The One Where I Explain My Name Change

I realized today that I was remiss in giving a reason for my name change. Who changes their name without telling why? Sean Combs/Puff Daddy/Puffy/P.Diddy/Diddy, that’s who. But not this girl.

So allow me to explain.

I did mention in my name change post that I never liked my original blog name. But that’s only part of the reason for the new moniker.

The main reason is because with a name like Always Many Laughs, there’s a certain pressure (admittedly, self-imposed pressure) to at least try to be funny in every post.

While my life usually is full of laughter, what with awkward bathroom buddies, cooking mishaps, and all manner of other comedic happenings, sometimes life isn’t that grand.

I have the same financial fears, insecurity issues, and work worries that everyone else has.

And when those stressful times hit, writing about them helps get over the hurt/worry/fear and start working toward making it better.

Now, this isn’t to say that every post from now on is going to make you want to turn on your sad music playlist and have a good cry, but every now and then you’ll likely see a more serious side of Ashley.

So in a nutshell: My life doesn’t actually always have many laughs. Blog name was too limiting. Changed name to something less mood specific. The end.

13 in '13

If you know me even a little bit, you know I’m big on making goals and lists. It also probably comes as no surprise that I love a new year because it gives me the perfect excuse to do both those things.

I know I can make goals and lists any ol’ day (and I do make lists on the daily), but there’s just so much hope and promise in a brand-new year that it’s my favorite time to set new goals for myself. I get so excited thinking about how satisfied and how much better I’ll feel about myself when I accomplish my goals.

Last year I set a goal for every month, after reading The Happiness Project and being so inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s discipline and overall outlook on life and making yourself happy.

I did great on some goals (make my bed every day, don’t eat out for a month), not so great on a few others (improve my posture, run three times a week), and somehow completely forgot about a couple more (write in my journal every day, Furminate Deuce every day).

In my defense, the ones I forgot about after two days were for November and December, everyone’s most stressful and hectic months.

All that to say, this year my goals are not specific to any month and are just things I want to do over the next year.

I give you my 13 in 13:

1. Pay off all my credit cards. Here’s hoping the fiscal cliff doesn’t nip this one in the bud before I even get a chance to start. Otherwise, I may be tempted to just jump off said cliff.

2. Get back down to my driver’s license weight. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. But I’ll certainly let you know when I get there.

3. Learn to crochet. Several of my friends crochet. I’ve written instructions for making crochet purses and necklaces (seriously, so gorgeous). So it only makes sense that I should know how to crochet too. And it’s going to happen. A crochet day is already in the works. Well…kinda. We talked about it that one time.

4. Read at least one nonfiction book a month. I’m not going overboard with my reading goal this year, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop reading (and writing about reading) altogether. I don’t wanna become illiterate, ya know.

5. Run a 5K. Color Me Rad, perhaps? It’s coming to OKC in May, so if anyone wants to run three miles and get splattered with paint while doing it, holla atcha girl. (crickets) Okay, just pretend that didn’t happen.

6. Attend my family reunion. A couple of my cousins have planned the first Luckett family reunion for March. About 30 Lucketts together in one place for the first time in many years = so much fun it should be illegal. At least, that’s what I’m anticipating.

7. Buy new Zumba shoes. I’ve been in dire need for months, but since I hate wearing shoes, it pains me to spend more than twenty bucks on footwear. But something must be done about my had-them-since-college-and-I-graduated-four-years-ago New Balances. [Side note: Shoe wearing is one of two ways my mom and I differ. She doesn’t take hers off until she goes to bed, whereas I kick mine off as soon as I step in the door. Our other difference lies in our feelings about John Wayne. She love love loves his movies, so that should tell you how I feel about them.]

8. Try at least one Pinterest recipe/project a month. I’ve got to do something about my ridiculously full “DIY” and “nom noms” boards.

9. Write at least 100 blog posts. This should benefit my become-a-better-writer journey. And if I post just twice a week, I’ll accomplish this goal. This is my third post this week, so I’m ahead of the game here.

10. Take a weekend trip with Randel. Last year we wanted to go to a Rangers game and Six Flags and just get away for a few days. That didn’t happen. So I’m gonna try my darndest to make it happen this year. Since the Rangers got rid of most of my favorite players, I’m thinking maybe Eureka Springs or camping somewhere.

11. Get all my cavities filled. I don’t even wanna think about how much time I’ll have to take off work to do this one.

12. Watch at least 52 movies on my where-have-you-been-all-your-life movie list. Surely I can devote at least two hours a week to a movie. Maybe then I’ll start catching even more references in my daily life. It’s already started happening with Friends.

13. Finish my Christmas shopping by December 1. I’m not gonna be the regifts-gift-cards-cause-she's-not-braving-the-mall-on-Christmas-Eve girl this year. Hypothetically speaking, of course. This year I plan to take note of any little thing the people I buy for say they want and shop throughout the year.

And those, my friends, are my 2013 goals. I hesitate to call them resolutions, because I know myself. I'm the type who eats a cheeseburger for lunch and considers her diet shot for the entire year. So I’m calling them my 2013 goals and giving myself a year to accomplish them.

What are your goals/resolutions for this year?

Why I Don't Watch Movies

An alternative title to this post could be "I Know I'm Lame because I've Seen Virtually No Movies That Everyone Else on the Planet Has Watched, but I'm Doing Something about That, So Don't Judge Me Too Harshly."

Anyone who knows me well knows that I rarely watch movies. It’s not that I dislike the idea of movies. It’s that I’m a multitasker with a short attention span by nature. I like the freedom that a sitcom gives me, with its lighthearted material and commercial breaks. I can fold laundry, load the dishwasher, or check Facebook, all without missing any important plot points.

With a movie, you have to devote your full attention to one thing for two hours. That’s just not something I normally choose to do.

So almost any time someone asks me if I’ve seen a movie, the answer is no.

But that’s all about to change, my friends.

Kelly, my friend and copywriting partner in crime, and I have come up with a list of over 100 movies I must watch. And I've decided to start working my way through that list this year. More on this tomorrow...

I’m not going to post the whole list, because who really cares that much? But just to give you an idea of how bad I am at watching movies, here are a few of the movies I've never seen:

Sleepless in Seattle
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Gone with the Wind
Juno
Footloose (to be fair, I have seen bits and pieces)
E.T.

and the list goes on.

Don't judge.

Below are the movies I don’t have access to. So if you have any of these movies, wanna let me borrow them? And/or watch with me?

1. Tootsie

2. Father of the Bride

3. Sleeping with the Enemy

4. Dying Young

5. To Kill a Mockingbird

6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

7. Casablanca

8. The Shining

9. Gran Torino

10. Memento

11. Fargo

12. Vanilla Sky

13. Empire of the Sun

14. Mystic River

15. Brother, Where Art Thou?

16. Rain Man

17. The Shawshank Redemption

18. Idiocracy

19. The Commitments

20. Muriel’s Wedding

21. Office Space

22. Funny Girl

23. Up

24. Catch Me If You Can

25. Changeling

26. The Intouchables

27. Misery

28. 40-Year-Old Virgin

29. Atonement

30. Dead Poet’s Society

31. The Truman Show

32. A Few Good Men

Get ready for a year of movie-related posts. These won't be reviews, because I'm hardly qualified to discuss a movie's strong and weak points--obviously. But I'll let you know what I think of 'em.

New Year, New Name

I went back and forth on my new blog name for weeks before finally choosing Wish Me Luckett once and for all…just four days ago.

 I thought about doing something with Ashley, but nothing felt quite right. I had a serious case of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” goin’ on.

 Ultimately, though, I chose Wish Me Luckett for several reasons:

 1) I say “wish me luck” a lot (when I’m interviewing, starting a new project, making a doctor’s appointment, etc.). So I figured I’d just add the e-t-t (yes, that’s two t’s) and make it my own.

2) I never really liked my original name (Always Many Laughs). While that name did reflect my life on the daily, I never thought, Wow, what a perfect blog name, Ash. So it obviously needed to go.

3) My high school nickname was Lucky. Okay, my friend Sheri was the only one who called me that, but still.

4) I’ve always liked my last name. And I won’t have it forever—assuming that boy of mine ever wants to put a ring on it—so I wanna use it while I can.

So there you have it: a long (and likely confusing/ridiculously mundane) explanation of the origin of my new blog identity, which you may dislike just as much as I disliked Always Many Laughs.

But please don’t tell me if you do. My feelings are easily hurt.
Fun fact: I already have a new named picked out for when (the power of positive thinking) that boy of mine does pop the question. Here’s a hint: His last name is Rose. And remember, I’m kind of obsessed with names.
Feel free to start making guesses.

"Bad" Is My Theme Song

See that little box directly to your left, the one that says “2012 Reading Challenge”? And see how it says I have completed my goal of reading 52 books in 2012? That’s right, folks—I read 52 books by December 7th, and I’ve somehow read four more to boot. Can I get a “what what”?

Okay, that was lame. Pretend that didn’t happen.

Anyway, if it sounds like I spent the bulk of 2012 holed up in my bedroom, devouring book after book into the wee hours of the morning, neglecting my boyfriend, bathing, and anything other than eating and snatching a few precious hours of sleep when I could actually be torn away from whatever book I was lost in, you couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I actually did most of my reading while curled up on the couch.

So there.

Unlike some of my other goals for this year (goals like give up pop and Furminate Deuce every day), I was pretty confident that I’d pull this one off. I’ve loved reading since I was a little girl, I'm a pretty fast reader, and I’m a homebody.

I started off strong and quickly got several percentage points ahead (which may or may not have anything to do with the fact that seven of the first ten books I read were The Chronicles of Narnia books).

But I lost some steam in July. Oh yeah…that’s because I went back to working 9-5, five days a week, as opposed to working from home two days a week and getting off at 3:00.

But thanks to some largely antisocial weekends and several chick-lit books, I got back on track and finished ahead of schedule.

Seeing as how I failed at more goals than I succeeded in accomplishing this year, I’m pretty darn proud of myself for having read more than one book a week. I branched out and read several books outside my normal genres (mysteries and rom-com), got to cross lots of books off my Goodreads to-read list, and was able to say on many occasions, “Oh, I just read a book about that…” this year.

Pretty satisfying, indeed.

Here’s the list of books I read, in case you’re wondering/would like to read them for yourself/want to make sure I didn’t cheat and read only books intended for pre-teens.
1. The Horse and His Boy
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
4. The Magician’s Nephew
5. Prince Caspian
6. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
7. The Happiness Project
8. One for the Money
9. The Silver Chair
10. Voyager
11. 11/22/63
12. The Last Battle
13. Two for the Dough
14. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
15. Drums of Autumn
16. The Great Divorce
17. Lincoln on Leadership
18. The Future of Us
19. The Fiery Cross
20. HeartSick
21. Seriously…I’m Kidding
22. Sweetheart
23. Till WeHave Faces
24. Evil atHeart
25. A Breath of Snow and Ashes
26. Cold Sassy Tree
27. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer
28. It’s Okay to Be the Boss
29. Bitter Is the New Black
30. An Echo in the Bone
31. Three to Get Deadly
32. A Painted House
33. Four toScore
34. I’ve Got Your Number
35. The Lost Years
36. The Shadow of Your Smile
37. Where Are the Children?
38. 48 Days to the Work You Love
39. The Devil in the White City
40. Unbroken
41. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
42. The Fault in Our Stars
43. The Shack
44. Blink
45. Confessions of a Shopaholic
46. No Plot? No Problem!
47. The Night Season
48. Made toStick
49. Life of Pi
50. Imagine: How Creativity Works
51. The Devil Wears Prada
52. The Maze Runner
53. Matched
54. TheTiny Book of Tiny Stories Volume 1
55. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories Volume 2
56. Into the Flames

P.S. My favorite of all 56 books was 11/22/63. It’s fantastic. So if you haven’t already read it, go do so now.

P.P.S. I will not be participating in a book challenge next year, but I've got a pretty big undertaking in the works. Stay tuned to find out what I'll be spending the bulk of 2013 doing. I may or may not still be on the couch most of the year.

Keepin' It Real

See what I did there? Red + Teal = Real.

Get it?

Okay, moving on.

Honestly, I kinda felt like I should be starring in Seussical the Musical, but I've been smitten with this color combination for a while.

Now, high school Ashley would have been all, "You can't wear that in public! That doesn't even match. Go change into regular jeans and a plain black t-shirt, and let's get to school before we're late."

Clearly, high school Ashley was a goody-two-shoes with zero fashion sense.

But working-world Ashley, who is surrounded by fashion-foward graphic designers every day, loves the Thing-1-and-Thing-2 color scheme.

I've been wanting some colored (not that colored) jeans for quite some time now. Starting out with fire-engine red pants was a bold choice for me, but I may never go back to plain ol' denim again.

And now for the my-house-is-a-mess-so-let's-just-do-this-in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree (not that this) photo shoot outtakes:



Tai chi?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Let's hope this writing thing works out, because modeling is clearly not my calling.

P.S. Big thanks to Randel for being such a good sport with my odd photo request.

Stockings and Snowmen and Trees, Oh My!

Christmas is all “put up” at my house, as Reed would say. It was no easy feat, though, let me tell ya.

First I found that the lights on the top section of my pre-lit tree don’t work. Enter unplanned trip to Walmart, during which I bought a bow for the tree topper (the star I have is too heavy) and three boxes of candy canes in addition to the box of lights I came for.

Mom and I got on either side of the tree and tossed the strand of lights back and forth to each other in an effort to evenly place the lights. It probably wasn’t the best way to have gone about the task, but it worked…eventually.

Finally it was time to hang the ornaments. And when I opened the box of ornaments, I found a strand of lights hiding in it because oh yeah, the lights on the top of the tree didn’t work last year either. Face palm.

Despite the frustration of a wasted Wally World trip and a broken pre-lit tree, trimming my tree, setting up my nativity, and hanging the stockings is one of my favorite things to do. Like ever.

Taking everything down and putting it away is a whole other story.

But for the next four weeks (at least), I plan to fully enjoy my Christmas décor.

And now you can too!

 

 

 

P.S. See that button ornament in the top right corner? I made that! Based on this pin... It doesn't exactly look like the pinspiration (mostly because of the colors of the buttons [which I wasn't crazy about, but that's all I had to work with]), but I think it turned out all right.

And now that Christmas is all put up, Santa can come visit. Underneath my tree is pitifully bare right now.