Ash the Mighty

RIP Sirius Rhodes

About three quarters of the way through my freshman year, I decided that I did not like the University of Redlands enough that I would be returning the next year. As such, I applied for (and got accepted very late to) the University of Arizona. The late nature of said acceptance meant that I would have to find accomodations with friends from high school rather than in the dorms. This was a good thing, because I was then able to do something I had always wanted: get a dog. That summer, nine years ago now pretty much to the day, I went to the local pound a picked up a pound puppy. I named him Sirius which meant “Companion” and was the name of Orion’s dog in Greek Myth.

The people at the pound and the vet that I took him to later all said that Sirius would not get too large. They were all wrong. He grew up to be roughly the size of a small horse. And ironically enough it was because of the mistreatment of Sirius by my roommates that lead me to leave that first house in Tucson and get my own apartment. Later, when I moved to Scotland, I was forced to leave him behind and so he went to live with my parents and his soon-to-be best friend/worst enemy Tahoe Rhodes. By the time I got back, Sirius had melded with that part of the family and I couldn’t bring myself to part him from them and so he and I never lived together properly again.

Two days ago my Mom called me to tell me that he had been diagnosed by the vets with cancerous pollups on many of his internal organs (spleen, liver, and bladder). One or two of these could be handled with surgery, but the bladder pretty much cinched it. Today my Mom, Dad, and I all went together to the vet and stayed with him as he was sent on his Final Journey. He was almost exactly 9 years old.

I know that to many this is a ridiculously long post about a canine that may technically not have even been mine and which many of you may not have know I even had any more. Those people have not raised a dog since puppyhood.

I am completely and utterly heartbroken.

And no small amount drunk. Seemed the right thing to do. Just saying.

~A.

OK, first off, yes, (mostly) moved in to the new flat with only minor difficulties. And these were of the nature of medical problems (second round of kidney stones) and lack of items I thought I still owned . . . but don’t. Which sucks.

So I’ve spent more money than I had planned. Which is not as much of an issue as it could have been for two reasons. One, my parent/grandmothers are helping me out muy a lot (for instance, Gigi bought me blinds/curtains for the entire flat, the cost of which made me pee a little in terror at the thought of paying for them myself). The other, I got word that the promotion (HOLY CRAP!) that I had been working towards for the better part of a year had finally happened.

So yes, I am now a Supervisor for GD. This comes with an eventual pay raise (they put new sups on a kind of probationary period at first) and a whole hell of a lot more stress, but I really can’t complain because it’s pretty much all I’ve been working on for months and months at this point. And if it makes a difference, the team they gave me is one of my old ones that I was a Floor Lead for, so at least I already know the team and they know me!

Not much else going. As I’ve not written a while, I’ll say that (obviously, from the comments left) Alanta and I are still dating and doing well. Snotface and Husband of Snotface are both doing fabulously as well and have each gotten promotions/new jobs themselves. Mom is working her ass off for SSC as usual and also as usual is on the perpetual edge of a nervous breakdown. Dad . . . well, Dad is the same. He works, he plays golf, he watches the DBacks . . . he’s just Dad.

To be honest I don’t really know how pretty much everyone else is doing because I don’t really get to talk or see them very often. Between working 3rd shift, buying the flat, moving IN to the flat, and generally being exhausted all the time, I’ve not been left with much social time (sorry!).

I hope everyone truly is doing OK!

Cheers,

~Ash.

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Happiest of Beltane Greetings to my brothers and sisters who . . . well . . . know what I’m even talking about.

This day is a bittersweet one for me. It is one of the most important holidays to those who share similar beliefs to my own . . . a day to celebrate life, fertility, and all that is generally good in the world. And yet, it is also the day that my grandfather, Mel Elward, died two years ago. I will regret until the end the fact that I did not make it back from Glasgow in time to say goodbye. I was set to fly home the next day for just that purpose, but I was simply too late.

So I say again Happy Beltane to everyone out there, and at the same time, I miss you, Papa. We all do. I hope you are happy wherever you are . . .

~Ash.

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It is an unhealthy time to be female and my friend. The two women who are closest to me in life and are quite possibly my closest friends (all baring family/girlfriend) are rather ill.

One, Carrie, found a lump in her left breast several weeks ago. She’s been poked and proded and it was determined that the lump(s) are probably not cancerous, but could certainly become so, and so therefore must be removed. Said lumps were removed on Friday, one of which is eloquently described as being the size of a golf ball. Needless to say, Carrie, in her indominable spirit, jokes that her beautiful cleavage is now unbalanced, all thanks to “Lefty.” Alas, the final word on the lumps’ nature (whether cancerous or not) will not come for several days, and so I shall be concerned until then. Nonetheless she is doing well, so I must be thankful for that!

But then comes my other friend. My dear dear one-time girlfriend and forever companion/manual-transmission-driving-teacher, Meggan. Meg has always had health problems of various natures, so I’m sure she didn’t think much of it when a few weeks ago she started to get horrid headaches daily. She eventually made an MRI apt but almost didn’t keep it as she was feeling so much better. She went anyway and was promptly rushed to the ER where it was revealed that she is bleeding in her brain. There is apparently a blood pool the size of a quarter in her head. The doctors are optimistic and say it is not life-threatening (or so she claims . . . she would totally lie to me to stop me worrying), but still I’m panicing more than I can say.

So I say to you all, especially those of you who lack a Y chromosome, PLEASE be careful out there! I’m rather attached to most of you and tend to get a little crazy when those I love are ill with no way for me to help them!

And please, spare a thought/prayer for my two dear girlies. The world would definitely be a dimmer place without either of them.

~Ash.

I’ve got three things that I’m “ARRRRRGH!!!”ing in frustration over.

1) Spam bots found this site and I’ve been getting an average of about a dozen spam comments a day. As such, I’ve had to resort to putting a validation field into the comments. It’ll ask you a simple mathematical question, and you have to get it right (the irony is not lost on me. My math skillz are a bit lacking, yo). Just a warning.

2) Last night was the “Midwinter Night’s Dream” Charity Gala event for Southwest Shakespeare Company and NEVER have I seen such a large group of cheapskates. Apparently nobody in Mesa knows that charity auctions are not when you’re supposed to be looking for a deal, it’s when you’re supposed to buy things so that these non-profits can stay above water! One EXTREMELY rich woman actually looked at the Live Auction items (the really swank stuff) and said “Well I’m not going to bid on these, I don’t even know what they’re worth!” ARRRRRGH! It doesn’t freakin’ MATTER! You’ve got more money than God! BUY SOMETHING!!!!

And 3) I came home from said auction last night and went through my mail and found an envelope marked “DO NOT DISCARD.” I opened it since I was expecting a replacement credit card and that’s how I’ve seen them marked before, and sure enough there was a card. But the writing was a bit . . . off. It was a free gift card (again, not something I’m unfamiliar with as GD has a similar system). Upon reading it however and looking closely at said card, on the back was a “logo” where the MC or VISA should go which said “MOCK” all nice and fancylike. Upon FURTHER investigation, I realized that the magnetic stripe was actually just a darker coloured bit of plastic! The front of the letter said nothing useful and gave only a phone number to call “to get more information”. On the BACK, however, in tiny little letters it said “Gift card is reward for polling information that you provide after you consolidate your student loans with xxxxx company.” ARRRRGH! Why oh why oh why are companies allowed to try and trick people into changing who runs their student loans/mortgages/domain names/you name it?!? Shouldn’t this be illegal?

And as a final parting shot, WTF is with McCain? I know everyone has already talked about it, but I’m horrified. I almost considered voting for this walking pile of stupid. Way to totally and completely alienate an entire constituency (that you were doing SO WELL with!) just to get the vote of the right-wing wackos.

What a dumbass.

That is all. I’ll be blogging more now assuming that math thingy works. I haven’t been because I didn’t want to deal with the influx of spam . . .

Take care everyone,

~A.

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In browsing around tonight waiting for TicketBastard to stop not working so that I could buy Flogging Molly tickets for pretty much everyone I know, I realized that it had been a week or so since I posted and that I should probably fix that.

So a few things. First, great big congrats are due to my brother, Spencer who, it turns out, really is pretty smart. It seems he has been ranked third in his class thus far in the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law. This pretty soundly prods buttock, and I’m extremely proud of him!

In other news I have started the job referenced the in the previous post. Thus far it is pretty cool and I dig it. It’s nice to be off the phones for at least part of the day (I still have to take over for reps pretty regularly), and I really REALLY love answering questions and helping people out, so that also rocks. I’ve yet to get a paycheck of course, but needless to say the increase that will exist there will ALSO rock.

And finally, I am apparently allowed to reveal that last night I became a member of an ancient organization which my father and both of my biological grandfathers were members, one of which enjoyed a position of great accord. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, last night I became an Entered Apprentice in the grand tradition of Freemasonry. I joined the Lodge that my father belongs to and which my grandfather, Dee, once belonged. Of course I cannot give any details about my experience, but suffice to say it was one that I won’t soon forget, and I am anxious to learn more whenever my incredibly limiting schedule will allow!

And THAT is just about me. I’ve got a potentially LONG day tomorrow, so I shall bid you all adieu.

Good night, good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.

~A.

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Wish me luck, everyone who does such things! I’m waaaaaayyyyy too aware of my gambling skills (or lackthereof) to think that I’m gonna come back a millionaire or something, but I still wouldn’t mind returning with more than I left with (especially after the car maintenance bill I just had)!

Hope you’re all fantastic and I’ll catch up with you when I’m back in town.

(and a day early: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!).
~Ash.

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