Ashley Lindley at a concert in late September.

So, as previously mentioned,MTV invited a group of journalists into the Real World DC house back in early October. We met the cast members and saw the presidentially-themed bedrooms, love sacks, and the confessional. One cast member even toured me over to the awning-covered jacuzzi area, right next to the sidewalk, and pointed out the little spaces in the covering where Real World obsessives had apparently jammed in cameras trying to shoot the cast members—-a figurative “fishbowl” turned almost literal.

Over the next few days, I’ll do brief little write -ups of the cast members. If you hate me for it, don’t visit this blog for two days, and I’ll guarantee no contact with Real Worldiness. I have a feeling you’ll be visiting.

First up: Ashley Lindley, 22, is described as a “Portugese beauty, with a hot temper and a blunt demeanor” and the roommate that “might be the most politically aware,” according to her MTV bio. On her twitter account, she calls herself an “Actor, Philanthropist, Drama Queen, Liberal, Firecracker, Portuguese Princess, Nomad, Diva, Lover, Ladybug, Bestie.”

Originally from Fort Bragg California, she lived in Houston prior to coming to D.C. At some point relatively recently, she also lived in Las Vegas, where she served as a delegate for Obama. “For the last three years, I’d been living with a boyfriend. Prior to that, I’d been living on my own for a long time,” she said during our interview.

While in Washington, Ashley volunteered with DC Vote and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. “I actually have Crohn’s disease. I was diagnosed at 15, and my mother also suffers from it,” she says. Besides logging hours at area nonprofits, Ashley and cast member Mike both raised awareness for their causes with…pins.

“We started to brand ourselves with pins, so when we walk around, and paparazzi snaps a picture of us, it will get exposure to things…People will ask, ‘why are you wearing that? and then you can explain,” says Mike.

Ashley wore one for “Pinktober Symposium” the day I interviewed her. “You realize the more people pay attention to you the more people will listen to the things that are important to you,” she says. Will this kind of spouting make it to air? The cast members seem to think so.  More importantly about Ashley: “Newly single, Ashley has her sights set on the guys in D.C,” according to her MTV bio.