A Ballad of Blue Moons, Castles and Giggles

I’m sorry to disappoint you from the beginning, but I am wearing pants. My name is Ashley and I blog over at Writing To Reach You.  When I asked for opportunities to guest blog, Pham said “I want a ballad to Blue Moon, castles, and giggles.” I said, “I can totally do that,” and he said, “I know you can.”  Then I was left trying to figure out how to do that.

Here is my uncomplicated view of both Blue Moon and castles: I just like them.  That is the beginning and the end. You can over think this all you want.  You can talk about the essence of orange or stonework, but it’s really no more complicated than that I like beer and I like castles.  They are both magnificent.  The end.

But, giggles.  That’s more complicated.  I have something to say here. Introverts like me can get entirely too wrapped up in the seriousness of everything.  Then it’s late afternoon on a Tuesday and we find ourselves kind of low, and we ask, “What’s the problem here?”  And we realize that we haven’t really talked to anyone all day. And, more importantly, no one has made us laugh.

This is when blog friends swoop in to save the day.  If you do it infrequently enough, you can get a big response.  You just say on twitter that you’re having a bad day or you say that you need to be cheered up, and like a swarm of Opposite Dementors, the internet descends to warm up your soul and fill it with joy.  The closest thing to Butterbeer you’ll find in the Muggle world.

Sometimes you need to work through every detail of what you’re struggling with, and sometimes you just need friends to distract you and make you laugh.  As a friend, it’s up to you to figure out what’s needed. Sometimes it’s a serious chat session and sometimes it’s the cutest puppies you can find.  Something I learned from a friend is that when one of your friends is struggling you need to check in regularly to make sure that she knows she is not alone.  To say anything is better than nothing.  This is a good time to ask your friend the most random question you can think of. “So, how do you feel about bears?”

Having recently been on the receiving end of a barrage like this, it took me a while to figure out what was going on, but then when I did, I just gave into it.  I was going through a rough time, my friends knew it, and they showed up.  Don’t resist the hugs. Don’t resists the cute puppies.  Drink your Blue Moon and pretend you’re in a castle.

Listen, whatever you’re dealing with outside of the castle will be waiting for you later.  You just laugh, feel warm and fuzzy, and drink that beer.  Let your friends do what they do.  Laugh as loud as you can. Dance if there’s an opportunity. Find a glow stick to wave around.

When it’s time to face reality, it will be a little less sharp.  You’ll have an inbox of puppies to review if things become too intense.  Friends at the ready if you’re not quite there yet.  And always that castle full of beer.

I’m a Bootlegger

And the winner of the 2011 20SB Bootleg Award for “Best Vlogger” goes to…

Phampants!

Loud cheers and applause as Phampants approaches the stage.

Deep narrative voice from above (that is not God).

Phampants is a two time nominee in the “Best Vlogger” category and was previously nominated in the “Most Awkward” category in 2010.  This is his first win of the 20SB Bootleg Awards.

Wow.  Thank you!  Umm, what can I say?  This is not the bootleg I was expecting.  No seriously, isn’t this called the Bootleg Awards?  Then why is the award in a shape of a speech bubble?  I already have enough thought bubbles as it is…

Though, this one is quite shiny.  Very shiny.  Pretty…

Anyways, in all seriousness, I just want to thank the blogging community, the #Runnerds, my Twitter peeps and most of all, the amazing YouTube community.  Thank you for reminding me that videos can be so much fun.

And if I may suggest one thing 20SB, next year the Bootleg Awards should really be bootlegs.  Just imagine the winners taking home these:

2011 20sb Bootleg Awards Finalist

Hello pantsless friends!

If you haven’t heard, I was once again nominated for the 2011 20sb Bootleg Awards in the category of best vlogger.  So if you could please vote for me, I would greatly appreciate it!

Vote here!

FYI, you need a 20sb profile in order to vote.

If I win, I promise to share the peg leg with you in all its glory.  Whatever that means.

Until tomorrow.

Thoughts from Places: #SFNYE

So over new years, I embarked on an adventure that is slightly unthinkable.  Alright, so it’s not really unthinkable seeing how I’ve actually done this numerous times before.  I flew across the country to hang out with Internet people.

Greeting me at my arrival in San Francisco was Nico.  If I had a brother, it would be Nico.  And no it’s not because he’s Asian.  We then sought out the girls and surprised them.  There’s Ashley, Ashley, Ashley and Bri.  Captain Ashley created our mini community by suggesting that bloggers should vlog and participate in VEDA.  When it was over, Bri decided that the VEDA’ers should come together make one big awesome video.  And so, once Nicole arrived, running into the arms of fellow Internet friends who she is meeting for the very first time, #SFNYE officially began.

Though complete strangers, the Internet brought us together and formed friendships.  Some I’ve met before, like the Nicos & Ashleys pair.  Others, I’m meeting for the first time.  And yet, though strangers, we were already friends.

As we waited for the trolley to take us on an adventure.  I noticed that many people were waiting too.  They were all waiting for the forthcoming trolley.  Some waited in large groups while others waited alone.  But we all waited.  I can’t help but think that everyone was waiting for an adventure.  In life, we often wait for an adventure to come and take us away.  For some people, adventures comes often.  While others would wait until the can’t wait anymore and go elsewhere to wait, only to do the same a leave.  But many just wait until the adventure arrives, only to hop and go where it takes them.

Look back on my old adventures, I often would go where the trolley leads me, only to get off at the end and wait for another adventure to begin.  Lately, I’ve stopped waiting and started to make my own adventures.  San Francisco itself is an adventure.  Everywhere you turn, it’s an adventure waiting to happen.

Whether it’s driving in California, learning how to climb the hills of San Francisco, finding the Full House house, having your first In-and-Out Burger and not regretting it the next morning to hanging out with dear friends you met on the Internet over some Irish coffee.  I chose to be a part of this adventure instead of staying home on new years and waiting for one to come to me.

It’s funny how this adventure can into existence for all of us because we decided to participate in VEDA during the month of August.  All bloggers who were introduced into a new medium and bonded over a simple thing called vlogging.

What made #SFNYE great was not because of the adventure, but the companions that were present.  And like any good adventure, it must end and we all must say goodbye.  Sad as it was, I couldn’t be happier knowing that as I boarded the airplane back home to Chicago, even though one adventure is ending, another one has already begun.

Top 10 Posts of 2010

Here are the top 10 best/favorite blog posts I wrote in 2010:

No. 10:

A Beautiful Mess – posted on January 23rd.

So today, as I sit in a coffee shop, now on my second cup of coffee, I can’t help but smile.  I am a mess.  I don’t know what is next.  Then again, I don’t want to know.  This time last year I was hoping for something different; an adventure that will turn all things around.  And I did, I had an adventure of a lifetime.  But today, I feel like I’m at the same place as I was last year.  And yet, I know that I’m not.  I may be anxious and curious of what is next for me; waiting for another adventure to start.  Except, I know that my next adventure has already begun and it will become apparent to me in due time.

No. 9:

The Final Graduation – posted on June 9th.

Three Junes have passed since the end of Camelot. And each year, we still come together as a family, thanks to the still active parents, to honor those who never had the opportunity to graduate the hallowed halls and chapel of Quigley Seminary. Tonight will be bitter sweet as we congratulate the final freshman class and graduate the last class.

No. 8:

International YouTube Scavenger Hunt – posted on June 27th.

We each gave each other 5 things we want the person to find so we can see and learn more about our respective places.  Not only was this collaboration extremely fun, but it shows how the Internet is able to make the world a smaller place.

No. 7:

ET09: A Home Away From Home – posted February 24th.

Stepping off the ICE bullet train from Frankfurt to Cologne, I breathed the cool summer morning air of Germany.  Looking to my right and then to my left, I saw what I was looking for.  A tall, dark and handsome German was waving his hand high and smiling at me.  I smiled and waved back as I headed towards him.

“Hello!”  He said in his thick German accent.

“Hello Björn,”  I replied smiling.

We embraced each other with a long hug.

No. 6:

The Start of Something – posted on May 31st.

Zipping down Halsted Ave under the orange glow of Chicago’s street lights on my disassembling, 4th generation, hand-me-down blue road Schwinn, dressed in a Threadless shirt, jeans, a blue plaid hoodie and a gray pair of Chuck Taylors, a smile cracked upon my face.  The air was cool and damp, a mixture of late spring’s warmth and early June’s soft breath, as a light but blanketing fog was rolling in from Lake Michigan.  Pedaling at a speed of half urgency and half adventure seeking, I roll through Boystown, without even blinking at the scantily dressed men, into Lakeview.  Ignoring all stop signs and disregarding traffic lights as I weaved through intersecting traffic like a true Chicago cyclist, my smile grew bigger.  Chuckling at the posing scensters trying to find a party for the night, I managed to cut off a taxi while avoiding a prematurely drunk girl and her male escort.

No. 5:

VidCon and the YouTube Community – posted on July 16th.

How does one explain community?  Anyone can discuss it, write about or describe it, but community is meant to be experienced.  I’m struggling how to describe my experience of VidCon, in hopes that I can truly capture and reflect the experience I had this past weekend.  So tonight, I was talking to my YouTube friend Terri (Tezzitoo) from Australia, who could not make it to VidCon, and she told me to start from the beginning.  And that’s when it hit me.  The beginning means the community and what’s more community than experiencing it.  And I truly experienced community at VidCon, but I am also experiencing community as I’m chatting away with Terri.

No. 4:

Chronicles of a Marathon:  Chicago Marathon 2010 – posted on October 12th.

3 runnerds, 1 camera and 26.2 miles of inspiration.

No. 3:

Friend & Priest – posted on May 25th.

It was August 1998 when he told us about his desire to be a priest.  The moment he told me, I never doubted him.  Andrew was going to be a priest.  Almost twelve years have passed since that balmy August afternoon.  Throughout those twelve years, I have come to know a person who I couldn’t think be more perfect to be a priest.  This past weekend, shortly just after noon on May 22nd, Andrew Liaugminas was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

No. 2:

Le Petit Seminaire – posted on August 8th.

This is for my classmates, my colleagues, my students and fellow alumni.

No. 1:

Missed Connections:  Smart, Cute Girl w/ Doctor Who Button @MSI – posted on September 15th.

You looked at me, realizing the nerdiness of the question, smiled and obliged.  Once in the middle of the funnel cloud, you continued your lesson, putting to life what you said earlier.  When it was all over, it was just you and I again.  Your MSI lanyard with your ID was worn down your back, so I couldn’t see your name.  It was then, I happened to noticed your Doctor Who button on the left side of your MSI coat.