Author: Ashley Atkins

The dirt

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, April 2009 ~~

There is a lot of dirt in my life. And I’m OK with that. Really. I’m OK.

Let me clarify. If someone in a white starched apron arrived at my door to vacuum up glitter and grit and mop up maple syrup and dried melted ice cream spills and clean the bathrooms and do eight loads of laundry and take out the trash and organize school papers and mail, I would welcome him with sobs of joy, hand over the shopping list, ask for a solid dinner plan and tell him I’d be back so he could do my toes around noon.

I have fantasies of living in a clean house. Continue reading →

Spring bounty

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, April 2009 ~~

I’m not a farmer. I don’t garden. I couldn’t grow kudzu on a bet. Even houseplants die on my watch. Query: Has anyone—I mean, anyone—else ever neglected a philodendron to its death? And I’m talking dead-dead, not ooh-that-looks-pretty-bad-dead. I never even succumbed to the Chia Pet craze, instinctively knowing at a tender age that Chia Puppy was doomed to malnutrition and mange under my feeble care. Continue reading →

She’s with the band

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, April 2009 ~~

Sometimes I feel like I am surely the only person in Carrboro without any musical aspirations. I’m not in a band. I’ve never been in a band. I’ve never even been “with” the band. I did have a crush on one of the guys in the Monday Mood back in the day at Chapel Hill High, if that counts for anything.

I don’t write songs. I can’t even begin to read music. I think the last time I played an instrument was when Ms. Cantrell taught us to play Greensleeves on the recorder at Seawell Elementary School, circa 1979. Ms. Cantrell is now teaching music to my two youngest children. At Carrboro Elementary. But I digress. Continue reading →

Taking care of our young

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, March 2009 ~~

Do you subscribe to the helicopter mode of parenting, or are you into raising free-range kids?

Here’s a quiz:
Your children are at sleepover camp for two weeks. On the Saturday they stay over you
A) are at the camp gates before dawn, tearfully clutching a teddy bear and homemade cookies, waving a banner that says “I LOVE YOU (insert child’s name here)!!!”
B) sleep late and make plans to do something decidedly fun that does NOT involve cooking, cleaning or chauffeuring
C) do neither but later feel both regret and guilt for not doing the one or the other. Continue reading →

March Madness!

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, March 2009 ~~

There comes a time every year in Carrboro, when the daffodils are unfurling and bare dogwood branches are studded with buds that dramatically pause before bursting into dazzling bloom. It is a magical time, replete with the accompanying cheery trill of birdsong. And, yet, somehow I miss it. Instead of the glories of purple crocus and the flush of redbud, I am watching an orange ball go through a metal hoop against the hallelujah chorus of squeaking sneakers. Screw spring.

God, I love the sound of basketball shoes on polished wood. Continue reading →

The consummate fan: an interview with John Edwards

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, March 2009 ~~

College basketball has undeniably captured the imagination of the people of North Carolina, and Carrboro and Chapel Hill enjoy a full concentration of true blue fans. Former Democratic Presidential candidate and US Senator, John Edwards, is one such fan. “Part of it is tradition,” he said of his passion for the sport. “People who are my age have grown up being saturated with competitive, high quality basketball. We have had good basketball for decades.”

Of course, the million dollar question is… Continue reading →

Screenplay idea

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

Escape From The Mall
pitched by AA, February 2009

starring Kate Hudson as Liss

The time is the not-too-distant future
The place is middle America, the Heartland, in a massive shopping mall
The heroine is beautiful and buff, å la Linda Hamilton in Terminator. A trained field agent. She likes corn dogs and beer. She has a pet cockatiel named Earl. Won’t go anywhere without mascara and lipgloss. Obsessed with Emily Dickinson. Loves big band music. Hates to shop. Continue reading →

Can we talk about something else?

~ Ashley Atkins ~ Leave a comment

~~ Originally printed in Carrboro (NC) Free Press, January 2009 ~~

As a white woman in a progressive society, I don’t often think about matters of race. After all, it doesn’t really affect me, right? As a white woman, I mean.

Oh, sure, I am aware of race. I have the sense that if someone is not white, then his or her race will be one of the main ways I will catalogue that person in my brain. “She’s the black woman who teaches…” “He’s the latino guy who writes…” I’m pretty sure I have never said, “They are the white couple who work…” I don’t mean to do it. I certainly don’t want to do it. It makes me feel a little ashamed. But I do it, and I’m not the only one. Continue reading →