Masquerade

Last night was the best night I've had since my Thai birthday dinner. Seriously. Want to know why? Of course you do! Last night I attended a MASQUERADE BALL!

My amazing mask!

Let me tell you why I was so freakin' excited about this ball. My family and I first went to Italy when I was seven or eight years old (I'm pretty sure I was seven, but I don't really remember...Chelsey and Heather would remeber). The last part of our trip was spent in Venice. Venice was definitely not my favorite part of Italy (my favorite part was definitely Il Burro in Tuscany), but the one thing that really caught my attention in Venice was the venetian mask.

Cassandra and her date, Sterling.

For those of you who know me really well know that I am a hopeless romantic and I love everything from the 1800s and early 1900s. I attribute this part of my personality to my two older sisters who love all things Jane Austen. I've been reading Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Lucy Montgomery, etc. since I was about ten, I have watched movies like Pride & Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables more times than I can count, and I love everything about the 1800s and the early 1900s. So a masquerade ball was perfect for me. I got to dress up in a beautiful fairytale dress, take vintage dance lessons, and--best of all--wear a real mask! I loved every second of it.

This was my date, Geoff.

Cassandra in her beautiful dress and mask.

Take my breath away

Apart from my birthday (which was fantabulous!), these past two weeks have been a pretty low point, for reasons I will not disclose here. Anyways, I went to see a friend in a play tonight (the play was really good, by the way). When I left my apartment at about 7:00, it was snowing REALLY hard. I was completely covered in snow by the time I get on campus, where the play was. I didn't leave the play until about 10:00, and I figured that the snow had stopped. Boy, was I wrong! It had snowed for the entire three hours I was inside, and it was STILL snowing when I left the theater.

As soon as I stepped outside of the theater, my breath was literally taken away. The campus was GORGEOUS! I'm being completely serious when I say that the sight of a completely snow-covered campus was absolutely incredible.

It sounds ridiculous, I know, but the snow made my heart light. It thrilled me that something so ordinary as stone buildings and dead trees could be transformed into a literal wonderland. The blanket of snow made the night peaceful, and I basically floated home.

19

It's birthday time! This year is proving out to be a really good one, yet again, and my birthday has been really fun too. It's been a whole birthday-tastic weekend. On Friday, I went home to play games with Heather and Danny, which was really fun, and I stayed over at the house for the night. Saturday was amazing, since we had a gourmet Thai dinner. Dad, Maddie, Hannah, and I cooked our little tails off last night, and created a fantastic seven (yes, I said SEVEN!) course meal. It was absolutely PERFECT! Thanks so much, Dad.

I got back to my apartment at about 12:30 a.m., only to discover that my amazing roommates had completely covered the apartment with streamers and balloons and had written "Happy Birthday, Ashley" all over the apartment. It was awesome. They were so cute about everything. My actual birth-DAY has been great too. We're going to make quiche tonight and then have Devil's Food cake with cream cheese frosting (my favorite!), and play games, and just have fun together. Tomorrow, we have a FULL schedule, and it will be epic.

I love being able to spend time with my family--cooking with my dad, having long talks with my mom, playing games with my sisters and brother-in-law (and wishing Chelsey and Aaron, who live so far away, were with us!), and spending time with all my friends. This weekend has been an amazing one, and I think I will always remember what a wonderful 19th birthday I've had.