adam

So Much For That

I thought I would try to get my body back on to a normal sleep schedule. Because for the past several weeks, I’ve been staying up all night and sleeping well into the afternoon. Even though what I’m doing in the middle of the night is no different than what I’d do during the day (and sometimes I am even more productive!), I still feel guilty about it. I know I’m a night owl at heart, but I still feel weird about it.

I know this is the way I am built and I shouldn’t be ashamed of it… but the world just doesn’t really WORK this way. It doesn’t really cater to night owls. There are some 24 hour stores around, and it is much nicer to drive in the middle of the night (unless the panhandlers are still out and begging me to roll down my window and give them money…AS IF), but I can’t go to a yoga class in the middle of the night. I can’t answer urgent emails from Moksha or VSA in the middle of the night. But now that I think about it… maybe it’s OK for me to be the way I am. The nature of the work I do–most of it is from home and I have enough time that I can work on it overnight. Even if I have a meeting at Moksha, they know my sleep schedule, so they try to accommodate it. My latest apprenticeship is in the evenings and most of my workshop manager shifts are afternoon or evening.

Sunday night, I took a Tylenol PM (well, the CVS version anyway) at 10:30pm. I slathered on some Arbonne unwind lotion; dabbed lavender essential oils on my heart, my temples, my neck, and behind my ears; checked my email; played LEGO Harry Potter until just before midnight (I gave myself a midnight cut off); and climbed into bed. Had a snack and read The Hunger Games until I fell asleep. And I woke up at 10:25am. Which is an improvement over 3:15pm.

It’s a good thing I was up because ALA was announcing their awards and Adam got a Stonewall Honor for his book Sparks (written under a pen name SJ Adams). How exciting is that? VERY exciting is the answer we’re looking for here, just so you know.

I did not mention that by 1pm I was super, super tired. I was frustrated because I can be wide awake in the middle of the night but during the day (especially during the winter) I just want to sleep. I want to burrow under an electric blanket and live in dreamland. So I took a nap. I set my alarm for 2pm, but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself waking up at 1:39pm! I guess I just needed a power nap. ๐Ÿ™‚ Went to a short meeting at 3pm, ran a couple of errands, then we headed out to the burbs.

We celebrated Adam’s Stonewall Honor the best way we know how: By hitting some bookstores. We went to Anderson’s, where I picked up 7 CLUES TO WINNING YOU by Kristin Walker and BITTERSWEET by Sarah Ockler. Then we went to Half-Price Books, where I got 10 books, 9 CDs, and a computer game. I am so happy. I have a lot of new stuff to read and a lot of music to listen to. I bought Zoo Tycoon, but that’s mostly for Aidan to play when he’s here. Oh and my LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 arrived in the mail. I’m nearly 80% done with Years 1-4 (I’ve completed the levels, just need to get the collectibles), so I’ll probably start 5-7 sometime this week. Wheeee!

Today's Half Price Books book haul. Half Price Books CD Haul.

But now I am back to my old habits already. It’s 2:40am and I am wide awake. I just dabbed on the lavender (forgot to do the Tylenol PM tonight) and I’m hoping it will work its magic sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I will skip out on starting one of my new books right now–I’ll NEVER go to sleep if I start a new book. I’ll read The Hunger Games, and old favorite, and HOPEFULLY I’ll go to sleep and end up not sleeping past noon. I want to go to yoga. Which is at noon. And I need to shower before.

So I’m thinking that for now, it’s OK for me to be this way? It’s not like I have a 9am-5pm job (although in Chicago it seems more like 8am-9pm in a lot of jobs), and most of the things I have to do are in the afternoons and evenings. So I guess there is no point in trying to fight how my body naturally works, especially because it’s not hurting anyone.

When I’m at Disney World, I’ll have to take care. Don’t want to be sleeping the whole day away there! But I have time to fix that.

Ha. This pointless entry brought to you by slight heartburn, an afternoon dose of Lexapro, and the letters B-A-N-A-N-A.

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Our Love Story

So Happy Together

How long have you and your significant other been together?
We’ve been together for nearly six years.

How did you meet? {What’s your “love” story?}
We met in 2006. I’d known about him because I’d read his Live Journal, I was friends with his agent at the time, and also some of his agent’s other clients, namely Mandy Hubbard. Mandy was my critique partner and best writer friend at the time. I was in Chicago with the agent and other writers (now authors!) at a Writer’s Conference. Adam was running a ghost tour and had invited all of those people along. Mandy asked if I could join, and Adam said “sure.” The day I arrived in Chicago, Mandy and I had lunch and spent ages speculating on what Adam was going to be like. I said that he’d probably be full of really weird facts and wear penny loafers with the pennies in them. That led to all of us later making predictions on what sort of shoes Adam wore. The night of the tour, I walked onto the bus and thought he was the cutest thing ever. The advantage of having a crush on the tour guide is that no one thinks you’re weird for staring at him while he’s telling stories.

By the way. He IS full of weird facts. But he wears walking shoes or boots.

If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}
We got married on July 27, 2008.

Ronni & Adam Kissing in the Water

If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?
We got married at Edgewater Beach in Chicago. It was a small wedding. It was technically an elopement. See, I had been married before, and he had no interest in a fancy ceremony. So we told our friends “Hey, we’re eloping on July 27 at 10:30am at Edgewater Beach. Feel free to come if you want!” And people showed up! It was a short and sweet ceremony, a beautiful day.

Ronni & Adam

Ronni & Adam Exchanging Rings

Everyone! :)

Random Note: A few years ago, some meany-heads on The Knot decided to completely tear my and Adam’s wedding apart. They made terrible fun of us, called us names, threw in racist and ableist remarks, and really had nothing nice to say. (Apparently, these people have nothing better to do but troll wedding pictures of random people and make fun of them.) I didn’t go visit the forum where they were doing it, but a friend of mine told us about it, after she realized they were hotlinking her photos from our wedding. Chris (Aidan’s dad) got the thread shut down and deleted. No, I didn’t have a huge, fancy $10,000 wedding. It wasn’t formal at ALL. I don’t care. The day was perfect for us. Plus, we took all the money we’d have spent on a fancy wedding and spent it on our Disney World honeymoon.

Do you have any nicknames that you call one another? Do share!
I call him “Baby Adam” and he calls me “Little Ronica.”

Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
a. I love that he’s such a smart ass. His brain is always working. OK, you know how you get into a confrontation with someone, but you never think of the right thing to say until way after the fact? He not only thinks of the perfect thing to say, but he actually SAYS it at the right time.
b. He’s intensely loyal. I’ve never had a partner have my back so solidly.
c. He takes care of me. He cooks me dinner, he has no problem doing a lot of the household chores. He’s there for me when he sees that I’m not doing so well. He does everything he can to make me happy.

Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?
I flew in for an impromptu trip to Chicago one weekend in September 2007. See, he’d already mentioned that he was ready to propose. So when he said he was eager for me to come visit, I had a feeling it was going to happen that weekend. I had no idea it was going to happen that NIGHT. He proposed over a chocolate phosphate at Margie’s Candies. The full story is here.

Here’s the ring:

I also use it for my wedding ring because why the hell not? It’s an antique, it’s beautiful, it’s a perfect fit, and I can’t think of a ring I’d love more.

Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
NEITHER! Adam’s not huge on overly romantic/cheesy gestures like that most of the time.

Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Pop in a movie and relax on the couch. For sure.

Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
I’d like to enjoy the millions of dollars we’ll surely one day have. We’d get homes in Florida, Chicago, Ohio, and England. We’d travel to Europe. Hit all the Disney parks in the world. Start some scholarship funds. Help people.

I dream big.

Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine’s Day.
We’re going to be at Epcot at Disney World! We’re going to have dinner at Garden Grill, our favorite Disney restaurant, and we’re going to get our pictures taken with Mickey Mouse.

Love

Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s day?
I’ll try not to because HELLO I’ll be at Disney World, but you know, the Japan store is in Epcot with tons of incense, and the England store is there with JAMMIE DODGERS and I’ll need to replenish my stock of those.

Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Patience and communication. Patience because you will get on each other’s nerves sometimes. There will be habits that aren’t necessarily harmful but can be annoying. Personality quirks that make you go what the hell? You’ll have to learn to deal with it. And communication is so very important. Don’t hold in resentments until they build up an explode. If he says something that hurts you, tell him so. He might not realize it’s hurting you. Also, be sure to communicate appreciation! Don’t just bring up the bad stuff.

Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Us
Look how he’s looking at me.
It’s like he knows I’m crazy, but he loves me anyway.


Linking up here:

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Christmas Prep Take One

Christmas Decorations 2011

I’m just about done decorating. I need to get new stockings for Adam and Aidan. Seems one of the cats left a “present” (in the form of pee) on those two particular stockings, and I didn’t find it until this year, when I went to hang them. Luckily, only those two stockings got hit. Aidan’s was personalized, which was a shame, but the pee didn’t get the name so I cut it out and hung it in his room. Not a total loss. And now I get to go buy more stockings!

Christmas Decorations 2011
My non-peed on stocking

Thursday, I complained on twitter that I failed at being a grown-up. And I had. I’d gotten some disappointing news, which put me in a funk that resulted in me not accomplishing a dang thing except playing on the computer for hours. And reading. And playing “dozer” games on my iPhone. And also Whirly Word. Adam read my tweet and asked why I felt that way, and I told him that it was because I was supposed to clean and I didn’t. He said that there was no point in cleaning now because I’d just be doing it all over again on December 19, the day before Aidan and my mom arrive for Christmas. I tried to tell him that if I cleaned now, that the work would be less by then, but he thinks that if I clean now, we’ll just mess it all back up and I’d have ended up doing twice the cleaning.

I couldn’t articulate that if I cleaned now, then I wouldn’t have to clean the normal mess by then PLUS the accumulation from not cleaning this weekend as well. The words just wouldn’t come. My brain had turned to mush from all the games I’d been playing. So he made me some tea and that was that.

When he cleans, he sees only the obvious, big picture messes and clutter. And he doesn’t see any point in cleaning all the time because the big, obvious messes aren’t always there. I see almost all the messes, and I can especially see the little details. He does the heavy lifting (taking out the trash, cleaning the fridge, scrubbing the stove, mopping the floor) while I handle the littler things (scrubbing faucets, cleaning mirrors, dusting, etc.). So, I guess what I need to say is that if I am not taking care of those little details all the time, or at least every week or so, then the big messes will come sooner and with more impact. And if I waited until the last minute to do all my holiday cleaning, I’d be looking UGLY come December 19. So, it’s always better, in my opinion, to do a little bit every week. Maintenance, if you will. Otherwise, the clutter will just build up and cleaning day will be exhausting and overwhelming. So I cleaned today because I can’t, in good conscience, decorate while the place is messy.

Snowflake

Friday, I pulled out the rest of the decorations and got to work. I even wrapped a few presents! I’m not totally hopeless!

Christmas Decorations 2011
The snow family salutes me.

Christmas Ornaments 2011
More ornaments. Why? Because I like them.
See what I did there?

So, all I have to do is stay on top of the cleaning, and all should be OK. ๐Ÿ™‚

Christmas Ornaments 2011

Disclaimer: I am sharing my holiday home decor and cleaning tips for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners.

Ten days till my birthday. God help me.

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Rambling…

Crookshanks Photo Shoot I’m tired. I need a full day where I don’t have to do anything but read and sleep. I really should not allow myself to indulge in such a day until all my chores are done, but meh. I also should not be blogging at 1am but there you go.

Christmas is 46 freaking days away. Time is FLYING. I have all of these “to do” items that i put in my iProcrastinate in early/middle October. When it’s the middle of October, November due dates seem far away. Well, now all that stuff is coming due now and I’m kinda like WHOA. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? In fact, two of my items are past due. FAIL.

I started Christmas shopping in earnest Monday. I was out with my friend Angelo, and we hit Bloomingdales, Filene’s Basement, and many other assorted stores along Michigan Avenue. I was able to knock out a good chunk of my shopping for Adam. Go me! I also let Angelo treat me to a white chocolate raspberry mocha from Starbucks. I very rarely indulge in Starbucks, and I get this particular coffee drink once or twice a year. It was yummy.

Adam and I went out to the ‘burbs yesterday. I found the most awesome store at the Westfield Fox Valley mall. It’s called Funk-E-Breeze and it’s the store that Hot Topic and Spencer Gifts WISH they could be. I wanted just about everything in there, but I settled on buying lots of incense. Because mmm, incense.

We hit Anderson’s Bookshop, the best bookstore in the whole wide world. Seriously, you should be jealous of that bookstore because it is *just that awesome*. This bookstore gets folks like Tyra Banks, Weird Al, and Jodi Piccoult. And they *hand sell* books. They listen to what you like and suggest books that are similar. Awesome. Anyway, Adam’s an author, and he went to Anderson’s to sign stock. How cool is that? But you know what’s even cooler?

You can win copies of Adam’s books!

extraordinary
EXTRAORDINARY is an epic tale of love, magic,
mystery, musical theatre, and unicorn poop.
UNICORN POOP people!
You know you want to read it.
Honestly, it’s my favorite one by him thus far.
Check out the entry post here.

sparks final
Adam also writes under the pen name S.J. Adams.
(I think Adam thinks S.J. is real. Seriously. I get concerned.)
SPARKS is a John Hughes-esque novel about a
Full House-obsessed girl
who attempts to get over a crush
by embarking on a “holy quest” with
a couple of misfits who have invented a religion.
Check out the entry post for this book here!

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

Linking up with:
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Whoo!

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An Up and Down Kind of Day

Photo Booth Fun! Today was kind of a poopy day. I woke up in an OK mood, but then the people on the radio stopped talking about funny stuff and started playing their procession of really stupid songs.

I used to LOVE pop music. It was fun to dance to, easy to sing along with, and just generally bouncy happy fun for my ears. Now, it’s all these alarms blaring and people talking about what they’re going to do to someone that night and people getting drunk and having kinky sex on a Friday night and well… people can do what they want, I just don’t want to hear about it first thing in the morning. Or ever. And that stupid song about some chick wanting someone to take control and that screechy alarm noise GETS STUCK IN MY HEAD ALL DAY and nothing I do, not even HOURS of listening to other songs, takes it away. So, I think that I might be done with B96 in the mornings because they play that song to death and it really offends my ears.

I used to listen to Tom Joyner, but they took him off the air and replaced him with Steve Harvey. I haven’t bothered to see if they’ve rectified that yet. I also used to listen to another station that was just shenanigans in the morning. I LOVE radio station shenanigans. But then they replaced the one DJ I liked, got rid of another, and the new guy just sucks and all he does is say teasers instead of getting to the shenanigans. So there was that. Oldies don’t wake me up, talk radio is OK, but once it gets good, I have to leave. So, I don’t know. I miss 97.9 WNCI in Columbus.

So anyway, that song put me in a FOUL mood. Then Adam came home and was pacing, and I rarely snap at him about it, but this morning, I was just like “Adam, sit down.” We headed out so he could take me to work (I’m temping at an educational publishers for a few days–LOVING it, by the way), and I didn’t like the music he was playing. He asked if I wanted to put on the radio and well, I’d been burned by THEM already so I was like “No, they’re playing crap.” Then he was like “Are you OK?”

I told him I was cranky. So he bought breakfast at McDonald’s and they gave us an extra hash brown! Then I got to work. The licorice scent of the building calmed me instantly, and my work day was pleasant enough. I get paid to sit and learn World History, basically, and let me tell you, it was NOT this interesting when I was in 9th grade.

Heard from more than one person that they heard my husband on NPR this morning because he is JUST THAT AWESOME. That was cool. Then I found out that I’d screwed up some stuff in the lastest monthly newsletter that went out from the yoga studio–most unhappy about that. It was stuff that we’d never think to check because it never screws up, but this time, something funky happened all around and well, just crap, really.

Coming home was OK. Traffic, but not unbearable. I was exhausted, but whatever. McDonald’s for dinner because well, it was that sort of day. Free cookies–they were giving them out for Halloween. Came home, ate dinner, went to the corner grocer and paid way too much for two Whatchamacallit bars, but I really don’t care. Found out Crookshanks had not only pooped on the floor (again) but he’d also peed on the bed. Guess whose side?

Adam took care of the laundry and everything, then HE was off to work. I went to work on my website. Messed with code and made it all pretty. Then BAM. Suddenly, it was NOT working at all. You don’t even want to know what it was doing. I tried deleting and re-adding the theme. I tried a new theme. An old theme. Most of them were causing the same problem. I finally figured it out, and I am breathing a big sigh of relief.

One of these days I’m going to try to make a custom theme again. I used to do it all the time. I just have no idea how to code it for Word Press…but you know, that’s what Google’s for.

Now, Crookshanks is wailing. Just want I need to hear to rock me right to sleep right? Sike. It’s going to be all about the White Noise app tonight. Now if I can just get that STUPID SONG out of my head.

Night, y’all.

After I have something to eat first, though.

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