The Myth & The Majesty

Aside from my recent obsession with "August Rush" (What can I say? It's a great movie. With great music. And great scenery), I've had a positively uneventful week. Maybe this helps me account for the lack of blog activity, at least in comparison to last month. In Ashleyland news, my trip to Russia has officially been abandoned. While this made me yell and cry for a bit (I threw a tantrum), it means that I'll be headed to Rapid City in ten days for graduation. Makes it a little less frustrating. Only a little, though. I wish I had more for you. Really I do. Maybe another day. So long you've been running in circles 'Round what's at stake But now the time's come for your feet to stand still in one place...

I am out of sorts. More so than usual, that is. I can't quite place it, but there's been this nagging feeling of "... Eh." for the last week or two. This is probably what lead to last night's complete and total lack of activity on my part. Tonight there will be a slight attempt to make up for it (headed to the Fillmor , the new place in Wausau ), but I suspect it will be a moderately early night for yours truly. My anti-people mood has continued in its persistency today. We shall see, hm?

Another one from "August Rush" sung by Jonathan Rhys Meyers -- "Something Inside." I'm rather hooked on this soundtrack. --- When the one thing you're looking for Is nowhere to be found And you're back stepping all of your moves Trying to figure it out You wanna reach out You wanna give in Your head's wrapped around what's around the next bend You wish you could find something warm 'Cause you're shivering cold It's the first thing you see as you open your eyes The last thing you say as you're saying goodbye Something inside you is crying and driving you on It's the first thing you see as you open your eyes The last thing you say as you're saying goodbye Something inside you is crying and driving you on 'Cause if you hadn't found me I would have found you I would have found you So long you've been running in circles 'Round what's at stake But now the time's come for your

Tonight the sky above Reminds me of you, love Walking through wintertime Where the stars all shine The angel on the stairs Will tell you I was there Under the front porch light On a mystery night I've been sitting watching life pass from the sidelines Been waiting for a dream to seep in through my blinds I wondered what might happen if I left this all behind Would the wind be at my back? Could I get you off my mind This time The neon lights in bars And headlights from the cars Have started a symphony Inside of me The things I left behind Have melted in my mind And now there's a purity Inside of me I've been sitting watching life pass from the sidelines Been waiting for a dream to seep in through my blinds I wondered what might happen if I left this all behind Would the wind be at my back? Could I get you off my mind This time I've been sitting watching life pass from the sidelines Been waiting for a dream to seep in through my blinds I wondered what might happen if I le

After what turned out to be an absurdly productive Tuesday, I'm having a heckuva time concentrating today. I suppose it's partly because what I'm doing isn't as interesting (and all on the computer), but it doesn't help any that I'll be moving to my permanent cube some time this afternoon. Thankfully. I can unpack these boxes and rediscover all my misplaced paperwork. Had another downtown adventure last night. With any luck, I can put up a "Discovering Wausau" post sometime this weekend ... Or at least next week. I want a nice day to take a few pictures first. Okay. Time for work. Later.

Mia Sorella sent this to me yesterday, and it was a reminder of why I am more about reformation than most forms of evangelism. While I don't necessarily agree with every single word (most of it, but let's face it, who always agrees with her sister?) I thought this was something you, my faithful and somewhat-faithful readers could contemplate. ----- Yesterday when we did the field study (nine hours in the car going in circles) we got harassed by a pastor. You know me, so you'll understand why this pisses me off. The guy came up to one of my partners when we were walking back to the car. Then he proceeded to "ask" if he could talk to us, but he didn't give us a chance to respond and began to tell us about God. Now, there are plenty of nice ways to try to "save" people, but I wouldn't recommend starting with "If you died today, do you know for a fact that you'll get to Heaven?" I know that's a pretty typical opener. I hate it.

You've been having trouble staying asleep You been waking up at 4:12 You roll the voices over in your head Then you try to put them neatly on the shelf You watch the sun rise You saw the darkness had no choice before the dawn With your own eyes And then you broke out laughing from a yawn You said, "I'm so sorry I've been so down. I started doubting things could ever turn around. And I began to believe that all we are is material. It's nonsensical." So you walk outside and everything's new You're looking at the world with new eyes. As if you'd never seen a sky before that's blue As if you've never seen the sky in your whole life And then the phone rings As it turns out you are already late And now you're wondering Was peace just a temporary state? You're waiting tables and parking cars You've been selling cell phones at the shopping mall And you began to believe that all you are is material It's nonsensical I still can't

I need to be more careful about when I sleep. As such, I also need to be more careful about my caffeine consumption. I don't really recall a point in my life where caffeine had much of an effect on me. It's quite possibly because, for many years, I didn't drink it; until I was about fourteen, we didn't have soda in the house on a regular basis, and I didn't get hooked on coffee until about then. However, I recently cut back on my Pepsi consumption considerably (from about 120 ounces a week to under 40 -- an odd accomplishment in life) and I drink tea in the morning (which is considerably low on the caffeine scale). But last night I had a 3-shot Americano when I went to B&N ... at 6PM. Oops. Long story slightly shorter, my night of relaxation was a good one, but longer than originally intended. I rented a movie (I love Redbox -- $1 per night for whatever movies they have on hand [always new releases] and no need for a membership) and sat down to watch it, only to

Things that have happened today: - A lunch experiment involving me not speaking. - Lots of rain. - New carpet where my cube will some day exist. - A major error in thought on at least three projects, first discovered on my project. Things that will happen: - Some down time at B&N. - Some movie-watching. - Some general relaxation. Things that could happen but probably won't: - An earthquake that can be felt here. - The Rapture. - The arrival of my latest Amazon order. - A major lottery winner among my coworkers. Yeah. It's not what I'd call an eventful Friday.

The night is beckoning although I have nowhere to go but home F eels good to be alone With every turn comes a new frame of mind if I could frame my mind Where would it hang? I crack a window and feel the cool air cleanse my every pore As I pour my poor heart out To a radio song that’s patient and willing to listen My volume drowns it out Yeah, but that’s okay cause I sound better than him anyway any day Yeah my voice is sweet as salt I search for comfort and I’ve found it where I’ve found it many times before Times before can be forgotten My pile shakes as I hit eighty on the open road This is an open road song -Eve 6, “Open Road Song” I love to travel. Love it. I love the road trips involved and exploring new towns and finding out-of-the-way coffee shops and striking up conversations with random strangers. I love public transportation and the people you can meet while sitting on a plane. I love hotels and motels and campgrounds. I love to travel. In the last couple of years, I have be

Moved to a new cubicle temporarily. No phone yet -- at least I have functioning email. And there's always the carrier pigeon last resort. Had an adventure moving B-Shnizzle this morning; he wasn't here yet and the contractors were dismantling his walls. That kid has a LOT of stuff. I'm looking forward to being in my own space again ... To quote the Admiral, there's too much conformity with these new cubes. If I have to spend eight hours a day in one of these things, I'd much prefer it be more me-like. Plus I'm really, really tired of moving.

Happy tax day! Or ... something. I came home to a wireless router malfunctioning and a leak in the ceiling of my bathroom. The conclusions reached: a) after several unsuccessful attempts to get the router working, we will try again tomorrow, and b) M-Kay is now prohibited from using water in her apartment until the handyman can get here tomorrow. Poor M-Kay. She got the short end of both of those. At least until tomorrow, when they cut into my ceiling and I lose use of my bathroom. Then both ends are the short end. Argh. On top of that, every attempt I've made to make a trip to Russia next month has been thwarted recently. I don't know what's going on, but I'm having a heckuva time getting a visa. It wouldn't be so frustrating if it wasn't for the fact that Danielle will only be there until June anyway, and Anya till September. ARGH. On top of that (I'm just going to keep complaining for a moment) I've been thinking far too hard about things lately, lea

I'm looking for ideas. While this is one way for people to keep track of me, I'd like to have more to talk about than what I'm doing each day. Now, it occurred to me that I posted too quickly yesterday to make my plea for comments worthwhile so let's try this again. Please comment! Leave your name, your location, and at least one topic that you'd like to see come up here.

If we were to really get into cooking, I could probably start a whole new blog. I love to cook. I started learning when I was physically able to stir and I love experimenting now (which leads to a lot more interesting food stories than most people want to hear). Instead, we’re going to do what is mostly the norm with The Guide and cover the basics. Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t a lot of "stuff" necessary. My dishes haven’t changed a lot since college (with the exception of my stand mixer -- a dream come true). I made it through college with: - One mixing bowl. - One frying pan. - One sauce pan. - One cookie sheet. - Two bread loaf pans. - One wooden spoon. - One spatula. - One set of silverware (stolen from the cafeteria), a plate, and a bowl. [Author's note: This blog does not condone stealing silverware or anything else, even if it's from a place that takes the equivalent of a part- or full-time job's paycheck from you for several years.] Almost all of

It has been an excellent weekend, crappy weather aside. Mia Sorella appeared late Thursday afternoon in time to join the Cool Table for pizza and pool ... Good fun. Now she has faces for my hundreds of random stories. (As do they, although it was frequently observed that they would probably just be picturing a taller me.) The Admiral treated us to some good wine and great conversation following pool (at his awesome house -- seriously, the guy has a magic touch), and Thursday night ended late. Naturally, Friday morning started earlier than usual. (My body is dumb.) Friday night we celebrated Newb's new house, then retired to my place for a late dinner, some good wine, some catch-up time, and "Ocean's Thirteen." A spectacular night. Saturday, we slept in (glorious), ran a couple of errands, watched "Bride & Prejudice" (wow, cheesy -- fun, too -- except I'll be singing some really weird songs in my head for the next week), then joined up with a few othe

After a long, interesting week (including the Great Dryer Epic and the arrival of Mia Sorella yesterday afternoon -- woot!), my attention span is completely shot. It would probably help if I had gotten a real night's sleep last night, but -- well, I decidedly didn't. It's a Friday. There's now the equivalent of a large carpeted meeting room right outside my cube. (Makes sense, since all of the people that previously occupied cubes in that area are now in the real conference rooms.) This is a distracting place to be. And I'm tired. Did I mention that already? I think it's time for a weekend.

Office remodeling is interesting, particularly this part where they're doing it in phases. Workers descend like ants, and suddenly there are no cubicle walls. The moving of old furniture will take a little longer, largely because they're doing the center section right now. (Does that seem odd to anyone else? I keep thinking there must be an easier way, and there is -- moving everybody to a temporarily rented building. The way they're doing it seems stranger and stranger each day.) Productivity has reached an all-time low. Too many distractions, and too many people who can't be moved at the right time because their temporary digs are still in use by others. Months of planning and we have total chaos. Kind of funny, actually.

Here we go, rotten formatting and all ... You May Be a Bit Schizotypal... A bit odd and socially isolated. You couldn't care less of what others think. And some of your beliefs are a little weird. Like that time you thought you were Jesus. What Personality Disorder Are You? Brainy Kid In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab. You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success! Who Were You In High School? (Yeah, that one's less than shocking.) And the funniest quiz yet ... You Are Paper Crafty and creative, you are able to adapt freely to almost any situation. People tend to underestimate you, unless they've truly seen what you are capable of. Deep down, you're always scheming and thinking up new plans. Your mind is constantly active. You are quite capable of anything you dream of. You can always figure out a way to get what you want. You can wrap a rock person up in your sheet of trickery. A scissor p

Here I am, sitting at home, waiting for the Sears guys to show up with my new washer and dryer ... I love how they give you a four hour window in which they might maybe hopefully show up. Argh. Oh well. At least I have enough work to do that doesn't require help or input from too many others. I've done enough presales work in the last year that I can practically write a process description in my sleep. In my Internet wandering yesterday I came across something ... remarkable? Eye-catching. No, I know -- alarming. And great, all at the same time. Hubba's House . I won't go into too much detail, but if you've ever been curious about true small-town life, take a look. It is written from and about the town of Elm Springs and the surrounding area (which covers a lot more ground and people). This is where my grandparents live; everything on this site involves people they know, people they've told me stories about for years (and people I've met myself). And it'

That's right. I'm getting restless again, so I've started redoing the blog ... again. (I think this has been a yearly thing since it's started.) There will hopefully be a few more changes coming as I can get them set up, but, well, I have a life outside this blog. Some days anyway. In the meantime, keep checking back for more me! And for crying out loud, leave a comment or two!

“So why aren’t you married?” I should have known that it was only a matter of time before someone asked me the most awkward question possible. I had been in Wausau for almost two months; it was a Sunday, and I was at church. It was only my third week there and I had just been introduced to a very friendly older woman. But she, like so many others, switched from “Well, you’re interesting” to “Are you an alien?” once she realized that I was a single female engineer from out of state. I had gotten that look so many times already -- but she was the first to take it a step further and ask the question. It was my own fault. I had described Tech by its ratio, which is never a good idea if you’re trying to avoid awkwardness. And she had come to the conclusion that there must be something desperately wrong with me. I mean, who spends four years in the company of mostly eligible men and comes out unattached? In this particular instance, I was able to laugh it off -- after a stuttering moment. S

I'm having a hard time outsmarting my computer. Right now this program is demanding me to form a black hole in the middle of the heat exchanger. I'm good, but I'm not that good. Oy.

Before we get into specifics, let’s cover a few basics. Following is a list of things that I think every single woman (everybody, really, but single women in particular) should know. 1. Basic and emergency vehicle maintenance. Okay. Depending on your upbringing, you might know how to rebuild an engine ... or not be able to locate the gas cap. The full truth is that, as our society gets more and more specialized, we tend to rely more on roadside assistance than our own abilities. In order to save face, there are a few things everyone (single, married, male, or female) who owns and/or regularly operates a vehicle should know. a. How to change a tire. This isn’t a how-to; find someone who knows and have them teach you. Like right now. There are places where you won’t be guaranteed cell phone reception, and it is almost inevitable that things will go wrong right then. Know where to find your spare tire, the jack, and the lug wrench thing, and how to use each piece. As soon as you can, get

While my blog demographic may be heavy on the male side (judging by who comments on this thing) I only think like you guys sometimes. Instead, it's time to tap into what I know and focus the other direction. So by way of introduction ... There are situations where you can’t help but think, "If only someone would have warned me, I could have avoided this awkwardness/pain/humiliation/cabbage!" This is my attempt to preempt Dear Abby in a few of those. Here, I share the "wisdom" I’ ve gained from going through life as a single twenty-something woman in the land of cute families and gooey couples. This will be an occasional column/post category as topics and events come up. Everything I talk about will be based on my own experiences -- expect just as many stories as how- tos . This is NOT aimed at celebrating or consoling singles. I’m not here to make you feel better about being who you are. If that is what you are hoping to find, look elsewhere -- there are plenty

Well! Friday couldn't come fast enough, as far as last week was concerned. A little too much craziness at work ... BUT. It finally appeared. Much to my relief. Friday night was ... interesting. After an abandoned attempt at a beginner's tango class, I ended up going out with several coworkers and the three visiting friends of one of them. Great fun, as expected, but after such a psychotic week I was exhausted. I called it a night at 11:00. Which of course meant that it was time for a serious bout of insomnia. Too much on my mind to sleep, apparently ... I'm not sure why. It's not as though anything going on right now is more complicated than things I've dealt with before, or that I'm in any particularly new situations. (Okay, that really isn't a sarcastic sentence, although it kind of sounds like it. I'm really NOT under any more stress than normal. I don't know why I couldn't sleep.) In any case, the insomnia lead to some interesting thought pat

Hmm. I seem to be slacking off in comparison to last month. In my defense, I keep hoping to have something more worthwhile to say. Alas, that has yet to be the case this month. We'll see how the weekend goes. I have some cleaning ahead of me (still haven't reclaimed my dining room) and I have to find a laundromat. Then I intend to go shopping for a washer and dryer, now that I have the promise of a tax refund ahead. (Woot!) Nothing like some good news to make things easier ... In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the fact that it's Friday. We already took a group picture on the newly carpeted floor. That's right -- they gathered all of us up here on the dark side, had us all sit down on the new carpet, and took a picture. I'm not sure about some of these milestones we celebrate around here.

The office upheaval is beginning. They're in the process of relocating the first phase people to conference rooms so that they can tear down the old cubes and start putting in new carpet. Which means that, for the next couple of weeks, people are going to be really bloody hard to find. My phase starts in ... two weeks? Assuming everything stays on schedule -- a hefty assumption, since that hasn't happened yet. I won't be moving far ... Ten feet to my left to a temporary cube (I'm one of the lucky ones that they're not exiling to a conference room -- woot!) and then basically right back to where I am now. My doorway will move to a new wall and my cube will get a couple feet shorter. In the meantime, I need to make sure my mp3 player stays charged. Construction noises are harder to block out than normal conversation (even normal conversation around here, which regularly reaches construction-noise decibels). Okay. This is the sad equivalent to a "Today