And now...

...we have about two inches of the aforementioned slurpee covering the entirety of Seattle.

DON'T DRINK IT!

I know it looks a lot like it might be the yummy cola flavor, but it is actually the nasty dirt flavor. Just trust me on this one.

Tasty is not quite the right word for it.

Monday it rained Dippin' Dots and it was amazing. Today it felt like someone was spitting Slurpee all over me and it was disgusting.

But now there are big fluffy snowflakes. Really big. Be careful. If you catch one on your tongue, you might choke.

Mmmm Tasty

Today, at about 4:30pm, Seattle was hit with a strange sort of hail... or was it snow? I'm not really sure what to call it. All I can confidently tell you is that it looked exactly like it was raining Dippin' Dots. You know, "the ice cream of the future." We took the kids outside to investigate (even though it was dark and cold) and I am conviced that a Dippin' Dots factory in the sky blew up tonight right over Seattle. Really. They even had the texture of Dippin' Dots. Quite tasty, I have to say.

Who Am I?

I tried to log into my messenger account today and it told me that my password was invalid. "Hm. Maybe I typed it wrong," I thought to myself. Another try. Still wrong. Try again. Focus, Ashley. I slowly typed in every character of my password. Nope. Still wrong. I sat back. I stared down my computer screen. Suddenly it dawned upon me. My password has been changed! How could I forget? Type new password. And I'm in.

my visit to calgary, home of sam

As you may have gathered from my previous post about my observation of snow in Seattle, I am back from my long weekend in Calgary (which also happens to be the home of world famous professional basketball player Sam Thomson). My last weekend report was really long, so I'm going to limit myself to telling you 5 things that happened this weekend.

1. On my way out of my apartment door, my roommate gave me an apple to eat on my way to the airport. I put it in my purse and totally forgot about it until I arrived in Calgary and put my stuff into Sam's car. As you may know, a person cannot just bring produce from the land of brown cream soda (USA) into the land of duotangs (Canada). I didn't really know the best thing to do. Bringing the apple back to my country would really only make things worse for myself. Sam thought I should throw it out the window, but I was afraid of leaving evidence of my heinous crime. So I ate it. All of it. Stem, core, and seeds included.

2. I watched a 2 year old white girl eat a full plate of spicy Indian food like it was candy. It was remarkable.

3. I went snowboarding with Sam and her cousin Kaila. It was the coldest I have ever been in my life. I even started to cry when we took a break in the lodge. My face was dethawing and it felt like it was on fire. It was one of my wussier moments in life. I did not warm up until nap time. I had one of the most amazing naps of my life on that day, by the way. And I take a lot of naps, so that is really saying something.

4. I forgot to go potty before I went to bed on Saturday night. As if I were a camper at camp, I told Sam before I left her room that I was going to go use the bathroom. Anyways. I went potty and then back to Sam's room and into bed. After a few minutes, I got comfortable again and began to try to fall asleep. All of a sudden, this person popped up from beside Sam's bed! It creeped me right out! Then I realized that it was not just any person. It was Sam herself! She hid from me when I left to use the bathroom and I did not even notice that she was gone. How do you not notice a person missing from the bed you are sleeping in? I don't know. I guess you just skip over those details sometimes.

5. Sam and I absolutely destroyed Colin and Sunshine Jenny at Dutch Blitz. Okay, that is a big lie. In fact, Jen had more points than the rest of us combined. But I DID catch Jen cheating. Also, if anyone is wondering what to get Sam for her birthday, I bet that she would really like a lifetime subscription to the National Enquirer.

Okay, my five point plan did not make this post much shorter than it would have been otherwise. Oh well.


By the way, it is snowing like crazy now! Maybe the Catholic school kids will not have school tomorrow? Meaning maybe I won't have work tomorrow?

Am I back?

Today, upon my return from Calgary, I exited the Sea-Tac Airport to find snow. And not the normal mixed watery snow that we usually get in Seattle. It was white and fluffy. I just thought it was kind of funny that I came back to usually mild Seattle after the coldest weekend of my life and found more snow.

The Best Thing Happening on December 15

I will now shamelessly advertise something very good. Future Island is an elementary school in Offinso, Ghana that has outgrown its facilities. Construction for a new school is underway, but funding for this effort is desperately needed. My amazing friend Glorya, who spent a summer volunteering at the school, has organized a benefit concert that is sure to be amazing.

FUTURE ISLAND BENEFIT CONCERT
DECEMBER 15 @7PM
TICKETS ARE $7 PRESALE, $10 AT THE DOOR
NEW LIFE CHURCH 3727 240TH SE
BOTHELL, WA 98021

This is the 2nd benefit concert that Glorya has organized and it's going to be awesome. The concert will feature 3 local Christian bands: David Cho, King's Fools, and Tim Pak. Every dollar goes directly to Future Island School. Sweet! If you live in the Seattle area, this is the place to be. If you do not live here... well, this is a good excuse for you to come visit me.

In case you are still unsure of whether you should come, here is a lovely picture of me at Future Island to sway your decision.

Ashley is an amateur saleswoman.

I am no Sam Thomson, but I have to say that I made a pretty smart business deal today. A woman came by our room this morning at work. She needed a stamp. I gave here a 39 cent stamp. She gave me 45 cents. It's in my pocket right now. I sure am feeling good about this.

The Weekend Report

Well, friends, I did some very exciting things this weekend. Here is what will hopefully be a brief account.




First, I woke up on Friday to find that my hair was quite possibly greasier than it had ever been. Look at that volume! Instead of trying to pull off the hipster look, I took a shower.





The next exciting thing happened when I tried to drive to Canada from Seattle. My lovely car started overheating, so I took it to my beloved Chevron guys to have it fixed. This is Geoff fixing my car.


This is me having a camera and being bored while Geoff fixes my car.




















Eventually my car was fixed and I was off for a problem free drive to the land of duty teachers and pink cream soda.





My destination was Sunshine Jenny's house. She gave me her address, but I figured that I would just be able to remember where her house is. I did not. I drove around for about 10 minutes and realized that it was going to take awhile for me to find it, so I took a coffee break at Grab-a-Java. Jen called me while I was there and told me how to get there.

Jen and I had chocolate cake and chocolate milk. We later met Cassy and John-Mark at Grab-a-Java (that's twice in one day for me!). Cassy was wearing orange and she was also having trouble using her inside voice. Jen bit her bagel into the shape of a person. Due to the bagel hole, we had to assume that this person had been gutted. She later made it into the shape of a dog which had all of its guts.

We played a game involving pigericks and leaning jowlers at Deb's house. We also played Dutch Blitz. We all partied like we got +20 the whole time.

I then found Toast's house and we starting our trip to Langley to scare the Bujesus out of Sam, who was at West Jet's house. My car overheated again! So we sat in my car on the side of the road. After it cooled down we started driving again. Then my car overheated again! A friendly motorist stopped to help us, but really just told us to go back. We went a little further. My car overheated again! So we went back to Deb's house and played a trivia game from the early 90s. It was quite enjoyable. Then Colin and his sister came, too! But he is No Fun so we all left shortly after.

I took the scenic route to West Jet's house in the morning after Sunshine's dad fixed my car. Not only did I get to see Sam and WJ, I got a really great present. A rat, in fact. A dead one. Thanks guys! I spent the day with Lauren Jet, who was sick. We did tons of fun and crazy things that are too top secret to blog about.

On Sunday I went to church, went to lunch, and then put Cassy down for her nap. This is when Sam, my brother, and I went to the Colonel's house to play. Luckily I know exactly where it is or we might have gotten lost. Mikayla saved us from moldy hair and Mitch launched cars into the walls. It was great fun. When it was time for Cassy's nap to be over, we went back to her house to play tickle the Baby Girl and tickle the brother, both fun.

I then got coffee and a non-caffeinated beverage for my brother, who is trying to grow. After that we had to wait in the Tim Horton's parking lot for a mysterious man to bring us a bag. We could not go into Tim Horton's because the power was out. So we sat in my car in a dark dark parking lot.




We are very scared of the dark.






After Austin got his bag, I drove him home and then drove myself home.

That is all.

Sam is a professional cabin inspector.

Sam like Sylvia mucho.

Sam is a professional math teacher.

Sam is a professional dragon slayer.

A dragon slayer! Very cool, Sam.

Sam is a professional saleswoman.

You cannot deny that this one is true.

Sam is a professional basketball player.

I don't know how I didn't find out sooner!

Sam is a professional unicyclist.

Professional Sam

You may or may not know that my friend Sam is a modest girl. She excels at so many things, but rarely mentions them to anyone. With her aprehensive permission, I am here to tell you about all of the different professions that Sam holds.

Dreams Do Come True

I do not know why hitchhiking is so appealing to me. Whenever I go anywhere, I secretly hope that some component of my transportation plan will fail me and that I will be forced to hitchhike. About this time last year, this is exactly the situation with which I was faced.

After a morning of service learning work, my classmates and I decided to bike into town and go to the market. This involved borrowing enough bicycles for all of us. Most got ahold of a bike, but some of us were going to have to go in pairs.

I partnered with a tiny Japanese girl, Terumi. Needless to say, I was to do the pedalling and she was to ride on the back. This is one of those times when I overestimated my own strength.

Had I been taking a bike path while riding a fancy road bike, carrying Terumi would have been easy enough. Using a single speed bike on a hilly dirt road in Ghana was not as easy. In fact, I gave up as we began to climb the third hill. As it would likely have been physically impossible for Terumi to pedal both of us up the hill, we began the long walk into town (10 kilometers, I was told).

Not 5 minutes into our walk,a motorcyclist skidded to a dirt cloud of a stop in front of us and waited until our walking feet reached him.

"White girls, what are you doing?"
"We're going to town, but we only have one bike."
"Oh! One will ride on my moto!"

Terumi and I looked at each other. My dream of hitchhiking was about to come true. Terumi wanted the bike, so I hopped on the motorcycle. This is the first and only time I have hitchhiked. It is also the first and only time I have been on a motorcycle. I found both experiences to be most enjoyable.

A friend who we passed along the way realized that it was me on the back of the motorcycle in time to take this picture.

my socks right now

The left is medium length and black with gray and white argile. It's quite nice, actually.

The right is an old, ankle length basketball sock with a very large hole in the heel.

I think I need to do my laundry.

Parentheses

It has been raining all week, so we have been having indoor recess. For this, I simply walk up and down the halls monitoring classrooms.

Today I passed by the 5th grade classroom to see one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. A kid got his sweatshirt stuck on a bracket of his braces. A lower part of the sleeve. I have no idea how it happened, but it was very stuck. So he was just helplessly standing there with his arm dangling from his mouth.

I felt quite heroic as I pushed through his crowding classmates to carefully pull his sweatshirt off of the bracket.

Bad!

I have some terrible news.

The bread dumpsters are GONE!!!

I drove down there to get some bread for lunch and they were just missing. I have no idea where they went or where the Essential Baking Company is now dumping their old bread. This is horrible. That was about half of my diet. GONE!

For Robyn and Sunshine

Well, there have been two requests for a picture of the hair. So, here you go kids. It's a bit Photoshoppy because I have been playing with Photoshop lately. Sorry if that bothers you.


I think I might grow it out, but then I will have to deal with that awkward in between phase. We'll see.

Oh Canada

"Look! We found a leaf that fell off of a Canadian tree!" said the kid who was holding the maple leaf.

Chaperone

Last night was really fun because I got to chaperone trick-or-treaters. It was especially fun because the trick-or-treaters were my supervisor and her friend, both of whom are significantly older than I am. Ridiculous, you say? Yes. Yes, it was. How do adults go trick or treating without being found out, you ask? Simple. They dress up as a giant sack of potatoes.



There are two things that I would like you to note about this picture. First, that there are only two people in that sack. They are carrying three candy baskets. Second, that the dude is handing out full size candy bars! The drive to suburbia paid off after all.




Does the scam actually work? Check it out...