Writing to Reach You » Pictures

My Life In Pictures: At Home Holiday Edition Vol. 4

Ashley — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:00:31 +0000

Tradition: capturing Christmas break in pictures (Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3). I had a lovely time in Washington and now I’m back in California, but vacation is not yet over!

Birthday beer with my dad. Blue Moon, of course.

This was taken on my 28th birthday. It's like the wisdom just radiates from it.

A windy and rainy Northwest Christmas.

Christmas manicure.

My name is Ashley and I'm officially a Californian who can't handle the cold.

I like to make my mom think she has to talk me into playing this game called Rack-o, but really I enjoy it.

Lounging by the Christmas tree. I did a lot of reading while I was home.

My last day in town, my step-dad took me to Steilacoom for coffee. It reminds me of Stars Hallow.

My Life in Pictures: High School Room Edition

Ashley — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:16:19 +0000

This is a look at my room at some point in high school. Let me just say, can we forgive the NSYNC posters? I mean, I still love them, but so many posters! We get it, Ashley. You were a fan. This room says a lot about me.

My dad was a Mac user way after everyone else had switched to PCs, but before they became popular again. Whenever he got a new one, he'd give the old one to me. So, that's the desktop and then you can see the laptop sitting there in the middle. I wrote my first attempt at a novel on that thing. Something else I spy in this picture: actual film. Probably the last I used. Also, I was really proud of that bulletin board.

You can probably tell how organized I was, but the clutter kind of makes me anxious now.

Remember when stereos were freaking huge?

Pretty sure that music stand was just there for looks, because I almost never practiced. That thing you're seeing in the middle there is a map of California. I knew I was going to college there (I did for a year and then came back to Washington). I see the Bible sitting there next to my bed. Apparently I was reading it and not as an academic.

Taking Me Back

Ashley — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:00:13 +0000

I was in Washington over the weekend, and I got a chance to visit my undergrad. I love this place because it is beautiful, but also because it completely changed my life. I would not be the same person if I had gone anywhere else. I’m no longer in a big hurry to move back to Washington. I want to live many different places. Still, it is my dream to teach here. I want to give students the same experience I had.

PLU

Green grass and red brick.

Fallen leaves.

The library.

One of my favorite places in the library. I made a lot of important decisions sitting here.

Other Highlights From the Trip

Thursday, beer with my dad.

Friday, I saw The Social Network. I liked it, but not as much as everyone else. I loved the look of the film and the music and performances by Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. I didn’t like how the story was told mostly in conference rooms with every cut back done by repeating a characters name like he was waking up out of a daydream. I also hated Justin Timberlake’s performance, but everyone else loved it, so I guess my bias worked against me. Still worth seeing for sure. I love all movies that involve academia, even just barely.

Saturday, my friend Elyse got married. She looked beautiful and the whole thing was very sweet. Whatever else happened, I definitely didn’t refer to the empty chair next to me at the reception as belonging to my imaginary boyfriend Tim and later pose with the empty chair while Lisa took a picture. If, for instance, I did do that, though, I should admit that I was completely sober.

Sunday, I did a 10k Huger Walk with my mom and step-dad. It was raining, but I didn’t mind at all.

Monday, I’m flying into California and going straight to work. I have zero time before Friday to buy food, do laundry, or clean my apartment. Not the best planning on my part.

At The Library

Ashley — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:00:34 +0000

I work in a library. And it’s about the biggest and most confusing building there ever was, which means that I spend a lot of time giving people directions. But, I love libraries and I love this one especially.

This is the top floor of the stacks. It's one of my favorite places, because it's quiet and houses the fiction, which means I recognize most of the books. At night the huge wall of windows not shown here reflects back all of the light, so you can see people walking around on every floor.

A Day at the Park

Ashley — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:00:32 +0000

Having a hard time writing about myself right now, so this week is brought to you in pictures.

When you only have one day off a week, you have to spend it catching up on life, but when you have a real two-day weekend, you get to spend one day catching up on life and then you have this whole other day to fill! I’m not used to such free time, but I’m adjusting. Saturday, I went to the park.

The swings (not pictured) were my top priority, but the rest of the park was lovely too.

Self portrait required.

I took a seat on the grass and this was my view.

Got some writing done.

Later I fought some kids for the swings. Or maybe I just waited until they left. The swings made me dizzy anyway. Everything makes me dizzy. I’d never make it as a fighter pilot, so I study theology instead.

My Life In Pictures: The Parents Descend on California Edition

Ashley — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:00:22 +0000

My mom and step-dad traveled from Washington to give me some only child time down here in California. I love when people come to visit, because it gives me a chance to be on vacation while at home and it forces me to finally spend some time exploring my city. (It also forces me to wash my car.) I wish I could write more about my city, because I do really love it, but for reasons of anonymity and security, I don’t feel like I can. Just know that it’s lovely.

When you’re from the West Coast, California is a place you’ve probably visited often, so when my parents visit, we usually spend our time hanging out instead of seeing the sights. I can sum up the weekend very simply: walking, eating, drinking, and pool-sitting. I had a great time.

Please excuse the poor quality. All of these pictures were taken with my iPhone, which is unfortunately where my current interest in photography begins and ends.

We hit up the Botanical Garden first, which I thought covered us for the weekend as far as exercise and culture go. It legitimized the rest of our eating and drinking and sitting-doing-nothing.

We did a lot of walking all weekend. We explored my little city on foot and it gave me a chance to show my parents where I live and for them to stop every ten minutes and say, "Oh, wow, look at that tree." I don't find trees quite as interesting as they do.

Can't shop on an empty stomach. Sbarro: a little local place--maybe you've heard of it. My friend Michael Scott told me about it.

My parents made me paranoid right away by insisting very uncharacteristically that they take me shopping for clothes. I thought they somehow knew about my blog and my debt and were trying to help me out or something. Then I was sure it was just that I looked like a slob who needed new clothes. Lisa more reasonably suggested that they just know I work a lot and don't have time to shop. Whatever the reason, though it made me a little uncomfortable, I let my mom take me shopping for new Summer clothes. I may feel 13, but at least I won't be dressing like a homeless grad student for the rest of the year.

Another local place. Mmmm . . . iced coffee.

It wouldn't be My Life in Pictures without Blue Moon. True story: I only drink it when taking pictures. Well, not really, but on my own dime, it's usually Bud Light or water. My step-dad bought me a case of Blue Moon. Best present ever. Taken in front of my bookcase for added sophistication.

This picture was meant to show off my tan/sunburn, but instead I look as pale as usual. Except for the farmer's tan that is.

We did prepare one meal in my tiny kitchen. Steak (on the grill), potatoes, bread, and salad. Like being at home.

My mom drank about a thimble's worth of this cheap wine, which is called Diablo Creek but I kept calling Dawson's Creek. She left the rest with me. I'll do what I can.

We logged some pool time every day. My favorite.

My Life In Pictures: At Home Holiday Edition Vol. 2

Ashley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:44:21 +0000

Here’s a look back at my nine day vacation in Western Washington. It was good to be home, but now it’s good to be home. I guess home is a weird concept for a twenty something. See My Life in Pictures: At Home Holiday Edition Vol. 1.

A beer with my brother and dad. 34 oz. and I finished it. I will not be defeated.

This was prettier than an iPhone camera could capture.

My nieces did all the decorating for my birthday. 26 balloons.

I'm not just head and shoulders. I do have legs. But, let me just turn to the side so I appear thinner.

A Christmas Eve bathroom mirror self portrait. Keeping it classy.

My contribution to Christmas dinner. I was quite proud of myself since I don't cook or bake or really even prepare food ever.

Mud Pie: a holiday staple at our house.

Our Christmas Tree. My mom decorated it beautifully so that even Martha Stewart would be proud and then my nieces decided we needed twice as many ornaments. This was the end result.

What you may not know about me is that I used to be awesome on roller blades. Apparently it's like riding a bike, because when my nieces begged me to rollerblade in the basement with them, I laced up my skates and was quickly doing fancy turns and all. Mad skills.

Going through the stuff I still have at my parents' house, I came across a box from my NSYNC days. I just can't give this stuff up yet. It's from a really fun time in my life. Boy bands forever!

Blue Moon. Officially my favorite beer.

A Picture For Every Day: COMPLETE

Ashley — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:00:55 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WzV_Q0h5m4

It doesn’t seem like just yesterday, but it certainly doesn’t seem like it was a year ago when I decided to take a picture of myself every day. It was something I wanted to stick to, so I didn’t make the rules very strict. I decided it was even okay if I missed a day. I never did miss a day, but there were a few close calls. Even after 361 days, I almost forgot to take my picture last Wednesday. ¹

I started the project because I thought it would be fun and I was hoping it would make me more comfortable seeing images of myself. It worked! Though, the truth is that I think I got all the benefit out of it within the first month, which leaves me with nothing profound to say now. I will say, though, that the cool thing about doing this for a full year is that there are finally so many pictures of you out there that you stop worrying about each one of them looking good. When bloggers started posting pictures of themselves with no makeup, I at first thought, “I could never do that,” and then I realized I’d already done it several times over. It’s not so scary being seen at your worst when you’ve also been seen at your best. There’s no completely removing vanity from the picture ² and that’s okay with me.

As October approached, I debated whether I should end this project or not. For a while, I felt like I really couldn’t do it. Something would be lost if there was not a picture of me from every day! But, then, a few weeks ago, I just knew I needed to stop now or I’d never be able to. Sometimes clearly defined endings just feel right. I still like the idea of capturing the everday-ness of life, but it’s time to get more creative.

I put together this little video of all 365 pictures.³

Thank goodness for iPhone cameras and the privacy of my cubicle at work.
Pun not intended, but thoroughly enjoyed.
The song in the video is the Family Waltz from Dan in Real Life. Sondre Lerche is a genius.

My Life In Pictures: Me Through the (Mostly Awkward) Years

Ashley — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:00:02 +0000

I got carried away scanning pictures the other night and this is the result. This feels a little like forcing you to watch the slides from my vacation, but I’m going to do it anyway. I think we’re all good enough friends now that you have to pretend to enjoy it.

Life started off simply enough.

Me and my Cabbage Patch Kid. That's a Record/8-Track player behind me.

Me with a mullet. Yup.

Me with a fanny pack. Yup. Yup.

My mom made me this poodle skirt for my 5th grade school play.

Sixth grade school picture. The only decent school picture I ever took.

Me at Disneyland looking like a dude. I got tired of growing my bangs out and decided to cut my hair to match my bangs. Big mistake.

There's awkward and then there's my school picture from Freshman year of high school. It hurts. I'd had those braces for only a few weeks.

In Alaska. Sophomore year.

Me sitting on Santa's lap. Lisa is sitting on the other side.

Getting ready for Prom.

Senior picture.

Hours before running my first race (Sound 2 Narrows). Sophomore year of college.

Junior year of college. I used to wear colored contacts. Check out the collection of Baby-sitter's Club books behind me.

First year of grad school. In my first apartment.

Second year of grad school. Chopped all my hair off.

Christmas 2007. This is the picture I used on my blog when I first started.

Monday.

From My Twelve Year Old Mind

Ashley — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:00:30 +0000

I was going through my things the other day, and I found the journal I kept during the Summer of 1996. It wasn’t a surprise to find this journal. I’m so obsessively organized that I could run through the inventory of my apartment on demand. But, even though I knew this journal was sitting there next to the others, I hadn’t read it in a long time.

I decided to crack the baby blue spiral-bound notebook open for a little look. Oh, wow. My first reaction was total embarrassment. First of all, I spell almost every word wrong. Second, I appear not to be a big fan of punctuation. I might not even have known of its existence. Third, yikes at some of my thoughts, And, fourth, I was twelve! This seems like the work of a seven year old. The more I looked through the notebook, though, the more I realized I haven’t changed that much at all. My handwriting has improved drastically and I’ve now got grammar on my side, but I’m still thinking, still questioning, and still writing.

Okay, now I still have these super obvious thoughts that sound so profound in my head, but before putting them to paper, I usually realize they’re not profound at all.

Ouch.

What’s weird about this is that I remember the exact moment I wrote this. I was sitting on a bench in the park near the rec center in my town. I was just about to go back to school for the year. The grass was so green. It was Western Washington after all.

I was really surprised to read this. I guess some things don’t change.

I love this one. It’s weird to think now that when I was twelve, I was still trying to figure out what I liked and what I didn’t. I listened to music because of the image attached to it, and not because it did anything for me.

Again, ouch.

The house we lived in at this time had huge windows that looked out onto the rest of the neighborhood. This older couple lived in the house across from us, and we always talked about how the old man was always staring out his window at us. Now that I think about it, we were always staring out our windows at them, so maybe they thought we were creepy. The woman always seemed so unhappy to me, but I was somewhat impressed that she mowed the lawn.

Rick is my brother. He’s nine years older than me, so he was into his twenties when he said this. It’s weird to me now, because this doesn’t sound like something he’d say. I guess I was feeling guilty for spending my time outside playing when I thought I should be doing something more mature. I talk a lot about maturity in this journal.

Always so sensitive, even to bees.

I think I’m talking about the same neighbors who always stared at us through their windows. I always thought the guy was weird, because he wouldn’t let kids play on his lawn and was always kind of mean to us, but he was super nice to my parents. I guess I wasn’t having that!

You read that right. I asked if this guy (who?) only got a tattoo out of rage? What? In this journal, I ask a lot of questions about what other people are thinking. I’m not sure if I was genuinely interested or just trying to sound deep.

Finally, I was something of an ~artist~. I’ve since retired. You’re welcome.

My Life in Pictures: At Home Holiday Edition

Ashley — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:48:12 +0000

Also known as, way to get everyone at the grocery store staring at you, and way to lose an argument with your dad about whether you’re addicted to your iPhone.

My first holiday cup of the season.

Layers. I feel like a marshmallow, but it’s cold here.

Varieties of fake cheese.

Pepto-Bismo for after you finish all of your fake cheese.

Snow!!! And, we’re supposed to get a blizzard tonight. This is pretty rare for Western Washington.

Christmas cookies!

My dad as we passed this car: “Looks like someone you’d want to have a conversation with.” Funny, dad.

My first ever Long Island Ice Tea. Certainly not my last!

I’d like to see my own books up there one day.

After I listed all the PhD programs I applied to, my dad said, “I didn’t hear the University of Washington.”

He got over that quickly, and has now decided I’ll be attending Vanderbilt in Tennessee. Sounds good. Let me in please!

Who wants one of these classy Seattle shot glasses?

How weird is this mini purse?

Another gift idea. Who couldn’t use a talking coin jar?

Candles: what to get a girl when you can’t think of anything else.

Socks!! When I was packing, I had a really hard time finding any real socks. I guess I don’t need them often in California.

My dad’s Christmas tree. I think it’s just perfect.

What’s 4 Years?

Ashley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:00:32 +0000

A couple weeks ago, I went to post my daily picture, and I was struck by the similarity of that picture to a series of pictures I took of myself years ago. I guess it was the hair and jean jacket. Instead of working or studying, I took the time to replicate some of the other pictures.

The pictures on the left were taken February 12, 2005, and the pictures on the right were taken November 19, 2008. Yeah, I used to wear colored contacts. I also had long blond hair (with dark roots!).

In February of 2005, I was newly 21. So, obviously I was drunk all the time. Okay, not really. I didn’t start drinking until I was 22. I didn’t start drinking regularly until I was 23. And, I didn’t discover the magic of being seriously tipsy until I was 24.

Anyway, I didn’t know it at the time, but my life had changed forever that January. Two things happened: I discovered the music of David Gray and I discovered the academic study of theology. As I mentioned before, the two are forever linked in my mind. Who better to listen to than an introspective atheist when you’re going through a major theological crisis and questioning everything you know? Studying theology has not only changed my career path, it’s changed the entire way I look at the world. I don’t know who I’d be without it. Life is weird that way.

Also in 2005, I was living in Washington, I was a junior in college, I was working at an insurance company as a receptionist, and I was getting over some bad dieting habits. I didn’t journal much that year, so it’s hard to remember exactly what I was thinking. Probably my normal introspective stuff with a dash more desperation, a pinch more self-loathing, and heaps more uncertainty.

Here’s a February 28, 2005, exerpt from my journal. I love how dramatic this is.

“I think I’m currently the most cheerful depressed person ever. I’m not all out doom and gloom, but I’m struggling to lead a life that feels right. I don’t know how to be and I’m lonely.”

I thought that I would probably get my English degree, and then go through an accelerated MA program in Education to get my teaching certificate so that I could teach high school English. Yeah. I’d taken a class on literacy, and we’d talked a lot about what goes into teaching students to write. I loved that class. I think I could have been happy doing that.

But, what I’m doing now just feels so right that it’s hard to speculate about the other possible outcomes. Yeah, life is definitely weird that way.

A Picture for Every Day

Ashley — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:00:48 +0000

So, it’s been a month since I started taking a picture of myself every day and posting it on the blog (see original post). Here’s what I’ve learned.

1. It’s not much work at all. When I decided to do this, several people said they’d like to do something similar, but didn’t have the motivation. I thought it would get kind of annoying too, and didn’t even promise to get a picture posted every day. But, it’s not bad at all.

2. I have the wonkiest eyebrows. I already knew that; they’ve always been unruly. But, it’s worse than I thought.

3. I part my hair in the same place every day.

4. I wear a lot of blue. Thanks to Sophia for pointing this out early on. ; ) For a while I was paranoid.

5. I always have ear buds in my ears. Thanks to Sara for pointing this out. When I’m awake, I’m usually listening to music or podcasts.

6. When I take pictures My Space style, I always seem to turn my heard a certain way, so that most of my pictures are from the same side of my face. I was trying for a while to do the opposite, but I’d always accidentally get the same side again.

7. My hair looks better in person.

8. Sometimes I look at the pictures and think I look exactly the same every day, and other times I look at them and think I look so different day to day.

9. It’s not as hard to get a decent picture of myself as I thought. Or, maybe I just care less now. I snap a couple, transfer them to my computer, choose the least terrible, upload to Flickr, and that’s it. Only once did I find every picture so terrible that I had to put more makeup on and pull out my camera again.

10. It’s working. I’m getting a better sense of my physical appearance and becoming desensitized to images of myself so I don’t look at every picture hyper-critically.

11. Dimples.

Hall of Fame (so far):

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THE ONE WITH THE MOST VIEWS

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MY FAVORITE

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GOOFIEST FACE

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SCARIEST (aka JUST BACK FROM A RUN AND WITH NO MAKEUP)

My Present Life in Pictures

Ashley — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:00:29 +0000

Very picture heavy. Click on images to make larger.

My desktop.

My chicken scratch. These are notes for my thesis that I took while walking around talking to my professor. They don’t make anymore sense to me than they do to you.

Coffee. Tea. Hot Chocolate. Whatever I can get my hands on.

I’ve been listening to this album constantly for weeks. It makes me think of someone.

Keith and Rachel: my dream team.

Flip flops and painted toe nails.

Funfetti: sent straight from heaven. I prefer the cookie recipe.

Books: they surround me.

My quest for the perfect black eyeliner continues. Suggestions?

One of many notes I’ve found in library books. I don’t know Christina or her very cheesy man, but I wish them the best.