2011 "50 Books Challenge"!

THE CODE:
ALREADY READ - READING

01. L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
02. Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad

03. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
04. Sugar & Spice by Lauren Conrad

05. The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty

06. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

07. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

08. So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti

09. This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

10. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

11.

Hi, my name is Ashley

and I'm addicted to working out... and tea... and my new phone(!!!).

I've been working out almost every day for the past two weeks and I kind of love it. But I'm getting to the point where I'm physically exhausted but that's probably due to the lack of sleep as well. I know I should give myself a break but I'm afraid that if I do, I'll lose the motivation to work out again. On the other hand, one day break can't hurt right? ...we'll see.

Mmm tea, I wish I had some right now. I usually have it for lunch and dinner because I heard it helps with losing weight. Plus it's just a great stress-reliever for me. I just wish I had a bigger mug for it...

I am obsessed with my new myTouch 4G phone! It has internet capabilities (I got a data plan) and is pretty much like the iPhone but personally, I think it's BETTER. It's a really big phone and the battery dies every day, but these are the only "bad" things about it. I can deal with the charging it every day because that's what I did with my old phone anyways. However, it did die in the middle of the day once and I didn't have my charger with me so it was dead for about 5 hours... yikes haha.

- Ashley

Quite frankly I'm just too lazy

I suck at blogging about everything that happens in my life. Nothing big really happens daily. But that's not to say that I live a boring life... not at all. I'm enjoying everyday and living life - just like Holly did :) I just really don't feel the need to write about every little detail. I would love to look back someday and read about my day to day life but that's just too much work. So I'll update on the most important events but not much else. If the events were truly important though, it would make sense that even many years from now I would still be able to vividly remember the moment. That's how I see it. Those are the moments that you'd have to be there for them to truly be special. No picture would be able to capture that moment and words would not be able to describe it.

- Ashley

New Semester, New Beginning

Hello Spring Semester! This spring, I'm taking Geology & Cinema 1105, Intermediate Spanish 1003, Rock Music II 1014 and Child Psychology 2301. So far, my classes seem pretty easy and FUN. I'm really enjoying Geo, my professor is HILARIOUS. Spanish... I will never fully enjoy but I am excited to become more proficient at it. I've only been to Rock Music once but on our first day we listened to A*Teens' song Bouncing Off the Ceiling... LOVE the class already! However, Jon happens to be in the class too... WTF. and finally Child Psych has been interesting so far. I love learning about child development which makes reading the textbook a lot easier haha.

I thought it would take awhile for me to make new friends or find someone to sit by but luckily, I have a friend in most of my classes! Winter from my Spanish 1022 class is in my Spanish 1003 class now, yay! I also made two new friends Teresa and Julie. Mac (from high school) is in my Rock Music II course, and Megan (a girl I met thru Sami) is in my Child Psych course :)

My schedule last semester was just amazing... I had only two days where I started at 9:05 and the other days I started at 12:20... AND I didn't have class on Fridays. This semester I start everyday at 9:05 and it hasn't been that bad but I know I'll get sick of waking up so early everyday. Oh well... at least they're not 8ams! I had enough of those last year to last me the rest of college haha.

Well, I should probably go shower... and mentally prepare myself for what might come tmrw - I might see Jon in my discussion... I know how I want to act in front of him if I do see him but I don't know what I'll actually do. Ahhh

- Ashley

Amazing.

I don't feel like having another uber long post so I'm just going to recap my week this way:

Monday: Cooked a legit meal with MEAT with Amanda after our an intense workout (I ran 3 miles on the treadmill!). Then went to Target to buy a bunch of necessities.

Tuesday: Chilled in the apartment. Then went to the History Center in St Paul and Cosetta's with Jessie, Lizzie, and Rachel. We ran over a pot hole and the tire on Lizzie's car blew out so we pulled over to the side of the road. And then preceded to be rear ended by five different cars... you can say I had a meltdown. But we're all okay!

Wednesday: Hung out with Megan and went to Punch Pizza! Then we went to the mall so Megan could do her "dirty deed" aka return something haha. Afterwards we came back to the apartment and hung there for a bit. Caitlyn and I decided to go to ADPhi for a little bit before coming back to hang out with our upstairs neighbor. We played Dance Central on Xbox Kinect... So much better than Just Dance on Wii!

Thursday: Hung out with Kristi at the MOA! We went to eat at Noodles & Company and met up with Rumie. Then we shopped for a little bit before going to see Black Swan at the theatre. It was creepy and oddly sexual... but it was good! And I didn't get nightmares! haha. After, I headed back to the apartment and Sami came over to hang out. We talked and skyped Becca for a total of 2 hours! So overdue tho. Then we watched a movie and fell asleep.

Friday: I went home in the afternoon and just chilled until Nina got out of school. We ate at my house and then went to watch Tron: the Legacy in the theatre near our houses. Not nearly as good as everyone said it was... the story plot was kind of disappointing.

Saturday: Went to kickboxing with Nina in the morning... I'm still sore from it. Ouch. After that I headed back to the apartment and spent an entire 12 HOURS with Cherie, Urte, Amanda and Brandon (and Lynn later that night). It was sooo much fun. We baked a shit ton, went on StumbleUpon, had dinner at McDonald's and discussed the innocence scale haha. I love my BFFLs.

Sunday: FAMJAM! Spent pretty much all day with them and ate a shit ton of food as always haha. Second day of being a total fatty.

Monday: Third day of being a fatty! I went to all you can eat sushi at Kyoto with my UST BFFLs :) I ate about twice as much as I usually do... and that's a lot. But I wasn't even full after that... glad I stopped though bc I gained about 3.5 pounds afterwards. No worries, I worked it off at night! After sushi, Amanda and I picked up our books at Oak St Textbooks, went to Coffman and then got ready for class the next day.

Overall it has been an AMAZING break but this fact just made it even tougher for me to go back to school. I miss them all already :/

- Ashley

My Lazy Week

Monday was a pretty chill day, I don't even remember what I did haha. I think I worked out that day, ate and pretty much just watched tv all day. I'm such a bum haha. OH! the Greek and Pretty Little Liars winter season premieres were on that night! It wasn't the best but I'm definitely excited for the new season!

On Tuesday, I worked out again and then I went home and just chilled. The next day, I went shopping at MOA with my mom! She bought me a ton of stuff like a thermal shirt and jeans from Delia's, undies and a shirt from Aerie, a cute dress from Heritage, the second and third books from Lauren Conrad's L.A. Candy series, and pajama pants from Target. Lots of great purchases :) I also had fun just hanging out with my mom and My An (my baby cousin)! After we brought the baby back to my aunt, my mom and I went out to eat at 98 Pounds buffet where they had seafood and sushi, yummm!

On Thursday, I was supposed to hang out with Kyla but neither of us had cars :/ So I ended up just going back to the apartment and got ready to go to Melissa's going away dinner at Gingerhop. Amanda and I ended up going on a mini adventure trying to get there because we had no idea where to get off the bus haha. It dropped us off on some random street and somehow we made the right choice as to which direction we should walk - pretty much we decided to go towards the direction with the most lights haha. We got to Hennepin Ave, and did a little exploring and stopped by a few shops. It was a lot of fun and we decided that we're going to go exploring Mpls again soon!

We finally got to Gingerhop and met up with everyone. The restaurant itself was pretty cool and the atmosphere was chill. I got Sweet Chicken Green Curry and it was good but I've had better. After dinner, we went downstairs to Honey, which is a dessert restaurant/bar. Amanda, Luke, Lynn and I didn't stay long tho and we ended going back around 9:30. It was still pretty early so Amanda and I decided to go workout, still in our made up hair and with makeup on... we're so dedicated haha. I ran on the treadmill haardd that night and I'm still sore from it!

Friday, I worked from 1-6. Even though it went by pretty quick, I'm really glad they didn't use my call in! It was supposed to be my last day of work but Molly asked me to work this Monday too :/ Oh well, more money for me! haha. Anyways, after work I went back to the apartment and got ready to go to my friend Sam's house for a party. To be honest, I didn't think I would have much fun because I wouldn't have known anyone there but I met a lot of cool people! It was a chill party, I played a few rounds of beer pong with this guy I met there and we totally dominated. To say the least, I had fun :)

Saturday, I was sooo tired because I only got like 5 hrs of sleep. But I had to get up early because I was meeting up with Mel, Cherie and Brandon to go ice skating at Wells Fargo Winter Skate rink. It was my first time ice skating and it was sooo much fun! I definitely want to go again. After ice skating, we went to eat at Chatterbox for a late lunch/early dinner. It's a really cool restaurant where they give you games to play while you wait! and the food is pretty good too!

Finally, today, I finally got to sleep in! I slept for a good 9hrs and it felt gooood :) Amanda and I were supposed to go exploring today but she wasn't feeling well so we just chilled in the apartment. Then we worked out for about 2hrs, came back and made dinner! with meat! This is exciting because we usually never make meat haha. After dinner, we went to Target and I got a lot of stuff! I got makeup because i decided to stop being lazy and try to use makeup. I also got curtains for my room so that it blocks the light from shining so bright in the morning. Ooh and I got Agent Cody Banks 2 on DVD, which I've been wanting for awhile!

Such a chill week :) and this next week will be the same...

- Ashley

...and a happy new year :)

What an amazing new years eve this was! Amanda and I went over to Luke's house for the party pretty early so I decided to go chill with Brandon, Cherie and Melissa for a bit before we went back to Luke's. We were gonna go to Valentino's after we stopped by but Brandon decided he wanted to stay because it was getting a bit late. And I have to say, I'm glad we stayed because standing out in the cold would have sucked! Plus even though I haven't gone clubbing before, I don't really have the urge to go. So we stayed, smoked a shit ton of hookah up in the Bakery haha. Cherie, Brandon, Mel and I finished a bottle of rose champagne before midnight and it was delicious! I also finished up a bottle of my own mixed drink... so you could say I was a little intoxicated haha.

We counted down to midnight with everyone in the house and danced and it was just so much fun! I didn't get a new years kiss this year but that's alright! There's always next year ;) It was crazy fun either way... although I did pass out around 1am, which is kind of early but I was exhausted!

The next day was just as fun as the night before! I woke up around 10am and Jack (Luke's roommate) walked out of his room and asked me if I wanted to join him in watching Toy Story 3 and of course I said yes! best movie ever! haha. So we started watching that and everyone else in the house eventually came to join us. Around noon, Mel, Cherie and Brandon came to pick me up so we could go to Perkins for brunch and then snow tubing! Perkins was amaaazing because I was starving! and snow tubing was so much fun! Afterwards, we went to Caribou for coffee to warm up and then back to Brandon's for dinner. We had chicken alfredo pasta and wine, yumm :) After that we watched Inception and analyzed the entire movie haha.

Yesterday (Sunday), I volunteered at the Science Museum for the first time in like a month and even though I was there alone, it surprisingly went by pretty quick! After volunteering, I went back to AV to have coffee with Lizzie and Jessie! and to my surprise I saw a BUNCH of people from AV there, including Julia!! Ah, I've missed all my AV friends so much. I really need to make an effort to keep in touch with everyone haha.

Overall, it has been an amazing year so far :)

- Ashley