!"

i seriously love my dad. so funny :)

thank you everyone, very very much, for the birthday wishes! you're all too kind :)

last one.

tomorrow will officially end my seven year stint as a teenager. i've been wanting to be in my twenties since i was about sixteen, but now that it's here, i must say i'm a bit freaked out. what really got me was when i read the birthday card from my grandma, which said, "happy twentieth birthday, ashley!" and seeing twentieth written out in all of its glory was the final realization. it really freaks me out. on the other hand, i am sick of saying "oh, no, i'm only ____-teen" when someone asks me hold old i am, since my personality doesn't at all reflect my young age.

it's funny, though... on my walk to school this morning, i found a twenty dollar bill sitting ever so perfectly underneath a tree. coincidence? birthday present from mother nature? luck? you decide :)

i'm not going to promise you that this new decade of my life will bring more intellectual, intelligent, exciting, entertaining posts, but i really truly hope it does. to a new year, a new period of my life! i'm pumped.