The Myth & The Majesty

Well, the wind just came up again. Schools in and around Wausau got dismissed before noon today which meant half the office also disappeared. I actually found myself wishing I could use the "My kids don't have a house key" excuse, but no worries -- that thought was quickly annihilated. Now I sit in my apartment, wondering about the weather ... Apparently it's 3°F out there with a windchill of -20°F. For a place that doesn't usually get wind, that's pretty rotten. And we're in a "winter storm warning," which means the two inches of snow we got earlier must be getting whipped around a bit right now. Makes me happy about flannel pajama pants and this wonderful bottle of Syrah ... Yum. It's not been an eventful evening. Going to finish my planning for next week's trip to good ol' RC tonight ... That'll be good. And I finally got around to adding Andi's blog link on the left ... You should check it out. She's the one with the g

Second rate. That's precisely how I'm feeling right now. Blah.

After an up-and-down week, some generally tiring nights, and a day that promises to be busy and more thought-intensive than most Fridays, I am ready for a weekend. Particularly a weekend with no real plans, which is precisely what this weekend happens to be. Woot. Time to get caught up on sleep ... and cleaning ... and prep for the months to come. I'm excited about the psychoticness in store, but I'm not really ready for it. And to top it off, I actually want to start packing. It just doesn't make any sense yet -- I have a full month before I can start moving. Yeah. That's a sign of something. Maybe I'm just that psyched about this new place. Or maybe I'm losing my mind a little. Suppose it's both. I just know that I've never been ready and willing to move before. Back to work!

Heath Ledger is dead. I'll make this quick, but this is something I can't NOT comment on. A coworker caught me off guard last night as we were waiting for our table. "Did you hear about Heath Ledger?" Well, no, I hadn't heard anything news-like all day. "He was found dead in New York." Holy crap. It's strange. I was oddly depressed by the news. Odd because, well, he's a celebrity, someone I've never met or would ever meet. But all the same, there was some form of loss. He was one of my most persistent celebrity crushes -- and probably part of the reason I'm so drawn to Aussie accents. And he was very good at what he did. If you caught him in "The Patriot," you would understand. And whether or not you liked it or agreed with the thoughts behind it, "Brokeback Mountain" was an amazingly done movie. And soon, "Dark Knight." If it's anything like the last Batman movie, we'll see what all he

My apartment is drafty and it is below zero out there. Chilly weekend. Drove to Minneapolis after work Friday to hang out with my parents and sister for a day or so ... It was a good time. Buca di Beppo's on Friday night (possibly my favorite restaurant anywhere), some shopping on Saturday (including Surdyk's, an amazing wine store, and the outlet mall in Medford), and then the drive back last night. It was a good day to spend indoors, or in a cocoon of a car. As is today. So it's only natural that the Packers vs. Giants game will be played at Lambeau Field today. Egads. I think I'll hang out here. Drink some tea, make some food, and possibly -- maybe -- turn on my TV at some point and see how the game is going. Or end up playing pool somewhere and listening to the rabid Packers fans. Hey, that's as close as I get to being a football fan. Stay warm, folks!

Oy. I’m distracted, and it’s no one’s fault but mine. I’m a little frustrated with that one. I shouldn’t be letting myself get distracted, period, but this past week I’ve lost control in that particular arena. And while I’m reeling that control back in, I have to deal with the side effects for right now. Which is hard. Headed to Minneapolis after work to hang out with the family for a night ... or most of the family. My awesome brother is on his way to a debate for school instead. So it’ll be my crazy sister and slightly psychotic parents ... and me. I reflect my upbringing. Let’s see ... Other news ... Well, I’ll be in RC in early February, for those of you who would have any desire to know that. Three weeks from now, actually. Definitely looking forward to the vacation ... Turns out a month in one place is about all I can handle right now. Alright. Now that I’ve got that out of my system ... back to work.

This spring is going to be psychotic. I didn’t really realize exactly how crazy it would be until late yesterday, but -- wow. As of right now, the next three months include (if everything goes according to plan) trips to Minneapolis, Rapid City, Rochester, Sioux Falls, and Russia (ranging from 1 night to a full week), a long weekend visit from Darren (yay!!!), and a move across town. All in the next 100 days. Then May hits. I’m excited. It’ll all be great fun, and worth every penny and lost hour of sleep. Add to my extracurriculars a job that is steadily getting more involved (and an office that is getting remodeled, leaving me working from a conference room for a week) and, come May, you’ll see one absolutely exhausted Ashley. Right now, it’s hard to see it. First because it’s snowing ... and second because Christmas was only three weeks ago. Three weeks! We’re only 17 days into 2008 and I’m thinking about April. I think it’s time to step back ... and just enjoy the ride

I had a spectacular day. Work went well, I set a grocery store speed record, I got home in time to do yoga, and then I went to "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." It was fully enjoyable. If you liked the first one, you should check out the second. Granted, I was a little biased. I mean, Mt. Rushmore was a prime feature. And they filmed at Sylvan Lake (one of my favorite spots in the Hills). And at a Tech lookalike (or Tech? Probably not, but does anyone know?). Awesome fun. Good action. My only beef was with some of the geography (I wasn't aware there was that much water ANYWHERE in the Hills), but that's the kind of thing that won't bother most people that see the movie because they don't know the area as well. What can you do? Plus Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) had a great line. Very happy. Now I need to see it a second time so that I actually pay attention to the Rushmore moments instead of scrutinizing the crowd to pick out people I know. I recognized seve

http://www.xkcd.com/369/ My turn to screw with the Google results ...

Do you have any enemies? I do. Or I did. It's possible he's indifferent now, but for awhile there his hatred of me was strong enough that I could feel the heat if I got within fifty feet of him. It's interesting how that works. How you can go from madly in love with someone to picturing his or her head exploding and enjoying it. Or madly in love with someone to almost fearing him or her. I checked out his former blog today ... It will be disappearing from the Internet soon, if I remember Blogger rules correctly. (Two years without activity and it's gone. Kind of a long life, actually.) I was surprised that I could remember the address, but there it was. I was more surprised when I read a couple of his entries from the time right after us and felt ... nothing. Nothing, where I used to feel guilt. Mild irritation -- an eye-roll at best -- where I used to tear up. All of those big emotions are just plain gone now, and I'm strangely comfortable with that. Let's face

Well, it's been a mildly exciting week, at least at work. I've even been right a few times, which is something new and different for me. It's been considerably less exciting with everything else, but I'll take what I can get. Tomorrow, I check out a potential new apartment ... I love my apartment, but the location's not so great. If this one works out, it'd be much closer to everything (biking/walking distance instead of driving distance), and closer to more people ... Be a nice change of pace. Besides, I haven't lived in one place continuously for more than 9 months for the last, oh, 6 years of my life. Why start now? Anyway, back to work. Then I can go home and take a nap. 1AM was a bad idea.

A year ago right about now, I showed up in Wausau for the very first time ... and toured the town with the Crazy Realtor Lady. A year ago tomorrow I interviewed. That's kind of cool ...

Well, there we have it. Another fish down the toilet. I got Regilbert, a.k.a. Reggie, for Christmas from my little brother. (Okay, technically I got Gilbert for Christmas, but as he didn't survive to the 26th he was quickly replaced by Reggie.) Which means that Reggie was only in my possession for ... 13 days. And his, ahem, "warranty" doesn't run out till Wednesday. Alas, there is no Petco here ... and I don't have the receipt anyway. Sayonara, fishy.

Well. Here we are. It's 2008. This is a time for reflection. Remembrance. And most of all, looking to the future. And who am I to get in the way of the norm? I think I remember the first time I thought about this particular year. It was my freshman year in high school, and it was during the careers class we had to take with health and P.E. ... That would make it roughly March of 1999. In any case, we were "mapping" what we wanted to do after high school. At that point in time, my plan looked something like: College: secondary education, August 2002 - May 2006 Peace Corps, June 2006 - June 2008 Grad School: English or biology, August 2008 - May 2010 Oh yeah. I had it all planned out. I suppose this goes to show that, when you're 14, you probably don't have much of an idea of what your life will entail, particularly when you're planning for something that won't even start for 3 years. [And, interestingly enough, even then My Plan didn't follow The Plan,

Macy's Day Parade -- by Green Day Today's the Macy's Day Parade The night of the living dead is on its way With a credit report for duty call It's a lifetime guarantee Stuffed in a coffin 10% more free Red light special at the mausoleum Give me something that I need Satisfaction guaranteed to you What's the consolation prize? Economy sized dreams of hope When I was a kid I thought I wanted all the things that I haven't got Oh, I learned the hardest way Then I realized what it took To tell the difference between Thieves and crooks A lesson learned to me and you Give me something that I need Satisfaction guaranteed Because I'm thinking about A brand new hope The one I've never known Cause now I know It's all that I wanted What's the consolation prize? Economy sized dreams of hope Give me something that I need Satisfaction guaranteed Because I'm thinking about A brand new hope The one I've never known A

How to inspire panic in a recently employed engineer: Rig it so that her computer won't power up, and then let her find out that somehow it got wet. Yeah. I don't know what went wrong, but that's what happened to me yesterday. Worked fine till 8:30 or so, froze up so I shut it down ... and then when I tried to start it up again (shortly before 11:00, after I had a meeting). The IT guy took out the hard drive and discovered that it was damp. Mystified. Still am. BUT! He laid it out to dry, and this morning he put it back together and it works just fine ... or at least everything I've tried so far has worked. We'll hope things continue that way. Pretty sure I filled my year's swearing quota yesterday. (And it's only January 4th.) This is a lame first post of the year ... My next one should be better. For now, I can just say happy birthday Paul! I'm a couple days late, but ... yeah. Happy birthday!