Merry Wanderer of the Night:
personal

On Friday I did something I've tried to do over and over again for years. About a month ago I cleaned my closet out. I took out everything that I put on and don't wear because it makes me feel self conscious. I took out dresses that were too small, knowing that I'm not going to fit into them someday. I took out shirts with sleeves that were too short. I took out shirts that were too tight. I got rid of a pretty large stack of items. And then I folded them all up and stuck them in the corner of the bedroom where they sat until Friday.

I always come up with reasons to not donate clothes. I'm too busy today I'll do it this weekend. I'll give them to my mom and have her do it for me. It's not that big of a deal, I'll just leave them in my closet. So then I have clothes I don't like or do like but don't fit sitting in my closet for years and years and I never wear them.

On Friday I was on a roll with errands so I finally sucked it up, bagged up my stack of clothes and went to Goodwill. I was all freaked out about it since I'd never donated before. I figured there would be a bunch of questions I would have to answer or I would go to the wrong place and look stupid. For some reason I had it in my head that I would arrive and they would tell me they didn't want my donation. Well it turns out it's pretty pain free. I just dropped the clothes off in a bin, some guy came out to ask if I needed a receipt, and I left. That's it. That's all I had to do. And I checked another item off my list.

7% complete, 958 days to go!

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During the readathon I had to spend a couple hours getting my engagement pictures taken. A few of you expressed interest in seeing the results of these pictures. I've only seen about six of them so far but I'm really happy with the results. My best friend from high school took them. She has a great photography business called Katharyne Dunn Photography-- so you should check her out if you are so inclined.

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Part of the reason I've been so absent lately (click each image to make it larger):

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Hopefully I'll be back to normal blogging this week. I have plenty of reviews and things to post. I've been spending a lot more time thinking about my life and what I want to do than I have reading recently. I'm reading my first self help book right now, which probably has something to do with it. I'm not really a big "self help" person necessarily, but when I saw Jillian Michaels' book Unlimited: How to Build an Exceptional Life

I was really drawn to it. I'm a big fan of her work-out videos and I loved her show Losing It With Jillian. A lot of people think she is mean and scary, but I find her commitment to honesty and helping others inspiring. She's no joke and her book has really pushed me to analyze my habits and attitude. I've really been searching for myself over the past year and I think this book came at a great time. It's Spring, a time of renewal, and I'm taking some of my first steps towards life after graduation even though I have a year left of school.

When I started this blog I wanted to read more and read like I did when I was a kid. I wanted reading to be fun again. I think I've accomplished that goal, but I don't ever want to make reading stressful or not fun. Lately with the amount of school and work I've had it's been hard for me to balance the blog with my life outside it. I was also struggling with friendships when I started this blog, but now I think I have a good solid group of friends and I've become a lot more social--hence less time for reading. I'll be done with school in three weeks, but until then I'm going to allow my blogging to be a little irregular. Once summer comes I should get back in the swing of things.

I've thought a lot about priorities recently. My blog is a big priority to me because it brings so much joy into my life. While I'm glad I've had the opportunity to go to college school has never been my number one priority. I'm an A-B student, but I could probably get better grades than I do. It's always seemed to me that when I work really hard to get straight A's other things in my life start to fall apart. My parents never stressed good grades to me and for that reason I've let things slide a bit more this semester. I also decided I didn't want to go to graduate school right after college, which has lightened my stress. I guess sometimes I wonder what that means, to be in college and have school not be my number one priority. I know I'm rambling, I've probably rambled a lot lately.

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When I originally made the goal to send ten postcards via Postcrossing I figured I would spread it out a little bit. Maybe send one postcard a month or something like that. Let me tell you, Postcrossing is addictive. Once you've sent one postcard you just cannot wait to send the next one, and the next one, and the next one. And since Postcrossing lets you send up to five postcards at a time you're pretty much always all maxed out.

The great thing about Postcrossing is that you send something out there into the world and then you get surprised by a postcard in the mail every once in awhile. So far I've sent ten postcards and received five, but four of my postcards are still traveling to their destinations. I've received postcards from England, Italy, Finland, Poland, and the United States. I've sent postcards even farther, to places like Taiwan and Russia.

Somehow Postcrossing is able to match you to people with like interests. On my profile I talk about liking books, music, and comics. I've had a few people with extremely similar interests to me, even a French girl studying English literature in England.

The way Postcrossing works is you send out a postcard, someone receives that postcard and registers it online, then your name gets sent into the pool for a postcard, someone randomly receives your information and sends you a postcard, which you then register and the cycle repeats.

4% complete, 972 days to go!

Have any of you used Postcrossing?

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Please excuse this ridiculous blog post. I'm sick and haven't been able to concentrate on much.

Dearest Meg Ryan,

I have seen you in You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally at least fifty times each. Whenever I am sick, sad, or confused I turn to you and you always lead me the right way. I even liked you In The Land of Women, which proves that I am a true fan.

Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental.

In Sleepless in Seattle you cry openly while listening to a talk radio show. I do this often while listening to This American Life. Half of my Facebook statuses are about me crying during This American Life. You're fearless and make a seemingly stupid decision to reach your destiny. And you reach it. Without this movie's influence I wouldn't have made as many rash decisions but also wouldn't have experienced those moments of pure magic in my life.

Sally Albright: Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous, and I had these days of the week underpants. Harry Burns: Ehhhh. I'm sorry. I need the judges ruling on this. "Days of the weeks underpants"? Sally Albright: Yes. They had the days of the week on them, and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, "You never wear Sunday." It was all suspicious. Where was Sunday? Where had I left Sunday? And I told him, and he didn't believe me. Harry Burns: What? Sally Albright: They don't make Sunday. Harry Burns: Why not? Sally Albright: Because of God.

And who could forget the fake orgasm in When Harry Met Sally? You were clearly not afraid to make a complete fool of yourself and be open about your sexuality. My mom made me watch this in high school to show me that men and women could not be just friends, but the only thing I really took away from this movie was that it was okay to wear my heart on my sleeve.

Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void.

In You've Got Mail you are constantly on your laptop in your pajamas sending messages to strangers. You love daisies and books. You are my heroine. You say so many wise things.

What is it about you Meg Ryan? What is it about your loose clothing and angelic features that makes my heart sing? You were cast in all my favorite female roles, you've been one of the few constants in my life. My guiding light. So thanks for making my bad days good and making me feel a little bit better about being the overemotional slob that I am.

Sincerely,
Ash

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Before I read Slow Death by Rubber Duck I was unaware of a lot the chemicals put in every day things. It's really impossible to escape them, which is terrifying. But there are a few things you can do to minimize you're contact with certain chemicals. I thought I was doing pretty well on the environmental scene, but this book showed me so areas I could improve on. The biggest one for me was home bath products since I already use natural home cleaners and do not buy Teflon. After reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck I decided to switch out my shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, mouthwash, and deodorant.

1. I purchased the Burt's Bees Grapefruit & Sugar Beet Shampoo and conditioner. Burt's Bees has a few different types of shampoos but this had the lowest amount of chemicals. Some of them might smell better but I didn't really care. This cost about the same as the shampoo I was originally using, so it really isn't a big change for me.

2. Tom's of Maine Natural Toothpaste is what I replaced my former toothpaste with. This is a dollar more perhaps, but other than the chemicals it tastes a lot better than my old toothpaste and I don't feel like I have to scrub and scrub with it to make it work. That might be psychological, but I do like it more. I also got Tom's of Maine Natural Mouthwash but that was actually more because Jason needed a new mouthwash and he hates the alcohol taste in them. Tom's doesn't have alcohol in their mouthwash.

3. I got the unscented Tom's of Maine Natural Deodorant. A lot of you are probably wondering how that is working. I've noticed a little smell if I get particularly sweaty, but I actually had the same problem with my old deodorant (I don't use antiperspirant) so I think the Tom's deodorant works just as well as normal deodorant.

Aths has a great post up today about further options for detoxing ourselves from chemicals and she goes into what chemicals you're actually getting rid of. Be sure to check it out at Reading on a Rainy Day!

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I've actually checked two more things off my Day Zero list, but the most exciting completion happened today. Jason and I started our compost bin. Originally we planned on building our own, but when we went shopping for soil and lime we saw a 115 gallon compost bin made from recycled plastic. This is way bigger than we really need, but it's something we'll probably be able to grow into. We threw our own food scraps, newspaper, soil, and lime in there today and it's just a little bit from the bottom. Soon we'll collect food scraps from our friends and after a long time we'll create our first batch of compost soil!

Adding some food scraps to the bin.

Our giant compost bin.
Jason and I obviously rent our house, so some of you might be wondering where we're doing this. We actually had some spare laminate flooring that we laid down on our laundry room floor (which is cement) and set the compost bin on. A compost bin is empty at the bottom so you can set it on the ground outside, which we clearly cannot do. There is a drawer on the side of the bin where we can release the compost when it's finished. We'll probably use this soil to grow things and give it to our friends who want some. We're only planning on filling this bin half full right now, but maybe someday we'll fill the whole thing.

And for those of you wondering what else I checked off my list, I got my nose re-pierced. I had it done when I was in high school but let it grow close one summer when I had a job that required me to take it out every day. I also have quite a few projects in progress.

988 days to go, 3% complete!

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I recently decided to join the Day Zero Project. I created a list of 101 things I'd like to accomplish in 1001 days, which works out to roughly one thing every ten days. It doesn't sound to hard to make the list, but I actually found it incredibly difficult to find 101 things I really wanted to accomplish in a little less than three years. This isn't because I'm unmotivated, I just tend to do things I want to do. I wanted to backpacking and I made it happen. I wanted to date my boyfriend and I let him know I liked him. And so on and on. But everyone needs encouragement and I really enjoy challenging myself. I'll blog about this process from time to time.

The first task I completed is writing a letter to myself in ten years. I'll be 31 at this point and my life will be incredibly different. In my letter I talked about children, careers, and how I would remember this point in my life. I actually used the website FutureMe to write the letter. You can set the date on there and it will email you the letter when you tell it to. You're not able to read the letter before that date, but you can change the email address it's sent to in case you get a new email.

I also asked my future self if I was still blogging at English Major's Junk Food. Time will tell...

The process of imagining a different version of myself was a little empowering. It made me realize that while I do have some control over the way my life turns out I shouldn't be upset if it goes differently from the way I planned it. I'm considering writing a few more of these letters to myself, perhaps one for the day I graduate college.

My list is at Day Zero for interested parties. Encourage me by asking me how it's going every once in awhile.

If you were to write a letter to yourself in ten years what would you say?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Sorry the text is rather small, these comics are really the only time I've published any of my art online so I'm getting the hang of changing everything in Photoshop. Click the image to make it larger.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.