Boredom

Tuesday night and nothing to do. Work was slow so I got sent home early which is fine with me. If it's not busy there I go stir crazy, plus I end up doing all the sidework because most of my other servers become very lazy on slow days. I'm the opposite, I have an abundance of nervous energy and need to keep myself busy. I think I'm going to clean my floors.

I watched the Presidential Address tonight. I'm so glad that combat operations are finished in Iraq, I have too many friends in the Armed Services and I want them all to stay HERE! I hope the Iraqis can govern themselves with honor, integrity and dignity and move forward toward a system of democracy and equality.

That's all for now, off to clean lol! Nighty night!

Holy Crackers!

Well hello there! I just realized I haven't blogged in almost four months! GAH! The last time I blogged I mentioned that I've been trying to lose weight. Well in the last four months I've lost 35 pounds!!! And I had lost about 15 before that just from the fact that I'm always walking at work. So in all I've lost about 50 pounds from my heaviest weight! I feel so good in my body, haven't had any back pain in a long time. I love all the people who I haven't seen in a long time who are telling me how good I look! That's all the encouragement I need right there to keep working at getting to my goal weight! I try to work out about five days a week in the gym but I exercise in some way every single day. I also try to mix things up so that my body isn't getting used to a certain pattern. I try to do a lot of cardio when I go to the gym and I do some weights too but I've always been pretty muscular so I don't go crazy on the weight machines. Not trying to look like a body-builder lol. I've also been eating much better to go along with all my exercise. I've cut way down on starches like pastas and potato products. I've never been a soda drinker so that's not a concern but I have been making sure to drink lots and lots of water. When I cook at home I always bake or roast my food, never fry anything. I also try to buy fresh meats and veggies, no frozen pre-packaged meats or anything like that. I don't snack and I've never liked junk food so I haven't really had to sacrifice anything like that.

Now on to something else I'm excited about!

TRUE BLOOD! That's all I have to say lol! This season has been awesome and that's thanks totally to Denis O'Hare who is a JOY (!!!) to watch as Russell Edgington, Vampire King of Mississippi (say with a heavy Southern draaawl), the oldest vampire we've seen to date on the show. Mr. O'Hare's character is so charming and mesmerizing it's hard to take one's eyes off him. He definitely steals EVERY scene in which he appears. I especially love the relationship between Russell and Talbot his handsome, high-strung lover for 700 years. Like Russell says, "Try spending eternity together, that takes commitment." The rest of the cast are good as always but I'm always waiting for Russell to show up on screen and hit us with one of his brilliantly droll one-liners. Some of the plotlines ARE starting to bore me a bit though, the whole Bill/Sookie fight, makeup, fight, makeup cycle is starting to get waaay old. I do love that we've seen how deeply Eric and Pam care for each other. Other than Russell, Eric is definitely my favorite character and Pam is lovely :) Arlene has had a nice arc as well, and Carrie Preston has done a wonderful job playing her. The season finale is in a little less than two weeks and I'm excited to see how everything is going to unfold! All I know is that I don't want Russell to die, even if he is batshit crazy and not a little evil!

Well, that's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping by :)

AP

Metamorphosis...

Hi all! Nothing much new going on around here in Ashleyland...I've managed to lose about 8 pounds in six weeks though HOORAY! I'm trying desperately to get myself in shape as I am woefully overweight (GAH!) People at work are starting to notice too, which, to be totally honest, feels GREAT! It lets me know that all the sweating and pounding away on the treadmill, the endless situps/crunches and everything else is paying off! Along with all the exercise I'm also trying to eat much better than I used to . I've never been an overeater but I did let myself have things that weren't very healthy. Now I'm cutting those things out or, if I do have them, I'll only have a small amount. But I refuse to skimp on my coffee. I don't drink it every day but it's one of the few JOYS that I do have in life and I refuse to drink coffee if it isn't exactly the way I like it. But I'm drinking TONS of water. I don't drink soda so I don't have to worry about that, went to skim milk instead of 1%, no snacking after dinner, things like that. If I'm watching TV instead of just sitting on the couch I'll get up and lift weights or do ab exercises. So, hopefully in about six months I'll have lost at least twenty pounds if not more. Will keep everyone posted!

Quatre

Just finished watching "The Lovely Bones". I find it to be a profoundly moving film filled with great performances; Tucci and Ronan in particular are very good. I'm a die hard fan of all things Peter Jackson and this film just serves to solidify that. He's a brilliant and innovative director with vision to spare. From his very early gorefest films to "Heavenly Creatures" and onward to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy he has proved himself undeniably to be one of the very best directors working today.

He creates a palpable sense of dread in the early scenes involving Susie and Mr. Harvey. When it was all over I realized I was holding my breath! I mentioned Tucci and Ronan earlier as having given wonderful performances, but that's not to say the other principals don't also do a great job. I was very impressed by Mark Wahlberg, he gives his best performance since "The Departed" and the young girl who plays Lindsey, Susie's sister, is also very good :) All in all a great film, check it out!

Bored...

Hi all! It's 3am here on the east coast. Most people are asleep right now but I, as always, am not. I pretty much always work nights so I usually go to bed in the wee hours of the morning. It's just what I'm used to. To pass the time I usually watch movies and exercise. Right now I'm watching "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" starring one of my favorite actors, Geoffrey Rush. He's brilliant in the film, as always. His co-stars do a lovely job as well, especially Emily Watson as his first wife Anne. I've yet to see a bad performance from either of them. My all time favorite of his is "Shine" in which he plays the piano virtuoso David Helfgott. He's also very good in a film called "Swimming Upstream" in which he plays the alcoholic father of an Australian swimming champion. So that's all for now, maybe I'll try and go to sleep. We'll see...

Random...

Going to go have lunch with my dad in about an hour or so. I've been eating very(!!!) healthy for two straight weeks (an impressive feat for me) and need to continue to do so. Gotta get myself in shape for when I go to the beach in June! Maybe some grilled salmon or chicken for lunch accompanied by an obscene
(no such thing) amount of steamed vegetables, oil and vinegar for my salad, and absolutely no bread whatsoever :) I'm also not eating red meat, unfortunate since my dad's taking me to a steakhouse for lunch. I do love a good steak :( I do allow myself to have sweet tea though. Being a Southern Girl if I don't get a certain amount of sweet tea per day I start to fade away! ;) As I'm typing this I'm listening to, of course, Rufus Wainwright. It's actually "Greek Song", the song that made me first fall in love with his music some seven years ago. Oh yeah, and my face is broken out, not badly, but it's just enough to be annoying. Stupid face! Oh well, on to my afternoon workout. 20 minutes of yoga and about 30 crunches should do it for now. Namaste

Genesis...

Hi all! This is the first of what I hope will be many blogs about me and my life. As an introduction, I'd like to tell all of you a little about myself :)

My name is Ashley, I was born in 1985 to two wonderful parents who unfortunately are not together anymore. I live with my mother and younger brother, and my youngest brother lives with our father. I love all things music, except for rap and crazy you're-all-going-to-die death metal stuff. How anyone can call that "music" is beyond me because it certainly doesn't resemble anything I would call music, but hey, to each his own :D Along with that I love to sing, and one of my greatest dreams would be to become a recording artist but (sadly) I don't have the time to pursue that right now. I love films and all things cinema, love to discover new (and old) movies that fly under the radar. I think Stanley Tucci is an amazing actor and the most beautiful man I've ever laid eyes on (on the screen), he's definitely one of my favorite actors and I enjoy all of his work. For music my favorite artist is Rufus Wainwright. His music moves me to no end and I continually turn to it when life tries to get me down.

I LOVE to cook!!! And I'm damned good at it. Tonight was risotto milanese which came out splendidly, tasted like saffronic heaven <3 Tomorrow hopefully will be butternut squash soup followed by roast chicken breasts :) Nothing makes me happier than cooking for my friends and family and seeing how much they love what I've made for them.

I work as a waitress/assistant manager/anything else under the sun at a local casual dining, full-service restaurant. I cannot divulge the name of this place but I can tell you it's a national brand that does very well and is fairly well respected (as much as a corporate restaurant can be anyway). I've been there for nearly four years and most days I love my job. And I know what you're thinking, "My GOD a waitress who loves what she does?! I've never heard such nonsense!" Well I do. The good far outweighs the bad and I'm good, scratch that, GREAT at what I do so I never have any real problems at work.

There's so much more I could write here but I think I've indulged my narcissism enough for today so I'll bid you all good reading, and see you tomorrow :)