Le Dates:

Jan 3: Wedding Crashers out on DVD
Jan 15: Back in DC
Jan 17: 2 for the Money out on DVD
Feb 14: New Millington book is out (I forget what it's called)

Movies I Want to See:
-Chronicles of Narnia
-Memoirs of Geisha
-Brokeback Mountain
-The Producers

Books to Read:
-Leopold's Ghost
-Guns Germs and Steel

TV on DVD to Buy:
-Golden Girls (every season available)
-Will and Grace (every season available except for the first)
-Simpsons (every season available)
-Dead Like Me
-Family Guy (every season available)

'Cus suicide is painless...it brings on many changes...and I can take or leave it if I please...

Cost of Books for Fall 2005: Appx. 350.00
Cash paid at Buyback: 102.25
Being rid of Sam Walker FOREVER: PRICELESS

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Sam Walker (aka Devil's Spawn) is out of my life forever. My joy and relief knows no end.

Oh, wait. Yes it does. I'm too tired to be really excited about anything.

Last night I had the horrifying realization that I write exactly like Gregory Stanton. I highly doubt any of you have read anything of his (unless you're Adam or Kat and I recited some of his essays to you) but take me at my word...this is bad. Very very bad.

I also feel like I sold my soul and my credibility on my Anthropology final. However; I don't care. I nailed it and Schaftt upped my grade on my Burundi paper from an A- to an A.

My Russia and the US final was arbitrary as HELL. There were IKON IDENTIFCATIONS ON IT. We haven't studied ikons at all! They were so poorly photocopied that you couldn't tell what anything on them was except for the occasional halo! Israeli also felt it approrpriate to give me a B- on my movie critique. Citing nothing but grammatical errors. Excuse me while I report you to the NSA as a terrorist/communist hybrid.

Umm...going to see Les Miserables tonight...followed by packing...followed by passing the fuck out. I have to be up tomorrow at 7 to babysit at 8:30. I'll probably be home around 8 or so tomorrow night.

If you define "snow" as a half an inch of semi-solid, kind of white substance falling peacefully from the sky, lacking true mayhem, then it "snowed" here yesterday. It would have been fine...I would have taken up my usual position inside Starbucks or Angelico's or something and laughed as the Virginians and DCers (Marylanders, as much as I hate to admit this, can handle their snow) frantically tried and failed to drive up the tiny incline that is Wisconsin Ave near Tenley at approximately 2 mph. But alas, this was not for me. I had to babysit. And everyone knows that babysitting=driving for Ash. In all honesty, I wasn't particularly nervous about it. Walking to Le Cathedral, the sidewalks were slippery ('cus apparently most major store owners haven't yet figured out exactly why WMATA throws salt on the roads every time it gets like this) but the roads were fine. Very wet but fine since the majority of the slush was collecting on the sidewalks.

Well...apparently I gave these people too much credit...the RAIN that was on the road...RAIN, mind you, sent them into such a state of panic that there were accidents everywhere and most people more or less lost the essential, humanizing characteristics that we've all learned to hold so dear...the ability to think above the level of a child in kindergarten. Cathedral Ave was a mess and I thought people had seen the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on New Mexico. Later in the evening, taking Bridget and Sarah to scuba, I think only one word can describe Wisconsin. A tire...hit Mary...IN THE FACE...

OK, so that's actually several words grouped together to form something that might be considered a sentence. Whatever. Stop judging me.

So...I think the whole of the experience yesterday can be summed up in a dialogue between Sarah (the second oldest daughter)...

Sarah: *bouncing up and down* I don't think we'll have school tomorrow! YIPPEE!!
Ash: *looks at Sarah very strangely, questioning her behaviour* Why not?
Sarah: *continues to bounce* There's snow on the ground!
Ash: Ummm...like a half an inch maybe...when I was in school, it took 6" to get us a day off..
Sarah: 6"?!?!?!? That's like a WEEK off for us. *continues to bounce*
Ash: *noticing the bouncing* Uh...Sarah...what's wrong? Why are you bouncing around?
Sarah: I had COFFEE this morning.
Ash: *fear* When?
Sarah: Around 3am...
Ash: And you're still feeling the effects?
Sarah: YEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ash: *ponders what it was like to be that effected by caffeine* DRINK SOME WATER! A LOT OF IT!
Sarah: *skips away*
Ash: Um...kay then...

I think I'm going to have to forsake anything fun tonight so I can get some work done...this weekend, much like this week, is going be kind of a mess...

State of the Ash...

So...I've figured out why I've been such a callous bitch lately. Yay for that. Also, yay for the ending of that.

Everyone out there...keep my dad and his mother in your thoughts, prayers, vibes, whatever it is that you do...A few days before Thanksgiving she had a stroke that's more or less turned her into a vegetable...Dad doesn't want her to live like that, but he also doesn't want to give up hope.

Slowly trudging away towards finals and break. Going to see Les Mis the night before I go home.

Christmas shopping makes me happy.

I have no desire to work over break. However, by New Years I'm going to be stark, raving mad (at least partially from a certain New Years party that I'll be attending this year...Can you say strawberry daquiris?) so I probably will

I'm considering history as a second major/minor again...Nothing else interests me as much and one more class in Russian history and I'll have a concentration finished up.

I want 2 for the Money to come out on DVD.

Kate, also known as TSB or Baba Nagusch, is not coming back to PA for Christmas. However, she will be visiting DC in late January, early February so y'all will get the glorious opportunity to meet her shortly the hell of next semester begins.

I have a perverse desire to dye my hair red. I'm not going to. I just sort of want to in a sick and twisted way.

I really hate Fall Out Boy. If I hear Sugar, We're Going Down on the radio when I'm driving the kids around I'm going to hunt down Fall Out Boy and make sure they go down...on a spiked wheel...

Ash's Christmas List:
-new digital camera (not gonna happen but whatever...)
-gift certificates for Express, Victoria Secret, Gap, the Limited
-HOUSE on dvd
-2 For the Money

Feels damned good to be back...especially since my recent soiree in politics didn't really work...

...So, after doing some deep contemplation, I decided that taking 2 400 level classes would be suicide...I spent the majority of this morning frantically trying to fix my schedule and I think I've got it more or less complete...

FYI: This is more for my benefit than yours...

MONDAY
12:45-2: Moral Philosophy (Reiman...hereafter known as le Communist)
2:10-3:25: Juvenile Delinquence: Causes, Prevention and Treatment (Addington, 'cus clearly Rach and I can't go a semester without taking a class together)
3:35-4:50: Sex Rights and Sex Wrongs (Carnes, no this is NOT a porn class)

TUESDAY
8:10-10:40(pm): Comparative Systems of Law and Justice (Butterton)

WEDNESDAY
11:20-2: Cities and Crime (Kane, can you say sexy?)

THURSDAY
12:45-2: Moral Philosophy (le Communist)
2:10-3:25: Juvenile Delinquence: Causes, Prevention and Treatment (Addington)
3:35-4:50: Sex Rights and Sex Wrongs (I repeat...NOT a porn class)

FRIDAY
FREEDOM

Once again..if you'll notice...never have to be awake before 11...and usually not before 12...Friday's completely free, Tuesdays mostly free.

And just for information sake...I'm in 3 200s, 1 300 and a 400.

There are many things I would like to say to you but I don't know how...

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Royal Flag of Scotland, often used as the second flag. Kinda cool, non? What's better? My family's crest (I have no pictures of it, sorry) shows the same rampant lion (a yellow lion on a field of blue with 3 yellow roses and a crescent moon). Where's that come from, you ask? Descended from Mary, Queen of the Scots.

On my mom's side I come from French nobility, eastern European peasants and a Civil War general (from the South, of course).

That's right, my ancestry owns yours. Why? 'Cus my relatives had their heads chopped off and was at least partially at fault for the loss of the Civil War. Damn, I'm awesome.

School's winding down nicely, I suppose. I have approximately 1.5 pages to sum up 3 separate points in the Burundian genocide (for Anthropology, of course) and that's not going to be pretty but I can do it. I think. Maybe...

My Policing in America paper turned out to be the exact manifestations of my worst fears. The case study is a completely normal town in Southern California (proportionate racial divsions between Caucasians, African Americans and Hispanics), 2.o officers/1000 citizens. 15 pages on reforms to make to improve the division. This is going to be hell.

Got out of writing my History/Philosophy of Criminology paper, so this week isn't going to be as ghastly as I thought.

In conclusion...bitch, you don't know.

It makes me feel...yeah...yeah...

I can see Kat's eyes bug out with joy at the title...but the rationale behind this will become apparent in due course...

So this weekend was...interesting...

On Friday night I saw a 12:15am showing of RENT with Rachel. Amazing movie, go see it. Right now.

As I was exiting the theatre, Cingular reception picked up again and I got a pleading text from Shea asking for help with his paper on Russia's economy. So I got back around 3 and went down to help him.

At appx. 4:30 we both realized that Adam had not returned yet from my room. Simultaenously Shea and I jumped to the same, completely inaccurate yet horribly amusing conclusion. "If he's not back here by 6, I'm sleeping down here.."

Adam eventually stumbled back in around, just as Shea and I were finishing up and around 5:15 I stumbled back to my room, not feeling tired yet knowing I was utterly exhausted.

After spilling stuff, tripping over books and clothes and crashing into my bed at least once or twice, I finally managed to pry my contacts out of my dried eyes, change clothes and curl up into bed.

As I lay my head down, I realized something was amiss. I had only 1 pillow, when I usually sleep with 4. Now, I would have turned on my light to locate my pillows, but then Kat would have slaughtered me (at this point she was already seething with rage, I'm sure). I also could have crawled out of bed again and searching blindly for the pillows but again, I didn't feel like tempting the fates that night. So I said a very silent "fuck it" and attempted to sleep without my entourage.

Didn't really work out so well. I didn't fall asleep until after Kat left for work (6:30). Normally this would have had me crying bitter tears of agony and despair. But the entire time I kept thinking "no worries, I can sleep as late as I need to tomorrow."

...

Yeah...that would have been AWESOME had it actually worked out like that. Unfortunately, at appx. 10am Taryn (my neighbor) decided to blast Christmas music, jarring me from my peaceful slumber. What Christmas music was it, you ask? Well...I'll give you a hint...it involves small, furry animals with slightly bucked teeth.

Yep. That's right. The Chipmunks Christmas Album woke me up after only 3 hours of sleep.

*enter rage and masochism, stage left*

Anyone who knows me knows that I can't sleep through loud noises and I can't fall back asleep once I've been woken up. So I cried into my pillow for a while befor finally resigning myself to accept fate's cruel hand and got out of bed. Went to the Eagle's Nest w/ a mildly hung over Adam to get a bagel and when Kat got back we schlepped to Friendship. And by schlepped clearly what I mean is "walked about 30 minutes longer then we had to due to something that was "positively a shortcut"and nearly killed each other along the way"

Yeah

Got back from Friendship and Kat, being the great friend that she is, passed out for a nap. I, being unable to nap, sat miserably around the room before crawling into bed with my computer, hoping to sleep.

And sleep I did. On my computer. I actually passed out on my computer. When I woke up and saw my screensaver, I jumped and screamed a bit before realizing that I was late for work. (I vaguely recall waking up about 10 minutes prior to this and thinking "Why am I up soon quickly? It only takes 5 minutes to walk to the Cathedral..."). Har har har.

So I got to work (which was hell...Sarah had a few of her friends over and they tried to make my life miserable...and succeeded. It was only made better by John and Thomas who were actually a lot of fun.

Now Maura and Dan were supposed to be back by 11...12 at the absolute latest. They got home at 1. Ashley was not happy. Ashley was so bored that Ashley did their dishes for them and Ashley was exhausted. They finally got back...had a chat with Maura about Russia and got home at around 1:30 (made over $100. Mwahaha). Adam and Kat were here, so I had a screwdriver and hung out w/ them for a while. Always glorious. And eventually we wandered downstairs to listen to Adam's Christmas Compliation which includes such classics as "I'm Going to Hang Myself on the Tree" and "Be Nice to Grandpa...He's Dying." Oh the joy. Around 2:45 I realized that I was about 5 minutes from passing out in Shea's bed so Kat and I stumbled back to the empire and rigorously turned off computers, alarm clocks and cell phones and shut blinds to make sure that NO ONE COULD WAKE US UP IN THE MORNING (I slept til 12. It was glorious). After chatting for a while, Kat contemplated doing some macro reading. I quickly assured her that doing so would end in nothing but death and there was sleep. Ever so much sleep.

Now feeling remarkably better, so I'm going to run to Tenley and do a random assortment of other stuff before I come back to work for FOREVER ON A PAPER.

This week's going to be hell. Wish me luck.

Only on account of villainy...

So...the rest of this semester is shaping up to be absolutely beautiful...

Let's go in chronological order, shall we?

December 6: Anthropology of Genocide paper/presentation (worth 40% of my grade)
December 9: History and Philosophy of Criminology paper (worth 33% of my grade)
December 12: Russia and the US paper on a Russian social commentary video (Not worth a significant portion of the grade, but Israeli is crazy and arbitrary as all hell)
December 16: Anthropology of Genocide final (gleh, Schaftt. Just gleh).
December 19: Intro to Sys of Justice final (No idea what to expect and we've covered a LOT of material)
December 19: Russia and the US final (Again, Israeli is crazy and arbitrary)
December 20: History and Philosophy of Criminology final (Savage's tests always require many hours of study)
December 20: Policing in America final essay due (this is going to take at least 10 to 12 hours to do properly).

And because AU's library is mildly horrendous, I get to spend a wonderful amount of time at GW for the History and Philosophy paper. Yay.