Day 1

Hello Summer. I feel as if we are finally being introduced. My name is Ashley and I'm ready to take a BIG bite out of you.

Bite number 1. I woke up to my greek god texting me. I found out his name (finally!) which is quite a relief; unfortunately i just found out that he's off to Hawaii in celebration for graduating. Which means our first date will have to be in at least another week. Somehow I'm going to have to balance J in a limbo state for a few more days. Poor guy. I really do like him. I think he's just amazing...

I think...i'm ready to be in love again (perhaps admitting and then posting it on the internet will somehow make it more real.)

*side note: included in bite number 1 is the mere fact that I told the greek god that i found him attractive and then asked for his number. He promptly admitted that he had been trying to find a good way to ask me for my number. OH YA! I still can't believe I told a guy he was attractive and then followed that up by asking for his digits. That is SO NOT ME! Perhaps that should tell you reader just how attractive he was!

Bite number 2. While i was at the NULC i was inspired to once again write. When i was a girl i would pull out our old typewriter (remember those things? what horrid contraptions!) and spend hours upon hours writing stories. Most of them were rather ridicules, but a few would make my mother laugh and comment on my skill and imagination. But that's not even the point. The point was i LOVED writing. i craved opportunities to sit down and write. it didn't even matter what i was writing about, just as long as my thoughts could escape my head. Then when i was in 4th grade i took a stupid standardized test. i didn't write a 5 paragraph essay and consequently they gave me a low score. I had thought i was so good at writing, but there it was in front of me - my low score screamed up at me that i sucked at writing. I was embarrassed and left vulnerable; i believed them - i was a horrible writer. So i gave up. 15 years later, at the conference, i realized i had stopped writing because i had allowed them to tell me what i was good at. How stupid is that?!
I want my 15 years back.

I want to be a great (not just good) writer.

So i'm starting now: everyday i'm going to write in my blog. I need to find my voice...and the practice! You know the 10,000 hours rule? I feel like I'll be taking a BIG bite out of that one this summer. Hence, this is bite number 2. And I apologize now reader. Sometimes i may write crap. But as writer Ana Menendez said at the NULC, "don't be afraid of writing crap! We all have written crap!" I don't think i'm afraid anymore Anna.

Bite number 3. Reading lists only seem to grow. Do you ever get to actually scratch a book or two off the list and see the list shrink? This summer I sure hope to! I am going to read: Anna Karenina, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Road, The 3 butterflies, 3 cups of tea, Weakness is Not Sin, The Infinite Atonement, and a work or two by Whitman, Emerson and Thoreau (my hero's).

Bite number 4. Trips to Oklahoma (be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding) and California (northern NOT southern! Beaches, shopping, and San Fran here i come!) I am obsessed with traveling and since my funds can only take me so far (in the states)...this is where i'm gonna go!

(sigh...)

Summer, welcome back. I have missed you.