The history of Ash Wednesday*

* According to this Ashley.

I started celebrating Ash Wednesday probably 10 years ago when I was in college. I didn't want to be disrespectful of the real reason for the day, but I decided that I just couldn't let this opportunity to have a day all to myself (and other Ashleys, but whatever) pass me by. It was too good. I guess birthdays are sort of like that, but it somehow seemed extra cool that it was related to my name. Anyway, that first year, I think I sent cards to friends and family with pictures of me, which sounds a bit weird to me now. But I was still a novice. Another year, I had an Ash Wednesday party, where a bunch of friends and I colored copies of a few pictures of me from my childhood and I asked them random trivia about me throughout the night. But it wasn't until I was in Poland that I even saw people who recognized the holiday in the traditional way. I found it fascinating to see people walking down the street with black marks on their foreheads. And last year was the year of name pancakes. So my celebrations have been many and varied.

Then last week, Anna burst into my room early one morning and told me I needed to see something right away. She was vehement. Unconvinced that it was an emergency, I stayed in bed until I could escape the fog of sleep. When I finally did get up, she took me into her room and, hopping up and down, pointed to her calendar and told me that there was a day called Ash Wednesday. She was thrilled! And so was I. (She was also extremely excited that it was on the same day as George Washington's birthday, but that's beside the point.) Anyway, it's super fun to have her be excited about Ash Wednesday too.

So far today, we have celebrated by having a funny food day. We ate breakfast on tin foil with funny utensils and cups. (Anna picked them out and suggested I have the "scraggily" tin measuring cup. Thanks for that. She also thought we needed some old fruit snacks to go with our meal. And on Ash Wednesday, I just have to say yes.) You can tell much of my celebrating takes a five-year-old girl into account, can't you?

And then lunch was contained entirely in several red foil cupcake liners left over from Valentine's Day. Fancy, right? We'll see what tonight has in store.

While that has been fun, it's probably not the way I'd celebrate if I didn't have to live real life. Here's what I wish I was doing for Ash Wednesday:

Starting in on my endless supply of Nielsen's Frozen Custard

while signing copies of my award-winning bestseller

while watching season 3 of this

and booking my trip to Antarctica (not even kidding)

by way of Greece

and maybe Tahiti too, while we're at it

Now if only I can get people to start taking Ash Wednesday as seriously as I do (or at least publishing my book . . . or taking me to Antarctica, I suppose), I think I will have arrived at the perfect way to celebrate. And Anna's on her way. Maybe next year.