depending on how much i drink tonight, i'll either write up a "best of 09" entry tonight or tomorrow. for now, here are some new years resolutions.

1. keep up a regular meal routine with less take-out
2. listen to more music.
3. keep steadily reading a non-school book.
4. not keep alcohol in the house except for special occassions.
5. try to remain calm when james pisses me off.
6. not wait until the morning of to get school work done.
7. always be working on a zine.

<3

three days before Christmas!

grades for the semester are finalized - 3 A's and 1 B+. damn that College Alg keeping me back from having a perfect semester. still though, i'm fairly satisfied with the grades.

Christmas shopping: nearly there! just gotta pick up something for Bruce, which i think Mom is going to do tonight, so i'll give her the cash for it. still gotta wrap though. maybe i can get off my ass some point tonight and do it. i've spent far too much money on my nephew, but i'm glad i did. Christmas is really for the little ones, anyway.

used all my vaca time for the rest of the year; i had two days left after i came back from England. not bad!

making Christmas cupcakes on Thursday night. contemplating making egg nog w/ rum. we'll see how popular it is.

if luck has anything to do with it, i'll still have my job next year.

to-do list:

1. wrap gifts
2. go to store and buy some household items (including stuff to make cupcakes)
3. clean bathroom/straighten bedroom
4. buy Bruce's Christmas gift
5. try to finish 'inspired' zine over Christmas weekend. possibly shoot for new years as a due date?
6. finish reading Persepolis

wow, that's it, and most of it is only hobbies/for pleasure. i feel so unfulfilled!

ahhhhhhhhh i'm always making mountains out of molehills. so today wasn't SO BAD. i was welcomed warmly at work [another added bonus of my job; everyone loves everyone, mostly], and class was yes intimidating - i have a test on Wednesday which means i roughly have a day and a half to learn several sections of new material and do a lot of homework - but it isn't impossible, and besides, i've had worse. i think i can do it. the test, well it really shouldn't be too hard as long as i study tomorrow night. and really college alg is the only class i'm worried about. the others i'm still right on task, so yay for preparing and shit.

i've made very little progress on the Christmas zine. fuck me and my lazy fucking fat ass.

here's a rough to-do list for now;

1. buy secret Santa present for next week x-mas party
2. buy present for the department Chinese gift exchange this Friday
3. bake + decorate sugar cookies + send them off to James with a package o' goods
4. FINISH ZINE
5. make rough Christmas list of "important people to buy things for"
6. don't stop doing school work
7. also try to keep reading for pleasure. i'm on such a role now!

i finished The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and loved it. there are supposed to be others. must seek them out soon.

i'm back!

i got in last night around 7-ish. i've got this massive pile of laundry and other suitcase items strewn over the hallway outside my room. i threw all my dirty jeans into the laundry but haven't bothered doing anything else yet. i'm putting off schoolwork like fuck because i'm all paranoid about it now that i know i'm behind and i missed 2 math classes while i was on Holiday and basically, i'm frightened of failing. but i need TO CALM DOWN because i seriously do this every single semester. yes, the thought "i'm going to fail, i'm going to fail!' actually pitter-patters through my mind at some point each semester, and i always get A's! that makes me sounds sick or something.

but i digress. England was lovely. well if you want to know the truth, England was kind of annoying because the weather was mostly bad (cold and rainy though not freezing), but this actually had little to no effect on what a nice time i had, apart from not being able to see the Penguins or do much of anything. however, that was sort of the plan, to not do anything. just laze around with my boyfriend, sex, sexy stuff, cuddle, laugh, watch films, share meaningful glances, hang out with his family, eat, drink, and spoon while sleeping.

and now here i am back in the warmth of Florida in my parents house and apart from being in my comfort zone and squeezing my dog and playing with my nephew nothing all that great has presented itself, because i really do not want to go to work tomorrow or school either. i will anyway though, you do what you gotta do.

i'm going to try to finish my christmas zine today, if i can. or at least make a dern good start on it. the goal is to have posted them all by next weekend. which means i'm on a tight schedule since i have lots of other things to think about, too. god!

here's the list so far on WHO is getting an ashley x-mas zine:

james
david
esther
mom
shannon
melissa
jen
christina
mim + gramps
erin
jeff
ryan

and possibly a few more.