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30 week blog challenge-week 13: something you want to buy

This week’s blog challenge topic is “something you want to buy.”

Funny how that coincides with the holiday shopping season! Because frankly, I want to buy fun gifts for my family that they will love.

My goal is to be done Christmas shopping by December 10, because I want to send the stuff I need to mail off by December 15. I’m about 90% done. I just need to pick up a few more things, and then anything else will be fun, bonus stuff.

So, that’s this week’s answer. Short and sweet.

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30 week blog challenge-weeks 11 & 12: nicknames and purchases

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Hi! I missed a week of the 30 week blog challenge, and I nearly missed another. I figure I’ll do these two weeks and get back on track next week! 🙂

Week 11: Nicknames You Have and Why

My main nickname is Ronni. That’s how I introduce myself to people, that’s the name I go by on almost all of my social networking profiles, and that’s how I identify myself. My parents gave me that nickname when I was little, only it was spelled Ronnie back then. I am not sure when I dropped the e, but it probably happened while I was in high school. It’s just a lot easier to be “Ronni” than to try to explain why I’m named “Ronica” instead of “Veronica”.

Week 12: Something You Bought Recently

Hmm. Well, last week, I bought the Catching Fire score. I have a thing for movie scores, and I had to have that one because I loved the movie so much. I also bought some things for Thanksgiving, some cat food, a toothbrush, and other assorted boring things. Catching Fire was definitely the most exciting of the purchases!

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30 week blog challenge – week 9: pet peeves

This week’s blog challenge is pet peeves!

Yes

Now, I know that my default nature is to complain. Anyone following my twitter feed knows this. I actually feel guilty because I vent so much on twitter. I think it has to do with being from Cleveland. Most of the Clevelanders I grew up with are still very negative and pessimistic. So it’s in my blood, even though I do try not to be so negative and complainey. Because really, who wants to hear that, right? And there are a lot of amazing things to be happy about.

With that said, I do see the value in venting. Sometimes it’s good to get stuff out so it’s not eating you alive. But it’s all too easy to dwell in it, which is no good.

This blog entry gives me a chance to vent a bit, so here goes…

Rudeness. I cannot stand rude people, and I cannot stand myself when I catch myself being rude. This includes people who interrupt me when I’m talking, people who blast their music and yell and scream so all the world can hear them (like my neighbors who partied until 3am Saturday morning–when I had to be up at 8am for a workshop), people who let their children run wild in stores, people who let their large families take up entire aisles in stores and on sidewalks, people who see that you urgently need to get over on the expressway and they purposefully speed up so you can’t, people who don’t clean up after their dogs so there’s poo all over the sidewalks, people who yell and scream about their lives like everyone gives a shit…I could go on.

Footsteps. I realize this is my issue and no one is really at fault for my eccentrics, but I HATE the sound of footsteps. Poor Adam gets the brunt of it because he’s a pacer. He paces all the time. And I am usually OK with it…unless he puts on shoes. He wears really clicky shoes. And we have hardwood floors. He gets told off so much for pacing, slowly (even more torturous), while wearing his shoes in the house. Personally, I love the idea of not wearing shoes in the house. As someone pointed out, why would you want to bring all that outside crap and track it through your home? But really, it drives me crazy. Oh and when I’m in Target and someone is wearing high heels and it does that extra click? You know what I’m talking about. No, just… NO.

Chewing/Kissing/Other Assorted Non-verbal Mouth Noises. This includes cats cleaning themselves. Gum smacking (and the sad thing is that I’m guilty of smacking my own gum which makes me want to kick my own ass). But the worst is chewing noises. I cannot stand them. Sometimes I even hate the sound of my own chewing. It’s like nails on a chalkboard. It makes me irrationally angry and tense and all icky feeling. Even heavy enough breathing is enough to make me want to curl up in a corner and rock back and forth. It’s so dumb and I wish I wasn’t so sensitive to it.

There is actually a name for those last two items: Misophonia. Makes me feel better that I’m not alone in this, but it doesn’t mean I like it. There are loads of other sounds that trigger anger in me, but they don’t happen as often or make me react so much. And it’s happening to Aidan too. Whistling, humming, singing… those sounds make him so angry. He doesn’t even like attending concerts or listening to his mp3 player anymore.

Being Held Back. This can be due to many ways. People not wanting to spend money for certain things. Red lights. Traffic jams. Hours that take forever to go by. I like to do what I want to do when I want to do it, not have to wait for other people or things to happen or give me permission. I hate that I can’t just walk onto any movie or TV set and play a part. I hate that I have to be judged by others on whether or not I’m worthy to do certain things or another. One of the reasons I’m glad I’m a grown-up is that I can pretty much do what I want (within reason) without other people or things stopping me. So that’s why I think I get so irritated when someone or something DOES get in the way. Especially if *I’M* the someone getting in the way!

When I’m Lazy. I know. How can something I’m in control of be a pet peeve? But it is. For example, right now, the apartment is disgusting and I have no desire to get up and do something about it. Because I’d rather sit here writing and listening to music than clean. But I need to clean. And I will. But I’m annoyed at myself for not being motivated enough to do it right now even though the place is making me hide out in my bedroom because it’s so gross. Pathetic.

Bad Smells. My nose is super sensitive. I don’t know if it’s been like that my whole life or what. I just know that when I was pregnant with Aidan, eleven freaking years ago, my nose was like a sonic radar and I never got over it. So. Bad smells. They haunt me everywhere I go. Good smells are fleeting, bad smells are pungent and everlasting and constant. Neutral smells are OK but those are rarely not interrupted by a bad smell. I probably keep the incense/sage/air freshener/candle companies thriving because I am constantly combatting bad smells. It’s exhausting.

That’s all. I need to get back into a positive headspace. Adam’s taking me out to dinner and then to Half-Price books later!

Till next time….

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30 week blog challenge – week 6: favorite songs

Ha. After doing the epic music confession post the other day, I find out that this week’s blog challenge is to talk about our favorite songs. OF COURSE it is!

Random Wednesday Night

I’ll start with my absolute favorite song forever and ever amen, this blog’s namesake. Anywhere Is by Enya. The funny thing is that I love it so much, but I don’t allow myself to listen to it all the time. So it’s an extra special rare treat to hear it.

I have a list of songs that are my all time favorites. Songs that are ALWAYS welcome to pop into my ears if I’m playing the playlist on shuffle. Songs that never fail to make me smile or bring up some good memory or make me want to dance.

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This is some of my Eleventified™ playlist. Some of the songs are from long, long ago, and some of them are from as recently as a few months ago. Funnily enough, as with Anywhere Is, I don’t play this playlist often. I think I’m scared of getting tired of these songs that I love so much, and I want to keep it a treat to hear them. Is that weird? Yeah, it’s probably weird.

What are your favorite songs?

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30 week blog challenge – week 5: favorite quote

This week’s blog challenge is to share my favorite quote with you. I have a lot of them, but there is one that sticks out in my mind:

“A room without books is like a body without a soul”—Cicero

Honestly, I live by this quote. Every room in this apartment has books. There are piles of books next to my bed, and bookcases in the bathroom. I love to read. I can’t get enough. It’s my default comfort zone. Like, when someone tells me they don’t like to read, I just don’t get it. It’s incomprehensible. But when I think about how I’d rather read than watch TV, I kind of get it, because there are people who LOVE TV whereas I can take it or leave it. I mean, I enjoy TV when it’s there, but it’s not my first choice for entertainment. I’d rather read. Different strokes. But at any rate, there needs to be a book close to me or I don’t feel right. It’s weird.

Another quote I like is this one:

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”— Martin Luther King Jr.

I really felt this one when I was going through my divorce from Chris. I saw people draw their lines and pick their sides, and I was often left in the dust. But there were some people who supported me through the whole thing. And that’s how I learned who my true friends were. I tell everyone who is going through a divorce or separation that they’ll learn who is truly there for them when times get hard.

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”—George Eliot

At the ripe old age of 38, I feel like a lot of my dreams are silly and need to be shelved. Or they’re just unrealistic. And that’s OK. Not everyone can be a famous movie star. But I can still be a New York Times bestselling author someday. I just need to stop being scared and go for it.

“Kirtan is non-denominational, the Universal language of Spirit, the song of the Soul.”—New World Kirtan

Incredible was the day I realized that I got that same feeling of freedom, love, and happiness from singing kirtan that I did when singing certain worship songs in church. There are certain advocates that say yoga and kirtan is evil, from the devil, it’s “idol worship” and that the chanting is a bunch of gibberish. How close minded can someone get? And I won’t even go into how insulting it is that they call Sanskrit “gibberish”–it’s a legit language, asshats.

I remember the first time I went to kirtan, I was like “what the f—?” but then I couldn’t get the chants out of my head. And I started to seek them out. And I loved them. And before anyone gets all weirded out, please know that the first time I went to Catholic church, I was also like “what the f—?” …and the same when I went to temple. Funnily, I wasn’t like that the first time I attended a Lunasaugh ritual, but honestly, I am too darn lazy to be pagan.

My spiritual journey has been quite a ride, and I haven’t gone much into it on my blog, because I don’t fully understand it myself. I always put up a bit of resistance when deep down, I know something is going to pierce my soul in a good way. But I’ll tell you this. I can chant Jaya Jagatambe, or sing “Famous One”, or do a yoga practice to the Four Directions, and still feel that same soul shaking, party rocking good time. And that opens my heart more than any stern lecture from any pastor can.

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