I Declare

How strong is your will?...

The first time I saw this photo, it was for an advertisement for a new series coming out from Joel Osteen titled "I Declare".  Greek Girl happens to like Joel, so for all the people out there with "Joel Osteen Derangement Syndrome" please save your emails.  Joel Osteen Derangement Syndrome is similar to "Bush Derangement syndrome", but not to be confused with each other. ;D

I believe that we all have gifting's, different purposes and assignments from God.  Not everyone's purpose is the same.  Some people prefer fire and brimstone all the time, they can be judgmental and say silly things like Joel is "Christianity Light".  I think there are so many different pastors all with unique talents and abilities in them given to them by God to do "different" things.  Joel is reaching millions of people for Christ on a daily basis.  In my book, this is a good thing.

Now back to the story... When I saw this photo it hit me like a ton of bricks.  No, not my former manager Mr. Bricks (he is busy writing his "Rat Pack of Hollywood" Children's Book series).  I'm actually going to be playing the voice of one of the Rat Character's when it's made into an animated series BTW.  For me this photo illustrates a simple choice each and every one of us faces at some point in our lives.

Everyone has a dream.  For some people it's to be a teacher, for some a stay at home mom, for others it's an Engineer, a painter, a ballerina, a politician, comedian, astronaut...  For some it is simply to retire early, for me it has been music...  For over twenty years, music.  Whatever anyone's dream, all of us face challenges on the road to achieving that dream.  We all face that pivotal moment, when we are hanging there about to reach the top of the fence and climb over.  We are hanging on with every fiber of our being, we are weak and weary from the climb, we are not sure if we have the strength to make that one last burst to get over the wall.  So what do we do?

What do you do?  What do I do?...  Personally I dig in.  I put my faith and hope in Jesus, the one who gave everything because of his love for me.  Then I tap into my iron Greek Will and push with everything I have.  This photo brings to mind a scripture that is one of my favorites actually.  "I can do All things though Christ who gives me the strength." Philippians 4:13 (NLV)

You see, in life we are faced with obstacles on a daily basis.  We can see them as opportunities and choose dig in with everything we have to take them head on, or we can see them as roadblocks stopping us dead in our tracks.  It's my faith that helps me to overcome every obstacle I face.  No matter what I choose, it's the choice and the action that follows that will define me and the outcome.  You see your tongue is like a rudder on a ship.  The things you say determine the direction of your life.  So I chose to declare God's word and promises over my life.

One of my favorite forms of working out is running.  Nothing quite compares to a nice long date with my sneakers, my iPod and the road.  Not to mention the endorphin high and the feeling of pushing past what you thought you couldn't do.  Well, for me anyways.  The other day on my run, this song came on my iPod and it really made me think about this photo.  I wanted to share it with you.  No matter where you are, no matter what you are facing...  The maker of heaven and earth loves you, knows your feelings and is holding you in the palm of his hands.  Decide that you can do whatever is in front of you today, no matter how impossible or hard it may seem because he is always there giving you the strength.

Blessing, Love & Music ~
Ava :D xox
www.avaaston.com

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Well here we are on the edge of the last Presidential Debate.  Who, when, where, why, What?...  You mean you are paying attention to sports but didn't know the Last Debate is less than 24hrs. away?  Whatchutalkingaboutwillis?....

The debates are like sporting events to those of us who are immersed in Politics.  So that would make the very last Presidential debate the Superbowl.  In case you hadn't noticed Greek Girl is up on her politics.  Hello... I'm Greek, remember we invented Politics, and acting and all kinds of other things that benefit society on a daily basis.  It's true, google it. ;)

No matter which way you roll, and we are all entitled to think what we want and vote how we want.  What is important to me is that you do actually get off of your duff and vote.  Remember good men and women fought and died so we could have the freedoms we have here in America today, and one of those very important freedoms is to exercise that right to vote for our elected officials.  Just think there are countries in the world where people would love to be able to have a say in what happens in their governments.  So lets not take for granted our sacred right.

One thing I do have to point out though is I think the debates would be a whole lot more productive if the Moderators would actually do their dang jobs and Moderate, vs. lead or direct.  Can anyone say Candy Crowley?  Seriously did she make anyone else itch or was it just me?  Good grief.  You would think she were running for President.

Let's take a trip back to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to make sure we know what we are talking about shall we?

Definition of MODERATOR

1 one who arbitrates : mediator

2 one who presides over an assembly, meeting, or discussion: as

a : the presiding officer of a Presbyterian governing body

b : the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting

c : the chairman of a discussion group

3 a substance (as graphite) used for slowing neutrons in a nuclear reactor

Guess ole' Candy forgot about that part in section 2B - you know the "non-partisan" part.  Lets just hope that Bob Shieffer takes his role a little more literally, serious and professionally.  Our country would benefit from you know, journalists who actually reported the news for a change regardless of whom it may hurt in the polls.

Anyway if you want to know where to find Greek Girl at 9pm EST on Monday night, I'll be on the couch, with my slippers on, popcorn and Dunkin's in hand, surrounded by the fur-kids. (now there are still 5 temporaily until "Pepe-laden" see last weeks blog finds a home) I'll be there with the fur-kids, yelling at the TV, ranting on my twitter account, and I'm guessing cursing in Greek.

Hope you enjoy the debate, have a beautiful day!

Blessings, Love & Music ~

Ava :) xox
www.avaaston.com

Here We Go Again

"Pepe" Day one, just after I shaved him down... he was a matted mess.

Most people who have read my blog for any length of time at all, or who follow me on facebook know I am an animal nut.  I swear there is some secret code in animal language that goes something like this... "If you are lost, lonely or hurt, go find that Ava lady.  She'll take you in."

It's funny, I was talking to my doctor the other day and I mentioned that I sometimes do animal rescue.  He replied "Oh, so does that mean you wrangle them?"  I had to laugh... my reply: "Oh yeah I wrangle them all right."  Flashback about eight years ago in Los Angeles with my then boyfriend now husband got caught up in that very thing.  Now, picture this, we're driving down Laurel Canyon Blvd. in Hollywood and a little dog darts out in front of us.  He's not wearing a collar and this proceeds to go on for a bit.  Of course I pull over and do what else? Proceed to wrangle him.  Turns out, another couple had pulled over as well and had been trying to save the little guy for about an hour.  In comes Greek Girl (I'm like the dog whisperer Cezar Milan, only I do it in Greek.)

Long story short, after two hours and a lot of coaxing, we got him.  Wrapped him up in a blanket and took him to the vet.  He was a very cute little Chihuahua Mix.  I would have kept him, however he was twice the size of my #1 Pekingese Princess "Pookie" & my Maltese "Itty Bitty" who only weighs 4lbs soaking wet.  So I found the little guy a sanctuary in the valley, where they try to place the dogs.  However if they are not able, they can stay forever.

There have been a good number of dog wrangling episodes since then, most recently "Rufus" the Pug on a trip to Florida.  The fur-babies had just gotten over their torture of another dog coming into their home when their momma Ava aka "Dog Wrangler" hears about a little Pekingese in the kill shelter in NYC.  The lady who runs the local Pekingese Rescue where my fur-baby "BoBo" came from contacted me.  See she has an agreement with shelters, if they get a Pekingese in, they contact her.  Well she was all full, and wondered if I could go get him and foster him.  What could I say?  Well it's 3 hours before the first Presidential debate (ov vey) I say "Sure no problem".  So off to Harlem I go to Animal Care and Control to rescue "Prince", which has been changed to "Pepe".

Not really sure what his story is... because people are crazy.  You never really know if anything they say on the intake forms is true in a surrender case.  Supposedly they had him eight years...  moved someplace that didn't allow pets and had to give him away.  Greek Girl isn't buying it.  First off, that is just not an excuse.  I would live in a box on the street homeless if I had to in order to keep my dogs.  If I had to move, I would never move where they do not allow animals.

What most people don't realize is that when you make a comittment to an animal, it is for life.  Not for fun until you get bored.  Because then people like me have to come in and clean up the mess.  Dogs and cats give unconditional love.  All they want is a safe, quiet place to lay down and to love us.  They need us.

So this dog "Pepe" he is like a puppy... and not neutered.  Nothing makes me madder.  When he went to the vet the next day to be neutered, the vet said he is about 6 at most.  Anyway he was neutered, all checked over and back at the Aston house for just about a week now.  He has recovered from his trip to the vet.  Not sure how long it's going to take to get him to chill out.  If he starts to fit in with my little pack, he is welcome to stay.  However if he keeps acting like Kujo out of nowhere, he will have to be adopted out by the Rescue.  Plus my 4 fur-babies are really not cooperating.  It's like they have not decided yet if they are going to let him into the club.  They all keep giving me the "When is he leaving mom?" glare.

See... the other Pekingese will not even let him on the bed with them. Meanies.

It sure has been a fun filled week, although I have spent most of my time seeing what it's like to be a vet tech.  He is on antibiotics from getting Kennel Cough from the shelter, all my four are on different medicine from getting Kennel cough from him.  I have to give them all different medicine.  Pepe 2 times, and my other four fur-babies get their medicine 3 times a day, and they all get cough medicine 2 x's a day. Add that to the trips to potty, and special meals I whip up for them all, it is a wonder I have any time to do any music, or workout for that matter.  It's a good thing I like coffee...

After 10 Days in the Aston House...

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava :D xox
www.avaaston.com

TDI Actually is Love

VW means - People Wagon. I just call it, love. It doesn't hurt that their logo is the same color as the Greek Flag either. ;)

Some of you may remember that about this time last year my sweetie and I were in a really bad car accident.  We were hit from the rear while stopped at a stop-light in upstate NY.  The SUV that hit us was going about 50 mph.  Unfortunately the accident totaled my VW Jetta, RIP "Johnny Jetta".

The thing that sucked more than the pain in the neck, back and everything else was that I had just spent over two months trying to find the perfect Certified Preowned Jetta.  Being the Greek schootch (that's slang for cheap) that I am, I had to make sure it was "Certifed Pre-Owned".  Then I would get the balance of the factory warranty plus an additional 2 yr. 24,000 miles added on top of the Factory Warranty, now that is using my noggin.  I had to get it in Blue - of course - with tinted windows - so no-one sees me when I roll into town and it had to be a 5-speed because that's just how I roll.  Finding "Johnny Jetta" was like finding a needle in a hay stack.  Sure there are a lot of used cars out there, but finding just the right one, certified, with low low miles, no dings or scratches with all the stuff... now that's another animal all together.

Since the accident we've been going around with just my husbands VW Jetta.  Since we were racking up the miles like mad - two people with one car and appointments all over the Tri-State area, you can imagine "Jillian Jetta" needed a break.  Thank goodness the one that wasn't totaled in the accident was a TDI.  For the novice car guru TDI means Turbo Diesel Injection.  So, since they don't make my dream car the Camaro in a TDI just yet, the next best thing is pretty much anything with the word Turbo in it's name.  It doesn't hurt that we get over 40 mpg in this bad-boy either.  We can drive from NY to Florida on two tanks of gas... Hello! 

Since we're now finally getting things back in order I felt it was time to venture out and get on with finding a new car.  I was reluctant at first but realized it was becoming essential.  So what did I do you are wondering?  Well, I went straight online to find what else?  A TDI.  But not just any TDI but a Certified, dark gray, black interior, 5-speed Jetta TDI Sportwagon.  Hold it right there.  Yes, I said Sportwagon.  What do you expect when I am constantly on the road from gig to gig and when in my spare time I am taking roadtrips to Florida or rescuing a dog here and there, and have 4 dogs of my own to cart around.  It helps to have the extra room.

Now imagine this, with gas prices hitting over $5 a gallon in places like California it helps to have not one - but two VW Jetta TDI's that both get over 40mpg.  46 mpg on the highway in the new one to be exact... To make a very long story short.  We were all set to go pick up the new Certified Pre-owned TDI when we were visiting my mom.  She had to see what a "Jetta-Sportwagon" looked like, since she could not imagine me driving one.  So we visited the local dealer, and they were having an anniversary sale.  It wasn't two seconds of being there that my honey saw that green sale sign hanging from the dash.

We ended up getting a brand new one, a 2013 with 6 miles on it straight off the truck for $500 more than the Certified Pre Owned one we were just about to buy.  The only compromise was this one is it's an automatic and it was not my first choice in color.  So on my first outing on the highway it got over 46 mpg and drives amazing.

We have a word for this in the Greek Language... it is love.

All I can say is, I just do not know why every car manufacturer does not make TDI's.  In my Greek coconut, VW Rules.  There is nothing like the comforting sound of the thud when you close the door. You're in, you're safe, there's about eight airbags for crying out loud, and the best part... 46 mpg.  Just sayin.

Have a beautiful day!

Blessings, Love & Music,
Ava :D xox
www.avaaston.com

Politichicks

Honorary "Rock" Politichick ;) with a twist of comedy for good measure.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might've guessed by now that when I am passionate a particular topic, I am hard pressed to keep it out of my blog.  What can I say, I'm Greek... It's in my genes.  We invented Politics, The Olympics, Drama (Acting, seriously we did - look it up on google), Windex and a whole bunch of other things, so it's to be expected.  There are lots of things I'm passionate about like coffee, working out, dogs/animals and of course my music, and politics.  Shocking, I know you would have never guessed that one would ya? ;)

You see my filter broke off a few weeks ago, due to the fact that my noggin has at times has about spun off seeing the goings on in the world lately... and I can't seem to keep my big fat greek yap-trap shut.  So I decided to start speaking out about what I see going on.  Many of you may know this already about me, especially with my song, "We The People" that was written about getting back to our founding principals.  It was written because I can't stand to see my country losing it's identity.  The very same country my dad came to with only $20 in his pocket to chase the American Dream.  So I started my MissionWeThePeople.com website to help get the message of the song out to the masses before this the most important election of our lifetime.

A few months ago a good friend of mine asked me to be an honorary Politichick and take part in trying to make a difference.  What's Politichick's you might be thinking?  Well it's a group of women all across America coming together to help shed light on local, regional and even national and sometimes international news.  It's kind of like a conservative version of TMZ but with all smart women. ;)

My role as a Politichick will take a different approach.  Because I am a Greek and I love to laugh, and entertaining people; I will be creating political rants in the form of adding a sarcastic and funny spin on what is going on in the Main Stream Media.

As an artist, I love and value the freedom of speech which allows me the right to express myself however I feel it necessary.   For me it is crucial that I take part in what is going on.  Too often I turn on the TV or walk in the mall and see the impact our pop-culture is having on our society.  Not just on the youth, on everyone.  What most people don't realize is that with most of Hollywood being so liberal in their ideology they are literally stripping the morality away from our country.  In so doing they are allowing our very freedoms to be attacked and stripped away from us.  Including our freedom of speech as seen with the recent Innocence of Muslim's video on YouTube.  What's worse is that most people are becoming more and more desensitized by the people they idolize and don't realize their values are shallow and go against everything this country was founded upon.

So to get a taste of what to expect, feel free to watch any of my "Greek Girl Rants" on Politichicks or subscribe to my own YouTube channel and get them as they are posted.  Here are the first 3 with more to come:

Hope they bring you a great big smile!

Blessings, Love & Music~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com