Monday, May 7, 2018

Well, Hello.

"So, Ashley, what are you up to these days?"

It's a question I've come to dread. The expected answer seems to be, "Oh, not much," since I lack Big News. But that answer is also a blatant lie. That's the answer that implies nothing of interest.

Allow me to fill in a few blanks. Here are some things I haven't been doing:

- Moving to Denver. Actually, I now have an apartment in RC with the other Ashli since the previous Denver gig fell through. Thanks to multiple circumstances -- like Ashli, The Plumber, and Daz's move to SLC -- Denver is no longer in the cards. This decade, anyway.
- Staying caught up with whatever show you're watching.
- Riding my bike enough.
- Travelling. This one makes me sad.
- Robbing banks.
- Writing here.

... I should work on a couple of those.

What I HAVE been doing is feeding 80 tiny humans on a daily basis for a few months now. It's not glamorous, but it leaves my afternoons open to pursue a bunch of other things. And while I have plenty of amusing stories to tell in person, I'll refrain from telling them here because this is the internet and they're small children.

My afternoons have been full of a fun collection of things. Job searches. Classes. Occasional hikes. Books. My biggest topics lately:

- Changes to South Dakota's Title 35 (the full text of government bills should be in everyone's reading lists).
- Long-range Mars things, like learning a new language (I love Duolingo).
- Sewing and other craft projects, often for specific purposes. Like these.

A very, very specific purpose.
- An ArcGIS specialization on Coursera.

Here's the thing: I cannot figure out why it took me this long to pay attention to GIS. I've been fascinated by maps and blueprints since I was about 6 (I adore P&IDs) and here's this massive tool available for me to build my own maps. It's just plain silly I haven't tried before.

When all else fails, there's always something going on in Rapid.

I'm not sure if this means you'll be seeing more of me here. Coming back after an accidental hiatus is always a little awkward and I have some things I might be moving around on here. But I figured I should stop by and say hi.

Now, back to my map...

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