Eleven Eight Eight

Some of you may know me as the Smelly Girl, a lapsed blogger who wrote a dieting sounding board over at www.asmellygirl.com.

Some of you may know me as Allyson West, a fourth year student at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, and actor, currently finishing up an amazing four month stay in Honolulu.

Some of you may know me as Allyson Helmberger, a funky sassy girl from Farmersville, Texas.

And some of you may recognize me from the eight mile moped trek I made this morning, at 3 am, celebrating my 22nd birthday. If you saw a beautiful young woman, hopeless, crushed, and desperate making her way along King Street this morning with a busted back tire....it was probably me.

Nice to meet you too.

I previously ran the blog "Sugar Cookie, Don't Waste My Time" started a bit over a year and a half ago. I loved that blog. I worshipped it. I posted on it religiously, until I didn't. And then it was shot. That's the way blogs go, though. Dedicate yourself to them, or you are lost in the rust. Or the dust. Or the rusty dust, yeah, that's better.

A few eons ago, as in "days," I thought about how fascinating my life is right now. I'm 22 (as of yesterday!), just finished a tumultuous and wonderful four month life in Honolulu, and now, I'm being forced by societal reasoning to go back to school and finish my last six months for my BFA degree. Do I want this? Absolutely yes, I do.



And in wanting this degree, I'm agreeing to switch my life, to jump track, from where I've been for the past four months. Where have I been? Well, I've been happy. I've been healthy. I've been learning about life, and remembering that human beings have hearts and souls. I've been trusting my own beauty, my own capability, and I've been absolutely thrilled by life.

I want to take all of this back with me to school. I want to stand strong, on my own feet, and survey the world from that point. I want to own who I am, and I refuse to apologize for it. I want to trust that I can take care of myself, that I am qualified to take care of myself, and I will change my life when something better impresses me.

I want to love, I want to give, and I want to not judge myself for being so.

And mostly, I want to document it. I'm into journaling, again, and here we are with this blog. I have no computer, no cell phone, and it's not by choice. Believe me, if I had the moolah to have that technology, I absolutely would. I LOVE the internet.


In fact, the inspiration for this blog's title comes from the $11.88 I have sitting in my bank account right now. Because of that $11.88, I have apples and oranges in my fridge. I have a new tire, tube, and grease for the moped, and I have a week to make things work before a paycheck hits the bank. What more could I want in my life?

Welcome. I'm sure we'll see my Eleven-Eight-Eight grow, I'm sure we'll see my moods shift and change, and I'm sure you'll absolutely love the documenting of my last six months as a Dramatic Performance student at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Let's get serious.

All my Best,
Allyson West