Month: February 2010

In My Perfect World….

List 20 things that would make your world perfect, and post them on your blog/facebook/whatever the cool kids are using these days.

In My Perfect World…

1. Aidan would live with me.
2. There would be no thunderstorms or snow storms.
3. I would have lots and lots of money.
4. I’d have an annual Disney Parks pass, and a Disney Vacation Club membership, and the time and funds to go to ANY Disney park I wanted any time forever and ever.
5. I’d have my two cats, plus a cute lil doggie, and some fish.
6. McDonalds would be good for me.
7. Onions would not exist.
8. The temperature outside would never go below 70F.
9. I’d not have loud drunkard neighbors, neighbors with annoying dogs, or neighbors who have no idea how to take care of/clean up after their annoying dogs.
10. I’d have a job I LOVE proofreading really awesome stuff but with no high pressure, ego stroking, or other assorted nonsense. The hours on this job would be 10am-3pm M-F. And it’d be paying me loads of money because I’d rock at it. (Hmm, now that I think about it, my ideal hours would probably actually be 10pm-3am. Especially if I am working from home. And if it’s my perfect job, I AM working from home.)
11. I’d live right across the street from a library. A GOOD library, like Columbus Metropolitan. Oh, how I miss thee.
12. My stomach would be flat; maybe even a 6 pack.
13. I’d be making a VERY GOOD living as a bestselling author.
14. I wouldn’t be so nervous to drive because I’d live in a place where NOT EVERY DRIVER IS A FREAK wtf Chicago I don’t even.
15. My friends and family who I love and who love me best would all live on my street. Or at least in my neighborhood.
16. There would be no pain, hurt, addictions.
17. Bad days would never exist.
18. Houses and litter boxes would clean themselves.
19. I’d be happy all the time.
20. My favorite foods and products would not only always be in production (and easy for me to get!), but they’d NEVER BE DISCONTINUED.

* * *

My ideal living situation would be this. (This is totally fantastical because I know such a place does not exist)
A medium city (not quite as huge as Chicago, but not as small as Columbus) with a Mediterranean climate. That means warm almost all the time. Blue skies, sunshine. Close to a beach, but not necessarily beach front. Not terribly humid. Wildflowers blooming all the time. Lots of mature trees and green grass. Close to all of my favorite places: Anderson’s Bookshop, the Whetstone branch of the Columbus library, Disney World, American Girl Place, Target, Meijer, Ragstock, Aeropostale, Nordstrom Rack, Dunkin Donuts, Mrs. Fields, Half-Price Books, McDonald’s. Public transportation. A grid system. Efficient traffic patterns (unlike the ones in Chicago). Close to a downtown. Lots of parks and places to walk. NO WINTER! That means no snow, ice, freezing temps. No extreme summer weather either.

We’d live in a ranch house. Three or four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a family room. The kitchen would have an island and a lazy susan. The appliances don’t necessarily have to be the fancy stainless steel stuff with red knobs or Sub-zero or whatever. Just working and clean and pretty. Or even retro-looking. There would be book cases everywhere. There would be a hot tub and a finished basement. Lots of storage. The yard would have cherry trees and lilac bushes and Asiatic lilies. My Hyundai would be fully maintained and have a full detail and Adam would have the old-fashioned Volvo he’s been dreaming about. Attached garage for sure. Sounds nice, huh?

A girl can dream, eh? Good night, y’all.

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Um….

Driving along in the car, pulling into parking spot in garage at airport….

Ronni: *listening to ONE TIME by Justin Bieber*
Aidan (singing to the beat): I like ’em round. I like ’em squishy. I like ’em round. I like ’em squishy.
Ronni: Um, Aidan, what exactly is it that you like round and squishy?
Aidan (matter-of-factly): Butts.
Ronni & Adam: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Totally did NOT expect that to come out of his mouth!

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Random Fried Bullet Points (Pictures)

Aidan Gives Me A Kiss!

· Aidan’s in town. He flew in Friday night (YAY) and has to go back this evening (BOO). Never seems to be enough time with him. Even if we’re not interacting, just having him in the house is nice. He doesn’t have his two front teeth anymore. My little boy is officially a snaggletooth! πŸ˜€

· Aidan’s in love with Star Wars. Darth Vadar’s his favorite. :O

· Claudia Gray (who is super duper awesomesauce with cherries on top) has gotten Adam and me (and indirectly, Aidan) hooked on Doctor Who. I’d never seen it and felt that I couldn’t be a proper geek without having done so. We have a TiVo and Netflix and Dr. Who is on Instant Q. We watch many episodes a day. Adam wants to turn our closet into a TARDIS. And he wants the coat that the 10th Doctor wears, but it’s $300. I told him to get it anyway. You really can’t be too cheap when buying coats for a Chicago winter. But he’s being smart and frugal.

· When I read to Aidan before bed, I read each page in a different voice, determined by Aidan. Tonight, I read him HIPPOS GO BESERK, and I used the voices of Laura and the dad from The Fuccons, Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Doctor Who, and Rose.

· I am reading POP PRINCESS by Rachel Cohn again. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve read it, but it blows me away every single time I do read it. Wonder’s voice is like no other. I feel the same way about Audrey’s voice in AUDREY, WAIT! by Robin Benway.

· Cover and title released for the latest Hunger Games Book!!! YOU SHOULD ORDER IT FOR ME! I mean, you should order it now!


Can’t believe there are still 190 days until it’s out!

· I went to the library last week and checked out 18 books. I’ve already read several of them.

· This Saturday, I am going to Anderson Bookshop’s 8th Annual Children’s Literature Breakfast. I’m really excited. Last year, I got to meet Meg Cabot, Sharon Draper, and Peter Yarrow. This year, I am ashamed to say I don’t really know the speakers, but there will be plenty of local authors there to chat with. And bacon to eat. And librarians to schmooze.

· I’ve been half-heartedly entertaining the thought of going back to school. I don’t know if I could get a Master’s–my college GPA wasn’t the greatest. It just seems so much hassle and there’s the money issue and the homework. But the learning and the advanced/extra degrees seem so appealing. I just don’t see how it can happen, though.

· Because I’m still really not sure what I want to be when I grow up. When I worked in advertising, I LOVED the work. Absolutely LOVED the work. I’m still running across ads that I’ve worked on and feeling a bittersweet pang of accomplishment and also missing it. But the pressure. The atmosphere. It’s just too much. When I did my Schawk stint again, the long days in the office about drove me mad, but again, I loved the work. And I especially enjoy my Loyola work, because I get to do what I love, but from home. They send me the work and some instructions and a due date, I do the work and send it back. Easy-peasy and also very inspiring because I’m reading MARKETING brochures for heaven’s sake so OF COURSE I want to go back to school. Their writers are very good! So, I love proofreading/copy editing and I’d love to be able to stick with that somehow. I’m also passionate about books and reading, so it would make sense for me to do something with reading/books/literacy/reading recovery, right? I am not sure if teaching would be the answer, but working on materials to encourage literacy–like the stuff I did at Zaner-Bloser–would be amazing. I also love children’s books and teen novels. I feel like my calling is to be some sort of proofreader/editor for a book publisher where I am working on novels, but those jobs are in New York and hard to come by. *sigh*

· I wish I had more unique talents or skills. Writers, proofreaders, secretaries…people with skills like me? We’re a dime a dozen.

· How much do I love the show Modern Family? I mean, hello. The amount of talent on that show blows me away. I watch Make It Or Break It, and I enjoy it, but I can tell most of the people are acting. I am aware that I am watching a TV show. But Modern Family? It flows so well. I feel like I’m looking in the window of someone’s house and seeing the families interact in real time, but not in a “reality TV” sort of way.

· How lucky am I that I am able to connect with former Mousketeers on Facebook or through their blogs? I mean, seriously. I know I’ve gushed about them before, but they really were a huge part of my high school years and to be able to exchange messages with them is simply awesome.

· *Sigh* I was sleeping but I was awakened by certain noises coming from above. And a wicked case of heartburn. So here I am, 4am, awake. *Double sigh.*

· My appetite for chicken has been REALLY weird lately. I don’t want any kind of teriyaki chicken, or citrusy chicken, or Asian style chicken. Fried chicken (like legs and wings) sound disgusting to me. But chicken nuggets seem OK. Or chicken parmesan (but not grilled, has to be breaded). It’s driving Adam crazy because he always wants to make chicken and my stomach immediately says NO WAY.

· Crunchy tempura shrimp sushi rolls = YUMMMMMMM!!!!!! And saki, too. Mmmm sushi. I decided to try some different stuff this time around. I didn’t care for the octopus and red snapper, though. Next time I’ll try eel. Maybe. :O

· I FOUND OUT THE GAS STATION RIGHT DOWN THE STREET HAS THE DOUBLE CHOCOLATEY CRUNCH RICE KRISPIE TREATS!!! I can walk and get some anytime I want, folks! WOO-HOO!!!

· The word “underpants” is funny.

· And finally, a question: Do you ever find yourself recalling some unpleasant event from the past… something that hurt you but you thought you were over… you recall this event and you get all upset again? I hate that. Sometimes I have some really mean thoughts and I don’t like it. πŸ™ I don’t want to put negativity in the world anymore. I like being happy.

And that’s all for now. ‘Til next time!

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Staying Positive

I try to make it a point to stay positive. I went through a pretty bad few years where it seemed like one bad thing after another was happening to me. I kept a lot of it under wraps–only the closest people to me knew the details. It was hard to pull through, and I had to work SO HARD to try to stay positive, and I usually failed at it.

The other night, my anywhere-is site did a wonky thing and wouldn’t let me into the admin panel. I was able to access my sites, so I wasn’t too upset. I just moved everything to the main directory, which I’d been meaning to do for a while anyway. I was going through some old journal entries, and WOW. Just wow. I ended up deleting quite a few of them (from anywhere-is; they’re still on Live Journal) because they reminded me of those bad times, and many other bad times. It was like I was two people. There was the happy Ronni presented to the world, the f-locked entries that expressed rage, sadness, deep depression, and the private entries that were just…. very sad. I knew that if I read them or dwelled on them, I’d get sucked into that emotional mindset. I don’t want that.

I’m not a huge believer in The Secret, but I do think that if you put out good energy, you’ll generally get good energy back. And that if you put out bad energy, you’ll get bad energy back. Not to say that everything bad that happens is anyone’s fault. I just remembered how I worried and worried and worried, and the stuff I worried about was the stuff that kept happening over and over and over with extra random bad stuff tossed in. Almost like I imagined it into existence. So, now I work on imagining GOOD things into existence.

It’s not easy. It’s not in my nature to be as upbeat as I have been. It helps that I have an Adam and an Aidan and a Crookshanks and a Helena. It helps that I have friends who have been there forever and during those really bad times, and will keep being there. It helps that I’m making friends and discovering new stuff and getting inspired every day. It helps that I’m not worrying about surviving. It helps that I am comfortable and everlastingly grateful for all of it.

Sunday afternoon, Adam and I headed to my car to go out to do some errands and hit some vintage shops in Pilson. Upon getting to the car, I noticed that the back window was broken out AGAIN. This is the 3rd time since I’ve lived here that someone broke into my car. (If we count the time in Columbus, this is break-in number four.) First thought was “WTF? Didn’t they know it was unlocked?” Second thought was “Ha, there was nothing in there for them to get. BAHAHA. Oh crap, did they do something to the McDonald’s drink I left in there?” Third thought was “I hope this isn’t the start of a downward spiral.”

It’s that third thought that set off warning bells. If I fall into that way of thinking, it WILL become a downward spiral, and we do not want that at all. I LIKE feeling happy. It’s weird but it’s nice. I don’t want to be showered with bad things/emergencies/problems. I REFUSE to be showered with them. I’ve had enough of it, and it was only by the grace of God (and some good, true friends) that I made it through. I will keep an attitude of gratitude, and I will keep sending that out in the Universe, because I’ve learned that when I truly appreciate what I have, then even more goodness will come my way.

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Things To Look Forward To

I know that in past posts I’ve said that I always feel a bit let down after the December holidays because there is so much going on during that month. Then January comes around and it’s like “OK. Months of freezing cold, grey skies, and looking like a marshmallow guy when I go out b/c of all the layers I have to wear to TRY to stay warm. Blah.” So, last night, I decided to think about things all through the year that come up and are fun to look forward to as well. No worries, I am out of the post-Christmas melancholy phase, but it’s still fun/helpful to think of the upcoming things in 2010.

January
New episodes of Make It Or Break It
New episodes of Modern Family

February
New Lisa McMann book (Gone – February 9)
Aidan’s visit!
Valentine’s Day
The Anderson’s Children’s Literature Breakfast

March
First day of Spring!
New episodes of America’s Next Top Model
New Elizabeth Scott book (The Unwritten Rule – March 16)

April
Not sure yet

May
It’ll finally start getting somewhat warm in Chicago
New Susane Colasanti book (Something Like Fate – May 4)

June
DucKon
SUMMER!
Aidan’ll be here!

July
July 4th (with Jeff & Deborah)
New Lauren Barnholdt book (One Night That Changes Everything – July 6)
Adam’s birthday

August
New Mandy Hubbard book (You Wish – August 5)
New Lauren Barnholdt book (Aces Up – August 10)
New HUNGER GAMES book out (as yet untitled – August 24)

September
Not sure yet

October
Not sure yet

November
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in theatres (November 19)
Thanksgiving (with Jeff & Deborah)

December
My birthday
Aidan’s birthday
Christmas
New Year’s parties

In between all that is hanging with friends on weekends or weekdays, trips to Naperville to go to Anderson’s Bookshop, new music, more new books, new FarmVille stuff every Tuesday and Thursday, and hopefully some travel. πŸ™‚

‘Til next time!

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