What's your favorite quotation?

I love the story of Esther in the Bible. And I'd have to say that there is a scripture from this story that has always been a favorite :
"And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14

If you could all human beings one virtue, which would you choose.

Honesty, and the desire for honesty. Most of my drama comes from people telling untruths or "protecting" someone's feelings.

Question of the moment

I recently bought a box of questions designed to inspire conversation in a group setting. Most of the groups I hang with have no problems creating conversation without inspiration. So I thought I would use the questions to help inspire my blog posts. Feel free to answer the questions yourself in the comments.

Here goes the first one:

If you decided to go on a spiritual journey, where would you go and what would you do?

I fear that my thoughts around this question are distinctly transcendental with a side of Buddhist. My life has been a series of spiritual journeys, guided by life lessons and meditations on the Bible. Every day that I wake up, I thank God for one more day on this earth. And while travel is something I would like to do, I don't think my spirituality nor my understanding of my purpose on earth would be particularly strengthened by a trip to a "spiritual" or "religious" place.

Instead, I will continue to start each day with a word of thanks and praise to God, ask for the strength to make it one more day as a believer, and meditate on his precious word. I think the journey God will lead me on will be as exciting and adventurous as any I could create for myself.

Andy Warhol

Today, I saw the Andy Warhol exhibit with Kari. I like art, but I don't always get art. Warhol is in the bucket of art that I don't get. I read everything the museum offered and truly don't understand what the purpose is. I saw the painting Eggs in black and white and in color. In impressionist art, the point of something like that would be to study the light and it's movement over the earth and other items. In modern and post modern art, I'm lost....

However, I still enjoyed the exhibit. I just left with a confusion headache.

Hello. My Name is Ashlee, and I'm an Introvert

This article, via Deidre, is spot on in describing introversion. For anyone who is an extrovert, there are some very key ideas proposed in here for dealing with those of us who are exhausted by dealing with other people.

And don't be surprised when I politely say "I'm an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush."

Doesn't it make you wonder

If you give someone a Nobel Peace Prize on less than one year's work, what if they suddenly tank for the next three?

React

I thought this story from WUWM was very timely, informative and emotional. Go have a listen.

Coco Before Chanel

Who wants to go see this with me?

The Vampire Diaries on the CW

Can you say "rip off". Because it is. A total rip off of the Twilight Saga. The weak attempts at changing the setting can't hide its complete lack of originality. That is all.

A mustang for me...

What does it take

So, a man in Milwaukee was finally arrested and charged with several of the murders he had committed. He is suspected of killing 9 women total. Since 8 of them were prostitutes, the city definitely had to wait until a non-prostitute was murdered to actually work the case....

Bliss

It's very much starting to look like fall. I'm listening to NPR. And I'm doing math. Could life be any better?

Ashlee's Yummy Potato Soup

2 tablespoons butter
Some Green Onions chopped up
A Leek chopped up
5 potatoes peeled and diced
16 ounces chicken stock
8 ounces heavy cream
pinch sage
black pepper

Melt butter in large pot. Add green onions and leek. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring. Add chicken stock. Add potatoes. Simmer on medium -low heat until potatoes are tender. Add heavy cream, sage and pepper to taste. Simmer an additional 15 minutes or until mixed and creamy.

Good to Know

Going into my 7th Holiday Season in retail, I'm still excited to celebrate Christmas!

Dear Sir,

I don't know you, I've only observed you while you were in the grocery store parking lot. However, I wanted to warn you about what I saw. Your yellow Pontiac solstice is a girl car, and would be cuter in just about any other color. The personalized tag ACES HI tells me that you wish you played poker professionally. I know someone making a crap-ton of money off of you. Furthermore, motorcycle boots are impractical and restrictive when not being used as foot protection on an actual motorcycle. Levi's 501's should be a few sizes larger than yours are, and muscle shirts falling off of the shoulder..... I can't even make an intelligible remark about that.

In short, you are trying so hard to be cool. It's just not working.

Sincerely
ashleethequeen

My First Job

I've been pretty blessed in the whole job experience. I've never worked food service as a job, though I have done concession stands for charity. I'd say I've really only had one truly crappy job.

The job of telemarketing is actually below food service for me. Considering that I think touching other people's used food is one of the most disgusting things on the planet, you might wonder how telemarketing ranks lower. I took the job with a small firm ran by the man the summer I had planned to go to France. I needed money to spend while I would be in France. We didn't actually sell anything, we offered trial packages of things like water coolers. I'm sure there was a catch, but being the 15 year old grunt worker of a contracted telemarketing firm, I didn't know what it was.

We would call a company, and ask to speak with an office manager. If the receptionist was smart, she would leave us on hold for a LONG time. We had goals for the number of accepted water coolers per hour, and we got yelled at for not making goal. So there wasn't time for being on hold. One time, the office manager actually answered the phone. At least he said he was. He started talking really low. I asked him to repeat what he said, and it was something really pervy. So I hung up on him. I got yelled at for that.

After about a month, I realized I couldn't stay at this place. I requested to speak with the man and told him I was quitting. I gave him a specific date. He got really mad. He didn't say anything to me. However, my parents had to report him to the chamber of commerce before he paid me my last check.

Interview

NPR interviewed Michael Steele this week about healthcare reform. Both Steele and the NPR reporter are very intelligent individuals. However, read or listen how the conversation moves to a cat fight that rivals 12 year old girls quibbling over who can be let in to the lame tree house club.

Looks like the inappropriate behavior was not limited to pick up lines Friday night.

I am outraged that this happened. I am more outraged that it more than likely would not have made news if the mayor had not been the victim.

INAPPROPRIATE

Last night, I went out dancing with Kari. I hadn't been out dancing on a Friday night since..... You know, I can't remember when I went out last. Kari is staying this weekend in Riverwest so she can dog sit, which made it easy to walk to The Mad Planet for good times. The club was a lot of fun. However, the men were very inappropriate all night long. Hanging out of windows and cat-calling. Honking the horn on the Jeep that sounded like La Cucaracha. Asking me what my relationship with Kari EXACTLY was (?). And finally shouting an off color comment about breasts.

Men of the world,
It is nice to know that you have finally grown a pair and are not afraid to talk to women. Now it's time to learn what might be more effective when you speak to the women.
Sincerely,
Ashlee The Queen

San Antonio Pictures

I've posted my vacation pictures from San Antonio.