dream come true

   I'm working on getting photos still for my 'introduce you to me' posts that I mentioned before. But for now, I will share some photos from last spring, where we found a fawn learning to walk in the middle of the road. We rescued it, and let it go on the other side of the road, towards the woods where its Mama was waiting. So sweet. Check out the white freckles on that nose!

knowledge is power

We woke up at 7:00 this morning to meet the insurance adjuster for our silly ol' house. Didn't go too well. Sounds like the landlords might not have coverage for the rental, and there is definitely mold growing and extensive water damage. Possibly need to demo our bedroom wall too. As of now, the plywood is back on the floor and we are tiptoeing (literally) around the subject.

During the adjuster's visit, and for the rest of the day until around 5, Eric and I went to our seperate corners and did homework. I did Pre-Calculus ALL DAY. And Im still not caught up. Haven't even thought about my poor online psychology class. Not good!

But the best part of the day, was when Eric came out of his office/our bedroom and asked if I wanted to go out to a movie or dinner tonight. We hardly ever go out by ourselves anymore-it was a pleasant surprise. He paid for the bill and drove and everything. So out of the blue! We got a lot of talking done. Got me pretty stoked about the (our) future.

Not much more my brain can take for the day, but I am experimenting with my 30 days of Photoshop I have on this computer. Some neat tutorials out there. I worked on a photo of a cat we have called "Mangy" since we moved here. He didnt have any hair on his tail at first...we thought he had mange, but it all back now? So weird. Sounds like our weirdo gun-totin' neighbors abandoned him, so we have been feeding him and giving him lots of love. If we ever see them, we are going to find out for sure if he can officially be our man cat- maybe he will get a real name then.

before

after

buried alive

psychosocial developmental stages

polar coordinate graphing

carbohydrates

polypeptide

triglycerides

current fascination

 

home woes

Alright, so here is what I am thinking. Since we got a really nice camera for Christmas, I think I have decided to use it to take photos of things that I think represent my life right now. Then I will dedicate each post to that subject as in introduction to me and how it affects my life. A little photobloggin' from me to you. I think that would be a more fun way to tell you who I am, without the ol "Im Ashley, a twenty-three year old career student. This is who I date, this is where I work/live/play and these are my hobbies/friends/dreams. Photos make everything better, eh? That way, I can learn the camera and my blog flow all at once. Jah!

I did want to write about, tonight, my latest luck with our shitty, but lovely little home.

We are renting a modular in Placerville, really close to my school, and very near the town of El Dorado. The property is beautiful, considering, and we actually get a lot of peace and quiet out here. It is, however, a modular, and we are slowly finding the cheap breakable bits of the home the longer we stay here. The first month we were here, the shower nob broke off in my hand as I was turning the water off, exiting the shower. water everywhere. I didnt know where to shut it off. Didn't have the landlords' number. I had to drive up the road to thier home, dripping wet in and in a panic while the house slowly flooded. Aya! The landlords are sweet people though, and got it repaired within a few days.

Recently, however, as the rain came, we noticed the floor beginning to bubble. We honestly didn't think much of it at first, because our doors are warping too. There is a lot of condensation on the windows when we wake up- some cracks appearing at the seams. I just thought, cold weather, cheap house- it's just expanding. But then it kept expanding. And  getting taller in some areas- sinking in others. Getting spongy to step on. It  looks like a graboid might have went straight from the carport and under the bathroom, right off the canyon. The landlords came and checked it out- said it might be a pipe. It wasn't until a couple of nights later that Eric heard water flowing underneath the house, and saw steam coming from the vents. We discovered that a hot water pipe had burst! We got the water shut off- it ended up being off for a few days. During that time, we discovered that our propane we had just spent $300 bucks on had also drained as quickly as the water flowed.

Fast forward to the landlord actually fixing the pipe after a lot of empty promises (we didn't think he was capable of fixing a copper pipe considering he had never hung curtains before, and actually took money off of our rent if we would!). Eric thanked him for getting it all back and running, and convinced them to cover the cost of the propane lost because of their pipe breaking. He also reminded them that the floor wasn't getting any better, and if not for our safety, then at least for their own investment, they should get a contractor over to look at it and see what needs to happen.

a perfect size 10

Two weeks had gone by, with noting but empty promises from the homeowners. Until this past Friday night when I made shit happen. We were eating dinner- some tasty tacos we had just cooked up at home. Eric took a bite and his face got all scrunched up with pain. He walked back into the bathroom and asked for tweezers. I followed him in there, where he pointed to a splinter sticking into his gums on his bottom row of teeth. He was wincing, so I was riffling quickly through all the cupboards and compartments as fast as I could. It finally occurred to me that I had left them in the living room, so I excitedly announced  "I KNOW WHERE THEY ARE! HOLD ON BABE!" and went to run off toward tweezer-town. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground, my elbow is bruising, my shin is scraped and my foot is out of sight. I'll never forget looking up to Eric. We must have had the same facial expression, except his mouth was still hanging open to avoid the shard of wood. It was actually hilarious, until I pulled my foot out of the whole and discovered what was below. (Sorry- this picture is actually pretty gross- still giving me heebee jeebees. But I was wearing slippers, so it could have been worse.)

i still cant shake this yuck feeling. asdnsjdnsfnds!

So it took me falling through the floor into wet rat poop to get some action around here. I really go above and beyond, huh? We actually have it all patched up now, with plywood, until the contractor gets here tomorrow for a bid. WE are going to stay with my brother for a few days as it gets repaired. I got most of my homework done tonight so I don't have to stress about it this week while I'm away from 'home'.


Until next time, wish me luck!

my sweet boy

We just got home from going to the El Dorado Art and Wine Festival - a fundraiser for M.O.R.E rehab. Since Eric created their website, we were given free tickets to go taste some local wine and try different food samples. We were glad to have been able to share a table with our good friends Stan and Darin of Cinema Caldera, who created a video for and about M.O.R.E as well.

We had a nice time, and didn't go too crazy on the booze or stay too long- still kind of recovering from last night. After stepping through my rotting bathroom floor (which I will write about in my next post because its too hilarious in a way), we decided to get out of the house and see some friends play music at a a place called Annabelle's Chocolate Lounge. Afterwards, we walked across the street to the infamous local bar called Poor Red's (where I discovered my love of whiskey-sours). It was my first time to either place and I live literally about 4 minutes away! Its so rad to still be able to discover new things to do and in a town this small.


So for tonight, I am completely stoked to just be home and curl up on the couch with my two dudes. Pretty excited about Jules getting more and more friendly as he ages. He even cuddled up on me for a bit- a very rare occasion unless we are in bed for the night.

 

 

Speaking of- I'm totally beat and ready to head there now. I have some ideas for this blog- if I can find the time and keep up with it, I think its going to be rad.

love letters of a musician

These crisp, spring-like mornings always remind me of the sweetest book I found at an antique store years ago. It's called Love Letters of a Musician by Myrtle Reed. The edition I have is a very worn treasure that was printed in 1909 (althoug written in 1898!). It's seriously so completely beautiful and romantic and heartbreaking all at once.

   "Today I have had a long walk through the woods and fields. The Earth has thrown off her lethargy and waked into living. Everything is budded now, and soon will come the time of blossoming.

The hepaticas and windflowers, rash children of the woods that they are, have already made little pink and white spots of beauty among the brown, dead leaves. There is a tender flush on Nature's withered face, that means rebirth and resurrection.

On the southern slope of a hill I found a yellow violet. There seems to be a passion this year for early rising. The trilliums, brave and bonny in their new attire, are too proud to speak to the passer-by. I bent down to one of them, but not a glance could I get.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit was turning tender eyes that way. He stood, well-dressed and haughty, close beside Mistress Trillium, who leaned towards him with an air of delicate encouragement. Perhaps that is why she had no inclination to look at me.

The plain of woods just east of the maple grove seems like a vast festival. The guests are brilliant and stately, only moving aside gracefully when some gay wind goes by. The hepaticas are gowned in white just touched with a delicate pink, the windflowers are clothed with a warmer shade, and the violets, in their ever varying purple, almost monopolise the field.

  The air is full of meaning. One feels that something great is about to happen, whether it be some ceremonial procession, in which all the guests are to join, swinging their perfumed censers and chanting the ever joyous hymn of spring, or whether some sweet fairy symphony is to be played on hidden strings, too far off and faint for our human ears to hear.

I think they miss you, Sweetheart, unless your passing this way once is joy enough for one field. You have been beside me all day, singing softly to yourself as you have always done in the woods, and every now and then turning your face, fairer and sweeter than any flower that grows, up to mine. There are no depths in any stream like the ube brown, soft tenderness of your eyes, no mel- etmt ody in wind or wave like the ever-changing music of your voice, and no sweetness in all the world is like that within the scarlet chalice of your lips.

I wonder what the flowers do when the stars come out! Do they wait, half-shyly half-fearfully, for the dawn? Perhaps they cuddle down closer among their leaves and listen to the slumbrous voices of the night.

I open my window a tiny crack when the spring nights come, and put my violin against the casement, and listen. The delicate fingers of May pick out melodies upon those strings, such as Mozart never sang. Faint, far-off, and tender, like some half-hushed lullaby, I have heard a dream-song to-night that the wind never played before. I have taken my violin away now and opened the window wide. And then, because I know it will never reach you and because it comforts my heart to give it, I send a kiss across the sleeping world to where my Lady sleeps."