3-2-09

Weekly Blog
March 2, 2009

Though we didn’t have a race, this past weekend ended up being very busy for me! After the Phoenix nationals I drove home with my husband and cat, and then packed up and headed for New York City the next morning. My younger sister Brittany is going to school there for the semester so I stayed with her for a few days. Our agency is in New York so they set me up to do a photo shoot one morning, then an interview with Wall Street Journal at lunch and then meetings in the afternoon and a dinner with them that night. It was a very long and busy day but everyone was really friendly and fun.

The next day I had all to myself so Brittany and I slept in and then grabbed coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts and headed to Central Park! We walked around for a little while and watched the ice skaters. Then it was time for Brittany to head to class. Her class wasn’t very long so I filled my time by walking down to F.A.O Schwarz to get something for my good friend Jen who is having a baby soon, then checked on the local bookstore. Once she was finished with class we caught a taxi back to her apartment and actually took a nap! (I haven’t done that since I was little!) We had to save up our energy because we had a busy evening!

My mom surprised us with tickets to see Wicked on Broadway so we grabbed dinner at Chevy’s and then went to the show! It was really a great play and I’m pretty sure that the lead actress went to grade school with me and her dad was my principal! I’m checking it out to see if it’s true but either way she has a new fan because she was really funny as Glenda the good witch! After the play Brittany and I walked around Time Square and took pictures with Batman. Yes, he was walking around Time Square too!

The next morning I sadly said goodbye to Brittany and then flew home and changed gears from watching a show to being a part of a show! On Saturday evening I was Master of Ceremonies for my college Cal State Fullerton’s annual Front and Center event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA which raises money for higher education. I hosted the event, and at one point talked about how college has helped my career and showed a video we made about racing. Then I got to introduce Reba McEntire who performed a concert! Afterwards we got to meet her and take pictures and she was really nice and very talented. I was already a fan but now I am even more! It was a busy but very exciting ‘off weekend’ but I’ll be glad to get back into race routine in another week and a half when we head to Gainesville, FL for the Gatornationals! We are always on the go but that is life as a race car driver! Hope you had a great weekend as well!

Take care, Ashley Force Hood