Thursday, August 02, 2007

Just a bunch of stuff that didn't fit anywhere else.

I'm sure that my last post makes it pretty obvious that absolutely nothing exciting is going on in my life. So here's some random thoughts that I've been meaning to throw into posts but haven't.

Yesterday I went to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village with my grandma and sister. I can't actually afford a real vacation so that's where I ended up. I'd like to write a huge long post about how awesome it was but minutes after paying $30 a person we stepped into the hot sun and 98 degree heat. Then my sister, who was horribly sunburned the day before, threw up and passed out. She came to fairly quickly and did not want to go to the hospital so we turned right back around for our hour and a half drive home. We were sad that we did not get to see the cars of rock n' roll exhibit, the bus Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on, the presidential cars exhibit or the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile, but we felt better knowing the tickets were good for a year. Well, we felt better until we realized that in my attempt to not let my sister crash to the ground of a vomit covered bathroom, I dropped the tickets and never picked them up.
Another thing about the day that bummed me out was that on the way there I came up with the best song lyrics ever. I couldn't wait to write them down when I wasn't driving so I kept saying them over and over in my head. Then all the madness happened and they were lost. I was sad for the first time I had actually thought of great lyrics that flowed and would have made a fantastic song. I hate it when something slips out of my mind before I get the chance to write it down. Sometimes I wonder if it comes back later but I don't recognize it as an idea I already had.

On a completely different subject, it seems the rejection notices I've been getting lately are rather rude. Before I was just getting generic notices or some pleasant 'thanks but no thanks' comments. Yet in the last two weeks I've gotten two rude comments that come out something along the lines of "I am so tired of seeing stories about this." And that's fine. Maybe my story isn't as original as I thought. I'm okay with that but what is the necessity of the rude, snarky remarks. A simple 'no thanks' would suffice and I do appreciate knowing why it's a no but you could say it nicely. Sorry, that's just me griping. I'm sure they get annoyed by the tons of people that send in "crap" everyday so it's probably hard to stay pleasant.

Another random thing I wanted to mention is that I know I keep talking about searches on my site meter and I just wanted to assure everyone that I don't check it constantly. And I rarely look at anything other than how many people stopped by and the searches. I don't want people to feel like they can't stop by my blog because I'm spying on them.

Also, thanks to the hot weather, that makes me want to do absolutely nothing, (Yes I am a big cry baby!), I have seen way too many movies this week. I went to see 'Hairspray'. I've never seen the theater version so I can't compare but I loved it. That could of course be because I have a sick addiction to musicals.
I also watched 'Reno 911:Miami' and I was a little disappointed that it didn't seem as funny as the tv show, which I think is hilarious. Although, I haven't seen it in a while so maybe Reno 911 has just lost its touch.
'Ed Wood' was another movie I watched. I know his movies are suppose to be the worst ever but now I want to find them and see how ridiculous they really are.
And I finally watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. I always thought it was a glamorous, romantic film. After hearing about 'In Cold Blood', I wonder how Truman Capote could have wrote something so serious and something so fluffy. Then I watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and figured out it was a bit more complex than I thought it would be. I never realized that Holly Golightly (the book character) was a little off her rocker. She certainly had some issues to deal with. A surprise I wasn't expecting. Not that it was anything as grave as 'In Cold Blood' but definitely not what I had originally thought. I hear the book is even more complicated since the movie was edited to be more cinematically appealing.

Currently, I'm reading 'Mrs. Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf. I've been meaning to read it since I finished 'The Hours', which was inspired by it. Not that I was confused by 'The Hours', but now that I'm reading 'Mrs. Dalloway' I understand parts of it better. So I guess I should have read it first.
When I get done with that I think I'm going to read 'Watership Down' by Richard Adams. I've never heard of it before but I took a 'what book are you quiz' and apparently I'm that book. So I figured I should give it a shot.

And one final note, I'm starting a new blog in addition to this one. A Positive Blog In Lansing is a local blog about HIV/AIDS. I hope to list local, state, national and world events, medical information and research, political and funding concerns, as well as stories and experience of people with HIV and those who support family, friends and patients who are positive. It will have a local focus but will not be limited to so please stop by and check it out if you have a minute. Right now it's in a rough development stage. I hope to change it and add to it more in the next few days.

5 comments:

D.B. Echo said...

Congratulations on the new blog!

That's terrible about the tickets. But it says a lot that you valued your sister's well-being over $90 worth of tickets. Give the museum a call, maybe some honest soul found them and turned them in. Probably not, but it's worth a shot.

The rude rejection slips sound very unproffesional. I hope you're saving them. You can include the rejection slips in the 10th-anniversary edition of The Turkey Thief and Other Stories.

Great, I'm Ulysses. I've never been able to make it more than a few pages into that book before I decided there was something else I'd rather be doing.

Word verification word: frquqcuq. That's a lot of q's.

Ashley said...

Thanks! I'm very excited about the new blog. I just hope I can keep up.

I am going to call the museum but every time I remember to do it it's like 2:00 am.

And who knows maybe I won't care for Watership Down but I thought I should give it a try.

Anonymous said...

I'm Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. At least I know the storyline (from the musical). When I was in elementary, I was determined to read the book (it's monstrous) and rechecked it out from the library like a million times. I never did read it but I could sing you every song from the show.

Also, I've read Mrs. Dalloway and I don't remember liking it. I think I might have been too young or too not into certain types of literary (maybe not as open-minded as I am now with all the experimental junk I've subjected myself to LOL) and I only recall the experience as being somehow torturous for me. But I remember a friend in college who read it and was like eating it up and loved it. Maybe I got some weird alternate copy of the book? LOL

Lastly, I keep getting emails from PETA about pleather and I am considering writing a large open-letter exhorting the values of naugahyde.

tiffany said...

i'm a people's history to the united states, by howard zinn. i've never read it, but i know about it, and i'm not surprised.

p.s. i was named after breakfast at tiffany's, but i've never read or seen it. probably because of the constant nagging voice of my mother in my ear, begging me to do either for the past 18 years. really, i'm just glad she didn't name me holly golightly. apparently it was a toss-up.

Ashley said...

Jenni- I've only seen Les Miserables the musical. I've never read the book. I thought of putting it on my summer reading list and then I saw it on the library shelf. It's huge.
Also I wasn't loving Mrs. Dalloway but it's been growing on me.

Tiffany-I've never heard of your book so I'm going to have to look it up and read it, providing it's not huge.
And if it makes you feel better I was named after Ashley Abbott on the Young and the Restless.