Hooked on Phonics

It rained yesterday and melted some of the snow in Virginia away. An entire world was revealed to me once the snow was gone. Before everything looked the same – white. Now I can see the houses and it makes driving around much more enjoyable. It’s not as cold as I feared it would be either. Overall, a great turn of events for this vacation.

Christmas with the Trone’s was fun – I missed being at home with my family (2 years in a row now I’ve been away!) but I did get some yummy and nice presents and ate some good food.

The best news is that this trip has afforded me lots of time to read – I finished one 270 page book already and just started another this morning. Both are by Tom Robbins and I like them a lot. Woohoo for reading. It’s been over a year since I finished an entire book and it feels good to be back in the swing of reading again. I hope I keep it up when we get back to Austin and have been thinking about how to stick to that resolution of sorts all week.

Considering these thoughts, we had an oddly appropriate conversation after dinner on Christmas discussing how we all learned to read. Was it phonics or simply a visual memory of words? Oddly enough not many of us could even recall how we learned to read (actually only one claimed that they did remember). I just found it funny because I know that most people in the conversation are avid readers and yet I don’t think many of us had ever stopped to think about how we learned this magical talent. I remember how I learned to ride a bike but not read. Such an odd thought to me. Anyway, I’m pretty sure it was phonics and the entire conversation started over one of those pens that kids have now that read the words for them. The idea is that they hear and see the word and will remember it the next time they see it?

Honestly, I’m skeptical. Sound it out, junior. Kkkkkk-aaaaaaa-tttttt – CAT!

There were a lot of great passages in the last book I read but this is my favorite. It’s from Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins:

“Who knows how to make love stay?
1. Tell love you are going to Junior’s Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay.
2. Tell love you want a memento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a mustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay.
3. Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning.”

That’s all for now. Nighty night.

Eating Out = Better than cooking

If you know me at all you know that I LOVE to cook. I have literally only cooked maybe 4 times since we moved over 3 weeks ago. My cousin Molly mentioned that she saw I had been writing a lot of reviews on Yelp and I realized yikes…we’ve been eating out a lot! I counted…We have lived in this house for 2 weeks as of tomorrow and have eaten out 13 times. That’s once a day except for that one day that I made breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don’t even want to add up my receipts to see the monetary damage we have done. There's also the physical damage to consider – gained about 2 pounds at this point. Is it horrible that I think 2 pounds is good considering the BBQ, burgers, tacos and beer that we have been consuming? I am proud though – I have gone to Weight Watchers two times since moving back and faced the scale. I figure as long as I keep seeing my weight go up I can’t deny it? hahahah…Hopefully this method works when we get back from Virginia and I get off my butt and back on track. I did go jogging this morning…that’s got to count for something…

Tomorrow is my big family Christmas party that happens every year. I’m excited to see everyone and showing Max off to family is always fun...lol. After the party we are having official Christmas gift exchange at my mom’s house in Poteet. The next morning we wake up and drive to San Antonio for official gift exchange at my dad’s in San Antonio. Then (SIGH) we drive back to Austin and Monday morning we leave for Virginia for 2 weeks. I’m DEVASTATED because Clementine has to stay with my dad while we are away. The puppy plane ticket was going to be $300…WTF airlines? The dog rides in a container under a freaking seat where my FEET are supposed to go…how can you charge that much? It’s ridiculous when you think about it…my plane ticket pays for my feet to reside in that area but I have to pay more to not put my feet there? Ugh.

Anyway…signing off for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend and gets their Xmas shopping done!

I <3 Gruene Hall

Last night we went to Gruene Hall (in Gruene, TX) for a singer songwriter night hosted by this artist that I used to like a lot right out of high school. I actually learned about him while interning at a small publicity company in San Marcos, TX. I’m fairly certain that this was actually my very first internship in the music business…the summer after my freshman year of college. In fact, I saw the woman that I interned for at the show and spoke to her briefly. Crazy!

Anyway…so we went to see him (Adam Carroll) and a couple of other guys just swapping off playing their songs to a little crowd in the bar area of the dance hall. It was so fun! Max definitely had a great time as well – it was totally the type of thing that he loves to do. In fact, he bought a CD from each of the 3 guys and is downstairs this morning listening to one of them already. The show was free, the beers were $3 and the place was heated entirely by a wood burning cast iron heater in the middle of the room. The place has aged so perfectly – it’s exactly what I think of when I remember being a kid and going to rodeo dances with my mom, grandma and grandpa. The paint is peeling off the walls, not one single door or window fits in to its frame or can fully close and the main hall has walls made of chicken wire…and everyone likes it just the way it is. In fact, I’m convinced that it actually requires a lot of upkeep because of its age (built in 1878) but they only fix enough to keep it from falling apart. In summary, I love it. I hope we go back regularly…especially once we learn how to dance.

My funny family

I’m already having a blast spending more time with my family. My niece, Sarah, helped us move over the weekend and we had the best sing along to the Taylor Swift CD ever – I’m glad that I have channeled my 15 year old self through that album and can easily identify with Sarah who is 12.

The funniest part of the moving experience with her was when we arrived to the new house. She had already seen pictures and was talking about how much she absolutely LOVED it and once we got here her opinion did not change at all. She claimed the guest bed and bathroom as hers and decorated the bathroom for me. The most hilarious thing she discovered that day was what she called her escape route from upstairs. The living room in this house has a loft area upstairs outside of the master bedroom that will eventually be my full time office when I get a desk. There is a railing that looks down in to the living room and kitchen. While we were up there she said, “Aunt Ashley, I figured out a way for you to sneak out from up here if you ever need to!” Basically, this involved climbing over the railing and walking along the wall upstairs then jumping from the wall to the top of the kitchen cabinets. Once there, you simply walk across the cabinets and climb out the window. Your feet never need to touch the ground! Why I would need this escape route, I did not understand but Max later decided it was in case the stairs were ever on fire. Good job, Sarah!

Next up in the funny family stories is my wonderful mother. I was telling her that I want to go shopping during the day when work isn’t too busy but I’m afraid to get a phone call from a client and it be too loud where I am at the time. She solved this problem right away. I simply need to carry around a large paper bag with me. If someone calls I put the paper bag over my head and tada, the outside noise instantly becomes a less obvious. Genius really…but what would the people at Target think of a person standing with a paper bag on their head? Unfortunately, she did not have an answer for that. ;)

Here are a few pictures of Sarah's escape route and of our house. These are the only two rooms that have furniture and not tons of boxes filling them so until we fix that, this is all you can see.

New House

Working from home

I know that I have much more important things to report on however currently I am most proud of my morning activities. Today is only the second official day working from home and I woke up at 8am, drank coffee and ate breakfast, actually took a shower and put real clothes on (and deodorant!) and am now working. Well…clearly I’m blogging at this exact moment but I am at the desk taking a break from working. I’m so proud of not wearing sweat pants all day.

Though, I did just realize I forgot to brush my teeth. Baby steps people!

We have arrived!

We have arrived in Texas! Wooohoooo!! Currently, Max and I are at my mom’s house in Poteet, Texas – the town where I grew up. We are gearing up to look for rental houses this weekend but at this current moment I am stationed on the recliner in the living room protecting my mom’s two wimpy dogs from Clementine. Bailey is her biggest fan and will not stop licking her vagina and Bridget is completely terrified – I just had to coax her out from under the chair by promising her complete protection from the big bad Clem.

ANYWAY – now for an update on what happened over the past week.

Friday was our last day in the Live Nation office. I was at work for approximately 3 hours. That night we had our going away / birthday bowling party. The night started at The Well, our faithful bar downstairs from work. Then we bowled the night away with a TON of friends/coworkers – it was a lot of fun and I was so happy at how many people came out. I can’t wait to see the pictures that Julie took!

The next day we packed up the U-Haul with a few friends and ate some delicious pizza from our favorite place, Palamero. YUM. And again, so happy to have a few friends willing to help us load that truck up. It made the day SO much better. Sunday was my 27th birthday and the day we left L.A. It was a fairly uneventful day…as expected I suppose. We stopped for an early dinner in a place called Blythe, CA and went to some random local diner instead of a fast food place. The waitress was so sweet and when she found out it was my birthday she put a candle on our carrot cake and made the 3 other people working there come out and sing. This was particularly sweet because we were the only people eating there at the time – the place was DEAD. It really made my day though so a big thanks to Courtesy Coffee Shop in Blythe. I have to say that in general though, my birthday was a total bust this year. Max and Tony both got me books and Julie made a really awesome picture collage thingie of Los Angeles. All wonderful gifts but guess what – that was IT this year. I didn’t get as much as a card from my mom, dad or sister/niece. RUDE! If it wasn’t for Facebook I have a feeling I would have gotten even less. Owell though, right? It’s not like 27 is all that important anyway.

We arrived in San Antonio on Tuesday night and as we finally exited I-10 (all the way from LA to SATX!) this song came on the radio that went “Is anybody going to San Antone?” Perfect timing! Wednesday we unloaded our belongings in to my dad’s storage unit and ate Mexican food TWICE in one day. We had a great late birthday dinner with my dad and stepmom and my dad made me a lemon birthday cake...which we were too full to eat. So, we ate it for breakfast on Thanksgiving and it was DELICIOUS. We followed up the birthday cake breakfast with THREE Thanksgiving meals. 11:30am at my stepmom’s sister’s house, 2pm at my Uncle’s house and 4pm at my mom’s. I was so full after each meal…and was in extreme discomfort at the end of the night.

Sarah (my niece) just woke up so now it is time to go. Below is a link to some pictures from the drive…they are taken from the iphone so not perfect but better than nothing! I loved the windmills in Eastern CA and again in the middle of nowhere West Texas. Clem made herself very comfortable around the car and was forced to pee in the designated “pet area” despite the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere with empty land all around us. We found a stuffed jackalope in NM and mariachis sang in San Antone.

Drive to TX

The Final Days

So here we are with 3 days left in LA. Today is Thursday – tonight we go to Jason’s for dinner. Tomorrow is Friday and will be our last day in the office (and Max’s last day at Live Nation) then after work we are having a going away bowling party that should be AWESOME. Saturday we pick up the U-Haul to load it up and Sunday morning we leave. The cubicle is packed and walls are bare – the house is packed and boxes are taking over.

I consider myself a pretty nostalgic person. I like to reminisce about “the old days” and things like that. People have been asking me if I will miss Los Angeles and honestly, I don’t think that I will. However, I know that I will feel nostalgic about a lot of things. I won’t necessarily want to revisit these places but I will think about the times that I spent there and remember how happy or sad I might have been at that point. With this in mind, I have compiled a list of things I think I will “miss” the most. I also felt it necessary to point out the things that I will not miss. Enjoy. :)

Things that I will miss:
- The view from the Griffith Observatory and the hike up to the top.
- Barnsdall Art Park right by my house. I’ve loved exercising there and the views of the hills above Los Feliz are gorgeous.
- The weather. I’m pretty sure I will never live somewhere like this again – 75 degrees pretty much all year and oh so much sun.
- The beach. Texas has a coast but it’s just not the same as the ocean here.
- The endless options for Thai food and tacos.
- The over abundance of flip flop wearing people. Angelinos love flip flops. I understand that the entire world wears flip flops these days but I have never been to a place where they were accepted as year round attire. I have on more than one occasion seen a man wearing a full on business suit with flip flops. And Travis…well he wears flip flops pretty much every day with every outfit. I think the only time I saw him in real shoes was at Dang’s wedding.
- Northern California. I know it’s not LA and I didn’t live there but MAN I love the Northern coastline of this state. Big Sur and everything around that area must be one of the most beautiful places in this world.
- The mountains and hills – the landscape here is really so pretty. Though…sometimes it’s all burnt to a crisp and that’s not that pretty.
- The people at work. Each person has their own weird little quirks and being in an office full of them has been a pretty fun experience. I bet they will not miss me yelling at them to turn down their music though…
Things that I will not miss:
- The homeless people and how cracked out they are. No, really – NY had a lot of homeless people but here they yell at themselves and others a lot more. I’ve always had this fear of walking by a sedate homeless person on the street and then they attack me out of nowhere. Well, I saw it happen on my way to work here one day to a woman on the sidewalk. Scary.
- The traffic at all hours of every day.
- The expensive apartments with annoying neighbors. I want a YARD!
- The lack of trees on the streets in certain parts of town. We need some shade here!
- Working on the 17th floor of an office building in a city where there are earthquakes.
o Working in a cubicle in the middle of 40 other cubicles
o Working in a room with only fluorescent lights
- The people that come here looking for that “Hollywood” oh so cool life style. You are ruining this city. Going to night clubs and wearing designer sun glasses does not make you cool. Having head shots does not make you an actor, musician or anyone really. Try to come back to reality…aka get your head OUT of your ass!

That’s it for today – updates to come once we’re on the road or in Texas!

The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar

I’m starting to remember the things that I love most about Texas. People who hear that we’re moving and have never been or are just small minded like to react “Texas, ugh…why?” Then, when I tell them my entire family lives there they say oh, well that makes sense I guess. Unfortunately, they are missing part of the point of our move. We’re not JUST moving to be closer to my family. We are moving for a different life and for those of you that are un-aware being in Middle America does not mean that life sucks. Texas is not a place where republicans sit on every corner cursing you for not attending church last weekend. Just like any other place there are extremists but mostly, people are just really nice and polite. They are proud of their home state and the wonderful things there.

For example, I stumbled upon an amazing looking Christmas event that takes place in Austin called The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. Armadillo?! Can you imagine a festival in Los Angeles or New York featuring an armadillo or any animal for that matter? It just doesn’t sound very cool…and yet, I bet it will be! I love how unpretentious it seems.

I am so excited to be around for the time of year when every little town has their special festival. The infamous Strawberry Festival in my hometown of Poteet, the Peanut Festival in Floresville, and the list goes on and on. Don’t even get me started on the rodeo’s…I can’t remember the last time I went to one but I do remember how much I LOVED them.

So, in short – Texas is going to be AWESOME. Max and I are going to be able to afford to rent a house with a yard for what we pay to live in shoe box here and we are both so excited to embrace the new life style. I might make him start wearing cowboy boots and we’ve already discussed western dance lessons. Watch out Dancing with the Stars…

Sorry if this is boring

We had a great week last week…so great that I wasn’t annoyed enough by anything or anyone to prompt a blog entry. No witty observations this time. Here are the highlights:

Thursday we went to House of Blues to see Dinosaur Jr. – whoa was that loud. I don’t know any of their music but Max really wanted to go so I agreed…over the past week I’ve come to realize that they are a total guy band. We went to dinner with Jessica/Mike and mentioned that we went to the show – Mike and Max talked about it for at least 15 minutes while Jessica and I moved on after about 2 (where we both basically agreed that they were too loud). Max had fun though and that’s what counts, right? Right…

Friday we ate at Father's Office for lunch - YUM! The Office Burger was amazing and so worth the thousands of calories that I'm sure it contained. You should go there if you haven't been before. Excellent beer as well.

Friday night was the Pixes at the Palladium. That was a great show! I was on celebrity watch that night and spotted Jillian from The Biggest Loser, Brian Posehn, Jessica Alba, the drummer from No Doubt and Tim and Eric from…the Tim and Eric show? Again…I think that show is a guy thing because I’m clueless.

I think those two shows are the last we will go to while here in LA…sad, but true.

Saturday and Sunday I packed and it was AWESOME. I love looking at shelves half full and seeing the boxes start to pile up in the dining room…it makes this all finally very real. We moved our departure date back to Sunday instead of Monday after finally realizing the drive is going to take much longer than we want it to. So, now we’re less than 2 weeks away. :)

Silly String

I saw this amazing sign on Sunset just west of Vine. There were a few of them around this area notifying citizens of the illegality of silly string. I just can’t believe the city of Los Angeles actually had to print and post signs about silly string.

Halloween was fairly uneventful, just as I predicted. We went to a movie at the Arclight and had dinner at the best Thai place in LA, Jitlada. My food was so spicy I could barely eat it (it actually made me a little dizzy) but I still love the place.

While we were out I was reminded of another one of the sad facts of life when you live in a large city. The kids can’t really trick or treat! I completely forgot about this until I saw a swarm of children dressed up trick or treating to the local markets and restaurants. How sad is that…you take your children walking up and down the sketchiest part of Sunset Boulevard to collect candy from Janice’s Mini Mart and El Pollo Loco. They did this in New York too but for some reason it wasn’t as sad to me…seeing as the entire downstairs portion of the city is made up of businesses. This is just yet another reason to not raise children in the middle of the city. Or, if you’re going to do it, at least have the sense to drive them to a local rich neighborhood with houses! Come on people.

The aftermath of Halloween was very evident on Sunday morning as these same kids obviously ate candy and dropped the wrappers as they walked down the street. Wrappers everywhere and Clem tried to lick every single one of them.

Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween and Max and I currently have no plans. He actually has the entire day off which is a rarity with his lame job and I have no idea what we’re going to do. I think I’ve decided to just skip Halloween this year. Everything that I think of to do sounds just horrible and not fun. I don’t want to go to West Hollywood and deal with the crowds and traffic just to see a bunch of men dressed as various Disney princesses (no offense…they look great…but still). I also don’t feel like drinking. I briefly considered going to see Halloween at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery but then was reminded that will also require battling crowds and traffic. No thanks. Honestly, what I REALLY want to do is either go trick or treating or hand out candy for trick or treaters. Neither of these is a real option since I have no kids to take trick or treating and live in an apartment building where any sane person would be hesitant to knock on a neighbor’s door looking for candy.

So, I’m pretty sure we might just end up having a mellow day sorting through our belongings in preparation for packing and relaxing. Oh, and we recorded about 5 different scary movies on DVR to watch. That sounds like a plan. A plan fit for old people like us. Hopefully next year we will be living in a cute little house and I’ll be able to decorate it for the holiday and give out candy. Woohoo – here’s to hoping.

3 weeks from today will be our last day in the office. Last week it was 4 weeks and I thought man, that’s a loooong time from now. But man the week flew by and now it’s 3 weeks and next week will pass and it will be 2 and…well you get the picture. It’s sneaking up on me very fast and is a little bitter sweet which I definitely did not expect to feel.

Just for giggles I'm attaching a picture from a pho place that Max and I like. Maybe you'll figure out why it's funny...maybe not. I hope you do.

Things I learned today at work

Ralph thinks Bobby should like lettuce wraps because he is Asian
Bobby thinks Ralph should like mayonnaise wraps because he is black

Damon likes to listen to Brian McKnight

Tony can be surprisingly polite on the phone (who knew?!)

Ralph’s driver’s license does not expire until 2040. How is this even possible.

Russell buys CDs from Amoeba, burns them to his computer and then returns them immediately for a 75% return rate. Interesting idea to obtain music for cheap….

Amphitheatre season really drives our daily work load. Amphitheatre season is over so…yeah.

I’m really going to miss the office antics. Maybe I should tape record some daily activity so when I’m sitting at home alone working this next year I can keep myself entertained.

Passive Aggressive Behavior

Friday night I went to see Ben Gibbard (from Death Cab for Cutie) and Jay Ferrar (from Son Volt) perform together at The El Rey with Max and Tony. The show was actually really great but about a quarter of the crowd was extremely questionable. I knew this was going to be the case before going to the show because so many annoying kids now love Death Cab and I figured many of them would not even know who Son Volt was or that the collaboration would not sound like their favorite movie and soundtrack, Garden State. I was correct. There were too many kids there – one of which I wanted to stab with something throughout the entire show. He was dancing around when really dancing was not called for and worst of all he kept CLAPPING. Seriously, he clapped on the beat for about 3 songs in a row. I was just about to ask him to please stop when I realized that everyone around me was also talking about how annoyed they were with Mr. Clappy Clapperson. So, instead of directly asking him I took the passive aggressive approach and spoke as loudly as I could to Max and Tony about how annoying his clapping was. His friend overhead me and informed him that he should stop. Success!

Sunday Max and I went to the Rose Bowl to see U2. Once again, I was distracted by the hundreds of thousands of people (96,000 to be exact) and all of their annoying habits/voices/faces. I think I have finally realized that I have some sort of social anxiety disorder…except I don’t always feel anxious. Mostly, I feel annoyed. In large crowds I can barely focus on what my date (poor Max) has to say because I am fixated on what everyone around us is talking about. Occasionally, I actually ask Max to stop talking so that I can listen in. Horrible.

This clearly means that I need to live somewhere with less people. Or, that I should be heavily sedated in crowds. I’ll take the first option. :)

"brand new" toilets

Yesterday, my entire building was outfitted with “brand new” toilets. I put brand new in quotations because that’s the way it was written on the notification left on my door. I can’t help but think…is our manager just stupid and not aware of when using quotations is necessary or are the toilets really “brand new” as in, not new at all but new to me? Either way, I don’t like the new toilet. It’s weird. I’ve lived in this apartment for over a year now and even though the seat on the old toilet was broken it was MY toilet. I feel like I’m living in a stranger’s house now. Hopefully these feelings will pass. I guess if they don’t it’ll be just that much easier to move out in a month!

Speaking of moving, I have channeled my slight obsessive organization disorder in to planning our move. I started a binder with sheet protectors inside to hold important information. So far, this is what the binder consists of: Front of binder has a calendar of the next month with deadlines marked on it. Once inside you will find a to-do list (which has the exact same information as the calendar…) that notes the due date and person that is responsible for each task. Following this there is a list of outstanding questions that I must seek answers for and an inventory list of furniture in our apartment to decide if we should keep trash or attempt to sell. After that the plan fizzles – there are some rates for moving trucks and pictures from West Elm and Crate and Barrel of things that I want in my new life. Oh yes, the back cover of the binder has a map of Austin where I have outlined the neighborhoods and highways to assist in our house hunting.

This is how excited I am about moving – there is really nothing that I can physically do for another couple of weeks so I am obsessing over every tiny thing that might happen. I have a feeling this binder will be very much like my vacation plans – I create itineraries and maps and then half of the time I leave the print outs at my house and everything works out fine without them. I’m sure the binder will be lost in the move but I will continue to work on it diligently nonetheless.

:)

We're moving!

So, it's that time again. Time for a change of scenery! I have officially lived away from home now for 8 years and am finally ready to return to the great state of Texas. In this past 8 years I have lived in two of the largest and most over populated cities in the country - New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.

Some of you might recall my last blog "ashleyinla" and the tales of adventure in my new home. My oh my, how things have changed! I left New York with a mission to find a more simple life and peaceful state of mind. I'm sure most of you knew that LA would not fit that bill but I appreciate everyone letting me give it a shot. To be honest, it was amazing at first. I could drive to the grocery store and no longer had to lug my bags up and down the subway stairs. I watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean and Clementine and I played with dogs in parks across the city. It was sunny here and the weather was perfect. But then reality set in. I didn't live near the beach and once I got a "real" job the time and energy required to do the things that brought me happiness just ceased to exist. I started to see the flaws in this city - the traffic, the smog that we lie and call "marine layer" (but mommy...why is it brown?) and the people that come here from across the world in search of their 15 minutes of fame. I don't want to diss LA too much though - there are awesome people, places and things to do here. Thanks, Jason K for always reminding me of that! Nonetheless, I'm tired of it all. Well, I'm not tired of the myriad of food options or the friends that I have made but the rest of it I can do without!

Most importantly, I have realized that I've consumed myself with work and only work for the past few years. I have Max now and I am so thankful (and lucky!). He has made me remember that time should not be invested solely in work or climbing the corporate ladder but in the people that you love. The majority of the people that I love live in Texas (no offense to loved ones in NY and here in LA). My family is in Texas and I finally grew up enough to realize how important family is! So now, in addition to still seeking out that more simple life I am ready to find that balance
between being great at my job (no really, I'm pretty good!) and being a better girlfriend, sister, daughter, grand daughter and aunt.

So here it goes - in 4.5 weeks Max, Clementine and I will make the drive back half way across the country to make Austin, Texas our new home. I'll still work for Live Nation, for those of you wondering. :)

This blog will chronicle our last month here and the new adventures.

xoxo Ashley