Dress Down Day

In October 2009 I landed back here.
From a city I was in love with. 
Where the lights, buildings, scenery, shopping, clubs would make my heart flutter.
I can't believe I missed Tim Hortons and getting to work in less than half an hour.
Public transit sucked though, the heat sucked, the shootings sucked, but it was my home.
Wear what you want, look how you want, act how you want, with no judgment. 
When you come back here, you must trade your mini skirts for sweat pants.
Case closed.

Saving Money with Bashley

1. Quit smoking!  If you're like me, it's not the amount of money you spend on just cigarettes that bothers you, it's the money you spend at the store on treats and unnecessary items WHILE you're buying high priced cigarettes!

2. Try not to pay for necessities.  If that means jacking the toilet paper from the night club while you're out with your friends, then 'high five'!  There are things that we believe are necessities such as paper towels, meat, milk, bread, cosmetics, etc. that are easy to go without when you're trying to save money.

3. Give animals an extra week or so to live!  Soy milk and Tofu "meat" products are usually cheaper than the products that we're used to.  A carton of cow milk will run you around $3.00 or more where as soy milk is around $1.99 and is usually on sale.  You can get a block of tofu with seasoning for around $5.00 which is a lot cheaper than cooking pork chops for the fam!

4. Brew your own coffee.  This has been a MAJOR one for me.  A bag of ready brew Starbucks is around $7.00 which sounds a bit pricey all at once, however 7 days a week at around $5.00 per morning is almost $40.00 a week! If you can't muster brewing your own coffee, at least bring your own travel mug.  Most coffee shops offer a 10% discount to those who BYOMug!

5. Don't skip out on healthy food for your pets.  They are more expensive than the No Name's but Vet bills are A LOT higher.

6. Don't buy too much music.  You get tired of songs faster than you think.  Unless it's a rare track, YouTube it until you never want to hear it anymore!  Want to put your favorite 'now' song onto your MP3 player?  Copy and paste the link of the video into this site, download it and transfer!  http://www.youtube-mp3.org/

7. Cheat.  People who complain about a product will usually get a complimentary replacement.  What happens if you contact a company to complain about a product you want, yet never purchased?  FREE STUFF!  Don't abuse this though, your address, name and phone number can only be used ONCE, and many companies have many sub-companies so don't call the same one twice!  Remember, you will need barcodes, prices, size of product (ml, gal, oz), expiry date and the production number in a black stamp somewhere on the product.

8. Get insurance for everyone.  You, pets, other family members.  You may rarely get sick but when that cavity pops up on a week that you have $17 to spend, your dog raids the trash and can't throw up, you'll be thankful!

9. Ignore the 'couponing' hype.  You will see lots of coupons for things you've always wanted to try, a new candle from glade, $2 off a box of 50 Bic pens, etc.  Chances are you don't need these things, but you'll feel obligated to buy because you have a coupon.  

10. Have to get someone a present?  Re-gift a gift you've received or make your own!  It can be as simple as re-wrapping a sweater you never liked that your friend always envied, or taking your moms favorite photo, heading to the dollar store, choosing a nice frame, scrap book paper, sticker decorations, and for less than $10 you can have an awesome gift!

Moving Time!

Popsicles.

I type with numb fingers. 
My nose is cold and my feet have not seen the light out of their slippers for days.  
I take a shower with my 5 minutes of hot water as a self indulgence several times a day.  
I over-welcome my stay at coffee shops where the smell of brewed coffee warms me.
My oven door is open wide at 500F begging me to bake a new life once again somewhere else.
I remind myself that for once this situation is not my fault.
I pay adequate rent.  I am a good tenant.  
I am patient, but patience grows thin.


This ongoing nonsense doesn't seem to stop,
If I don't move I can open an ice cream shop.

I exist.

You often hear people say “you were born to do this”, “you have a purpose”. While this is fine to boost someones self worth, it is unfair to believe.

Humanity is essentially a freak of nature. We reside on this planet – a mere plant amongst so many others with many other creatures and life forms.

Due to our “advanced” brain matter which grows with the age of our planet, we feel it's fair to believe we are superior to other beings of the earth. As a human this is our first mistake. Humans have evolved the same as an organism evolved into an animal then to a human. We learn to adapt to the lifestyle we choose for ourselves. We as human beings created this. If you want to do something, you can find ways to accommodate by shifting your thoughts, motives and lifestyle.

We are forever changing in thought and body. Every seven years we become a new person. We shed our skin cells like any other living creature, our brain matter develops and dies all throughout our life, therefore we have no “self”.

One of the biggest flaws in humanity is believing that we have a purpose in life.

Humans are not designed to drive, fly or live in houses or eat artificial foods. We are designed to hunt and build shelters. We created a financial system. Money was only paper until we put a value and status upon it. We choose who we love, what we value and what we care about. We evolved into a humanity that must work for a paycheck at a seemingly meaningless job to pay for our residence and bills for services that we as a species created. The barter system was much more efficient. If we all had to grow our own food as we were designed, and hunt for our meals we would be more at peace as a whole. If we all built our own homes we would have no rent, no mortgage. Go into the woods, cut down your lumber and build your house, then it's yours. Nothing in this time is actually yours, even if you purchased it with the money you've created.

Life is easy for us now but still remains pointless until you put a value on it, if you choose to. If you do not - then you are wise. Live the duration of your life, do what you want to do and have fun but none of all this matters once your time is up. You cannot take anything to the grave with you. Not even the family you've created and chose to love dearly. You will be remembered by those left on this earth which may be the only existence of you left. What was you? You are just another human. Flesh, blood, organs, veins, bones and cartilage. You will be remembered for the things that you chose to do throughout your existence. If you decided to have children and they chose to love you then you will have a small legacy to leave behind. Once you are gone you are no longer able to watch over your “herd” nor do you care anymore – you're dead. There is no heaven, no hell yet chances are your lifeless self will parade throughout a religious building that humans built for their comfort. Since our unfortunately advanced human mega brains feel the need to hold onto everything we label as dear we decided to create a mess about death with religious belief.

Religious belief, my friends, is a totally new blog post. Stay tuned.

Love, Ashley

Gus is 3 months old!

Well, my baby bunny is growing up. 
He turned 3 months old on August 17th.  He is becoming more rambunctious every day.
He will be getting neutered sometime within the next month or two which will calm him down significantly. 

He remains a great fur child and still loves to be nuggled.