Guest Blogger: Ashley

Much like Al has hinted, posting on Shirley's blog is not like watering a few plants. When asked to be a guest blogger I accepted the task with far too much excitement and eagerness. Since that point I have been filled with trepidation. Why the HELL did I agree to write on Shirley's blog?! Have you ever watched Shirley write a post? If you have you know that it's painful, it's slow, and it's PERFECT. She notes every single flaw in her writing, every misplaced comma and hanging participle. She reads and re-reads her post multiple times before being satisfied with her work and even then you can tell she thinks that it isn't quite right so she reads it again. I remember at one point during finals when we were sitting in the computer lab writing one of our horrible take home exams and I looked over to see Shirley working very hard studying her screen as if she were about to discover a cure for some rare blood disease. I thought to myself how much I envied her hard work while I was flipping through blogs and reading MSN profiles. As I clicked on the link for Shirley's blog I saw that she had not been working on her paper but had been writing a post. Instead of laughing I wished that I had I wrote with that intensity. When I write a post for my blog I generally just write it quickly without much thought, don't read over the finished product and press the post button as I'm walking out the door. So now, I'm responsible for something that will appear on Shirley's blog. The place that she lays down her thoughts and ideas. Somewhere for her to vent and share. A place that is cared for. So now, I must ask myself "why on earth would she give me this responsibility?" I would totally kill her plants.

As for an introduction of who I am, since that seems to be the way things are done around here, my name is Ashley and I met Shirley at Laurier where we are both in love with Sociology (even though she sometimes cheats a little with business).

I remember the day I met Shirley with clarity. It was the day of Fringe Festival in our first year of university. She was in a play different from my own but we met in the makeshift changeroom backstage. She was funny and nice and above all else I wanted her to BE MY FRIEND! After we had said our good byes I scouted around and found her e-mail address so that I could add her to MSN. I was on a mission. I added her and we talked occasionally, I think that she thought I was kind of strange. I read her blog and eventually commented. We didn't become instant friends (again I think she was afraid of me). We ended up in some of the same classes in September and chatted on weekends. Now, she IS MY FRIEND and I don't think that she is as scared of me anymore.

While Shirley is away myself and the other guest bloggers will not be able to fill her mighty (yet small, small enough that we can share -another perk of being Shirley's friend) shoes but we can try!!

--Ashley
11:10 am