The Myth & The Majesty

I feel like if your last name is long enough, people don't even attempt to pronounce it correctly. Like the first time I get out on stage, the guy is like, "Please welcome Mike Bahuski!" I was like, you didn't even try. You just said "B" and then whatever you could think of, and you made me Polish, and that's a really specific choice. -Mike Birbiglia (Just an aside during my crazy day.)

This has been an odd week. I can't even say "It keeps getting odder." It started oddly, and tomorrow I'm going to be sleeping in a new apartment. I think that qualifies as ending oddly. I have: - Packed up half of my life (soon to pack up the other half) - Been given instructions for flood preparation - Played about a dozen games of pool in one night (in itself not too odd, but I actually won about a third of them) - Had someone that I've known for 11 days crash on my couch - Regained some status at work as "smarter than she first seems" - Eaten someone else's lunch (actually, I split it with a third person) Tomorrow, I move. After getting at least six inches of snow. Because it wouldn't be Moving With Ashley if the weather wasn't at least a little sketchy. Note (several hours later): I forgot the Pradeaux purse and the Manwich. My week wouldn't have started or ended in such odd fashions without those.

We are prepping for the possibility of flooding this weekend. Three feet of snow cover currently with sunshine and rain predicted, and the office sits on the floodplain. It's interesting. At my previous place of employment, I had a box of stuff ready and specific directions with my sister for a couple more things in the event that we were evacuated due to impending fire and I was in town or otherwise not on site. She had similar instructions for me. Next step: move to a high-earthquake area.

Well, here we are. T-minus 3 days and counting. I can't convince myself to keep working; denial has ended, but avoidance has kicked in full force. I will likely finish packing after work on Friday. (Whoop. Great way to spend a Friday night, eh?) I owe my distraction to a lot of different things. Like this book, The Madonnas of Leningrad. This is one of those diamond-in-the-rough kinds of books. A book that, four years ago, I wouldn't have even noticed on the shelf. It was an impulse B&N buy, an experiment, and I'm hooked. Not just the subject matter (workers at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg [Leningrad] during the German siege on the city in World War II), but the story itself. It's part romance, part drama, part historical fiction, and it is something I would have never caught before. I also have "Hey Jude" stuck in my head and I don't know why. I haven't listened to the song in probably two years. Right, so those two thoughts don't really go...

I have the sudden craving for ... sushi. I'm not sure that's ever happened before. (I really need to get a REAL blog entry in here again.)

This has been one of those days. You know, one where you stay busy the whole time, but not necessarily in a good way. Long meetings. In general very brain-consuming. I've learned more than I do most weeks, but I'm exhausted. Whenever something good happens to me, I wait two weeks before I tell anybody because I like to use the word "fortnight." -Demetri Martin

He's gotten a little "L"-ish ... He's throwing a man-fit. -Ashli Well Ashli ... Thanks for the reminder of why I'm not dating!

... so yesterday I had to go shopping for new pants. And they're spectacularly comfortable. Just had to get that out of my system. Have a good day!

Yeah, no concentration here. Can't even pack for more than five minutes, and that doesn't TAKE concentration. Gorgeous, sunny day today, at least for the first half ... Then it was gorgeous and cloudy. As much as I love snow (no, seriously, I love snow), I'm really starting to get psyched for spring. Then the hiking and geocaching can begin again without the frostbite or snow tracks. Good stuff. Okay! Okay. I should be getting something accomplished. Or trying to sleep. I know it's early, but I like sleep. Plus then I won't be packing. Grrr...

Wow, I've been posting more than usual these last few days. (Are you keeping up, Matt?) Started packing. Not terribly quickly yet ... but that's okay. Just gotta get the big stuff moved next weekend, right? I mean, I have all of March. Suuuure. Except I know how I operate. Whatever I don't get done next weekend will sit (and sit and sit and sit) until the last week, when I suddenly panic and realize I need to be out of my old place NOW. And then I won't have any weekends to do it. Welcome to Moving With Ashley. It's funny. I started thinking about it, and aside from the usual college-related moves, five of the authors of blogs I read -- Brandon, both Katies, Paul J, and Megan -- have moved recently or are currently relocating. Which means most of you feel my pain. Strangely comforting. My library. The first thing I (very reluctantly) packed.

Woot! Three people, three mediums (texting, actual phoning, and instant messaging) -- one big conversation. Take that, technology!

We all have our addictions. Yeah, even those of you who are currently saying, "What the heck are you talking about?" We all have those one or two things that aren't really necessary to our lives but would be very difficult to give up. Think about it for a moment. Addictions are characterized by your behavior. When you're getting whatever it is on a regular basis, you are calmer, happier, more patient, etc. And when you're not? There's a range. You might be downright impossible to deal with, or you might just be "off" until you fulfill whatever craving it is. Something is missing and your brain and body both know it, even if you can't always place the vacancy. You might still disagree, but remember -- you can be addicted to things that aren't bad for you. For instance, I am addicted to the written word. This isn't a bad thing -- you can bet that my mother wasn't trying to get me to stop reading when I was eight. (Even though it actuall...

Hectic in that not-too-crazy sort of way. Mostly a typical Friday. Last night wasn't a typical Thursday. Huge turnout. Fun people. Altogether much more interesting than expected. Things can be fun even if they're not particularly interesting. This was both. Wonder what I can do this weekend. I need to pack. I'm not excited. Packing sucks. But on the other hand, in eight days I'll be moving into my new place. And then I can start unpacking. Which can be a lot like Christmas. Except for that part where you're not really getting anything new. Unless the hospital sends me another garden shovel. Hilarious. Best mail ever. Guess I'm not new to town this time. Fewer freebies. Anybody in the area trying to sell a washer & dryer?

(Written in chunks for about a week now) ------------------------------------------ But no. At thirteen, you’re just going, " ‘Ello, Sue! I’ve got legs! Do you like ... bread?" -Eddie Izzard, from “Dressed to Kill” To say I’m distracted this week would be the understatement of the century. In my defense, I’m still recovering (and reacting) from an absolutely amazing weekend. I just hit my one-year mark in Wausau, and I’m trying to get things done at my current apartment so I can start moving in two weeks. It’s not a great week for focus. Given the recent presence of Valentine’s Day, I’ve also been thinking about relationships. Not just romantic ones, mind you. I don’t have one of those to contemplate at this point in time. But I spent five days with a lot of people who happen to know me really, really well -- and then returned to Wausau, where there are people who only know me sort of...

Yeah, it's still snowing. We got six inches yesterday and it's still coming down. Has been at least since I got up this morning. They're running out of places to put it. The sidewalk to my apartment building's front door is slowly turning into a tunnel ... Moving's going to be something of an adventure at this rate. With any luck I'll actually sit down a couple nights this week and write about my most recent trip. We'll see how motivated I am.

Well, here we are again. Another year, another February 14th. I had a good "me date" tonight -- bought myself flowers, made a nice dinner, opened a bottle of wine, and watched "America's Sweethearts" (one of very few movies where I truly like Julia Roberts). Why tonight? Because tomorrow is Thursday, which means I'll be out with my awesome fun coworkers. There are actually a few of us that don't have date-like plans ... so we can hang out together. Yay. My supreme hatred of V-Day has settled into a general indifference. Let's face it -- hatred takes too much work. General indifference takes no work whatsoever. Although I still consider it a stupid holiday.

Have you noticed how other people's speech rubs off on you? I've picked up random things from my friends -- South Dakotan, Oregonian, Wisconsonian, Russian -- little quips and whatnot, and it amazes me how much of my own speech is completely unoriginal. And now I'm hooked on British comedians. I think it's time to worry ...

Okay. My trip was ... well, amazing. That's pretty much all there is to it. I'll have a lot more to say over the next week or so, but I thought I should at least get that out now. I met up with a lot of people (missed a couple, but I'll be back!), drank a lot of coffee, ate a lot of great food (I'll put a plug in now for the Coco Palace, a new joint in RC with some excellent sushi), and in general had a lot of fun. I also left with a lot more to think about than I anticipated, which in this case is a very good thing. And I think I'm more than ready to move. Just have to pack up everything. Put my life in boxes again. (Funny ... I just did this a year ago.) Back to work!

I am a planner. Sometimes. I am also a disorganized crazy person. Most of the time. When it comes to big projects, I tend to plan every last detail. For instance, I am moving during the month of March, and I have already put together two pages of lists, notes, and timelines for what needs to be done. Since I still have about a month, I have no doubt that this list will get considerably longer before the move even starts. Any time I take a trip, I work out as many of the details as possible well ahead of time. Rides to and from airports, who I’m eating lunch with each day, how I’ll get around, maps as necessary -- even my upcoming trip to Rapid City, where I could probably just play it by ear from the moment my plane hits the ground, is mostly planned. I definitely have an exact idea of how I want things to go before the trip/project starts. However, this is me, so there’s usually some degree of chaos involved and I don’t generally freak out when m...

Well, it's been an interesting week at the office. We had an "informational" security audit that, ahem, "ruffled a lot of feathers." Probably because it happened after hours with no prior warning and involved some rather in-depth searches, including some nosing through personal property (depending on who was checking your area). Our general manager, however, reminded us that there are more important things than where we keep our ID badges. Like not letting a security audit get in the way of getting things done the next day. Found out that I'm now the lead process engineer on one of our Chinese projects. Some frustration there -- I started as the lead, became backup, fell out of the loop, and now I'm the lead again and my supervisor will be gone for three weeks. Not totally sure I'm ready for this, but I suppose that just means we'll find out, eh? I've also had two projects return (both with which I thought I was done) and had one pic...