Sometimes we make mistakes.

What mistake am I talking about?  Take a look at the date of the last entry posted.  Now look at this one.  Yep, I forgot to post an entry for June.  Since this blog's creation, I've always managed to post at least one entry a month.  After realizing that I had forgotten to post one at 12:30 a.m. on July 1, I thought about posted a really quick entry and editing the date to make it 11:15 p.m. on June 30 (whilst fully admitting that I was cheating), but, ironically (or maybe not), I was too busy.  So here I am admitting my failure.

To be fair, JBA is generally a pretty crazy time.  I moved into Ryle on June 8, the kids moved in a few days later, and we were off.  They left this past Saturday and now I'm in Hannibal to spend Independence Day and chill before heading back to begin Session II.  So much happened during JBA that cannot possibly be interesting to anyone who wasn't there, so I'll spare everyone the details.

Which means I have nothing left to talk about.  Oops.

Sneep snoop

May is almost over, which means I should probably post something, lest we end up with the same fiasco that was February.  So let's dive in, shall we?

We last left our little adventurer commemorating the Titanic.  So because of that, we're a little behind on her doings.  Oops.  Well.  I left Montréal and flew to Nashville on April 24.  My first year of grad school wasn't quite complete, but I had been given permission by my two advisers to submit my thesis proposal from afar.  So I spent two weeks in Tennessee with the best boyfriend ever.  I also chopped the majority of my hair off for a multitude of reasons, such as extreme split ends and wanting the black dye to fade out more quickly.  So as someone who is extremely attached and obsessed with her hair ... I'm coping.

I've been in Kentucky with my family as of May 8.  I took a Greyhound bus from Nashville to Lexington on Mother's Day for a grand total of $30; 'twas a bit cheaper than flying, methinks.  The original plan was for me to stay here until about June 27, at which point I would take a bus to St. Louis to work as a preceptor for the second session of JBA.  However, last week (I think it was last week), I received an email with an offer to be a preceptor for the first session, as well!  This means less time with my family, but it also means a lot more money and more time at JBA.  And the best part?  It means I get to see Kat sooner!  I'm stoked.  I miss her.  Just a bit.

So I head to St. Louis via bus on June 6 and will be picked up by the lovely David and Deb and I move back into the dorm on June 8.  Ah, dorm life.  I do not miss you.  (Although life in Ryle is much better than living in a Concordia dorm, let me tell you.)  I'll be a preceptor for the filmmaking class for Session I, take a few days off over Independence Day in between sessions, and start training for Session II a little while later.  After JBA, I'll spend an extra week in Missouri before flying back up to Montréal with Kat!

And who shall be meeting us in Montréal?  Lauren!  The three of us will spend a week together in Wonderland and it shall be fabulous.  And also the first time the three of us have been in one place since Memorial Day of last year when Kat and I took a road trip up to Wisconsin.  I'm so excited!  Once they leave (sniff), my second and last year of grad school begins.  Gulp.

And that's literally everything.  Noodles.

The RMS Titanic

Over the years, I have debated posting a blog entry on the anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, which took place on April 15, 1912.  Last year, I came very close.  However, I always stopped myself, knowing that maybe a person or two would care, that most would skip over it, saying, “Oh, look, Ashlee’s rambling about the Titanic again.”

But this year, I felt that I had to.  On April 10, the 104^th anniversary of the day the Titanic set sail from Southampton, I began posted one status on Facebook per day, talking about what took place on the ship that day, as well as profiling some of the passengers and crew on the ship.  The reason I did this was because, throughout my entire “infatuation” with the Titanic, I have been mocked.  Countless jokes have been made about the sinking.  After 104 years, people have forgotten that the sinking of the Titanic was a real event, that real people just like us died in agony.  I wanted to bring their suffering to light.

With each status, I left the fates of the people I wrote about ambiguous.  Now I would like to reveal what happened.

Bess, Loraine, and Trevor Allison

Hudson and Bess Allison were visiting Europe and decided to join many of their friends by sailing back to their home in Westmount, Québec aboard the Titanic for her maiden voyage.  With Hudson and Bess were their two-year-old daughter, Loraine, their eleven-month-old son, Trevor, as well as a number of their household staff.  The only person in the Allison family to survive was Trevor.  Hudson, Bess, and two-year-old Loraine were all killed, making Loraine the only child in first or second class to lose her life.

There are many rumors as to why Loraine, who could have so easily been placed into a lifeboat, died.  I’ve read that the reason is that their nurse, Alice Cleaver, who was carrying Trevor, had gotten separated from the family and boarded a lifeboat with the baby.  Hudson and Bess refused to leave the ship without their son and therefore perished, not knowing he was already safe.  Only Hudson’s body was found, which was then buried in the family’s native Chesterfield, Ontario.  Trevor, though he survived the sinking, would die at the age of eighteen due to accidental poisoning.  He was buried next to his father.

Hudson and Bess Allison

Not much is known about the Andersson family in third class.  They were emigrating from Sweden to live with relatives in Winnipeg.  Traveling with Anders and Alfrida Andersson were their five children: Sigrid, 11; Ingeborg, 9; Ebba, 6; Sigvard, 4; and Ellis, 2.  Not one person in the Andersson family survived the sinking of the Titanic.  Some say that the gates below decks were locked, preventing third class passengers from boarding lifeboats in order to give preference to first class.  If that were the case, then it is likely that the Andersson family never had a chance, locked below decks as the water rose around them before they drowned with nowhere to escape.

Benjamin, Eva, and Esther Hart

The Hart family traveled in second class.  More is known about the Hart family because Esther and her seven-year-old daughter, Eva, survived the sinking.  Eva’s father, Benjamin, did not.  Eva was also the last survivor of the sinking to be able to remember any details, as the other remaining survivors had been too young at the time.  Eva has said that the last thing her father said to her was to “be a good girl and hold Mummy’s hand.”  She never saw her father again.  His body was never recovered.

The victims of the sinking were not only passengers.  There were seven main officers, in addition to Captain E.J. Smith.  Chief Officer Henry Wilde, First Officer William Murdoch, Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman, Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, and Sixth Officer James Moody. Originally, Murdoch was to have been the Chief Officer while Lightoller was to have been First. When Captain E.J. Smith brought in Henry Wilde for the maiden voyage, both men were bumped down and, conveniently, Second Officer David Blair was removed entirely.

Of the officers, four survived: Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman, Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, and Fifth Officer Harold Lowe.  Chief Officer Henry Wilde, First Officer William Murdoch, and Sixth Officer James Moody all perished, as did Captain Smith.

Henry Tingle Wilde

William McMaster Murdoch

During the inquiries, some said that they saw an officer shoot himself.  This is most often assumed to be William Murdoch, though there is no proof of this.  Other accounts say he was swept overboard when a great wave washed across the deck.  He was thirty-nine.  Henry Wilde died trying to save others.  Wilde was last seen trying to free one of the collapsible lifeboats as the ship sank from under him.  Other accounts say that he swam to an overturned boat before dying of hypothermia.  He was thirty-nine.  The youngest officer was James Moody, who was a mere twenty-four years old when he died.  There are different accounts as to his fate.  He was offered the opportunity to man one of the lifeboats, which would have been his privilege as the most junior officer, but he refused in order to stay aboard the ship and continue lowering boats.  None of the officers’ bodies were recovered.

James Paul Moody

The reason I posted about these people was to highlight an oft forgotten fact: they were real people who suffered and died.  After 104 years, people seem to have forgotten that the Titanic carried people just like us: mothers, fathers, children, siblings.  People from all walks of life died when they should have been saved.  They were real people with stories, and dreams, and families.  They were drowned, they froze to death, they clung to the rail as the ship sank beneath their feet.  They floated in the freezing water, crying out for help from the twenty lifeboats drifting around them.  Only one boat came back, rescuing four survivors from the water out of 1,500 people who perished.  Put yourselves in their place.  Picture receiving a letter from your sister and her family saying that they are coming to stay with you.  Then you wake up to learn that the ship that they were traveling on sank and that she, her husband, and three children were all killed.

Just because it has been over 100 years does not mean that these people, nor their legacies, should be forgotten.  They should be remembered, not through auctions of plates, and glasses, and shoes sold to the rich who like collecting artifacts from the disaster.  They deserve to be remembered and they deserve respect.  Because they existed and 104 years later, their memory deserves to live on.  Over 1,500 people lost their lives that night and they do not deserve to be used as jokes all over the Internet.

I don’t care about the Titanic from the movie.  Yes, that was what sparked my interest, but that is not why my interest held.  However, one of the best portrayals of these very real people and their suffering is from James Cameron’s movie during the sinking.  There are no boundaries between the different classes, no privilege once the lifeboats are gone and the ship breaks in two.  To really understand the horror of that night, I encourage you to watch these two videos.

When you watch them, think about this: most of the lifeboats are gone.  Almost every single person running to save their lives will soon lose them.  Four people were rescued from the water, out of nearly every person you see running to the stern or jumping from it.

Thank you for reading.

Witty Title is Witty

The last entry totally counted as my February entry.  I have been told that it's not that big of a deal to skip a month, but this blog is almost five years old, and for the past five years there has always been at least one post each month.  So, despite the fact that the last entry was posted on February 29 at 11:52pm, it counts.  So suck it, Satan.

Alright, so let's recap, shall we?  We last left our little adventurer (me) when she was describing her trip to Tennessee and the subsequent surprise visit to Kentucky.  I also mentioned the beginning of a process, something that would be revealed later.  That "process" was the vocal training with my lovely friend, Gabrielle, to prepare to audition for a Québec-wide singing contest called Caisse qu'on chante, for which Bruno is one of the spokespeople.  Gabrielle and I had four coaching sessions and then she helped me film the audition.  I didn't make it to the next round, but that's okay, because the coaching in and of itself was an amazing experience.  So yeah.  That was fun!

Not long after I got back from Tennessee in January, Theo and I decided that we couldn't wait any longer to see one another, so we made the plan for me to fly back down on February 23 for the week of my midterm break.  It was painful waiting so long for February 23 to arrive, but I managed.  My wonderful Katie-Bear came to see me here in Montréal a few days beforehand, and we spent the day being bitten by wind and exploring the city.  I got to be a tourist again for a bit - it was fun.  Except now I miss her and want her to come back.  Or I need to go see her in Ottawa again.  Because she is perfection in human form.

So.  Tennessee.  My plane left from Montréal at six a.m., which meant I had to leave my dorm at three.  Ew.  But Theo was worth it, I guess.  After a short layover in Minneapolis, I arrived in Nashville at about eleven-thirty, several hours later than my arrival last time, which I'm sure both Theo and his dad appreciated.  They met me just past security, and Theo and I immediately commenced our usual (adorable) bickering as we went out to the car and then to Arby's (drool) for lunch.

We had fun.  We drove a lot.  We went to Franklin and got delicious breakfast foods.  We played his Wii U.  On Thursday, we picked up my second ever rental car, a Toyota Camry whom I named Izzy.  A few weeks before I arrived, I had noticed that Theo only lives a few hours from my Georgian family.  Not only that, but I would also be in Tennessee on my baby sister, Mary's, ninth birthday.  Because Theo didn't have to work, the greatest boyfriend in the world (him) agreed to drive down with me for the day.  My sister, Sarah, and I worked together to plan to surprise everyone,  Because apparently I can't go to Tennessee without surprising SOME family member.

We left early on Friday morning and arrived in Marietta at about noon.  (I had forgotten about the time difference.  Oops.)  The plan was for the two of us to meet Sarah, Momma, and three of my brothers (Michael, Jesse, and Jackson) at IHOP.  Again, as a surprise.  And surprised, they were.  After Sarah and I collided in the parking lot as a suitable greeting, she led the way into the restaurant and over to where everyone was sitting.  Then I was just like, "Hey, peeps," before being set upon with hugs.  It was awesome.  I didn't even have a chance to introduce Theo to everyone since I was busy being hugged.  Then we made more plans to surprise Mary at school and then to pick up Dad from work and surprise him, as well.  All of this required quite a bit of organization, but we got it figured out.  After a stop to pick up some balloons, we all went to Mary's elementary school.

Since Mary was being picked up early, we waited in the office for her to get out of class.  I faced the wall so she wouldn't see me as she walked in.  When she did, she got big hugs from Momma and our brothers (Sarah had to go do other stuff), all the while I examined the gorgeous wall.  Then, when Mary came back to Momma, I turned around and said, "Hi, sweetie!"  Mary immediately beamed and said "Ashlee!" before giving me a big hug.  It was magical and made me very, very happy.

After that, it was time to pick up Dad.  This required more organization since Momma couldn't tell him exactly why she wanted to pick him up early, nor could she text him and say that she was on her way, since he'd be able to see that she was fibbing.  Eventually, it was decided that Mary and I would go to pick him up from the bus station while everyone else waited at the gas station across the street.  Mary and I waited a little bit before she said, "There he is!" and started calling his name.

It took a bit for Dad to see us.  In fact, he has Resting Unhappy Face, like I do, and he was looking in our general direction, so I thought he was really angry.  But the second he saw me, he was startled, and immediately smiled and gave me a big hug.  Woo!  Then we all went to a really awesome park where we swung, climbed, and swung some more, before going to dinner at a BBQ joint.  Sarah and her fiancé joined us at this point, though Jesse had to go to work, which was sad.  After dinner, I gave Jackson and Mary the presents I had gotten them and then drove back with them to their apartment to say goodbye.  This we did and were sad.  Theo and I arrived back at his place at around midnight or later and were quite exhausted.  So we slept.

The next day, Theo and I got dinner with his wonderful parents at a bar to watch a band, Phoenix Rising, that they love and with whom they're friends.  The band was awesome and the members were super-dee-duper nice.  I liked 'em.  You can never have too much rock music.  The next night, we were invited to dinner at Theo's parents house, where I met his sister, her husband, and their two daughters.  Theo's oldest niece, who's six, adores me.  We're best friends now.  It's awesome.

I went home the next day.  And I was sad.  I cried a lot.  I'm still sad, in fact.  But he gave me his old electric guitar, a Fender Squier Stratocaster.  Her name is Lzzy.  I love her.  And I miss Theo.  Sigh.  I won't see him 'til May.  But he's worth the wait.  I guess.

ACK

THIS COUNTS AS MY ONCE A MONTH ENTRY

Un nouveau début

So 2016 has begun and quite a bit of stuff has already happened in the sixteen days that have passed.  The biggest thing to happen was my impromptu trip to Tennessee to visit my wonderful Theo.  It was magical and we had a crap ton of a fun and now I miss him and it sucks, but hey, what can ya do?  I also rented a car, a 2016 Ford Fiesta that I named Lucy, to drive six hours to see my family in Kentucky while Theo worked all night, and that was awesome.  Emily helped me arrange a surprise for my mom, so she let me in the building and then I walked into the apartment while my mom was sitting at her computer.  The look of shock on her face was fabulous and it took her a while to believe that I was actually there.  Then we drove to my aunt's place and I got to surprise her, as well.  Her reaction consisted of running to hug me and hold me tightly.  It was lovely.  I wish I could have spent more time with them, but the short duration was worth just seeing their faces when they saw me.  I suppose I can wait until this summer to see them again.  Sigh.

I've also started a process for something that will be revealed later.  Yay!

Yesterday was also the final show in Bruno and Guy's Musique et cinéma tour in Joliette, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend.  Three women, Line, Diane, and Johanne, were nice enough to take me with them to the town about forty-five minutes away.  The show was honestly the best one I've seen of this tour - it was seriously incredible.  More yay!

So that might seem like a lot happening, but the past half-month has been pretty packed, and I enjoyed it.  This entry is short, but I don't care, 'cause I rarely have short entries, so you should enjoy it while you can.  Toodle pip, kids.

Highlights of 2015

It's that time of year again.  A sort of "tradition" I've had over the past four years that this blog has been alive has been to make my last post of the year highlighting all the awesome (or not-so-awesome) things that have happened throughout the year.  So, without further ado, let's get crackin'.

January

- Began my final semester as an undergraduate student at Truman State University.

- Finished applying to the Teaching Assistant Program in France (a.k.a. TAPIF).

February

- Finished applying to three grad schools: Université Laval, McGill University, and Concordia University.

- US Bruno Fans, Bruno Pelletier's official American fanclub, of which I am one of the administrators, began its t-shirt campaign, eventually raising $230 CAD for the Québec Cancer Foundation.

March

- I won a contest to participate in a Skype call with Bruno.

- I was named "Outstanding French Student of 2015."  Competition was stiff--there were six total French majors graduating.

April

- I was accepted into TAPIF.

- I participated in my final French play.  And the final French play, period, I think.

- A poem of mine was published in Truman's literary journal, Windfall.

- I had aforementioned Skype conversation with Bruno.

- I presented my French Capstone presentation.  It was terrifying.

- I was accepted into Concordia.

- Josh Groban retweeted me after I showed him an English translation of what Bruno had said about him singing Le temps des cathédrales.  Josh went on, later, to mention the post and said that Bruno was one of his favorite singers of all time.  I give myself full credit, of course.

- I made the official decision to attend grad school at Concordia in Montréal.

May

- My mom, sister, aunt, and grandparents came to stay with me in Kirksville.  Lauren came, too!

- I graduated from Truman!

- Kat and I drove up to Wisconsin to see Lauren.

June

- During one of his shows, I Skyped with Bruno while he sang Calling You.

July

- I was a preceptor for JBA for the second time.

- Injured my knee.  It still isn't back to normal.

- Moved out of the apartment I shared with Kat.  Sniff.

August

- My application for a CAQ was FINALLY accepted.

- I spent a month in Kentucky.

- I turned 24!

- I moved to MONTRÉAL!!

- I got to see Ekaterina.

September

- Went to La Ronde.  It was glorious.

- Started classes as a graduate student.

- I met Marie Mai!

October

The big month!

- Lauren came to visit me!

- We interviewed Bruno for US Bruno Fans and then watched him perform.

- We went up to Québec City.

- I went to Ottawa to see Kate!

- Karen and Heather came to Québec City!

- We saw Bruno perform twice and met him after the shows.

November

- I saw Bruno perform one last time.

- I saw the band Shyre perform with my friend, Félix.

- I saw Vanessa Carlton perform.

December

- I got back together with Theo.  Teehee.

- I dyed my hair black.

- I went to see Gabrielle perform and met three awesome ladies.

- I saw Marie-Mai perform.

- I spent Christmas with François and his wonderful family.

So yeah, that's been my year.  It's been crazy.  Here's to hoping that 2016 is just as crazy!