Ashley's Blog

Archive for the ‘Lint Trap’ Category

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My Boyfriend quotes, “If a guy can’t commit to a sports team unconditionally, how do you know he’ll be able to commit to a woman unconditionally?”

Patrick is a Minnesota Vikings fan… unconditionally. People have asked to pay to watch Patrick, watch Vikings games…. Well, Here is your free sneak preview…

Foot Spa

Korean spas in America often inspire the thought of a mat on the floor and petite Asian women chatting with their other “therapists” on the other side of a curtain while walking on your back. My experience at Tikkun Holistic Spa was not your typical Korean Spa! From the moment you walk in and are greeted by their caring receptionists and “healers”, customers are treated with American ideals of customer service and the beautiful traditions of Eastern therapy and culture.

Located out of cell phone range and adjacent to the busy 3rd Street Promenade, Tikkun is in the lower level of the building on 4th and Broadway in Santa Monica.

Owner Niki Han, a Reiki master, met her “beshert” (Hebrew for “destined one”) Charles Schwartz, a Jewish Orthopedic Surgeon and cultures collided! After converting to Judaism, Niki Schwartz found that her purpose in life was to heal others. Tikkun olam (Hebrew for “repairing the world”) became a way of life for the healing couple. “People in need of healing come to Tikkun Spa to heal themselves (receive) and to hopefully go heal others (give),” Niki explains.

Tikkun Holistic Spa has many ways to receive! The extensive spa menu includes treatments familiar to most Americans (but with an exclusive Tikkun touch): Thai, Acupressure, Deep Tissue, Shiatsu, and Sports Massage. All treatments at Tikkun are exceptional, especially since they grant access to the magnificent 6,500 square foot healing habitat. It is the Tikkun specialty “journey” that GIVE customers a complete healing experience.

My Healing Journey Room

Start by choosing your own healing adventure and begin with 20 minutes in one of the specialty healing rooms. Each sauna-type room has stonewalls covering far-infrared panels. The invisible rays penetrate the human body and help warm from the inside inducing 2-3 times more sweat than a hot air sauna, although at a cooler temperature. Those suffering from poor circulation, arthritis, and skin conditions will especially appreciate the benefits of this technology.

The Salt Room is made of Himalayan salt blocks covering the panels on the walls and loose salt rocks cover the floor. “The far-infrared sauna heating method has been clinically shown to increase circulation and the metabolism,” Niki explains while laying the warm, loose, salt rocks on my stomach as I stretch out on the mat on the floor, with my head resting on a wooden neck support. “Salt generates a high volume of negative ions that help you relax. It’s like when you get close to the beach the salt air just has a soothing effect,” Niki elaborates.

The Far-Infrared Korean Hwangto Clay Room

In the Korean Hwangto Clay Room, the far-infrared panels are covered with clay tiles to create a stimulating detoxification through the skin. While laying on the mat on the clay floor there is a view of the aged charcoal on the ceiling which helps with air purification. The Chinese Jade Room is similar to the clay room with the charcoal on the ceiling, but the walls are covered in green Chinese Jade. The Jade Room is used before and after treatments because of the relaxing color and healing energy.

Part of the Tikkun’s healing specialty is the use of alternating hot and cold temperatures. The Ice Room is especially unique. Crystals hang from the ceiling like icicles in this air conditioned room kept at 62 degrees. The contrast from hot to cold is found to help the immune system and increase circulation.

The Women's Locker Room Green Tea Soaking Bath

Women can take a dip in the green tea soaking pool, a concept derived from the traditional Korean bathhouses. The steam room in the women’s locker room is a combination of more healing elements. Mountain granite produces oxygen and covers three walls in the steam room while the back wall is composed of ocean rock and has actual fossils in it.

The healing rooms are co-ed, so upon arrival for any treatment, you are given a traditional Korean bathhouse shirt and shorts and sandals. While they aren’t going to win any style points, the cotton material allows one’s skin to breathe in the healing rooms. The treatment rooms are private, except for the Spa Journey Suite. This VIP suite is designed for couples to heal together. It features a huge hydrotherapy spa tub for two, an onyx resting chamber, massage tables for two, as well as a private bathroom and shower. A Couples Journey is a perfect gift of health for every relationship.

The Jade Room

During my visit to Tikkun Holistic Spa, I was treated to the Hot/Cold Jade Stone Massage by healer, Jesse. The massage was amazing and was the most unique feeling to have a hot stone slide down the outside of my leg and an ice stone on the inside. The results of the massage were even more incredible. Every muscle in my body felt relaxed, loose, and more mobile. I felt years younger and had the best dance practice I’ve had in decades the next day. My healing experience at Tikkun gave me the ability to give to others in need of receiving.

Don’t be surprised if after your first visit you become a Tikkun regular – it will help keep you in balance and your body and soul nurtured.

Why Wouldn’t You Build A Race Track Here?

In Response To The LA Times Article

Respectful people may flock there for races, meanwhile others will check out the grounds and scope out how and where they can park'n'ride OFF this guy's property for free, but still hitch rides with their buddie's trailers, etc to get out there.

New Yorkers are "leafers" for 2-3 weeks/year. Angelenos need their Poppy Spring to get away from the buzz of the city, work, and daily habits. Many do this by visiting the state flower in it's power state! For A COUPLE WEEKS A YEAR, the state flower blossoms from the dry, brown, death of the desert into a happy orange blanket of hope and happiness. Tom Malloy, if that happens to be on your property - the poppies apologize. You just happen to live on the most sought after property at that time of year. You live on the PRIME REAL ESTATE for that part of the year and you're sitting court-side for something more people attend each year than the playoffs at the Staples Center. Congrats! Great seats to wake up to! FLATTEN 'EM! ("Genius!")

If you've ever BEEN to Lancaster for the poppies --- you know EVERYTHING ECHOES OFF OF THE SURROUNDING HILLS. Lancaster is a dust bowl by nature. There aren't many alternate homes for native animals to go (so they are crushed, suffocated, driven out of their homes with their babies to "head for the hills" -- where they'll struggle to survive).

I wonder if this would be such a serene sight with a track through it? I wonder if we'd even be able to see the poppies FROM the designated Poppy Reserve on a race day in April? Or if you and your customers would suffocate from the dust trapped in the dust bowl you live in. (but the poppies help hold that down for part of the year -- if they're allowed).

Not to mention the HUMAN neighbors! The dust stirred from bikes, cars, traffic, and construction/maintenance on this proposed track will deafen, smother and suffocate everyone in the area. Including California's State Flower Blossoms!

Check It Out! REAL Bikers Know Better! You pass THROUGH…NOT OVER!
http://www.bikernewsonline.com/labels/California%20State%20Poppy%20Reserve.html

Sorry Tom Malloy- I think this picture was taken while trespassing on your precious race property/tractor trails. The poppies seem to have POPPED outside of their reserve this year... and pretty much EVERY YEAR THE PAST DECADE!

Full Bloom Poppies... NOT IN THE RESERVE

Behind me is the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. Notice there aren't many poppies... The best poppy patches are usually found outside of the reserve. On my arm are two Stink bugs. They are pretty fun to catch and have crawl on you. They tickle Every year I find stink bugs to play with and I've never been sprayed - it's exhausting for a stink bug to spray, so they don't do it often unless they feel extremely threatened.

If the hunters and Four-Wheelers are the problem... they'll multiply by building a track. You will become a haven for racers and rednecks alike. Sorry to tell you... there is desert everywhere AROUND your property. Just because it's designated --- doesn't mean you'll reap a profit because most people won't pay. You'll destroy a habitat and a sanctuary for many Angelenos.

Pesky racers just leaving their broken down cars where ever they please!

Ashley Brauer, We are a small Sierra Club Group in the Antelope Valley.  Recently we have mounted a campaign to send letters to the LA Planning Commission.  So far we don’t know if we have made any impact.  The Deadline for comments on the DEIR is Aug 19.  There will be a public hearing on Sept 2 at 9 am in LA in front of the Planning Commission.  Next, if approved the racetrack proposal goes to the Board of Supervisors.  I am enclosing a copy of talking points.  Thanks for your help.

Dean Webb,
Lancaster, CA.,
eMail   <  ldwebbo@aol.com   >

Poppy Reserve Faces Grave Threat!

It was through the efforts of local residents that the Antelope Valley California State Poppy Reserve was established. Jane Pinheiro, the Lancaster Women’s Club, the “Pennies for Poppies” contributed by California school children and efforts by many other local residents  made the dream of a park to protect poppies become a reality. PLEASE JOIN US TO PRESERVE THIS LEGACY.

A proposed development now threatens this legacy. This development, funded by Orange County Millionaires, includes a racetrack, mechanic garages and a “full service bar.” It is proposed for the north side of Fairmount Buttes. Automotive and motorcycle racing would occur 365 days a year, day and night 1 mile from the Reserve!  The approval process is moving forward and the

DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS AUGUST 19!

We need your help to stop this! They have the money, but we are counting on your love of the Poppy Reserve to stop this atrocity.

Please either write or email your concerns by AUGUST 19 to:
Attention: Michele Bush
County of Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning
Impact Analysis Section, Room 1348
320 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012.
or email:      mbush@planning.lacounty.gov

Here are some talking points:

1. Sound will be clearly heard on Reserve hiking trails – 85% or respondents on a survey of Poppy Reserve visitors indicated that their visits to the reserve would be significantly decreased if a racetrack were built nearby. 50% indicated that they would never come again!
2. Zone change to industrial/ commercial will open the door to more damaging development and is completely incompatible with an existing state park dedicated to hiking and nature
3. Wildlife corridors necessary to maintain ecological balance will be negatively impacted
4. Light pollution will negate use of the reserve for star parties for local astronomy groups
5. Historic and prehistoric sites on the land proposed for the racetrack will be destroyed
6. Racetrack will destroy prime areas for wildflowers and other disappearing native plants and includes the  Fairmont-Antelope Buttes Significant Ecological Area (SEA No. 57)  which contains “desert butte” a sensitive area for birds  of prey.

Am I the only one that was talked into putting my head in a box to see a solar eclipse?

I remember building a “solar eclipse viewer” out of a cardboard box and seeing the crappiest image of a partial circle that supposedly got smaller as I watched… I didn’t sit still long enough.

I wasn’t allowed to turn around and actually LOOOOOK at the action as it happened, just see it’s shadow…Thanks Mrs. Vanderkooi for yelling at me and helping me to keep my sight.

Last Solar Eclipse until 2132!

(Isn’t that what they told us in like 4th grade …  (for you not my age…. like in ’94? – maybe just in the Western Hemisphere?)

After being thrown into a freelance, “Four-Hour Work Week” of my own, I’ve started looking for ways to spend my extra time. Having read the book “The Four-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss, nearly a year ago, I’ve started hearing it brought up in more conversations. Including one convo with my boyfriend this past weekend. He says “You have my dream job!” I wish I had the freedom of a job like yours so I’d have more time to write!” The question is, “Would he really find more time to write? or more excuses to continue putting it off?” I crave more routine and social interaction in life. I need to be moving to stay motivated and think the idea of a “Four-Hour Workweek” sounds boring and lonely.

With the Unemployment rate climbing, I think more people are trying to find alternatives to the jobs they hated, and were laid-off from. The fall of the economy seems to have pushed a lot of vulnerable people in search of something or someone to follow. The hardworking, but disgruntaled employee has to go home from an unexpected last day, in search of a way to put food on their kid’s plates. Could Tim Ferriss have the answer?

“Do Something To Make Passive Income.” – Well it’s not passive, but I do get to delegate to the waitresses and bar backs! Bartending to have the social interaction I miss from being a bartender (the tips aren’t bad either!).

“Do Something To Give Back To Yourself And Others.” Volunteering at the shelter to train therapy dogs – I’d be helping dogs and humans.

“Learn Something New.” Go back to school…maybe for formal classes in Computer Science…. or… I’ve always admired Steve Irwin… and he does need a replacement… maybe…Zoology?

Needing to “fill time” with random activities will once again lead me in the inevitable circle my life continues to spit me back into… Overwhelming exhaustion. Next, I’ll get sick – probably something debilitating for a couple months and I’ll have to do my 4 hours of work from bed and won’t be able to attend classes, or train dogs, or any of the activities I’ve over-immersed myself in because I needed something to do with my extra time. It’s a Catch-22.

Reason #1: Burns From Having Already Delagated Everything Else But His Own Stupidity

Reason #2: This One Is Actually Pretty Useful

Reason #3: Fidgets From NOT Multi-Tasking

Reason #4: Something To Do, Something To Do…

Reason #5: Braining 2008?

If I’ve learned anything from Tim Ferriss after reading “The Four-Hour Workweek,” it’s don’t  take complete advice from someone that wasted 6 minutes of his life on filming pen tricks. It just exemplifies what the insanity from working at home can do to people. However, he does this for people like me. He’s banking on me watching his stupid YouTube Videos and giving negative feedback to draw controversy (and more clicks) because even “bad press, is good press.” Damn.

This is why blogs are such a fabulous idea. They allow other people to voice their inhibitions through writing them down, can find the genius in anybody. Even Tim Ferriss after being knocked on his head… repeatedly.

Really Cheryl? All this for a gallon of milk... already supplied with a capable handle...

I stopped at the grocery store after walking my dog to the bank and post to buy more milk (I have been known to drink a gallon a day), and since I was trying to smuggle my dog in my purse – I wanted to quickly get in and out. Cheryl, God bless the woman, was the bagger at the checkout where I spent $3.69 on milk. I didn’t have my reusable bags with me as I usually do because I just stopped in for an impromptu milk stop. Still wanting to not add another plastic bag to a land-fill or to the bottom of the ocean… I asked to please not bag the milk. I think Cheryl is partially deaf, as I believe I’ve had this issue with her before. However, by the time I swiped my debit and entered my PIN… she was IN HER ZONE! NOT TO BE INTERRUPTED by a bag-saving customer… so I just let her go….

Cheryl goes through an extensive process to bag a gallon of milk. (Mind you – milk has a HANDLE for a reason, and I live across the street!)

1. Wrap the milk in a plastic bag
2. Double Bag
3. Better TRIPLE bag that…
4. Maybe just on more… in case in spontaneously bursts on it’s journey across the street to my fridge
5. Fold a paper bag in 1/2
6. Place it at the bottom of another paper bag
7. That paper bag doesn’t have handles (like the gallon of milk MINUS the four plastic bag) So it needs a plastic bag.
8. One bag won’t hold the weight of the other bags and the weight of the gallon of milk with the handle – Double bag it!
9. Roll the paper bag (crease on each side at the crease then roll down) into the double plastic bags
10. Grab both plastic handles… on each side and hand it to the customer.

People amaze me. She really takes her job seriously… if only she could apply her determination to something less wasteful before Ralph’s goes out of business paying for all the bags Cheryl uses…

In My Opinion...Photo By: Tim Gatz

I’ve felt oppressed. I’ve felt misunderstood. I’ve even been depressed to know I’ve grown to live in a country where speech is supposedly free…. but only by what society’s standards will see appropriate… even illegal immigrant’s societies.

If I have offended you or someone you know with anything I haven’t managed to filter, TELL ME!

I’m ASKING you to tell me everything you’ve thought, but never said. About me, about someone else, or about life in general.  I’ve created this blog to “let it out.” This is my bitching post – and I encourage you to take full advantage of it.

Don’t talk behind my back and maliciously tell your girlfriends I’m a horrible person because you’re jealous your high school boyfriend would rather sit and play Euchre with me and the boys on Friday night than go see “THE NOTEBOOK” with you.

My blog has been instated to portray what’s with-held from my “perky puppy personality” (in daily life – I don’t let the “small stuff” bother me).  I’m not unaware of what people talk about, gossip, and the anger I’ve absorbed from many people I encounter daily – I just choose to look past it without confrontation because it’s a waste of my precious “perky puppy personality” being absorbed by undeserving drama hoarding leeches.

Live with me on a daily basis – see I’m not a drama queen (which, girls, is why I’m invited to play cards with your boyfriends when you’re not). See how I speak my mind (probably more than I should, but do it to either express a comical viewpoint apparent to most, but never openly discussed because it’s too cliche or a statement most were taught at a young age to censor..I wasn’t).

Understand I don’t advise you because I’m a heartless bitch, but because I think you need the truth to slap you out of the false reality you’ve found so comfortable for so long and your other confidants have just added cushion to your bed of BS.

When I reply, “Yes, that dress makes you look fat.” Don’t take it personal and go “Mary-Kate”  on me. Know what I really mean is, “I think you have more potential and that is not flattering your body” I just don’t find it efficient to put my answer through a blender, add some sugar and hope it’s tastefully delivered  (and from the looks of that dress – you’ve already had too many sweets!– Just here to help).

Everything I say is my opinion. I just state my opinions as facts. Some people (usually those that are over emotional, enjoy chick-flicks, date horrible men, and will probably sleep with you because she doesn’t want to lose you) take my “opinions” personally. This is not my intention. It is probably my subconscious way of putting you through emotional boot camp because if what I say affects you on such an emotional level that you change yourself – you’re going to face much more difficult hardships in your life than simply facing one person’s opinion!