HAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY LANA!

My good friend Lana just had her 21st birthday so, OF COURSE!, we totally had to celebrate! Sarah and I ended up suprising her with a night on the town...and what did we do you may ask? First we got fed and filled ourselves up on yum yum pizza at Sarah's house...can you say...stuffed crust? MMM! The we went to the comedy club WISE GUYS in Ogden where we saw a really talented, and might I add, quite hilarious, comic. His name was Marcus from Salt Lake City and he was actually the runner up on last season's television show The Last Comic Standing....sOOO funny! It was quite a treat seeing him perform. We could barely breathe throughout his entire act...we were practically hyperventilating! For everyone's benefit and so you all can see exactly how funny this guy is I will be posting a video clip of him at the end of this blog so be sure to scroll down and check it out. After leaving the comedy club, we rented a cute movie called 'Yes, Definitely, Maybe' and watched it at Sarah's where we also enjoyed some very delicious cheesecake. Was for sure a very lovely evening and a very funny one at that! :D

Fabulous VaCaS!

Recently I took a trip to Savannah, GA and St. Louis, MO to visit a couple friends for 8 days over Halloween weekend. :D I hadn't been to either place before so it was def an experience! Georgia wasn't QUITE as humid as I expected it to be, but enough that my hair didn't want to cooperate most of the time. :P Nikki, an old friend from highschool was who I went to go see first. I was super excited to see her fam too since I hadn't seen them for sooo long! They pretty much used to be my second family. Halloween night was awesome! Her brother, Dane, spend 2 entire days setting up a gigantic bonfire...literally, the thing was 6 feet tall before we even lit it! And then of course when he DID light it, the thing was MASSIVE! VERY KEWL for all those pyros out there!

After the fire died down and we had all visited for a couple hours we got all dressed up in our costumes and headed to the club for dancing! YAY! If you can't already tell, I was a vampiress! :D

The day after Halloween we went into downtown Savannah and strolled around all the little shops, curbside booths, and restaurants by the riverside and I bought me some OOBER yummy salt water taffy. MMM! Gotta love that stuff!

Then the next day it was OFF to St. Louis to see my close buddy, Ryan! He took me to the St. Louis Gateway arch that was AMAZING! The thing is 630 ft tall making it the tallest national monument in the United States. CRAZY huh? We even got to take a ride up in the oldschool elevators up the very top. What an awesome view. I could have hung out up there all day long!

Next day we went to the Saint Louis Art Museum...now those who know me best will know I thoroughly enjoyed this place. I didn't wanna leave! I even found one of Picasso's pieces, not to mention a few of Monet's and Van Gogh's....GENIUS's! True inspirations to me.

There were even 3 REAL mummies in there as well...I spent a wad of time checking those out too. I love stuff like that...learning about how people used to do things and their beliefs about the afterlife is extremely intriguing to me. The portion of my trip with Ryan was quite short which I was sad about but we def had a lot of fun and made the most out of every moment. Overall....What a great trip! It was really great getting out of town for a week. Really rejuvinated me! :D

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS A SARAH!

A really good friend of mine, Miss Sarah, recently had a birthday so Lana and I decided to grab her up one night and take her out for a night on the town. First, we went to a lil' independently owned pizza place in downtown SLC of which I absolutely LOVE. SOOO DELICIOUS! After we stuffed our bellies full of the two pizzas we shared we headed over to the Gateway Mall and wandered around for a couple hours to make room for dessert. And where did we go for dessert you may ask? Why to the best place for dessert! The CHEESECAKE FACTORY! YUM! WE got one choco brownie and the other a lemon cream with raspberry sauce....they were SOO rich! But we finished those suckers off! To finish the night off we headed back over to Lana's place and played a couple card games...as we are quite addicted to board games and cards n such-we're such nerds, and I love it! :D If you ask me, I'd say the night was fully successful!

BE HEARD!

YES! Its official! I have done my civic duty by getting out and voting...EARLY that is! YES! Tuesday morning my dad and I went to the local library and cast our votes. He did it mostly for convenience, I did it because I will be out of town on election day and I wanted to be sure I got my vote in. It was crazy... the purpose of early voting is so you don't have to wait in long lines on election day but we ended up waiting in line for almost an hour and the line wrapped clear around the library. I'm sure the lines will be a lot worse on the actual day..but STILL! Was good to get it done and out of the way...especially since I feel that this election is an extremely important one. Therefore I strongly urge everyone out there who wasn't planning on voting to do it! Though its too late to get registered...if you are, then do it do it do it!!! Let you're voice be known....anonymously! haha.

Road trip, Bday, Halloween Treats, Autumn, and a Postcard.....

WOWZA its been quite the while since I've updated this thing. SOOO seeing as how I have the day off, I figure this is the time to get caught up! OK...First things first...

IN the end of last month (Sept) Cheryl, Kenzie, and I ventured up to Oregon and Washington for a few days. IT was a short trip...but we def had a lot of fun! The day we left Cheryl ended up driving the entire way up to Portland throughout the night...that's 12 entire hours! How insane is she? But I was truly grateful because I was exhausted. Anywho...we stopped in Portland so we could visit Cheryl's old friend Ninna and all of her ADORABLE kiddos. MAN...I wanted to steal her 2 lil boys! SO ADORABLE! WE went to lunch with them and then went to a nearby park and had quite the time! haha who knew a lil playground could be so much fun!?! Once our visit with Ninna ended Cher, Kenz, and I hauled our buns to a town called Puyallup, in WA. Pronounced Pee-ya'll-up....yeah try saying THAT 10 times fast! The town was near Tacoma and the reason for being there was because we had a hotel reservation for the night. It was sooo nice sleeping in a nice comfy bed that night, rather than the passenger car seat like the previous night! The next day we all spent some time at a Family Fun center that was basically a GIGANTIC arcade and play area for kids and outdoors there were mini golf courses, a few rides and go-karting tracks. We had a ball...as you can see in our wacky pics. Check out all those tickets I won by winning a jackpot in the arcade! Nearly 2,000!



That evening, after stuffing our faces at a nearby Wendy's...lol..we arrived at our Aunt Janice's house in Maple Valley (We stayed with her for the last 2 nights). The next day was my favorite day...we didn't even do very much but we hung out and visited with our Aunt Jan and Uncle Mark and Cousin Megan. Megan has a new pup named Laslo we played with a lot as well as their old lil pup Rambo.


The next day we slept late and headed home...of course Cheryl and I got turned around so our already 12 hr drive ended up being about 15-16 hrs....GAH I thought we were going to DIE because the drive was never ending! But yes, eventually we got home....6am i believe!...and so here we are. Was totally worth the trip...I miss everyone up in WA already!



NEXT!...



My Mother's birthday was September 13th so all of us kids..and the sons in law...and grandkid...lol...got together to take our mom out to dinner and CELEBRATE! WOO! Of course we did this a month later than her actually birthday! haha I felt so bad for doing it so late but everyone is so busy these days and everyone's schedules like to clash but we finally did it! We went to a restaurant in downtown SLC called Z-tejas...mmm! SOO good! Mostly a latin-recipe based restaurant. IT was GREAT seeing everyone! Mom even brought a date....MR. JOE! I don't know his last name...but Joe is a great guy. We all had fun catching up with everyone and goofying off as we always do! And the food was DELISH! I ordered a spanish-versioned macaroni and cheese dish and oh man! I couldn't stop myself! Overall everything was fantastic and I can't wait to get everyone together again! :D





NEXT~~~



I LOVE Halloween! I usually dread this time of year because summer has passed and the weather starts to cool down much more rapidly than I would like...but Halloween time is always so much fun! The other night we came home to see a note on our door and a bowl of halloween goodies! MMM MMM!!! Our neighbors are the best! As you can see we wasted no time in digging in to the stuff...how can you resist rice crispy treats and salt water taffy?!? The note contained two pieces of paper...the first: a picture of a couple ghosts that we're supposed to hang on the outside of our door or in the window, the second: had a cute lil poem giving us instructions to make a present or some treats and deliver them to 2 other houses that do not have ghosts hanging on their door. The point being that we pass on the favor...YAY! I remember doing these kinds of things when we were little and I always loved it! I think my favorite part was that when delivering treats you are supposed to remain unseen so ringing the doorbell and running away quick was quite fun! haha....I don't think I'll ever get sick of stuff like this!

NEXT!~!~



Every year I cannot get used to what happens in the Fall. The trees are always sooo GORGEOUS!!! Look how amazing these leaves are! I took these photos from the rooftop (yes, I got some strange looks from the neighbors...haha!) of the japanese maple we have outfront of our house. I can't believe that a plant can turn such a beautiful color! I'm in awe....haha and I'm a nerd! awe well...i got some beautiful photos...neenerneener~!

And LAST but not LEAST!...



A close friend of mine, Stephanie, recently moved to Boston...LORDY I miss that girl! But we still keep in touch and text every few days. The other day I came home to some mail of mine waiting on the table top and I found a postcard from my Steph! Its such a simple thing but it totally made my day!...of course it made me miss her more, but it made me more appreciative of our friendship. Basically she was telling me about how she isn't used to living on the East Coast and having to deal with the crazy drivers out there. But I thought Utah drivers were bad? hahaha Perhaps those are worse! Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to find a good flight deal and go visit my good friend. Until then, I guess this postcard will have to do. :D

THE GRADUATE

A couple months ago, my sister Cheryl and I attended a small concert where one of my favorite indie bands played (Nightmare of You)- of which I HIGHLY recommend to everyone...I LOVE those guys! Touring with them were a few other indie bands from across the country and one band in particular from Chicago I fell in LOVE with! Their name..THE GRADUATE! After they were done playing I was so blown away that I immediately made my way over to the bands' merchandise table and bought myself their CD. Once I got home I listened to it and since I have been listening nonstop (with a few exceptions...;)..and I'm not even sick of it yet! AMAZING! One of their songs caught my attention immediately because I can entirely relate to the lyrics and they describe the EXACT way I've been feeling for quite a long time. SOOO I thought I might share the song with you all and I strongly encourage everyone who is interested to look these guys up and get into their stuff. They're amazingly talented.





The Graduate - I Survived lyrics

This is goodbye
After months of situating
I can finally leave this sorry town behind
And I'm alright
When they ask for me
My friends can smile and tell the world
That I survived
As I'm about to leave
I fill a million empty pages
Pass my word and do my best to sing
So what do I need?
To show what could become of those
Who think and talk and live like me

I don't want to die today!
I want to live and love and write it down
I can live a life of dreams
And be grateful I'm around

This is goodbye
After months of careful planning
I can finally leave this dried up town behind
And I'm alright
This used to be our city!
This used to be our only light!

I just want to walk away
I want to write, but there's a consequence
That all my friends read everything I do and I say
I don't need to reign supreme
All I need are sounds of ecstasy

And I won't die today!
I'll be living and loving and writing down
And I'll live a life of dreams
And be grateful I'm around.

Bear Lake camping excursion!

Ok folks, so last month a couple good friends of mine (Sarah & Lana) and I drove up to Bear Lake to camp. Though we only stayed for one night...BOY did we have a lot of fun! We arrived late afternoon, which gave us plenty of time to get our campsite set up and ready before the sun got too low that we couldn't see what we were doing. Once the sun did eventually go down we got a SUPER SWEET fire blazing...I was quite proud of ourselves!...and we roasted hotdogs and munched on yummy smores-a MUST for camping! Once the fire eventually simmered down we retreated into our tent to play a few games of cards and soon after conked out from our long drive (not too long, but still!) and our rapidly decreasing sugar high. The following morning, Sarah decided to get up at 5 am... :O!... to see if she could snag some good pictures of the sunrise...and OH MAN she got some really amazing shots! There are FAR too many to show you them all, but here are a few of my faves!
After sleeping in a bit more we all got up and packed up all of our stuff and drove over the beach arena. We had so much fun in the water! We swam all the way to the booies (SP?) and back. I guess thats not TOO much of an accomplishment, but its still a pretty good work out! The water was sooo freezing though I had to go back to Lana's car to get my blankie...No doubt I looked PRETTY SILLY wearing a big blanket on the beach while everyone else was running around in their bathing suits! lol
The rest of the time we played more card games on the beach and munched on our left over food we had brought up before we packed everything up and headed home. As short as it was, it was definitely a fun trip! The only bad thing about it, when we were at the beach, all three of us completely forgot about putting on sunscreen and YES, we SEVERELY paid for that! Major sunburns on all of us. :( Next time, I will be SLATHERING the stuff on!

Until next time....ASH

Very first blog!

HELLO HELLO everyone! I've decided to create a blog since this will be my last year in Utah. As many of you already know, I've been accepted into The University of the Arts London, Camberwell School of Arts in London, UK. Originally I was suppose to start attending classes this fall but unfortunately I was unable to go due to lack of funding so I had to defer my placement in the program til next year. So since I have a little more extra time here I am going to try to make the most of it and with this blog I will be able to document it and keep everyone informed. I've already had a few exciting things happen this summer...of which I'll blog about soon enough and post some pics. SO there you have it! Stay tuned folks! More is DEF on the way and no doubt it will get interesting. :D