Dear online daters:
I’m getting frustrated with you. Not that I know who you are or anything; only other site members know that. But I have a hunch there are many of you, because you’ve become completely undateable in real life.
Of course I recognize it takes guts to make a profile and put yourself online. [...]
Have you seen the show Extreme Cheapskates on TLC? I hadn’t until last week, and — horrifyingly – I have never related more to a reality show.
I say “horrifyingly” because I was shocked by people’s reactions to the cheapskates’ tactics. Their families were embarrassed by things as simple as collecting leftover food from [...]
Well, it’s official.
I went on record speaking against the seemingly unquestioned efficacy of microcredit in international development. As in, it got published. In print and online. With my NAME ATTACHED. (And a photo, a really really bad photo. Please don’t go looking for it.)
Will I be shunned from ever working in development again? From [...]
You’re sitting alone in a public place and have either your phone, a book or a newspaper in front of you. But you’re not really reading, are you.
[Note the intentionally omitted question mark.]
Because I swear you and I can read faster than one page every 12 minutes.
I remember the first conversation [...]
This is getting ridiculous.
I’ve been caught cross-legged on the floor of the toilet paper aisle twice now.
TWICE.
And once I got caught trying to stuff a 16-pack of toilet paper into my backpack. (To figure out if I could bike home with it, of course.)
Oops.
Basically, I’ve spent a lot of [...]
I work in international development and it’s not very sexy.
TOMS shoes are sexy, and so is the guy in the Invisible Children video (there, I said it).
But development isn’t.
Now, in my job I try my very best to make development sexy. (Am I overusing that word yet?) As a writer and editor [...]
Hey basementeers!
I don’t think I’m the only one on a long-term recovery path from the lifestyle that was four years of university. Well, at least from the lifestyle of the two years I was on campus.
I’m talking about the student life. All amenities on one piece of land. Along with your crush, your [...]
I live in a basement.
Grand total of two windows and no bathtub. Nine steps down to the front door once you come around back. The odd argument wafting down from upstairs and not a single piece of new furniture.
I love it. (And I’d better.)
It’s my sixth place in 13 months, and [...]
I'm Ashley, and I'm a writer and editor.
This is a blog about post-university, pre-family, uber-thrifty, faith-inspired, NGO-working life.
(But I'm sure you can't relate.)
