2012 wishlist

2011 had a lot of great things for me. I graduated from the University of Florida, got my first job working in television in a large market, crossed some things off my bucket list, started a blog...kinda stopped it...then started a new one, met a bunch of new people, interned with a great website, started doing Youtube videos, went to Toronto and played mas, and made plenty of investments that I'm sure will stick with me for the long haul as long as I continue to commit. Taking all that into account, I have high hopes for 2012.

To begin with, I have chosen a song to be my theme for the year--judge all you wish, it won't change how I feel about it. I present to you Ashley's Theme for 2012:

Why I Was Here by Beyoncé? The song is, to me, simply a testament to doing the best that you can do, leaving an impact, and quite literally, doing everything that you wanted to do...and that my friends, is exactly what 2012 is going to be about. Rather than giving myself resolutions (though I do have a list of goals and things I'd like to achieve) I'm just going to do my best every single day to achieve everything that I possibly can. For me this is travelling, landing the job of my dreams, getting out of credit card debt, living my life in a fashion that I want to.

I recently did the Meyers-Brigg's personality test and found that I was an ENFJ (Extravert iNtuitive Feeling Judging) and with that knowledge came a better understanding of myself. It's actually kind of dead-on as far as how I work mentally, emotionally--all that stuff, and now armed with that bit of knowledge, I go into 2012 with a better understanding of how I work.

So what does this mean? Maybe nothing to y'all--but to me, it's simply a promise to myself to be the best Ashley that I could be. So here's to achieving goals, living life to the fullest, and having another great year.

Happy New Year's.

because we all want to know

I'll be posting more today, of course, but this is definitely catching my eye (and a bit of my heart if you know my love-love relationship with JGL) and putting me in a fantastic mood as I enjoy my last work day of 2011!

bad things happen in threes

So many things on my mind and it's only 6:12 am. Let me start by saying, I love lists. Absolutely adore them. So I'm breaking down this post into 3 bullet points before diving headfirst into it all in a few paragraphs.

• I almost committed murder this morning.
• My car kinda sorta might have it out for me...but not really.
• People in high school have lost all of their senses and there's no solution.

So...from the beginning.

This morning I woke up 10 minutes before my first alarm. For the record, I have 3 alarms that go off on mornings that I have to work because I have to be at work by 3:45 am which means I need to be out of my bed by 2:15--no big deal. Anyway, I have an early alarm at 1:35 so that my brain is completely ready for the second alarm at 1:45 and then the third alarm at 2:05. It may seem excessive, but those three alarms (all music) ensure that I'm in the best possible mood.

Moving forward, I woke up 10 minutes before my first alarm...now for some people, this may be a terrible thing, but I don't mind it. So, it's 1:25 am, and I'm laying in my bed with my eyes open when I hear it. This terrible sound coming from my younger sister as she grinds her teeth in her sleep. In that moment, all joy that I got from hearing this song (it brings me to pleasant memories of this summer) was GONE. I instantly switched over to I want to kill you mode.

My first defense? Holding her nostrils shut until she opened her mouth to gasp for air then telling her, in my sternest voice, stop grinding your teeth! I then allowed her to go back to sleep and don't you know she starts up AGAIN. This time, I reached into her mouth and manually pulled her teeth apart. SUE ME. So after that, she went back to sleep and didn't do it again...but by that time, I'd left the room to take my shower.

So, on my way to work, I was blasting my music as usual, having a great time. I cross over the bridge to get into Philadelphia for work and because I don't have an EZ-Pass, I always pay the tolls. I give the man my money and head on over before realizing that my window won't go up. Mind you, I'm going around 50 mph, it's about 30 degrees outside, and my heat isn't quite kicking yet. I get over the bridge, still trying to get my window up, and it just won't budge. So now I'm on I-95 and you can't go 50 on I-95. So I'm hitting somewhere around fastenoughtogetpulledoverbutnotquitepushingit and--you guessed it--window still stuck down. So I did what any smart driver does, blast my music 5x louder and hold that button until some action happened.

In time, it did.

Thank GAWD.

And finally...a video that sums up everything that that last bullet point says.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure they're broken up now...but best of luck to them and to her, because I think the whole thing is foolish. Get the hell out of dodge talking 'bout "I absolutely love you" after one week.

Just GET OUT.

mattress loving

This morning while at work, I happened to see a commercial for matresses bought at Sleepy's. As I was listening to the song, it started to bring up memories and I walked over to the TV trying desperately to remember what song was being covered. After 20 minutes of puzzling and a fruitless search on Google for "I love you more lyrics"--completely and totally pointless, roffle--I found other commercials by Sleepy's which eventually lead me to the commercial where as soon as I saw the title of the song, realized who it was by originally: The Beatles.

For your viewing pleasure:



**BONUS**: The commercial that lead me to their Youtube channel is a classic and I'm completely UNsurprised that this is what I ended up watching first, bwahahaha. Can we take note of the GREAT musical choices of the people at Sleepy's? My kinda job...but onto the commercial:

take care

I've really fallen hard for Drake's new CD and especially his new single of the same title, Take Care. I found out the other day that he chose the song with Rihanna to be next and I kinda freaked a little because the song just resonates with me...I know, that calls for some serious judgment, but hear me out on this.

I've asked about you and they told me things
But my mind didn't change yet, I still felt the same
What's a life without fun, please don't be ashamed
I've had mine, you've had yours, we both know, we know


Those lines really meant a lot to me, mostly because I've been the girl in this situation. I've been the girl that a guy had to take care of because someone broke my heart and then I put it all on them...and to say I didn't have the most pristine reputation would be a bit of an understatement...I don't even want to go into it. Anyway, this part of the song, as well as others, really got to me.

I've never been a huge Drake fan, but I've found myself really liking him more and more recently because he's just...relatable. Where Kanye and Jay-Z purposely went out of their way to show off their money in Watch the Throne, Drake has been finding more and more ways to humanize his music and even when he's talking irrationally (like, I'm not dropping 50K on my friends and fam, I don't have a single K to drop...on anything...if I had it, I'd need to drop it on my credit card payment lawdhamercy) he still has a way of making it very...real. I appreciate that.