In My Life

Up & Go

This past weekend, Ali & I went to go visit Trae. It was so much fun to hang out and be the tripod again. Anyway, these are some pics from the weekend. It's a goal in life to one day have a few of my pictures up on http://www.boston.com/bigpicture
One day!

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"How's camping?" "Better than suckin yo dick"

And so The Wormers finally went camping, in a hurricane, and made it out alive.


Friday morning we awoke to dark skies and pouring rain. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! We debated if it was safe for us to take our trip amidst Hurricane Danny, and baleed dat, decided to weather the storm. A little rain never hurt anybody, right? Plus, if we got wet, it would kinda count as a shower and then we'd be clean! After packing up the car in our rain gear and getting stuck in a wee bit of traffic, we finally made it to North South Lake a couple hours later. We checked in, bought some fire wood, were repeatedly told "DO NOT LEAVE FOOD OUTSIDE YOUR CAR DO NOT LEAVE FOOD OUTSIDE YOUR CAR DO NOT LEAVE FOOD OUTSIDE YOUR CAR" because apparently we look like the kinda gals that like to play with bears just for the hugs, and asked some questions like "Can we still light a fire in the rain?" "Where do we pee?" "Are there are a lot of people still here? People like boys our age? That could maybe help us if we needed it?" After a few minutes, we were back in the car getting excited and driving 15 mph to camp site #68, AKA Camp Fort Rocks, AKA 5 Girls 1 Tent. Shana, Rocks & I drove in my car and Ali & Jamie took the Jeep because there was no way 5 of us plus all of our luggage would be fitting in 1 car. The 3 of us got up there earlier because I drive a little fast (hellllo too many speeding tickets), and hoped to have at least the top tarp up before they rolled in. Umm, do you know how hard it is to hang a tarp to branches?! There are no hooks on trees, and we're short. This equation does not spell "D-R-Y." Right when things started to look real grim, we heard a big truck pull down our drive. "Ali & Jamie are here! Yay! More hands to help!" I thought. But no...it wasn't them...it was better than Jesus himself...it was the Park Rangers! The Park Rangers that would help us hang our tarp using some MacGyver like maneuvers, call us "Citiots" and look annoyed when we tried to tip them. Eventually the Rescue Rangers left, Ali & Jamie showed up and it was time to pitch our tent (he he he...creep)

Once we got shit set up & dumped all our bags in our makeshift home, we decided we should eat. How does one cook in the rain? Well, that's simple. Someone holds the umbrella, someone does the cooking, and someone is in charge of shuttling the plates between the grill & the car. Our assembly line was great. Everything was fine and dandy, we were like a well oiled assembly line UNTIL JAMIE DROPPED A POOR, DEFENSELESS, DELICIOUS, VEGGIE BURGER. IN THE MUD. THE MUD! We ate in the car, which would smell like trash until it was washed yesterday, listened to the radio and all kinda started to laugh manically because of our situation. I also found out that mud adds flavor to your food. Who knew? May I just interject for a sec and add a little notation? With the exception of Jamie, I think the rest of us are pretty OK being dirty kids. We don't complain when we have dirt under our finger nails or spill food on our clothes, and so I think we handled this monsoon, exceptionally well.

After dinner, there wasn't much else to do except get in the tent. And that is exactly what we did. Except for when we had to pee, which was when my brain outweighed the options of peeing my pants or getting soaking wet again...when it comes down to it, it's really kind of the same, so I opted for option 2. Anyway, we sat around & played Apples To Apples while the sound of rain tap danced on our walls for a good couple hours, made finger puppets, talked about how hungry we were, listened to the people in the campsite next to us howl, and laughed. A lot...duh! Would we do anything else when we're together? Even though we're 25, we don't act it when we're in 1 room. We speak our own language, make prank phone calls, and when we go to the Hamptons House, even though there's like 18 other rooms with beds in them, we all stay in the one that has 5. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Saturday morning we all started stirring around 6AM and realized that none of us had really slept and we needed to go back to bed. 11AM and we were all up for a second time, eating cold s'mores and contimplating what our next move would be. As much as we wanted to stay, the forecast said the weather was going to continue to be shitty and none of us packed enough dry clothes. So we decided to break down the tent, wait for Trae to come meet us that morning, and head over to Woodstock. The rest of the day was spent walking around the hippie town, wishing I wasn't so soggy and tailgaiting in the municiple parking lot. I also scored a sweet set of fake mustaches, ballet slippers and a new sleep mask. Hurricane Danny: 0/ Ashley: 1

We headed back to the island Saturday night, but didn't let anyone know we were home & continued our weekend of fun hiding out in Jamie's house. All in all, it was definitely a great & memorable trip. I can't wait to go back in to the wild...only maybe when it's not raining. If my heart was a compass, you guys'd be north.

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Be Somebody

Umm hello, I need this!



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The Bird and The Worm

Man oh man... I can't believe summer will technically be over in two weeks time, and the camping trip that I've been jumping up & down AND USING ALL CAPS for, is finally happening this Friday. 5 Girls 1 Tent - It's gonna be an epic adventure. I have no clue how to operate a fire, apparently Jamie is bringing an axe and we're using twigs we find on the ground to make s'mores. In the words of Yoda, "Foreign concepts these are." My biggest fear is not bears, or fire, or injury...no. My biggest fear isn't even the amount of luggage Jamie will be trying to fit in the cars. My biggest fear is not being able to tweet.

Because I've been so busy writing about things that I want to buy off the interwebs and lovey dovey pukey stuff, I don't even think I've recapped several highlights from this summer. I think I'll do a full recap in a couple weeks, here's just a few stories in the meantime.

The Wormers took on the Hamptons for the third consecutive summer in a row a couple weeks back. Highlights include falling off a cooler, myself & most of my bathing suit being swept away at sea, serious Wormer talks, Tienna Road!!!, jumping on the bed photo shoot, the cab ride to The Drift, The Drift, the dancing at The Drift, the make outs at The Drift, Corndog & his friend who hates his girlfriend & desperately needed Tums coming over at 4 AM, finding out Cordog's real name, sitting at the end of the dock and having weird dudes be like "Oh, were we interrupting you guys?", and rating boys on the Bagel Scale. The Bagel Scale is a rating system I devised several years ago when I was working on an analogy and trying to describe that weeks crush. Basically, you rate a boy based on your favorite bagel. My most favorite bagel is a toss up between a Rye bagel from Golden Meyers and an Egg Everything (including salt), both with butter. So when I find a find a manfriend that has lots of the things I look for in a boy, he gets the Rye seal of approval. I'll also occasionally go for a Cinnamon raisin or Onion bagel...justttt putting that out there. There are also the not so great dudes that get compared to stale bagels, plain bagels, burnt bagels, or have toppings that I'm not a fan of, such as lox. Which one are you?

Let's see other things I've done recently....OH! Shana & I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife last week. Now, let me preface with this: I read the book. I read that book in 3 days, and I did not cry. Holy fucking shit. I sat down in the movie theatre and within an hour I was sobbing like a little kid on the first day of kindergarten. I haven't balled like that since Basil died....or the first time I saw The Notebook. Geez. I had to come home and go to bed because my eyes burned from all the mascara that fell in them, my head hurt from sniffling and I felt emotionally drained. Also, can we talk about how Eric Bana totally looks like Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World) for most of the movie? It just threw me all off.

Ok, that's enough. It's time for bed.
BTW - all those pics are from Aruba, I've been busy and just now finding time to edit some more.
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I Get A Thousand Hugs From Ten Thousand Lightning Bugs

And my lovey dovey posts continue.
Sorry in advance... But seriously, Kurt Halsey, why and how do you create such cute little things that make my heart explode? My little thumper (That sounds dirty. Ew. Get your mind outta the gutter. I was talking about my heart. Also - going off on a tangent - Thumper was a nickname I called my Nana after she had her big toe amputed due to gout. Poor Nana.) is going "boom boom so cute boom boom love that boom boom butterflies boom boom" in that voice that's kind of half scream half whisper. I can't stand it. I need this shit in my life ASAP:

I will get down to see his upcoming exhibit this September. I will.

Art & Copy. File under: Other things I want to see.

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Off In The Night While You Live It Up I'm Off To Sleep

OK, can we address a few things? Not only is this awesome because this is kind of like watching the dude from Police Academy play one of my favorite songs from his human mouth speaker, but homeboy is WATCHING THE OBLONGS IN THE BACKGROUND!


The Oblongs is one of my favorite cartoons ever. What's not to love about Will Ferrell voicing a no-limbed dad, a boy who has to wear a bra to support his sagging ass cheeks, and a little girl growing something that looks suspiciously like a little dick from her head? BRING THE OBLONGS BACK! PLEASEEEEEEEEEE.


Also - Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica:


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Good Morning Scarecrow

I stole this from Erica & Perry. I think it's hilarious & great advice for any girl. LISTEN UP LADIES.

THE GUIDE TO BEING SO CHOICE aka How Sloane Peterson from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Taught me how to be an Awesome Girlfriend.

• Get along with his friends if you don’t get along with his friends you are done. seriously. That is number 1. Even if you think his friends are uptight weirdos or hypochondriac freaks, HEY, he is friends with them for a reason, so cut the shit. You’ve probably got some weird and crappy friends too…
• Rein him in, but only when necessary you are his girlfriend, not his mother. If he wants to sing to the city on a giant float, let him do it. He’s a big man and he can deal with the consequences. You can nicely remind him, Look, if you do that there might be trouble, but if you throw a bitch fit and give him the silent treatmeant you will look fucking retarded when he has a new girlfriend on his arm from the impressive stunts he’s pulled.
• Be funny “He’s licking the glass and making obscene gestures with his hands.” simple as that.
• Be confident Look, one of the reasons Ferris loved her was because she was cool and classy lady, she didn’t stress. She uttered the words and believed “He’s gonna marry me.” She probably knows if her boyfriend was running through a backyard and saw 2 girls tanning he probably would stop and say hello, but she also knows that he would spend hours of stress and risk his neck to get her out of school to just see her. Relax. You have him. He’s not going anywhere, and if he talks to other girls who the fuck cares YOU are the one he wants to marry.
• Say Eloquent Shit did Sloane ever use the word “like” as much as you do in your daily conversation? No. Drop the habit that makes you seem like a dumb valley girl and trade it for stellar vocab terms like “warmth & compassion” and “devastatingly handsome.” Once you’ve mastered talking like an adult, you’ll be able to spew pearls of poetry like “The city looks so peaceful from up here…”
• Pack lightly ever notice how tiny Sloane’s purse was? The bigger the purse, the lamer the girl. Its called baggage for a reason.
• Be able to keep up with the boys Hey, if you’ve got cramps, take a fucking midol and strap in. You don’t ever wanna be the girlfriend who is a drag and never wants to go out. A girl who can say she cruised with the top down in a convertible, swung by the Stock Exchange, and took in a Cubs game all in one day, is sorta girl who you wanna keep around.
• Look badass in a jacket with fringe The End.

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Blink Out at The Disco

Monday night was fun.



and Tuesday night Rocks came over for an amazing photo shoot, with me on the other end of the lens. She's amazing:

That is all.

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There's A She Wolf In The Closet

Yep, just quoted Shakira there. I think I've quoted much more awful things in the past, so really let's move on, shall we? Want this ring. I think it looks more like a kangaroo and so very cute! Who has an extra 75 bucks laying around for me?



Speaking of cute, have I mentioned I saw 500 Days Of Summer? I haven't seen a "love story" like this in a long time. Really well done. Without giving anything away, I think my favorite part was when they do a split screen between reality & expectations. It's so real. Everyone has those moments. Here's a little music video they put out to go along w/the movie, that for some reason reminds me of the opening credits of Blossom. Anyone else?


Blossom for comparison:



OH! And, I want a dwarf mini horse. Thanks to Perry for finding him.
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I Stop To Think At A Wishing Well

Last night I got to see Blink for the first time in 5 years. FIVE YEARS!!! Do you know what has happened to my life in the 1,826 days with out Blink? I have received a college diploma, had at least 35 different hairstyles, got a pretty sweet job, invested in 2 cars (one of which was basically a wind up toy), brought a cute little kitten in to my life, met new friends, gone to new places, and fell in love with new favorite bands...but you never forget the first one that changed everything. It's good to have them back. Please excuse my crappy blackberry pics.



I just want to be someone's Josie.


Speaking of music. Train has a new single out. "Hey Soul Sister" is so sweet. It reminds me of laundry on a clothesline in a field being swung in the wind. You should probably listen to it.

Also, thinking of investing in this.

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I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light

This is a friend of mine named Eric, that I miss very much. We hung out a lot when we were in Aruba and he's one of the sweetest, cutests, smartest little dudes I know. He can speak 5 languages and he's 3...kinda makes me feel like a chump. It makes me terribly sad I get to see him & the rest of his family only once a year.

Speaking of cute things, does this not look like the cutest movie ever or what? I don't really remember the book, or it fitting in to Mr. Anderson's color scheme so well, but I'm way into this.

Light A Roman Candle With Me.

Ugh, I just sneezed all over my bewbs. That was gross.

Anyway, I've been eying this shirt over on fredflare for a couple weeks now. I think it's just so cute & simple and reminds me of how I express my feelings. Maybe I'll get it and wear it on my 10K bike ride for seeing eye dogs.


Also, the only thing I've listened to since Sunday night is "Aim & Ignite" by fun. (Sorry for that illegal download! Dear RIAA, Please don't get me!) "The Gambler" is one of the prettiest songs I've heard in the past couple months/years/whathaveyou.

I'm writing about lovey dovey stuff way too much lately. Ew.

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I'm looking for my otter half

I just saw this on Josh's blog. I second the "aw" and add a "want!"

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Say Goodnight and Go

I'm not really quite sure why, but I've been referencing Big Fish a lot lately. So, after not watching it for 6 years, my good friend & mentor, Alan, was nice enough to lend me his copy. My favorite scene has always been the one where Ewan McGregor ends up in Spectre and those lights are strung across the grass. It's kind of like perfection of imagination come to life. When I'm no longer singing "Single Ladies," and I'm planning my wedding, I'd love for the reception to look like this.

Stupid picture of me because I was in the mood to post it. Blah blah blah moving on.

I had so much fun hanging out w/Trae on Friday night. Before we went out, I made a huge Shrimp & Grits dinner for everyone and exchanged "Remember that one time in Oneonta..." stories. Highlights of select convos went something like "Um, yes you made out with him, too" "No one tells Ali anything till days after it happens" "hahaha yea, and she hid him in her bedroom" "I know you...you're that kid with the backpack" "I miss the NCP parties." I really wish we could find that quote book....Once we were unleashed on Bell, it was just like old times: drinking, dancing, making friends with strangers, & opening the doors and taking pictures of guys inside the men's room. Surprise! Here are some pics of me & Trae for comparison. Look how much we've grown up. The top is from Junior year of college, I think that was a night we shot gunned beers, ate matzoh and pretended to celebrate passover. Who misses Blashley and those bangs?

Speaking of growing up, I did something I consider terribly frightening and very adultish.... On Sunday night, I went to the movies all by myself. This is a huge thing for me. I'm usually scared of the stares one receives for doing things alone, but apparently as I get older, I'm getting over that fear. Horray for me! Maybe one day zombies won't scare me as much either, but for now those pains in the ass will continue to haunt and ruin my Jason Segel dreams. sigh.

Six Flags tomorrow!

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Oh, Won't You Shine? Shine On?

Basically, I have a cute kiddles and a messy room.


I'm going to need to clean before Trae gets here on Friday...

This is really awesome.


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I Love College

I'm currently watching an episode of "Undeclared". If I've said it once, I'll say it again: I really want to be part of the Apatow Gang. Adam Sandler was a guest star in this one...I can't wait till "Funny People" comes out. I think it might be a good one. It also makes me desperately miss Oneonta. Well, some aspects of it...living in the dorms - feet away from most of my best friends, and our cute little apartments, meeting up with everyone for lunch between classes, playing Snood, the bars, taking naps, spring days, walking across campus, house parties, stealing things. I even kinda miss my classes and the supremely uncomfortable furniture in the library. Not the food though...the food was gross.

These pictures have absolutely nothing to do with anything. Just some shoulders and pudgy toes.



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Why You So Obsessed With Me?

Sometimes things get stuck in the front of my brain.
Here are some of those things.

Mistral Soap in Lychee Rose $8 - I'm not a big fan of showering, but since I've got this soap, I've wanted to shower at least twice a day, just so I can sniff myself.
Capri Blue Candles by Aspen in "Volcano" $28 - Maybe it's because I'm a mature 25 year old now, but I'm apparently I'm all about good smelling stuff. And this candle smells real good. I can't describe the scent, I just know I like it lit all the time.
Jason Segel - Duh. I think we'd make an absolute adorable couple, don't you? He's got everything I look for in a dude: height, sense of humor, and a cute face. Jas, call me!



Harper's Island - CBS. Saturdays. 9:00. I started watching this show on a fluke Saturday night in, and now I'm hooked like a vibrantly colored magnet from your Gramma's vacation to The Keys on a fridge. JUST TELL ME WHO THE KILLER IS ALREADY!!!!!


Verizon Fios: Verizon Fios has changed my life. I love that I can basically watch whatever I want, whenever I want thanks to their Video On Demand shit. It's so convenient! Thanks to my friend, Fios, I can watch whichever episode of Harper's Island I want whenever I have the time (usually Sunday's when I wake up, in case you were wondering).


Avocados - I've had a thing for avocados for while. I used to boycott anything of this consistency (bananas: ew), but then one day I wised up.


Jewelry made of butterfly wings: Since visiting the Butterfly Farm in Aruba, I've rediscovered my love of these special creatures. Thanks to Ebay, I'm now the proud owner of a sweet painted ring made from a butterfly wing. It's kinda sad, but then I remember that butterflies don't live for that long and then I shrug my shoulders and look at it on my finger and don't feel so bad.


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Just Watch The Fireworks

Yawn! I'm so very sleepy right now! Which is strange, because for the first time in months, I slept past noon today. Why is that? How come you get the tireds after you've slept more? Do any sleep scientists read my blog? Can someone explain this phenomenon to me?

Hope you had a great July 4th holiday weekend. Mine was a-ok, thanks for askin! Thursday, Dad and I went to this cute little atrium called Clark Gardens out on the island. My ankles haven't been covered in this many mosquito bites since I was about 8. Speaking of bug bites, I just found out that The Wormers will be going head-to-head with Mother Nature at the end of August. Watch out, here comes a whole lotta caps lock: I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED THAT WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT I JUMP UP AND DOWN AND THEN I SMILE A LOT AND THEN I STOP WHEN I THINK ABOUT HOW LONG I HAVE TO WAIT!!!! I've never been camping before in my life, EVER. I'm from Queens, I have no clue how to turn off a fire and was never allowed to sleep in the backyard for fear of tick bites and kidnapping (f'reals). I'm packing beer & s'more fixins, that's it...and maybe that blanket with feet thing that I have that was one of Oprah's favorite things in 1999. Seriously, CAN NOT WAIT!


That picture up there is a passion flower, I believe. I found it in the gardens when I went with my Dad and also on the 4th of July last year when we were in Austin. A homeless man gave me one and I wore it in my hair till it started to wilt. This was the third consecutive awesome Fourth I've spent with Danielle and co. We stuck around the east coast and thanks to her awesome apartment, had a sweet view of the Macy's fireworks.

It was really nice to see them after not being around for a few years. Growing up, I made it my business to see the Macy's fireworks. Because summer camp was always used as a threat in my house, my fireworks were pretty much the one thing I looked forward to every summer (and lightning bugs of course). There were the years I watched from my bedroom window, while I had the tv on in my room for comparison, and the years we'd go to the dock with sparklers and Goldfish and blankets and just sit on the grass or in the car and watch, and the year we took the boat all the way to Hell's Kitchen and had ashes falling on us, and the other year when we ran out of gas on the way back in. Ahh to be young again.


Ok, I have to go wash this Queen Helen face mask off and my eyes are about to shut ANDDDD I have to wake up early for a doctors appointment. Can't wait to take my scarred tonsils to see the ENT tomorrow morning! Yay!!

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