The Myth & The Majesty

I keep thinking that the odd feeling will pass, that some day I'll feel normal again, but it hasn't happened yet. I've been cleaning all day and not really thinking too terribly hard about anything. It's nice to get a break sometimes (my brain doesn't usually willingly shut down until my body is too tired to support it -- not to say I'm always having worthwhile, world-changing thoughts so much as there's always something to think about), but inevitably things catch up and I find myself overwhelmed. This evening, I stepped out onto my (recently redone) front porch and I was suddenly struck by the oddity of where I am. Wausau's a different place. I grew up in the Midwest, and by definition most of the Midwest is ... familiar. There's not a whole lot of variation from place to place. Perhaps Wausau isn't much different, but it doesn't always feel that way. I think I can understand better now than ever before what it was like for someone to move ...

Where the heck did the week go? A week ago today I was in Sioux Falls, still testing out my new phone. Over the rest of the weekend, I had a million thoughts on a thousand topics that I couldn't wait to come home and type and expand. But alas, none of that happened, and today I can only sit at my computer for a few minutes in between tasks. If I sit for much longer, I won't get up again until Monday morning. And that could be a problem. I just finished ... well, haying. I refuse to rake. REFUSE. At least until tomorrow, at which point the hotspots on my hands will have hopefully died down and I can avoid blisters. Right now if I tried, I'd just end up cranky and in a lot of pain. And unable to hold onto a glass of water. Instead I have an apartment to clean, something I would like to finish while I have the house to myself. You see, right now I can blast my Jars of Clay/Pearl Jam/opera (I'm going through a strange phase) without worrying about annoying M-Kay. And I do a...

It's been the longest short week yet. Lots to do. Like real work. And taming my jungle yard. But it's threatening to rain. Argh. Doesn’t much matter. My attention span is shot. Hope it improves by the time I leave tonight, whenever that may end up being.

"The Blues" by Switchfoot Is this the New Year or just another night? Is this the new fear or just another fright? Is this the new tear or just another desperation? Is this the finger or just another fist? Is this the kingdom or just a hit n' miss? A misdirection, most in all this desperation Is this what they call freedom? Is this what you call pain? Is this what they call discontented fame? It'll be a day like this one When the world caves in When the world caves in When the world caves in I'm singing this one like a broken piece of glass From broken arms an' broken noses in the back Is this the New Year or just another desperation? You're pushing till you're shoving You bend until you break Till you stand on the broken fields where our fathers lay It'll be a day like this one When the world caves in When the world caves in When the world caves in When the world caves in When the world caves in When the world ca...

Okay, okay. I lied. After this post I will probably disappear till Tuesday. Maybe. But I was reading user manuals ALL MORNING and I'm getting restless and bored. This is not an exciting week, at least in the work department. It's had other merits. Played two hours of Ultimate Frisbee on Tuesday (could hardly move the rest of the night), went to an awesome Chinese/Japanese restaurant on Wednesday (no, really, they serve both), played some volleyball last night (lost terribly) and ... Well, we went through a lot of pitchers. Sand volleyball at a bar and we were in the first round of last night's games. It was a fun night. Nothing brings opposing teams together like cheap beer. (Hmm ... Blechh.) Anyway, stay tuned, because next week will hopefully bring another SWG2L, parts 3 and 4 of "The 'L' Word," and if I ever get around to finishing it, an overview of downtown Wausau (more exciting than it sounds, I promise). That's right -- more actu...

Twenty-five hours and I'll be on the road again. I'm not exactly counting down -- I just looked at the clock now and thought, "Hey, look at that. Twenty-five hours and I'll be on the road again." I think I'm excited -- I mean, I love my family and all, but it is just Sioux Falls. I suppose it's chiefly because it'll be a more relaxing weekend than any of the other vacations I've taken this year. And rather hot, by the looks of it ... Highs in the 80s on Sunday? I'm not sure we've been over 70 in Wausau for more than a few hours yet this year. I'll have to remember to pack my only known pair of shorts. Anyway! For now, I continue to work, but by late tomorrow night I'll be back in good ol' SoDak. And unless the Muse strikes me at some oddball hour when I'm supposed to be sleeping, you probably won't hear from me again until Tuesday. (It's okay to cry. Just let it out. I'll miss you too, maybe.) Have a...

Oy. I'm going cross-eyed reading user manuals for oxygen analyzers. But -- well, is that really a surprise? Now that I've had several real-content posts, it seems only natural to have some mildly distracted blather, doesn't it? Wouldn't you know it -- today is a good day for blather. I've started working on plans for some upcoming trips -- Colorado Springs for the fourth of July and England next March. Normally it's not in my nature to plan this far ahead of time, but I realized that it will take some creative budgeting to get to England ... Not overly so, but, well, hotels are expensive. And not going is less and less of an option. (Anya's getting married! In England! How could I even consider missing that?) And Springs would just be a blast. The end. For those interested in knowing, I'll be in Sioux Falls this weekend. Aside from the dizzying price of gas, I'm really looking forward to it ... Time to have a real vacation. Two days of Mo...

Hardwood floors + furnace off for a week + crystal clear night = REALLY STINKING COLD APARTMENT

In the last four years, I have been to 17 weddings (and missed six). I have been a bridesmaid, a hostess, the guestbook girl, the gift-table-girl, the cake server. I have taken pictures, helped with makeup, fixed hair, and -- ew -- helped the bride use the restroom. Through the magic of Storm, I've even helped cook rehearsal and reception meals. I have bought enough gifts, cards, and tissue paper to keep Target going for a month. I like weddings. Not quite on the level of "27 Dresses" (which I just watched and identified with in some horrifying ways), but I have a lot of fun at them. As much as I like weddings, I absolutely love the "How We Met" and "How We Got Engaged" stories. In addition to my parents' story (which is admittedly my favorite), there are two more couples whose stories I'd like to tell you. Megan & Jim Megan and Jim are friends that I babysat for quite a bit my last year in Rapid City. They're about four years older t...

In recent history I've taken to prewriting posts, particularly when I'm nowhere near a computer. These are the snippets I wrote over the course of my trip to Rapid City last weekend. ---- I had gotten up too early, far too early, after far too little sleep. Maybe going to watch the game had been a bad idea, but I had been cleaning like a crazy person and I really just wanted to be around friends. And have a beer. In any case, I was paying for it now. Maybe there had been improvements -- jets instead of the painfully noisy props, one more seat across on my shorter flight, a pleasant woman at Caribou who upped the size of my coffee for no extra charge -- but now a pain, slight and irritating at first, was spreading across my head. At this rate my skull would cave in within the hour. Consolation was there but not helpful. I would be home soon, in the company of people I dearly missed -- but until I made it to a store with ibuprofen, I was going to be hard-pressed to enjoy it. ----...

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. -Jane Austen It's funny. I was perusing my old posts from my Blogger dashboard and I came across this one, a draft that I started over two years ago and never finished. While the purpose behind it is now obsolete, it's a topic that has come up more and more in recent days -- one I was even intending to post on -- so I thought I might try my hand at finishing it. I come from a loving family, no doubt. We don't yell (although at times perhaps we should), we spend time together whenever we get the chance, our road trips are hilarious fun, and we're even known to have long conversations at the dinner table. For many years, the phrase "I love you" really wasn't heard, but (most of the time) it didn't seem necessary. It was fact, and fact did not need to be spoken. Things happened, life changed, and now those words do come out a bit more often, but they are rarely said lightly and never taken so. A ...

What started as a post in honor of my parents' anniversary has mushroomed into a huge post on love & marriage. (Nothing like a single person writing about marriage to make people wonder.) I think it's going to turn into a series of posts, but until I figure that one out, here's one from my new buddy over at Hubba's House that I thought everyone should see. It'll give you a taste of western SoDak that you may not otherwise get. (And some interesting Dakota trivia.) -------- SOS at the Elm Springs School Writing these regular posts on HH has begun to stir up the sludge at the very bottom of my brain, and some interesting things are coming to the top, like this one; The prairies of South Dakota, and I believe North Dakota and Montana housed America’s Knockout Punch during the Cold War, in the form of missile silos housing nuclear arms aimed directly at specific places in the USSR. While these silos seemed modest from the road, they in fact went at least thirty fee...

Had some good times playing volleyball last night -- two losses and a win. 11-15, 15-2, 10-12. Close games (except for that second one ... Jeff got the serve and went to town.) I think I've started to realize how much I miss random organized sports. I played a fair amount of Ultimate Frisbee during college and some intramural soccer -- but I've done very little since graduation. This summer looks to be filled with UF and volleyball ... If I could track down an adult soccer league, I'd be set. I miss soccer. In other news, I have an active weekend ahead. Hopefully the weather cooperates ... Otherwise it won't be quite as active or awesome. Hmm. Okay! Back to work.

I'll have a lot more to say about this later (well, tomorrow), but in the mean time ... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD! My parents are celebrating 31 years today. Crazy.

Last Thursday was accidentally eventful ... Work had been busy since I had taken Friday off, but that didn’t even begin to cover what the evening would hold. I raced home to start laundry and do some cleaning, then dashed out the door to finish my graduation shopping. I wouldn't have been in a hurry, but I wanted to go watch the first volleyball game, one I had bowed out of because I wasn't really sure what Thursday night would hold. I had been in B&N for less than five minutes when I flipped open my phone to send a text message ... And I was suddenly holding two pieces. My yelp scared the lady at the customer service desk. "Are you okay?" "Um ... Not really. My phone just broke in half." That wasn't what she was expecting. "Oh! My goodness." "Yeah." I stewed for about thirty seconds. You see, my carrier isn't actually located in Wausau, and in any case it was after 7:00. I wasn't going to be starting ...

I'm back in Wausau. It was a spectacular, awesome, amazing weekend. And exhausting. Now I'm going to sit back and watch this movie, because I finally acquired it and it's one of my favorites. Perhaps tomorrow I'll be more willing to tell you about my awesome, amazing, spectacular weekend. (And my phone mishap of Thursday evening, which if you've tried calling me you may have discovered.) Until then, have a good night.

It's funny. Last week I didn't have an abundance of things to do at work -- a few things, yes, but not an overwhelming heap. This week I got cut down to three days (one intentional, one not) and I've had a steadily growing pile of stuff. I was out sick on the wrong day. At least there's a light at the end of the tunnel ... and it looks like four heads carved on a rock. 36 hours and I will be en route to Rapid City. Another mini-vacation to look forward to ... Actually, the summer appears to be full of those. Sioux Falls for Memorial Day, Minnesota in June, a full week in Sioux Falls in July, and at least one trip to Bayfield and one more ... hmm. Somewhere new. I really want to go camping in there, too. I haven't done enough exploring of Wisconsin state parks yet. Off I go. Have a good night, folks.

Ten years ago when I got my driver's license, it would have cost $15.50 to fill my gas tank. Today, it would cost $59.18. Oy.

Well, I'm alive again. Not that I was dead yesterday. Felt like it (and I'm only being mildly melodramatic about that). Migraines have that effect. I don’t get sick very often -- don't even get colds more than once a year, and usually only for three or four days -- but I do get migraines. And heartburn. It's an odd, painful combination. In any case, now I'm back here at my desk, trying to sort out what's making this instrument read just a little bit off ... A very consistent little bit off, but a little off regardless. Argh. Back to it, I suppose.

I live close to train tracks. So close that the quiet, paranoid voice inside me likes to point out that, if a train were to derail, I would be homeless -- or dead, if I happened to be in the process of making supper. It's strange the things to which you can become accustomed. I didn't realize that there was a train going by until it had passed -- and the TV was blaringly loud. Seems I had turned it up to block out the steady rumble without realizing I had done so. "Tin Man" isn't a movie that needs extra volume (unless you're one of those people that prefers to watch with extra volume, which I am not). I haven't been here that long -- two months and a few days now. Yet usually I don't notice when the whole house is vibrating for several minutes at a time. Something about that just doesn't seem normal. It's a Sunday night and all's quiet on the Wausau front -- except the trains, that is. It's different, living in a mostly-quiet town on a...

Wow. 500 posts. Crazy. I’m going to do something a little different for a landmark post. If you’re new here, this might even be moderately helpful. ----- My name is Ashley. I’ve been blogging here since June 15th, 2003. For those keeping track, that’s 1785 days (including the first day and today), or roughly 4.9 years. I started at the age of 19 while working at a day care the summer after my first year of college. I am a native South Dakotan; I was born and raised there and then chose to go to South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSM&T, Mines, Tech, etc.). I graduated in December of 2006 with a B.S. in chemical engineering and moved to Wisconsin, where I now work as a process engineer designing water treatment processes for various industrial installations. A few of my favorite things - Storm Mountain - The ranch - Road trips - My Chacos - Movies - Books - Pseudophilosophicalizing This blogs chronicles my adventures as a female in a mostly male school, as a minion at th...

A snow day at Tech?! You have GOT to be kidding me. I'll take my rain and cloudy dreariness, thank you. Hope y'all can dig out okay!

Construction continues! We're into phase 5 (of 6) which happens to take place right outside my cubicle. By "right outside" I mean occasionally I can't exit because there's a guy on a ladder in the way. It also means that I'm perpetually distracted by general construction noises. Oh well. And I'm perpetually sniffing paint fumes. Ugh. Yes, Andi, graduating was supposed to mean not spending much time in Rapid. Had I known how often I'd be making the trip back ... Actually, I don't think I would have done anything differently. I have no idea if I'll be back that far west again this year after next weekend. That would be something called "planning ahead." That would just be silly. Okay. Time for me to continue onward.