Weddings, honeymoons, Evanescence, a new job, Montréal, and hockey, oh my!

Okay, so it's been two months since I last updated, but if you'd like to know what I've been doing since my twenty-sixth birthday, you need only read the title of this entry.

1. The main thing (I suppose), is that I got married!  On September 30, 2017 in Wartrace, Tennessee, Jay and I said "I do" before our friends and family.  Most of my paternal family was able to come down from Michigan, as did my dad and most of my siblings up from Georgia, as well as my mom, sister, and aunt, and my second family in Missouri.  It was an amazing day, and none of it would have been possible without my amazing parents-in-law, Ted and Pam.  They're practically perfect in every way.  It was a beautiful, cloudless day, and it was a crackin' good time.  It was also nice just to spend time with my friends and family who live super far away.

2. A week after the wedding, Jay and I left for our honeymoon!  It was amazing.  Times ten.  We spent the first day driving down to Orlando, and then the next three days were at DISNEY WORLD!  Sigh.  I miss it.  Then, after a day at New Smyrna Beach on the east coast, we were off to Universal Studios.  Though we explored the Jurassic Park portion (duh), the main reason for going was, of course, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  And while we loved it, I don't think it quite measured up to the epicness that is Disney World.  But it was still awesome!

3. About a week-and-a-half after we got back from the honeymoon, we headed up to Nashville to see Evanescence!  I hadn't seen them since 2012 (I say "them," but Amy Lee is the only member who was in the band during that concert in St. Louis who is still with them), so it was awesome to see them again.  It was completely different from their usual tour in that they were accompanied by a symphony from Nashville.  A lot of people don't like the new album, but I love it!

4. A little while later, I got a job!  I now work as a service cashier at the Honda dealership in Murfreesboro.  There's more to it than just using a register to cash people out, and I rather enjoy it.  The best part is the people I work with - they're all nuts.

5. Back in April (I think), when I still worked in hell--I mean, my previous place of employment--I purchased concert and plane tickets for one of Bruno Pelletier's shows near Montréal.  Karen drove up from NJ and she met me at the airport.  I spent literally 25 hours in Québec, but it was unforgettable.  We interviewed Bruno before the show for the American fanclub, had super close seats in the front row, and then I was picked to choose one of the last songs of the evening from a super cool box.  It was incredible.

6. Aaaand on November 22, Jay and I headed back to Nashville, this time for my very first hockey game!  I've always loved hockey (it's in my blood), but this was the first time I'd ever been able to see a game live.  It was the Nashville Predators vs. the Montréal Canadiens, my favorite team.  The Habs (the Canadiens' nickname) lost, but it was still really close and super fun.  Now the Habs are playing the Detroit Red Wings (my family team and my second-favorite team) tonight, so I'ma try to watch it!

Aaaand, that's literally about it.  I have a job, which is a huge load off my mind, Christmas is coming, and tomorrow is my mommy's birthday!  Yay!

Round up to 30

Look at me actually remembering to post a blog entry before the end of the month.  Okay, stop looking, I'm shy.

August has been interesting to say the least.  It's the best month of the world, namely because it's my birthday month and also the birthday month of Lauren and Kat, who are eleven and ten days older than me respectively.  (I still think it's the coolest thing in the world that the three of us are so close in age.)  It started off with me neck-deep in a Harry Potter obsession.  (Obviously, it never goes away, but I go through cycles of being obsessed with different things, usually Harry Potter and Titanic.)  I blame Lauren.  Lauren has been drowning in Harry Potter, more so than usual, for months and months and months, and then she grabbed my ankle and pulled me down with her.

The weird thing is that I really can't focus on one "fandom" at a time (though I don't consider Titanic to be a fandom).  I've finally been writing again, but I can't write both my Harry Potter fanfiction and my historical novel (with a smidge of the movie Titanic fanfiction) at the same time.  I know, I've tried.  Hard.  I was wading through my novel, The Edge of the Ocean, and writing quite regularly when Harry Potter reared its beautiful head and pulled me back into the wizarding world.  As per usual, though, it started to fade away, replaced with, you guessed it, Titanic.  So here I am.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

On August 7, I drove about seven-or-eight hours northwest to Missouri.  It was the first time I had been back in a year, though I had seen Lauren and Kat this past March when they came to see me here in Tennessee.  The plan was originally a half-joke by Kat, who asked if we wanted to go see Halestorm at the MO State Fair again, as we did three years ago.  I don't think she was expecting Lauren and I to reply with a resounding, "Hell yeah!"  Originally, I had planned to take Friday off of work and drive up Thursday night after I got off, but because I am currently an unemployed bum, I was able to go earlier in the week to spend more time with Kat and mooch off of her at her apartment.

Mostly we hung around Hannibal, but while she was working on Wednesday I drove up to Kirksville; I can't seem to resist my second-favorite town in the world and the place where my life changed: Truman.  I miss Truman a lot, especially with school starting for everyone else but me.  It was nice to walk around the campus and see the town, but of course, it wasn't the same.  I did get to meet up with my favorite professor and boss, Ron, who showed me around Baldwin, the old disease-filled building that was finally renovated.  I can't help but be a bit bitter that I lived in Baldwin and inhaled its mold and cockroaches, and the year after I graduate, they close it down, and by the next year, it's open and super fancy.  The new language labs are amazing and the peer teaching areas make me want to cry.  Ron was showing me the new labs (I worked in the old ones for two-and-a-half years and often spent my time there in between classes) and I saw a sign I had made and stuck to the printer, probably three years ago.  It made me far too happy to see that it was still there.  Later, as we were walking around McClain, we stopped by the bulletin board for the French department and there were several pictures of me in it, whether from Pi Delta Phi or the French immersion weekend.

I commented, "I know it's silly, but it's nice to see that there is still some small remnant of me here."

Ron replied, "Ashlee, as long as I'm working here, there will always be a remnant of you here."

AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Seriously, that means the world to me.

Anyway, moving on.

Lauren arrived in Hannibal on Thursday evening.  How the town did not explode with the three of us in one place again is beyond me.  Friday was Halestorm day!  We went to see Lauren's dad and stepmom before driving the two-and-a-half hours to Sedalia for the concert.  This time, we knew what to expect and didn't arrive nearly as early as we did three years ago.  Last time, we ended up wandering around the fair for hours for nothing to do.  This time, we arrived with enough time to get some food, walk around once, and then go take our seats, which was perfect.

Speaking of our seats, we were in the second row!  It was absolutely incredible.  And though the first time had been amazing, this time was a thousand times better.  This time, there was no chainlink fence in front of us (the stadium is a dirt track) and we were so close to Lzzy and Joe, the lead guitarist.  Gooood, it was incredible.  Definitely one of the best concerts I've ever been to, hands down.

On Saturday, we continued our tradition (though it had been three years since we had done it) of going up to St. Louis to celebrate our birthdays!  Lauren's mom and stepdad were kind enough to drive us (and our friend, Liz, who is living in Armenia and whom Kat and I hadn't seen in three years since she graduated from Truman) up to St. Louis and take us to lunch.  After our usual meal at the Cheesecake Factory, we wandered around the mall, and in general had a jolly good time.

The original plan had been for Lauren and I both to head home on Sunday morning, buuut we didn't, so we decided to leave on Monday.  We spent some more time with her dad and stepmom before meeting up with Kat after she got off work that night.  On Monday, we went our separate ways.

When I got to Tennessee, everyone's full focus was on the upcoming solar eclipse, for which we were extremely close to the path of totality.  But we were out of luck in terms of getting glasses.  However, Jay (my fiancé; his whole family calls him "Jay" and because I met him after he started going by "Theo," I was the only one to call him at family gatherings, so I have decided to stop that) managed to snag a couple of pairs from work.  Score!

Or is it?

The day before the eclipse, my mom called and asked if she could borrow my glasses.  Let me tell you, I was a mite confused, as she didn't mention the eclipse, so I just assumed she wanted to borrow my actual glasses, which is weird.  But no, she was jokingly asking about the eclipse glasses because she and Emily had none and Emily's really into astronomy and wanted to see it.

Y'all know how I often do spontaneous things, like surprise my mom and dad, or leave Montréal a day early to surprise Theo--crap, I mean Jay--, or make a snap decision to travel to Missouri for a concert?  Well, I get it from my mother.  The plan was made for my mom and Emily to drive down from Kentucky to spend a few days here with us for the eclipse since I had both glasses and a means to get us to the actual path of totality, i.e. Murfreesboro.  So they left at about six o'clock my time and arrived about midnight.  It was awesome.

The next day, I lost the eclipse glasses.  Boy, was I upset.  We had intended to drive to the MTSU campus, which was having events and music and all that fun stuff, but we decided to go instead to the Stones River Battlefield, as they were giving away free pairs of eclipse glasses to the first 2,500 people who showed up.  And because we actually wanted to see the eclipse during the partial phases, that's where we went.  We arrived at eight, to make sure we got glasses, but we probably didn't have to.  It was a long, hot day, but by the time the eclipse happened, it was totally worth it.

Since then, I turned 26 on the 29th.  I've decided I'm in my late twenties, which is horrifying, because I can round my age up to 30.  Jay points out that I could have done that last year, too, and that 24, 25, and 26 are my mid-twenties, while 27, 28, and 29 are my late twenties.  He may be right, but it's too late for me to admit it now.

Noswaith dda

Apparently the title means "good evening" in Welsh.  I didn't know that.  I know how to say "good morning" (bore da) and "good afternoon" (prynhawn da), but Duolingo hasn't yet taught me to say "good evening," despite the fact that it is in fact evening.  Oh, well.

I also forgot to write in here for June, aaaand I don't really care.  Moving on.

The big news as of late is that I quit my job for different reasons.  I am currently jobless, which sucks, but I've had a couple of interviews, so hopefully something comes along soon.  If all of your appendages could remained twisted into a pretzel-like fashion, that would be great.  Thanks oodles.

The reason the blog title is in Welsh is because I've decided to finally sit down and learn Welsh.  I've been interested in the language for years and years, but I never really had a method to do so until it arrived on Duolingo.  (No, I didn't have Duolingo to learn French on my own, but there are so few speakers of Welsh that there aren't many other websites to use like there are for French.)  There's not a particular reason for me to learn Welsh - with French it was to understand lyrics, but it developed into a lifelong passion - other than the fact that I love studying languages.  I hate that I only know two - as a lover of languages, that is really not enough.  I've dabbled in Russian, Italian, Esperanto, and ASL, but I really want to make an effort with Welsh.  So, yeah, I'm doing that.

Oh, yeah - other big news.  Theo was in a car accident and his Mustang was totaled.  A sixteen-year-old was driving his new-to-him Chevy truck and not paying attention when he slammed into Theo, who was stopped due to, ironically, an accident further down the road.  The back of the Mustang was actually not toooo horrible, but he was pushed into the back of a Lexus, which completely smushed the front end.  The Lexus was then pushed into the back of a Mercedes.  So this poor sixteen-year-old kid (with no insurance) finally gets a truck and hits a Mustang, a Lexus, and a Mercedes all in one go.  Nice.  Way to multitask.  So while we're both upset about the loss of the Mustang, Theo now has a Ford Fusion.  'Tis quite a nice little car (but obvs not the same).

The weekend after the accident, I drove down to Georgia for my sister, Sarah's, wedding to her long-time fiancé, TJ.  It was magical and romantic, and I'm quite happy for those two crazy kids.  I got to see my grandparents, my dad and stepmom, and my siblings, and it was a wonderful time.  And I get to see them all in September!  Now that Sarah's wedding is over, I feel like my own wedding is looming.  So. much. planning.  Gulp.

That's about it.  I'm tired.  Noodles.

May'd It!

Get it?  Because it's May?  DO YOU GET IT?!

Anyway.  The day before June starts, I remembered that I hadn't posted an entry for this month yet.  Oops.  I had actually been planning on making a video entry, but I got lazy.  So there's that.  At the moment, I am home from work, as I have been feeling crummy (to put it mildly) for about a week.  And so, in desperate need of some recuperation, me voilà.

The biggest thing that happened in May was the adoption of our two guinea pigs, Eleanor Pigby and Lucy Diamond.  We actually got them on May 1, so their first "monthaversary" is tomorrow.  We rather love them.  At the moment, they're on the other side of the room behind me, chutting happily (it's a sort of squeaking noise that happy piggies make), munching on hay and running around their cage.  (Speaking of which, I need to change the bedding for that today.  Sigh.)

Getting a guinea pig is something that has been on my mind for a few years now.  I used to want a hamster when I was little, but found out that they had a tendency to bite (hard), and we always had cats when I was growing up, so getting a rodent was never really an option.  Lauren, one half of my bestest friends, had had several throughout her life, and constantly insisted to me how amazing they were, but my response was always along the lines of “Okay, honey.”  I didn’t actually meet a guinea pig until a few years ago, a lovely Abyssinian (really long hair) chap by the name of Scooter at her dad and step-mom’s farm.  I fell in love with him and immediately gained the desire for a guinea pig of my own.  While I was in Montréal, I actually entertained the idea of getting one (when I was still intending on staying for the rest of my life), but then I did some research and found out that they needed a lot more space than what they’re given at pet stores (or even the cages that are sold there), and that they really do a lot better with at least one other guinea pig since they’re very social critters, unless you can be there with it almost constantly.  So gave up on the idea, but when I moved in with Theo, he agreed to entertain the idea.

Now, there may be some among you (whoever “you” are) who wonder: what about our cat?  In September, not long after I moved in, we adopted a cat from the local shelter and named her Sylvanas.  Three weeks later, I announced that we had returned her with little explanation other than insisting that it was a personal decision and nothing that she had done.  Someone even commented that I shouldn’t have adopted a cat if I hadn’t been planning on keeping her.  Over the months, I had thought about writing about what happened, but resisted.  Now that we have two more pets, though, I figured it was time.  Let me start by saying this: Sylvanas was an amazing kitty.  She was extremely affectionate, and though she had been a stray, she warmed up to us very quickly, and insisted upon snuggling, purring, and kneading our legs the moment we sat down.  We adored her and we still miss her, and not a day goes by that I don’t feel guilty about what happened.  I wish she was here, however, I don’t regret giving her up.

I’ve thought about going into great detail about what happened; I even wrote it all out.  Eventually, though, I changed my mind, mainly because I don’t owe anyone anything.  It’s just that the comment that that one person made has always stayed on my mind.  The thing is, though, is that we always planned on keeping her.  It wasn’t as if we went to the shelter with the idea, “Hey, let’s adopt a cat, and if we like it, we’ll keep it!”  No, we fully intended to keep Sylvanas for the rest of her life.  So why didn’t we?  It was because of nothing she did; as I said before, she was an extremely sweet, loving cat.  We didn’t keep her because my anxiety, which had been lying dormant since returning from Montréal, flared up with a vengeance, and every day I was reduced to panic and anxiety attacks.  It was the first time in my life that I decided to put my mental health first instead of shoving it under the rug, and I did it because I knew Sylvanas deserved better.  I wanted her to be happy and loved with a family who could give her the amount of time and attention she needed and deserved.  So we did what we thought was best.  And all I can do is hope that she was adopted by a family who gives her the love and attention she deserves?

Does this make me a bad person?  I don’t think so, though I do still feel guilty about what happened.  As my anxiety has lessened, we decided we were ready for guinea pigs.  And so far, so good!  We love them.  They’re a bit shy, but I can relate, so it all works out.

In other news, Theo and I drove up to Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend to give my mom B.B., my little yellow car, as I now have my Kia Soul.  Theo got to meet my Aunt Carol for the first time, and we all got to hang out, and it was just dandy.

April showers can just shove off

It may be quite shocking to hear that I haven’t had much time to write since I started working.  Surprising, right?  Well, it’s true.  Basically, my schedule is this: I wake up at 5:45 in the morning and I may or may not get up within the next thirty minutes.  I get ready, including my lunch for the day, and I’m out the door by 6:50.  Depending on the direction I take and the traffic, I’ll arrive at work anywhere from 7:20 to 7:45.  I take an hour-long lunch at noon (I could start working at 8:30 instead of 8:00 and only have a thirty-minute lunch, but I needs that extra thirty minutes to chill), and I ‘m on my way home at 5.  I usually get home from 5:45 to 6, again depending on which route I take and how much traffic there is.  The most shocking part is probably the fact that I’m usually always in bed by 10.  I’ve just been so tired lately that I don’t have much of a choice.  If I went to bed any later, I’d be a zombie all throughout the next day, and I don’t think the CEO wants a zombie as an exec assistant.  So since I get home at 6 and start getting ready for bed around 9:00 to 9:30, I only have about three hours or so to actually exist.  Hence the lack of writing or doing, well, anything.

Just now, I was trying to think if anything interesting has happened in April, and then I remembered: oh yeah, I bought a new car and drove up to Kentucky.  Oops.

Okay, so the car isn’t new, but she’s new to me, and she’s newer than my Aveo.  It’s a 2015 Kia Soul, and she’s magical.  Her name is Lokia, but she also goes by The Biggest Blackest Box (ever play Cards Against Humanity?) or just The Box.  You might have guessed by now that she’s black and box-shaped.  I love her.  I also love my 2009 Chevy Aveo, but we’ve decided to drive up to Kentucky over Memorial Day to give her to my mom and sister, since they desperately need a car.

So once Lokia was all situated with insurance and stuff, I decided to go up to Kentucky to spend Easter with said mom and sister.  It was nice seeing them, especially since it had been almost five months since they were down here for Thanksgiving.  Mom and I went to church in Pikeville on Easter Sunday and I got to see some people from the Pikeville Branch that I haven’t seen in years.

In other news, Theo and I have been preparing for a new addition to our family!  No, I’m not pregnant, so get that out of your mind right now.  I posted a couple of “teaser” pictures of fleece fabric and some wire grid squares, and then the squares actually forming the cage, but no one actually guessed guinea pigs!  Theo and I went to the sanctuary (they keep rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks, and chickens) in Franklin yesterday to meet the piggies and see if we would fall in love with any, and we did!  We fell hard for two sisters, Eleanor Pigby and Lucy Diamond (yes, those are their real names).  We had considered renaming them, but we realized that, as they’re two years old and they already respond to the names “Eleanor” and “Lucy,” it’s really not beneficial to change them.  So they shall stay as Eleanor and Lucy forever!  It turns out that the two girls have been adopted twice in the past and returned, first due to allergies and then because the couple had a baby and didn’t want guinea pigs and their new child.  Poor little things.  So Theo and I will be giving them the forever home that they deserve.  We’ve reserved them and we have two weeks to get everything ready, from the cage, to their bedding (hence the fleece), a food bowl, a water bowl, a carrier, treats, and some toys.  I’m so excited to finally bring them home!  I’m in love with them already.  We’ve already started working on plans for where they’ll go when Theo and I are on our honeymoon (Peaches is the best), and we’re going to be as prepared as possible.

Happy birthday!

It’s almost the end of the month and I’m just now getting around to writing in my blog.  Oops.  I seem to be doing that a lot more recently, but I think it’s mainly so I can wait until about the end and then talk about everything that happened.  That, and I guess there’s no point in writing in the middle of the month unless something monumental happens, like I find a four-leaf clover or something.

But something did happen this month… what was it…?  Oh, yeah!  Lauren and Kat came to visit!  It was magical!  Kat drove over from Hannibal and Lauren flew down into Nashville from Wisconsin!  Then Kat picked up Lauren from the airport, and we all met in Murfreesboro for dinner, and was the most magical time ever.  We hung out, laughed, had fun, made wedding plans, and were basically our silly little selves.  They stayed for about a week… Kat drove out the following Saturday and we took Lauren to the airport on Sunday.  Now they’re gone and I have the sads.

While they were here, I finally started hearing back from a couple places about job potential.  They weren’t interviews, but they were questionnaires following up my application.  A couple days after I had submitted them, I heard back from one of the places and got an interview scheduled for the following Monday!  It was my first interview, and I was immensely nervous, especially because I knew how unlikely it was for me to get a job on my very first try.  (Okay, it wasn’t my first “try,” since I had applied to a lot of different places, but this was the first place that actually wanted anything beyond an initial phone interview or e-mail questionnaire.)  So, I went to the interview in Murfreesboro, met Theo for lunch in Franklin at Panera, and received word that night that they wanted to hire me!  I had said my availability was to start immediately, so on Tuesday, I headed into my first bona fide job!  I work as an executive assistant to the two CEOs of a healthcare company, and so far, I really like it!  I’m also making more than they offered in the initial listing!  Weeee!

So, what else is new, you may ask?  Well, today is a very special day.  Why?  It’s my grandma’s birthday!  She’s turning 72 today!  I may have only been her granddaughter for 25 of those years, but I know she’s pretty amazing.  My grandmother has always been there for us, every single one of her grandchildren, whether they live across town or across the country.  I have never felt unloved or unwanted or any less “special” to my grandparents because I grew up so far away from them.  My grandparents have never forgotten a birthday, a Christmas, never fail to tell me how much they love me and how proud they are of me.  I feel so lucky and blessed to have been given such amazing grandparents, and I honestly don’t know what I’d do or where I’d be without them.  I love you both!  Happy birthday, Grandma!!

Just in time.

Sometimes we're glad when we have that annual realization that, hey, February only has twenty-eight (or twenty-nine) days in it!  So maybe that means that a dreadful month is over a lot more quickly, maybe it means you get paid sooner, but maybe it also means that your bills are do sooner, you have a loan payment coming up more quickly than you thought, or just maybe you have less time to post a blog entry than you usually do.  For me, you might've guessed that the latter is the case for me.  But hey, it's the twenty-seventh and here I am.  Boom.

February was been... interesting.  The Habitat for Humanity Ball happened on the 11th, and Theo and I got to be all fancy and go drink cocktails and dance and eat fancy brie-stuffed-chicken.  I also got a new, red dress, which was obviously the best part for me.  But it was soops fun!  I quite enjoyed myself, being the Cinderella-in-disguise that I am.

Theo's friend, Cody, is staying with us for about a week while he moves out of his apartment and into the house that he's in the process of buying.  It's all fun and games, y'know, until we started helping him move.  My calves hurt.  Or, as I have constantly been saying, my baby cows hurt.  I'm hilarious.

And what happens next month, you may ask?

LAUREN AND KAT ARE COMING!!  I'm beyond excited.  I simply cannot even.  #basicwhitegirl  I just I just I just.  They're perfect and precious and they're my best friends and I'm so excited to spend a week with them.  They'll be here less than a week from today.  I CANNOT WAIT.

Also, I learned that I was chosen to help sell merchandise at Vanessa Carlton's upcoming show in Nashville on March 19.  EEEEE!!!

"Happy" 2017?

The new year doth begin in a haze of confusion and stress, so sayeth I.  Ugh.    So my original plan to start classes at MTSU next week pretty much fell through due to a multitude of things, such as the school being utterly ridiculous in terms of trying to help post-bac transfer students figure stuff out, the fact that I would be able to take one single class this semester and forced to take at least three other "fluff" classes in order to reach full-time status and thus receive financial aid, and the fact that B.B., my 2009 Chevy Aveo, is a sick little car.  

My poor darling.

Ah, my darling B.B.  Poor thing has a number of problems, some prioritizing others, and at the moment, it wouldn't be prudent to take her to and from Murfreesboro (about twenty to thirty minutes one way) on a daily basis.  She desperately needed an oil change, so we got that done, but Pennzoil told us that she has some other issues that need to be taken care of, which require going to a mechanic for one set of problems and a tire place for another.  Sigh.  We'll take her in this Saturday to check out prices, something I'm reeeeally looking forward to.  Immensely.

Have I ever mentioned I hate being an adult?

It's only twelve days into the new year and already I feel impossibly drained, yet at the same time, with school no longer looming over my head, I do feel a slight sense of calm.  Just a slight one, but it's something, at least.  It also forces me to focus more on the wedding this October, which is particularly terrifying in terms of figuring out budget and everything.  People keep asking me, so I will say that we do have a date set, but it's not being announced until we've 100% decided on and/or reserved a venue, just in case something needs to change.  But yes.  October of this year. (AHHHH I'M GETTING MARRIED THIS YEAR.)

That's really about it.  Theo and I are totally nerds, geeks, and dorks in that we're part of a group that gets together weekly at a board game shop in Murfreesboro to play Dungeons & Dragons.  And you know what?  I FEEL NO SHAME.  It's super fun and it's nice stress release to just sit for a few hours and pretend I'm an adorable, 2'10" lute-playing, storytelling halfling warlock named Kithri.  It also makes me want to binge watch The Lord of the Rings, but I don't really have the attention span for such a feat.

Also, y'all need to know that I have the most wonderful, understanding, supportive fiancé ever and that I do not deserve him.  Seriously, he's the best.  And he's mine.  Neener neener.