Ashley Harrell

What a whirlwind of thoughts… only a couple days left in Santa Barbara, then two crazy weeks in the Bay Area, followed by a cross-country adventure. I’ll be in my New York City apartment in 23 days. It dawned on me that although it’s about three weeks until I arrive, I have to pay apartment application fees, first and last month’s rent, security deposit, and utilities in a few days when my roommates step off the plane! If you asked me a week ago what I thought about all this, I would have said that I was scared shitless. But it was last Friday that I learned I will be staying on board The Nilson Report bandwagon – via high speed internet and long-distance phone service! By some stroke of luck, I have become a part of the lovely little family that runs this publication. (In case you don’t know much about what I have been doing, I work for an international trade journal covering the consumer payment systems industry.) Henceforward, I will refer to it as “The Report” – but I’d prefer that if you read this aloud, you use the Comedy Central pronunciation, [reh-pohr], courtesy of Stephen Colbert. I have been wearing a variety of hats at The Report’s main office in Carpinteria (15 minutes south of Santa Barbara), and now I will be working from my apartment on New York on survey and research work, along with some telemarketing work for new subscriptions! This will allow me to set flexible hours, focus on learning new music and audition material, and enjoying everything that the city can offer me. (The best part is that I can work in sweats!) I never would have imagined that everything could fall into place so cleanly. I’m sure I will run into my fair share of problems, of course, but things seem to be working out really well so far! More news soon!