Too Early?

It is 12:07pm. Is it too early for me to be putting Amaretto in my coffee? No. No it is not. Not today.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

So, it has been over a month since I've blogged (sorry, fans!) and a lot of things have happened since then. For example, I bought a new wallet, my husband started roasting coffee and I also became a professional roller dancer and went to nationals in Nebraska. Another thing that happened was that I was nominated for a blog award by my friend Mallory (thanks Mal!).


The blog comes with a one-word quiz/survery thing that you're supposed to copy and paste (and answer) and then you're supposed to nominate others for the award and pass it on. Here it goes!

1. Where is your cell phone? here
2. Your hair? dumb
3. Your mother? awesome
4. Your father? douche
5. Your favorite food? chipsandsalsa
6. Your dream last night? none
7. Your favorite drink? wine
8. Your dream/goal? beawesomeforJesus
9. What room are you in? livingroom
10. Your hobby? dance
11. Your fear? grossthingslikesnakes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? somewherefun
13. Where were you last night? smallgroup
14. Something you aren't? boring
15. Muffins? espressochocolatechip
16. Wish list item? bichonpuppy
17. Where did you grow up? VancouverWA
18. Last thing you did? dishes
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? old
21. Your pets? CallieandLibertybutthey'reatmymom's
2. Your friends? thebest
23. Your life? sofun
24. Your mood? happy
25. Missing someone? always
26. Vehicle? greatgrandpa'staurus
27. Something you're not wearing? boxerbriefs
28. Your favorite store? nordstrom
29. Your favorite color? purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? work
31. Last time you cried? yesterdaybyaccident
32. Your best friend? silly
33. One place that I go over and over? Lorenzo's
34. One person who emails me regularly? mygrandpaforwardsmeeveryday
35. Favorite place to eat? AZTECA

I'm really good at this one word thing. Obviously. I hope this was informative to all parties involved! And now for my nominations:
Neil Diamond/Nicole @ Nicole is So Interesting
Handysnacks/Rachel @ Deep Thoughts by Rachel Handy

Happy blog awarding!

R.I.P.

My Pumas
2006-2009
Ashley's Puma shoes were laid to rest today after 3 years of foot service. They were purchased in 2006 as Ashley started her Junior year of college and carried her through her upperclassman courses, as well as her first year as a real grown up. Ashley's Pumas had a great life and were loved by many. They are preceeded by a new pair of Puma shoes.

RIP my beloved Pumas. I will miss you and remember you always.

Oh, Hey! It's a special day!

Oh, hey blog! What's up!? Sorry I've been ignoring you for a while. A month and a day to be exact. I've just been super swamped at work and haven't had time to think about bloggable things.

Today however, I had a very special day at work and thought that you may be interested in hearing about it. Not much happened, really. Except that I found out a client of mine's apartment had been raided by the police. "Why?", you ask - well, they were harboring a fugitive. Some guy who has had a warrent out for his arrest for quite some time and, from the sounds of it, has been staying there for a few months. "Well, is your client ok?". Oh, blog -you're so considerate. My client is doing ok. They did not happen to be there at this time as they were out on a drug run. No word yet on if they will face charges of any kind. They will however, be exiting my program.

Well, that's the news of the day. Thanks for listening, blog. You're the best!

Love,
Ashley

Today

I was watching some kids when I was at Lydia Place and we were coloring together. One of them asked me to draw a picture of her and her brother. In all of my artistic glory I proceeded to draw two stick figures with what I thought were pretty nicely drawn faces. Upon seeing the picutre she burst into tears saying that it was ugly and didn't really look like her and that I gave her ugly boy hair (despite the clearly drawn bangs and shouldler length hair). A couple mintues later I got up to get her brother who had left the table and when I came back she had crumpled up the paper and thrown it under the table so "no one could reach it".

I know I'm not the world's best artist, but I'm really hoping this was more of a "5-year-old-tantrum" kind of a thing rather than an "I-traumatize-children-with-my-unartistic-abilities" thing.

The Ultimate Beauty Tool

Did you know that Q-tips are (as they say) the "ultimate beauty tool"? Well, neither did I until Brian bought 1,000 of them at Costco last week and I happened to be reading the package sitting on our counter while getting ready this morning.

How are they the ultimate beauty tool you may ask? Unfortunately I cannot enlighten you as none of the listed "variety of uses" are related to beauty, and I for one, have never used a Q-tip as such for myself.

The variety of uses are oddly notable however, so therefore I will note them.

Use 1: FIRST AID - you can use Q-tips to gently apply ointments and creams.
***Screw using your God-given fingers...Q-tips will not only apply the ointment but leave you feeling warm and fuzzy by catching strands of cotton in your open wound.

Use 2: ELECTRONICS - Clean and dust hard to reach spaces (the picture is of someone dusting their keyboard with a Q-tip).
***First, that's simply rediculous. Second, I feel as though for almost any other electronic, a Q-tip would still be too big and too silly to clean in any hard to reach place.

Use 3: BABY CARE - Delicately care for sensitive areas (the picture is of a Q-tip on a baby's cheek).
***Ok, so maybe this one could be sell-able. But I do want to know what they are rubbing for fun on the baby's cheek.

Use 4: HOUSEHOLD USE: For all household cleaning.
***I would like to let you know that the picture for this one is someone holding a Q-tip in a bathroom shower against the tile as if they were to clean. I pray for the poor soul who has to clean their tile shower with a Q-tip. If I were to try and use a Q-tip to try and clean my the shower in my old college house, it would probably disintegrate and maybe even burn away at the Q-tip.

Thank you Q-tips for trying to convince us your product is worth more than it really is. It was valliant effort and you almost had me fooled.

For now however, I will continue to remain using Q-tips for the one and only purpose that I have ever found them to be good for...to clean my ears. Although this kid found some other good uses for them...

WHY I LOVE DANCE FOREVER

and

Tour de......Whatcom?

The Tour de Whatcom is a real thing. It happens August 1st. It is also a real thing that Brian will be participating in. He will be doing the 50 mile leg. He bought a bike last week and already did 30 miles the other day. Pretty impressive actually! The thing he is most excited for about the race? The jersey. Also, he was the cutest and probably the most excited about this than anything ever! Who wants to come watch with me??????

Why?

As I previously mentioned, Brian is the most obsessed with le Tour de France (a 20 day long journey all across France as we learned). To him and everyone else, I would like to ask this question: Why? Why in the world is this so cool? WHY?

I have been watching now for half an hour and do you want to know what's happened? Nothing. A million guys on a million bikes have biked. In one large clump. That's it. That is the only thing that has happened. Yes, they have gone through some curves and yes, a few people have changed their position, but that is actually it.

And this happens for 4-6 hours a day. And all of it is broadcast. FOR 20 DAYS!!!!!!!!!! How can so many people watch a large group of people do nothing exciting but ride their bikes for that long for that many days!?!?!?!?

I don't get it....

Something else I found out was that they ride in teams. Even though one person still wins, they are on a "team". I don't get that either.

I'm going to rename le Tour de France. It's new name is le Tour de Dumb.

Fact or Fiction?

I just saw a client of mine on a commercial for Whatcom Credit because they helped her reasonably buy a new car.

FACT.

Seriously?

And whoever has heard of "Whatcom Credit"?

Hmmmmmm...

Brian has been the most obsessed with the Tour de France. I don't know why...maybe cause he wants to buy a roadbike, but he's pretty much been watching it 24/7.

Today, I found out that the race is 20 days long. I asked him: "Why is it 20 days long? Why is it not like a normal race?".

To this, my husband replied: "Well, it is a tour of France."

It was at this moment that I realized for the very first time it was named the Tour de France because it was a Tour of France. A race all over the county of France. Not just a race in France.

Good thing they still let me have a college degree.

Suckers.

I Bet You Never Knew...

Today my boss called me into her office because she had received an L&I claim. She proceeded to tell me that when she gets these, she usually freaks out because an employee has cited an "on-the-job" injury and our rates skyrocket. She began to freak out this time, as expected, until she realized that it wasn't an employee or anyone making a claim against us. It was a statement from L&I informing us that one of my clients had claimed ME as their MEDICAL SERVICE PROVIDER. Bet you never knew I went to medical school did you? That's probably because I didn't. I went to Western Washington. For Human Services. And I'm a HOUSING case manager. I focus on HOUSING. I helped her get a HOUSE.

Mind you, this is the same client that answered the door with no pants on and always tells me about "the aliens".

Anyways, I had to call her today and have her change it, so L&I could have accurate legal information. Kinda too bad though...Dr. Ashley has a nice ring to it...

8th Wonder of the World

My favorite thing in the entire chip world, and possibly in the entire unhealthy world, is FLAMIN' HOT CHEETOS!!


This bag holds so much deliciousness, I can't even explain. I honestly think that my body has a physical addiction as I can down one large back in a sitting. I don't understand my desperate need for FLAMIN' HOT CHEETOS in my life, but I'm so glad that God gave them to me. The only thing that I am unsure about is how too, like regular Cheetos, they are made with REAL CHEESE.

Dear Frito Lay,
Please tell me how this is possible.
Love,
Ashley

Funny Forever

This is funny forever. Who does it remind you of?

Syke!

I remembered something awesome about my life! Last Thursday I was having a bad day...but then I went into Wise Buys (the thrift store my office is connected to). In one glorious moment, I looked up and saw the most joyous thing I had seen in 13 years...a Snoopy Sno Cone machine!!! Not just any old Snoopy Sno Cone machine, but the exact same one that I used to have when I was 5 and it was my favorite present forever! The best part was that it was only $.50, so buying it was pretty much a no brainer! I definitely made some awesome Snoopy Sno Cones that night. Now that I am a grown up, I can also put awesome things like alcohol (such as Kahlua) in it. Being a grown up is awesome.

Boring.

My life is boring. I have nothing to blog about. My life is boring.

That's kind of not true. Work is pretty much the craziest place to be right now. I do lots of things there and lately I have been working through lots of crisises with clients, but that is not fun to blog about. So I don't.

Sidenote: I really like wine. Wine is my favorite. Glass in hand as we speak...

Pedal to the Metal

Today I went to the mall. On my drive home, I went on the freeway and as I got on the on-ramp, I immediately began flooring it to accelarate my car (literally, the pedal was on the ground). My car finally was barely reaching 60 mph was I was passing the next on-ramp. Awesome.

Best Day Ever!!!

Tonight is the Season 5 premiere of So You Think You Can Dance!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! This is my favorite day of the year! To comemmorate, here is a video from one of my favorite dances last season:

Brownie Points

My husband just brought me a DQ Blizzard that he got on his way home from work. He gets 5 brownie points. <3

When You Get Married...

You do things you swear you'd never do...

like buy the big bag of bulk cereal....in the Fred Meyer brand.

Example of good Fred Meyer brand bulk cereal: Crisp'n Fruity Rice (the Fruitty Pebbles knock off)

Example of bad Fred Meyer brand bulk cereal: Crisp Berry Crunch (the Cap'n Crunch Berries knock off)

Something Important to Know About Me

My favorite thing in the world is nachos. Any kind of nachos, in any shape or form. I love them all. I had them for dinner tonight for the 3rd time in 5 days. My life is the best.

Reasons You Should Be Jealous Of My Job

1. Last week on the phone, a client dubbed me "Agent Ashley" and continued to pretend like we were talking on walkie-talikies the rest of our phone conversation.

2. Once, a client told me that he should not be kicked out of his hotel where he was explicitly told not to bring his dog in the room on numerous occassions, because he didn't bring his dog in 95% of the time. He then asked if he should wait for the police to come (as he was told they would be if he didn't leave immediately) and told me he would lie to them if I wanted him to. I hope you know I strongly encouraged him not to do so.

3. A client signed a lease this week that prohibts her from smoking inside her rental unit. Two days after moving in, I dropped in at her apartment and after smelling the obviously cigarette smoke infused apartment, asked her about it. She told me that she had infact smoked in her apartment that morning, but that it was ok because she smoked outside her apartment "yesterday". You do the math.

4. Sometimes my clients call me after hours (I'm talking 11, 12, 1, 2) just cause they're bored (no, I don't answer).

5. A random person walked into my office hoping to receive services. Her arms and hands were full and covered with a jacket. I was not paying too much attention as she sat down and got situated and I cleared the files I was working on off my desk. Toward the end of our converstation, she reached down and picked what was unmistakably a half drunk Rasberry Ale. She proceeded to finish it. In my office.

6. A client once told me he was going to vote for Bush. In January. This January.

7. Yesterday, I went to a client's apartment to a drop in. It was a scheduled appointment. She wasn't wearing pants. Don't know about the underwear...she was wearing only a long shirt.


**Rediculous clients aside, I absolutely love my job and the people I work with at Lydia Place. They're the best. I just thought I'd share some of my daily joys with you.

Can I Take Your Order???

This week, Brian and I watched one of the best movies from my childhood glory days. Good Burger.


It was just as good, maybe even better, than I remembered. The only bummer about the movie was that it was not as cool to pull the DVD out as it was to pull out an ORANGE VHS from the case when I was younger. Unfortunately however, my husband who was deprived of cable, Nickelodeon, and consequently, All That when he was growing up, did not appreciated the movie as much as I did. This did make for an awkward 103 minutes, especially when I asked to replay the dance scene. Brian then attempted to fast forward the rest of the movie so I couldn't ask such a thing again. Boo. Well, husband, here is the video. Now I can watch it every day of my life. I love you.

New Blog Stuff

Heyo! Well, the 2 votes are in and my new blog name is one that I did not suggest but like nonetheless. If you don't know what it is, you can look at the top of the page. If you don't notice a change, well then you're either a)the least observent person in the world, b)never read my blog or c) an new friend that I probably just offeded. With the new name, I have also changed my blog URL. I did like "storyofa-love" but again, I'm no longer A-Love. Due to both my lack of creativity and my desire for easy recollection, I simply changed my new URL to ashleythomasson.blogspot.com. So, you can find me here from now on! I hope tha you guys continue to read despite the drastic changes that have been made recently in my life. That is all.

Love, peace, and hair grease.

(my BFF in the 8th grde used to say that all the time)

SOMETHING ALMOST EVEN BETTER IS HAPPENING!!!

SYTYCD (aka So You Think You Can Dance for you non-obsessed folk) is starting up again on May 21st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT WAIT!!



Also, Nicole showed me how to make the videos appear! I think I will go back and edit some old posts to get the video in!!

Ok, so.....

For some redonk reason, the video on the link I last posted is no longer available. So here is a new one. Watch it for reals! I'm telling you, you will get goosebumps!

THE BEST THING EVER IS HAPPENING!!!!!!

A new FAME is coming out!!!!! It pretty much looks like the best dance movie ever and I am the most excited!! The only problem is that it does not come out until September 25th and I actually don't think that I can wait!

Also, my computer is the dumbest and will not for ever let me post videos on here, so I just had to post a link....but you should really go watch it!

Time to Change

This morning, I had this unfortunately rediculous song stuck in my head. Inexplicably. It was a special drive to work.

Why I Love My Husband: Reason #17

Yesterday I borrowed his car. In the CD player was none other than Avril Lavigne.

An Ashley By Any Other Name...

Now that I am married I am no longer A-Love. Nor am I living in the hood as I once claimed (never was actually). Therefore, I have come up with some ideas for my new blogging name. I would like you to vote, but you may also make new suggestions if you wish.

Possible new blog names:
1) Married to a Hairy Man
2) The Chronic-"what?"-cles of Ashley T
3) Updated Every 11 Days
4) (and now its time for) Ask Ashley
5) Ashley and Spice and Everything Nice
6) You're So Vain: You Probably Think This Blog is About You

That's all I got. Please please help me be more cool.

Back in Action

Hellooooooooooooo Bellingham and blogging friends! I am back and ready to create the best blog ever! I apologize for the long absence. Something that I did not realize would happen when I got married is that my home would turn into the Bed, Bath and Beyond and UPS epicenter - post explosion. I am now happy to say that my apartment is 2/3 back to normal, and it has only been a week and a day since I got back from my honeymoon.

Speaking of my honeymoon, something special happened while I was there. I fell in love. With the Red Panda. Brian and I went to the San Diego zoo one day. There, I discovered this wonderful, most best animal of all the animals! I want one.

Which is why I have decide to start the "Buy Ashley an Awesome Red Panda and She'll Be Your BFF for Life" fund. Now accepting donations in the form of personal donations to me. If you donate, I will even let you pet and play with my Red Panda.

Here Comes the Bride

Dear Blogging World,

I am getting married in two days. Really, it's actually more like one and a half. This means that my blog will be temporarily out of service as I enjoy my honeymoon and doing married people things. Trust me, you do not want me to be blogging on my honeymoon. I promise however, that due to my unfortunately lengthy absence, I will come back as a better blogger than ever before, with the most rip-roarin' riot of stories that you've ever seen or heard. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely yours,

Ashley (almost not) Love

Rachel's Phone

Reasons why I hate Rachel's phone:

1. It's dumb.
2. She never answers it.
3. When she doesn't answer it, it never ever lets me leave a message. In fact, it just stops ringing and doesn't do anything. Every single time.
4. It's kind of cool looking and I'm a little jealous inside.

F.Y.I.

This is the man I'm going to marry...

...hunk of burnin' love!!!

Skool of Ashley

Things that I have learned recently:
- I am not good at blogging
- Wedding planning takes a lot of time
- I am really glad that I am almost done planning my wedding

Thats pretty much it actually.

Maybe one day when I'm married I will update my blog more. Maybe.

If You Love Me...

You will buy me this puppy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VgX7xiTq0

For reals. This beats Ricky the cat time a gillion. Also, I would have made it an actual video link, but I've tried about 27 times and for some reason it won't let me so you have to click on it yourself. But I promise it's worth it.

My Car is Back

Eff.

Devil Car

Friday night Rachel and I got stuck in my awesomely hideous car for a million hours (well...2 1/2). Things that we did to pass the time:

Try for exactly half that time to make my car work.

Bent my car key.

Went to Sears to see if they make new keys.

Go back to a still unworking car.

Practice our signatures in the steamy windows.

Practice my new signature in the steamy window.

Listen to all the ringtones on my cell phone.

Snug.

Go get coffee only to come back and find out that the car still did not work.

Wait for an hour for Nicole to come get us........

Finally Brian came to save the day. Then we went to Lorenzo's. Margaritas and Enchiladas made things better, as they always do. Not to mention the chips and salsa.
...I was really sad on Saturday when it was finally removed from the parking lot, that the car didn't happen to fall off the tow truck. Now I get it back tomorrow : (

Name of the Game

I know most of you are probably wondering "'Life in the Hood'? Why is Ashley's blog titled 'Life in the Hood'? She's not gangster. She's white as bread." Well, if you are one of those people, you are wrong. I, in fact, am pretty gangster. I live life rough and tumble 24/7 and am actually fairly..........ok - who am I kidding? I'm whiter than bread. Rachel told me to put that and I did because I couldn't think of anything better. I am now accepting REAL ideas for a new blog title.

Thanks for your consideration.

A-Love

Love for the Homeless

As a new blogger, I figured that this would be a good time to let you all know what has been taking up a million percent of my life for the last 5 months. Project Homeless Connect. It was an awesomely crazy one day event where all services and thier providers came to the homeless, instead of the other way around. I was the lucky one who got to coordinate food and hospitality for the event. There were 200 service providers, 300+ other volunteers that helped make this happen, and approximately 600 (we think) homeless guests that were served today! Services indluded medical, vision, dental, haircuts, bike repairs, DSHS, multiple housing providers, veterinarian, and a catered lunch with piano entertainment - just to name a few.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/255/story/774930.html

After arriving at 6:30am and leaving 10 hours later, we hit Boundary. Good.

First Blog

This is my first ever, life blog....

Yay!