“Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.”-Sarah Addison, The Peach Keeper
Two years ago this past weekend I packed up my bags and did something absolutely crazy. I moved across the country to a town, a state, that I had never stepped foot in. It was the final spontaneous act of a girl who had decided with two months notice to move out of New York City, travel Europe for three months and then a mere month after arriving back in the US decided to move to Boulder, Colorado after a couple conversations with a fellow blogger, Doni.
I arrived January 28, 2010 with absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. I had never lived in a landlocked state, had never seen the Rockies outside of a trip to Wyoming six months prior and didn’t know anything about the town I was about to call my home. It was a huge risk but it wasn’t any bigger or smaller than the risks I had been taking for months earlier so it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. Looking back, I see just how risky it was and how lucky I am that it turned out so fantastically.
It’s been two years and life has been interesting. While I miss the energy of New York and my friends pretty fiercely, Boulder has charmed me in other ways–the beautiful sunsets, the generous, welcoming community, and all those fluffy puppies that wander into my job on a daily basis. I’m still trying to figure out my place here but I have made good friends, eaten ridiculously good food (thank god for a good foodie scene!) and have a beautiful space I call home. At first it was exciting, as all new things are, but then last year life became stagnant. I got bored.
I’m one of those people who love comfort. I actually really dislike being out of my element and uncomfortable, which may come as a surprise to some of you who know my love of travel and adventure. Or maybe you’re not. A good example is the routines I picked up in New York: I always walked the same routes through the city and while they varied depending on where I was going, I always took the same routes to the places I frequented the most–school, work, shopping. I could guide myself along those streets blindfolded, if I had to. And it was comforting. It doesn’t sound very adventurous, it certainly doesn’t sound like I was trying anything new, but in my stress-filled life of constant stimulation, it was the one thing that had a calming effect on me, these silly routines I developed. It’s like the things I repetitively do–like pick my fingers, watch the same movie over and over again, listen to a song on repeat til I’m so sick of it I could cry. All this repetition is extremely comforting. But sometimes, I get too comfortable–and then I get depressed. Let’s wave at my November and December selves. Don’t give them too much attention, I don’t want them to think I want them to come visit again.
So I’m shaking it all up. I did it in 2009 when I quit my job and ran off to Europe, then moved here. 2010 was pretty wild but 2011 I got too comfortable in my ways here.
So in 2012, I’m shaking it up. I’m going to have adventures, the biggest being China. China is a huuuuge step outside of my comfort zone and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t freak out a little bit about doing it alone. But I’m also RIDICULOUSLY excited about it. China isn’t the only thing that’s pushing the envelope of comfort for me. I mentioned some BIG FUCKING THINGS were in the mix the last time I wrote on here and while I still can’t mention them, they’re certainly scaring the bejesus out of me. But I’m going to do it if only because it scares me.
Another thing I’m doing is addressing those two left-feet-turned-backwards that I have. Oh, you know them. They don’t have any rhythm and most of the time it resembles the running man on crack. Yep, I’ve got those. My best friend here, Morgan, is a salsa instructor and avid dancer. I’ve been with her a couple times and have watched her dance–while clutching my vodka and soda in a death grip, shaking my head furiously at anyone who even thought about approaching me for a dance. The thought of tearing it up on the dance floor gives me hives.
So the other night I joined her at a local ballroom where her dance company was performing. I was watching the room full of people learning how to dance and Morgan was even spinning me around backstage, teaching me the basics which my feet somehow were actually getting. She has mentioned several times that I should come be her assistant–get free salsa lessons and do it all in front of people who have no idea what they’re doing either. She mentioned it again and you know what?
I’m going to do it.
I’m going to learn how to salsa dance. Even if I suck horribly at it, at least I’ll have tried.
Which is kind of my life motto at the moment. It’s not worth doing if it doesn’t scare you a little bit, right?
So I guess the Universe saw my post the other day and was all “Oh yeah? You want a curveball? Well I’ll give you one–no, make that a few–and you won’t ever see it coming.” Oh, how I didn’t. And you know how curveballs sometimes are good? Awesome? Amazing? Well these curveballs are. I wish I could talk about them, and I will (hopefully soon) once things become more finalized but things are happening. BIG FUCKING THINGS. Things I never even imagined, especially not three days ago!
One big thing I will announce today is that not only is today the LAST DAY to sign up for my Valentine Gift Exchange (seriously. Do it.), I’m offering something I have not yet previously offered on my blog.
Sponsorships.
I’d love to give my readers the opportunity to spotlight themselves, whether it be their crafty store on etsy, their photography business or just their own personal blog. I often find new blogs by those that are featured in my favorite’s sidebars so I figured I should give back as well.
Some stats to work with:
- 180 Subscribers
- Approximately a 1,000 unique views a month
- 1,077 Twitter followers
- 53 Facebook fans
- 171 Instagram followers
- 93 Tumblr followers
If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor you have two options:
A 317 x 161 (pixels) banner ad for $20 a month
A 317 x 250 (pixels) ad for $35 a month.
Each month I will have two of the larger ads and 4 smaller ads available and each person will get their own featured post all to themselves during the first week of the month. Sounds like something you’d be interested in? Comment here or shoot me an email at ashalah (at) ashalah (dot) com.
Are you excited? Because I’m excited. Big fucking things, people. Big fucking things.
Update: I can also offer my meager graphic design skills if you’d like me to make you a banner. Just tack on an additional 10 bucks and I’ll make you one with one additional change/edit.
Yesterday I was standing in a construction site inhaling paint dust and covered in construction gunk providing a free service through my job. It might have been the influence of the paint fumes, but I started thinking about how far off track my life has gotten and how much I wished I was there as a designer rather than as a salesman. A few months ago I had been asked where I saw myself in five years. I smiled, all ready to answer with those big bad goals I have for myself and then…nothing came out. In that space in my brain where my dreams should have been was instead a white board, wiped clean of anything that may have been on it previously. At nearly 30, that is a pretty terrifying realization.
I used to have big, crazy, stars-in-my-eyes dreams for my life. If you had asked me where I wanted to be at age 30 when I was all of 22 years old, I would have confidently spouted out how I would own my own (successful) design firm, married with possibly a kid (I was in a long term relationship at that point that was quickly heading in that direction, so, fair enough.), living in a house that I most likely owned. If you had told me then what my life was like now I probably would have laughed. Or cried. A lot.
Now I sit on 30′s doorstep, working in a retail job (about as far away from owning my own firm as possible), contemplating a career change, still living with roommates and as single as can be. With absolutely no life plan. When I even try to formulate a plan because it seems ridiculous that I have no plan for my life five years out–hell, I don’t even have one for a year out!–I get flustered, overwhelmed and then pretend I got distracted and forget about it. Until the next person comes along and asks me that question and then I inwardly panic about how my shit is not together and how am I supposed to answer that?!
You see, I was raised with this belief that by the age of 30 you should have everything in order. It’s not that I haven’t had this fantastic life–I have. It’s dotted with these stories that one day I will tell my grandchildren (you know, if I ever find a guy, actually settle down long enough to pop out a couple babies and hope those babies don’t grow up to be me and childless), stories that are ridiculous and fun and holy shit that actually happened to me. And while this collecting of stories is awesome and I wouldn’t trade my experiences in life for anything but it does makes me wonder just what happened to me along the way. Where my life dreams and goals went off to.
I wouldn’t put it past myself to start looking under sofa cushions and in cupboards to locate these missing goals, that’s about how far lost I am at figuring out what they are. I can’t tell you what I want to do career wise, that’s one big ol’ question mark hovering over my head, one that could produce migraines and potentially a bit of frustrated crying and I try to avoid doing that at all costs. But maybe I can start small, maybe that will give me some form of insight into where I want my life to go.
So what do I want? I want to grow as a person. Rediscover my self-confidence. Dig that creativity out from the hole it’s hiding under. Chill out with the road rage. Find a career I love, not just a job to tide me over until the next big thing. Figure out where my passions lie and then go there. Continue having adventures and create those stories but build a foundation here at home. Become more active. Develop meaningful, rich relationships. Start really saving money. Love again. And most importantly, I want to be happy. Happy with my life. And proud of all that I’ve created. That’d be nice too.
I always thought that by the time I hit 30, that the confusion and mess of my 20s would all be settled out and honestly, that my life would appear much more adult-like. I certainly never imagined myself where I am now, working where I do and how far off track I’ve become. I sometimes wonder if my moving to Boulder has anything to do with this (but that’s a topic for a whole other post). Life certainly has a way of throwing you curve balls. It’s how you get yourself out of them that counts.
Are you where you wanted to be by now?
Every week my friend Adriana and I have this tradition of cooking dinner together over a bottle of wine and some good conversation, no matter the weather. It’s definitely a highlight of my week and so far, every dish we’ve attempted has been delicious.
Cooking with friends is the only reason I like cooking; cooking for just myself is never as fun which is why more often than not, I will make mac and cheese or a simple sandwich. So maybe it is with selfish reasons that I relish these meals made with Adriana but I do love the company and it keeps me from becoming a complete hermit like I’m wont to do during the winter.
The meal we made last week was born on a Superbowl Sunday many years ago in New York with two of my closest friends, Shareeza and Pearl. Actually, it was born on the Food Network earlier that week on one of Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals and I decided I HAD TO MAKE IT.
Rachael Ray’s Chili Suizas Bake
First, I should say that this is most definitely NOT a 30 Minute Meal, especially if you follow her recipe exactly and make the salsa verde from scratch. That is exactly what was done that first time; it took the three of us nearly three hours to make the chili in my tiny kitchen using my magic bullet blender on the interesting little tomatillos I had never even laid eyes on before that day’s trip to Whole Foods.
It was one of the best chilis I had ever had, made all the better by laughter and there’s really nothing better than fresh salsa made from scratch. However, I don’t have all the time in the world and even with cutting out making my own salsa and substituting it with pre-jarred salsa verde it takes about an hour and a half to two hours to make. Unfortunately my kitchen, while larger than my New York City one, does not come equipped with an army of prep cooks who slice and dice everything into neatly, correctly portioned bowls for my use and I have a feeling even a good cook couldn’t accomplish this dish in half an hour. I’m onto you, Rachael Ray.
Last week Adriana and I conquered this dish (my third time) over a bottle of Clayhouse Adobe Red, a deliciously smooth blend of reds. I can’t tell you how much jarred salsa verde to replace the 12-16 tomatillos the recipe calls for, and I probably use too much which is why it has to simmer for so long to reduce, but either way, it is still my favorite.
A rule of thumb I have with this dish is that it always will be more spicy the second or third day after so how spicy it is the first night is always a gauge of how spicy it will be down the line of leftovers, which there will be plenty. When I cut into the poblanos last week, the spice went straight to the back of my throat without my even needing to put it in my mouth. I knew I was in for it and when we sat down to eat we both exclaimed how spicy it was.
Let’s just say it has become atomic over the past couple days and my tongue is still numb 4 hours after eating the last of the leftovers. I’m not the biggest spicy food lover but I make an exception for this dish. It’s delicious!
Chili Suizas Bake
(taken from foodnetwork.com)
Ingredients
- 3 large poblano peppers
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
- 2 pounds ground chicken (I use turkey)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 12 large or 16 medium to small tomatillos, peeled, rinsed and halved (or 16 oz salsa verde in a jar)
- 1/4 cup cilantro, a handful
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons honey
- Salt and pepper
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1/2 cup creme fraiche
- 3 cups lightly crushed tortilla chips
- 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese, about 1/3 pound
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, about 1/3 pound
Directions
Heat the broiler to high. Place the poblanos under hot broiler and char until blackened an all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Leave the door of the oven cracked to allow the steam to escape. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to cool enough to handle.
While peppers char, heat extra-virgin olive oil in a high sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and lightly brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in onions, jalapeno and garlic and cook to soften onions about 5 minutes. While onions cook, place tomatillos and cilantro in the food processor and process until smooth. Pour the tomatillos into the chicken mixture and stir to combine. Stir in chicken stock and honey, season with salt and pepper and simmer chili 10 minutes.
When poblano peppers are cool enough to handle, remove seeds and chop, stir into chili. Remove chili pan from heat and stir in lime juice. Add dollops of creme fraiche on top of the chili, placing spoonfuls evenly across the pan. Cover the pan with a layer of crushed chips and top with Swiss and Monterey Jack cheeses. Place under broiler until brown and bubbly.
Bon Appetit!
First, I drop the new blog on you. And then I remind everyone that Valentine’s Day is coming up (and yes, I’m still single. Just keeping with tradition y’all). Valentine’s Day, in my opinion, is made all the more wonderful by one little thing I started four years ago…
Oh Won’t You Be My (Blog) Valentine?
Fourth Annual Valentine Blog Swap!
Some of you know the drill, but for those of you who are new, or just need some reminding, here’s the gist: the swap is like Secret Santa, only for Valentine’s Day. I match bloggers at random; you will know who you have, but they won’t know who has them, just like you won’t know who has you. So when Valentine’s Day comes and your package arrives from your mysterious Valentine, you’ll be very pleasantly surprised! It’s a great way to spread the love, meet new people and find new blogs!
For the past few years I’ve had at least 100 people participate and it’s been fantastic! I can’t wait to host my fourth one and I hope that everyone who visits this site, whether you’re an oldie, a newbie, been referred here by a friend or stumbled randomly across this will participate!! Now, here are some rules and I DO expect them to be followed.
- You cannot request who you will be matched up with, the random matching is the beauty of this game! Sometimes you get a friend which is awesome, and sometimes you make a new one!
- Gifts will have a max purchase amount of $20. Don’t know what to get? Peruse their blog, find out their interests and hobbies or get them something that you love and think they’d love too. Get creative!
- You don’t have to have a blog, twitter or even facebook! If you do not have any of these help a girl out and let me know some of your favorite things but don’t shy away just because you’re not a blogger.
- SERIOUS PARTICIPANTS ONLY. I mean it. Participate only if you are serious about giving a gift in exchange for receiving one. It’s only fair for everyone involved and I don’t want to have to chase your ass down to get you to send someone their gift. Overall this experience has been a positive one and I’ve heard awesome things but every year there has been a handful of people who have their feelings hurt because they never received a gift. Please, please only sign up if you plan on giving, not just receiving.
- If, after you sign up, you suddenly find yourself not able to participate AT ANY POINT (even if I’ve matched you up!), please email me at ashalah@ashalah.com and I will fix things. I will appreciate your honesty, as will your partner!
- I apologize but this year I’m going to have to restrict the participants to the US and Canada only. I’d love to include everyone from around the world but it gets harder to match people.
- If you wish, you can use the badge on your site to show off that you’re participating!
- When sending your package, include a little note with who you are and where you blog!!
- If you need to contact the person you have but don’t want to spoil the surprise, just ask me and I’ll do it for you!
- HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!
To enter, please fill out this form by Midnight PST January 26, 2012. Don’t worry, only I will have access to your information and promise promise promise no one other than me and the person who has you will see it.
If you have any questions or have any problems with filling out this form please email me at ashalah@ashalah.com.
Are you ready? Let’s go!
The second week of 2012 has been a productive one. Currently I am…
- Goal setting like a mad-woman, thanks to Nicole’s awesomely fantastic goal setting worksheet. One of my goals is to be more consistent with blogging, more involved in the community and to not let my writer’s block get the best of me. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been blogging more here. I’m hoping I can keep it up!
- I also just submitted my first post for 12 Changes, 12 Months (it’s not up yet). Don’t know what 12 Changes, 12 Months is? Well it’s Katherine and Stephany’s brain child where you commit to 12 changes that you wish to make this year and set to achieve one each month over the course of the year. So much better and easier to swallow than all these resolutions at once. Of course, combined with all these goal setting things, I’m amazing my head hasn’t exploded. Instead, I’m motivated AND READY TO ROLL.
- I am reading Tune in Tokyo, a book by Tim Anderson about escaping his stagnant life for one in Tokyo teaching English. It’s hilarious so far and it’s making me so excited to go overseas and putting far too many ideas into my head about moving overseas. My life was pretty stagnant last year and my desire to shake things up a bit runs me into dangerous territory where I could pick up and move at a moments notice, especially when reading about someone who did.
- I watched my first episode of Downton Abbey once I discovered that with my measly little antenna I actually can get PBS and am hooked. I’m making my mother send me the first season ASAP so I can catch up and then watch along with the rest of you. I love period drama.
- I have been to Oak twice in the past week. Oak is a new restaurant in town (which initially burned down after opening the first time) and I LOVE it. Mainly, the fried pickles which are the best I’ve ever had and if you need more reasons to come visit me, these should be one of them.
- I really could care less about football but the Broncos? Tim Tebow? Oh let me just hop on that bandwagon and say that last weeks game was AWESOME and that I’m totally hitting the bars this weekend for their playoff game against the patriots. I don’t really care for Tebow but the boy can play and it’s fucking ENTERTAINING. So yeah, Go Broncos!
- Colorado’s winter has been pretty schizophrenic. Last week it was 70 degrees, two days later snowing. This week boasted a lovely 55 degree day yesterday and today? Guess what? SNOWING and super cold. I love that it gets warm out but it’s such a tease.
- And now for the big announcement…I have been hard at work on a new project that has been in the works for two years and then finally was brought to fruition last month and launched…TODAY!
I want to welcome all my readers to my latest blogging adventure: The WanderScapes. I think it’s well known that I love travel, to the point of ridiculousness. You also know I have BIG PLANS this year for travel and adventure (another one of those 2012 goals), so I thought this would be the perfect year to finallyyyyyyy get around to putting up the travel blog I’ve always dreamed of having.
And now my head explodes from all the nerves about actually putting it up.
So please go visit and let me know what you’d like to see from it!
When I moved to Colorado I wasn’t prepared for just how dry it was. I am used to the East Coast’s humidity, something that I really haven’t missed all that much but oh, my skin has.
My usual beauty regimen–if you can call it that–consisted of the cheap variety. I usually used apricot scrubs bought at the local pharmacy and sometimes I would even splurge and get Cetaphil’s daily cleanser. I continued that same routine when I moved to Colorado but suddenly my usually oily skin became this dry desert and my skin was flaking. I started testing out with various (relatively cheap) facial lotions and haven’t had any lucky yet finding one that really made any difference and improved my skin.
A couple months ago Simone France contacted me asking if I wanted to try their facial products. The first thing I read on their website was:
Have you tried every skin care line out there and nothing works? If so, you’ve come to the right place! No matter what your skin type, we can help you have a clear, glowing, younger-looking complexion for a lifetime. These products and the way you use them are totally unique – and so are the results!
It was like they were speaking right to me. So of course I had to try it out. The method to their products isn’t that you just go on their website and select things that you think will work for you; they give you a questionnaire about your skin type and your current regimen and then their staff comes up with products that best suit your skin type based on your answers. Not only do they select them but I got a very lengthy email from a representative detailing why I should be using it, what the benefits would be and what I currently was doing wrong (but not quite phrased that way 
). Shortly after filling out my questionnaire, I received a package with a morning cleanse called The Sandwich (consisting of Lovely Glow,–a moisturizer, a refining scrub and a bar of soap), some disposable cleansing towels and then a night-time routine (consisting of Rich Milk–a sort of moisturizing makeup remover and a toner) along with some line minimizer gel you can mix with the lotion.
And you can bet this all came with detailed instructions (thankfully, otherwise I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself!!). They meant business.
Guys? This stuff is amazing. I am all for not spending a lot on beauty products but in this case, I’m going to splurge on their products in the future. After two days of using the Sandwich (what you do is you put the lotion on first, then rub the scrub over your face, then lather up the soap and apply it over that. Rinse, rinse, rinse), I noticed a huge difference in the texture of my skin. It wasn’t dry anymore. There was no flaking! It felt smooth and even my pores were smaller. It’s been a month now and I’m completely hooked.
The nighttime regimen I’m not so good at keeping up with, though. I’m one of those horrible people who don’t (regularly. Or even semi-regularly) wash their face before they go to bed (I KNOW), so this has been a hard habit to break. But I have liked using the Rich Milk and the toner after work, pre-happy hour for a quick freshener-upper. One of my many many man goals this year is to get better at this whole nighttime skincare ritual so maybe I’ll start using it more! As for the line minimizer, I still look like I’m 18 so I’m not about to make myself look any younger. On a more serious note, though, I did find it a little too greasy but that may have been because I used too much? Either way, I only have tried that once!
Simone France was nice enough to give all my readers a 10% off promo code to use if they wish to buy their products! It’s: FT108.
Disclaimer: Simone France contacted me to test out and review their products on my blog. I was not paid in any way (aside from receiving free product) and my opinions are completely my own. I really do love this stuff. A lot.
So I like to think I’m crafty. That I’m handy, that sure, I can do anything myself. After all, I’m supergirl, right? Yeah, okay, Ashley.
Let’s be honest. I’m not the most crafty person. I prefer having someone else paint my walls, hang my pictures and make my scarves. I’ve gotten better over the years but I still remember the apartment on 95th and Park Ave whose bedroom was only painted three quarters of the way up the wall until my brother finished off the top. (Technically, I’m really short. And terrified of ladders. And heights. And I hate taping.) I also remember a lot of projects that went unfinished.
Like that quilt I decided to make in High School. I think I finished two rows before giving up. (I blame trying to hand sew the thing–and let’s not talk about the disaster that was my attempt at learning the sewing machine.) Or when I tried my hand in jewelry making. I made my mom a necklace and one for myself that broke after a few weeks. I gave that up pretty quickly.
If a career could be made out of never finishing what you started, I’d totally be able to retire early.
I did prove in August of 2010 that I could finish something–if I had an audience. During VEDA ’10, I painted my old apartment’s living room wall and fireplace on camera. I had a lot of fun doing it and I loved that I got to share that with the internets. But since then my projects have been pretty minimal. Sure, I’ve hung pictures on the wall and arranged my furniture nicely, but any other DIY projects have pretty much fallen to the wayside.
Until now.
I probably have been talking about redoing my dining set for over a year. I even have a quart of gray paint sitting in my closet from an inspired afternoon in Home Depot when I decided I really wanted a gray dining set. I have even collected probably a dozen discontinued fabric samples with high hopes they’d grace the seats of the four chairs. They’re scattered around in drawers and closets instead.
This dining set has been the bane of my existence. I have redecorated my living room and my bedroom over the past year and the dining “room” was the last thing I needed to complete. And then the other day my company cleared out about fifty discontinued fabrics and I managed to find four perfectly coordinated fabrics. The problem with all the other fabric swatches I have hidden all over my apartment was that they didn’t quite match. They are in pairs or in threes but they don’t all match.
These four were the motivation I needed to seriously start thinking about turning my dining set from bland to pretty fantastic. I picked out a few paint samples, asked everyone’s opinion and then proceeded to stress out in Home Depot because it just wasn’t right. I am an Interior Designer, with a specialty in color and I can pick out colors and fabrics for clients within minutes. But for myself? FORGET IT. I had to employ everyone in the Home Depot paint department and finally, I chose two colors, the two colors that I envisioned at the start of this project. A metallic vintage goldish silverish color and a dark brown.
Thursday happened to be a gorgeous 70 degrees and I took that opportunity to throw open all my windows, put on a tank top and started painting. It took me an hour and a half per chair and forty five minutes for the table–and a bunch of really sore butt and leg muscles from all the bending over–but over the course of my two days off, I managed to finish my dining table. And I didn’t tape it for any YouTube challenge (but there certainly was no way in hell that I wasn’t going to blog about it).
Below are the before and after pictures. Loving the transformation and it only cost me forty dollars to get a new-looking dining set!
I’ve been reading a lot lately, thanks in part to my hermit-like status and my new Kindle. I’ve never actually done a book review on this site but since the past few books that I’ve read have been so fantastic I feel the need to give them a proper shout-out.
My reading was kickstarted into gear with the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy which I found on my local Marshall’s shelves. I immediately snatched it up, knowing I wanted to read it before the movie came out. I was holding off watching the trailer until I read the books so I figured with it not coming out until March, I’d have plenty of time to read the three books.
Um.
It took me only four days to read them.
I may have finished the first book in two rather sleepless nights (and a morning) and immediately ran to Target to get the second two books. I might have set records with how fast I read those books and went through withdrawals upon finishing them. Granted, my body was thankful they were over because I did not sleep at all for those four days. They’re young adult but, like Harry Potter, I couldn’t put them down and just loved them. The characters, the writing, the plot…all of it was fantastic.
I’ll give you a little plot description but I can never do them justice. It centers around a teenage girl, Katniss, set the future, in a nation on what is left of North America. There are games called the Hunger Games, used to keep the different “Districts” reminded who is in charge and what can happen to them if they revolt against the Capital. Story of friendship, survival, is pretty suspenseful, yadda yadda yadda. You can probably get a better idea from reading the descriptions on the back of the book (but seriously, only read the first one. Don’t spoil the rest.)
It has been a while since I’ve really enjoyed a book, at least that much. They were the kind of books where I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I shut it for the night. The books that I told everyone that they must read and even forced a copy of The Hunger Games upon a good friend of mine (who immediately became addicted, too). So what I’m trying to say is…
You should read them. Right now. Go, I’ll wait.
The book I’m currently reading and have to rave about even though I’m NOT EVEN FINISHED WITH IT, is called The Book Thief. I rented it from the library on my Kindle and wow. It is so well written, so interesting and it does a wonderful job of bringing out those happy feelings as well as the very sad ones. It’s a different style of writing, almost like Jonathan Safran Foer’s style but not really. Markus Zusak does have Foer’s incredible talent of making the characters very lifelike, as if you were in their shoes.
It’s narrated by Death and tells the story of a girl, Liesel, living in Nazi Germany in World War II who loves books and happens to steal them. Hence the name of the book. It’s fantastic and it’s another one of those books that I keep telling people about and that they must read it.
I mean, the narrator “ruins” the ending half way through the book but you still love him for it. Even if the narrator happens to be Death itself. I am about 3/4 of the way done. I’ll let you know if it goes to shit in the last quarter.
The book I read just before this didn’t garner as much OMGIFUCKINGLOVETHIS as the other books did but it did lead to my ass-kicking-motivational-inner-speech I was given over the holidays. It is called The Last Werewolf, about…you guessed it. The last werewolf. Yeah yeah, I know there are tons of vampire related books out right now and while I’ve managed to read NONE OF THEM (that is right, I have never read the Twilight series–or watched the movies. I deserve an award for that accomplishment.), I succumbed to this book based on reviews from readers.
They were all right when they said it was really well written and had a very interesting, much more grown up plot. If you don’t like sex, especially if written about often and pretty graphically, then you won’t like this book. But I really enjoyed the book; it was interesting, almost realistic in the author integrated the werewolves and vampires into modern day life and I liked the characters. Which is pretty much essential for me to like a book–I have to freaking love the characters, which I did in all three of these books. (I guess you should say, all five if you count the trilogy?)
Those are my books of note, that I insist you go out and read. And since it is my goal to read at least two books a month, what are some books that you think I MUST read?
Update: I finished The Book Thief last night after writing this and well…incredible. I ugly cried the entire way through the last quarter of the book, to the point where I couldn’t read anymore. Despite being told–TWICE–how the book would end prior to the ending by the narrator. It’s a must read.
All images are courtesy of Amazon.com. If you want more info on the books, just click on the pictures! I linked up with their Amazon pages.
On New Years Eve, the last day of a year that I’d personally would love to forget existed, the winds in Boulder picked up to ridiculous, can’t-even-walk speeds. It was as if Boulder wanted to get rid of 2011 just as badly as I did, blowing it out of town along with any extra leaves that were hanging about. While it restricted my fashion choices to pants (because I’d like to keep my flashing to a minimum), the wind made me smile. To sound completely cliche, I felt it was the winds of change.
2011 wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t stellar either. A friend texted me just before midnight on Saturday, asking her friends what their one word to describe 2011 would be. I immediately wanted to write crap but how cynical and bitter would that be? It’s taken me two days but my word?
Intense.
2011 seemed to do things in the extremes. There were the highs–the trips to New York, my new apartment, outings with friends and quite a bit of laughter as I settled into my second year in Boulder. But they were countered with lowest of lows–severe anxiety, heartbreak and the worst depression I’ve had since I was 16. Not to mention my writing on this blog was a balancing act, constantly teetering over the edge into writer’s block and full months of a disappearing act.
All of it was…intense.
Was it a learning experience? All of it, 100%. Would I repeat it? Absofuckinglutely not.
So it’s with open arms that I am embracing 2012. It’s a year of milestones–I turn THIRTY, will be leaving the country for the first time in over two years (nearly three by the time I do leave! FOR CHINA.) and am planning on making some major changes to my life. For Christmas I received an unexpected gift–a Kindle. I had been under the impression that my Barcelona chair was my Christmas gift and was told multiple times that the chair was the only gift I’d be receiving. Fine with me, I’m pretty much in love with it, so it was a nice surprise when I received my Kindle.
Now where the hell am I going with this? Well, I now am obsessed with this little gadget and have been reading nonstop (which is fantastic since one of my goals for the new year is to read more!). One of the books I read was The Last Werewolf and while it may not seem like a book that would inspire, it kind of kicked me in the ass–a reminder that hey, Ashley. Life isn’t forever. WHY ARE YOU LIVING A LIFE YOU DON’T LIKE AND ENJOY?
How I got that from a book about a werewolf is baffling to even me, but I will take whatever ass-kicking motivation I can get. I have been mired in this stupid depression for a couple months now and it was this pretty forceful inner voice telling me to get the fuck over it and start DOING something about it that snapped me out of that black hole.
My goal for 2012? Create a life that I love. Not just a life that’s content. That’s decent. I have been so blessed in the past with all that I’ve experienced. I can look back and say, yeah I’ve lived a good life. I’ve traveled a lot, lived a life in NYC that most people only dream about, worked on awesome projects, lived on a beach, met some amazing people. 2011 was a blip on that screen, the unadventurous year with no exceptional qualities about it except that I probably cried more in that year than I have in the past few years combined.
You know what? I DON’T LIKE CRYING. So 2012 is going to be all smiles, adventure, putting my life back on track. Having fun, keeping old friendships from across the country as strong as ever (I have TWO girls weekends planned! One in New Orleans for my 30th and one on St. Simon’s Island for my friend’s 30th) and developing meaningful new relationships and further establishing my life here in Boulder.
There’s no resolutions this year. There is only doing. What are you doing this year?
A sidenote: I’m really excited about two new blogging projects that I’m starting on. One is Twelve Changes, a community blog with about 50 other bloggers about the Twelve Changes we’re making in ’12! The second project is close to my heart, something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time: a travel blog. I’m in the process of designing, writing and getting it up there but watch for The Wanderscapes!
