Ronni: ACHOO ACHOO ACHOO!
**Ronni’s email dings**
Emails from Ben and Libby: Bless you!
I love my coworkers. 🙂
Why the People at MGH ROCK!
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Tidbits
As always, after an awesome experience, and as life settles back into normalcy, little memories are steadily floating back to me.
** Unbeknownst to Mandy (mandywriter), Ronni’s car is a Hyundai Accent
Mandy (talking about her rental car upgrade): Yeah, this is a lot better than a shitty Hyundai Accent!
Ronni: HEY!
** Mandy’s car screaming in protest because Adam (adamselzer) wouldn’t put his seatbelt on.
** Singing Dora the Explorer songs with Adam, even though I had to pee so badly it was painful.
** Nadia agentobscura (to me, Mandy, Sara…): I’m serious. Go sit in the back. NOW.
** The Highways: Oh, by the way, you merged!
(Chicago’s highways aren’t known for letting you know that a merge is coming up. It just sort of happens. In one case, the sign was there AFTER the merge).
** Mandy’s random driving noises and being put in the “boat” ever so often.
** Ronni: We should go stand under there, where it’s dry.
Nadia: Oh yeah. You’re so smart.
** Nadia shielding me from ghosts in the Garden of Evil.
** I’m about as skeptical about ghosts as the next guy (*innocent whistle*), but I remember when we first got to Death Alley, and Ken (the other guide) had us all stand on around a sewer. There was supposed to be the spirit (?) of a little boy there, and supposedly moms and very sensitive people could sense him. Before he’d even told that story, I remember my jacket moving, almost as if it were tugged. THEN the guide told the story about the ghost/poltergeist there who tugged on clothing. Freaky much? I was already upset and spooked because of the whole story in the first place, but that just… I don’t know. Of course, Ken could have been making the whole thing up, so yeah.
** Seeing Harpo Studios (it’s supposedly haunted!)
** The REALLY cute guys who walked by the bus before we pulled away for the tour. The girls were all freaking out.
** Ken: Shh, inside voices, girls.
** Going “ooooooo” to the random guy walking by.
** The cute way Nadia scrunches up her nose at you.
** People randomly waving to the bus. That was totally cool.
** Mandy: I think he wants to race. *guns engine*
I PROMISE I’ll post informative conference-related stuff soon.
‘Til next time! 
(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)
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The Blurrrrrrr
The Blurrrrrrr is something that’s been on my mind and something I’d wanted to post about for a long time.
Once upon a time, I organized my AOL address book. To make it easier to find people, I developed categories:
- Family
- Co-workers
- Friends
- Online Friends
Okay. Here is where I want to stop. Because The Blurrrrrrr has happened and there really is no line between “online” friends and friends anymore, at least, not for me. Actually, The Blurrrrrrr started to occur about two years ago, when I realized that people I’d met at church kept Live Journals or Xangas, had AIM, and had email. We use(d) those methods as means of communication, as well as calling each other or just plain meeting up and hanging out. So now, they weren’t just “online friends” because I knew them “in real life” as well.
My mom still freaks out if she hears I’m going to “meet” people I got introduced to through the Internet. When I was flying out to spend the weekend with Amy, my mother asked “how you know she ain’t crazy?” I told her that Amy and I had talked on the phone loads of times and emailed and all that stuff. It would be okay. I also reminded her that I’d met other “online” friends, like Ivy (swankivy) and Kelle Belle (itskels) and look, I’m still alive!! And what about those people who I used to know “in real life” but who moved several states away? Our communications are mainly Internet-driven. Does that make them crazy?
It got to the point where I realized that meeting people online was really no different than meeting people at church or at school or down the street. ‘Cause seriously, I’ve met some doozies, right here in my town, and then I’ve met perfectly cool people online. People are complicated, and there are good ones and bad ones everywhere.
I started thinking about that today when I realized how comfortable I am giving my number out to people I’ve emailed with or talked to for a while online. How exciting it is to meet them face to face. Seriously, meeting mandywriter and the gang this weekend was awesome. I’m addicted to meeting people face to face. There is just something about hearing their voices, interacting with them without a screen in front of me, being able to hug them and actually SEE the LOLing that makes it magical. And since we’d been talking online, it’s not weird or awkward because we know we can carry on conversations.
For me, it’s to the point where I say “friends are friends, who cares how we were introduced.” The lines are Blurrrrrrred now, and honestly, I LOVE it that way. Can’t wait to meet more people!!
What are your thoughts?
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Get To Know Me (a little) & Other Stuff
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Chicago Spring Fling Conference! :) (Long & Lots of Pictures)
[X-posted at bananagirl19]
Hello! I am back from an amazing, exhausting, completely fun weekend in Chicago! The Chicago-North RWA chapter is incredible, and so are the people I met there.
FRIDAY
Mandy (mandywriter) picked me up from the airport and it was like we’d been friends forever, which we pretty much have. We started talking and joking right away. She took me to the hotel and chilled out while I unpacked in my VERY NICE hotel room. Let me tell you about this room. It was more like a suite. 25 inch TV, desk, easy chair, couch with a foldaway, king sized bed. Beautiful. I’d ordered strawberries and champagne, but I didn’t open it right away, and I’m glad I waited. More on that later. 🙂
Mandy and I registered for the conference (we were the first two!), then went out to lunch at a place called RAM. I’d never heard of it, but it was pretty nice. Of course, I got the messiest meal ever, but it was really yummy. By the time we got back to the hotel, Sara (sbennettwealer) was there! We went up to their room and hung out for a while, then headed down to the conference. I spotted Dia (agentobscura) right away, so we went to say Hi. She gave us all a group hug and seriously, we all hit it off right away. I felt like I’d been hanging out with these women my whole life.
The first thing we did was attend a “panel” of sorts. Four authors, open dialogue. It was interesting. Alesia Holliday, Mary Alice Monroe, Jennifer Crusie, and Bob Mayer spoke and it was funny and really nice. Afterwards, I went to Alesia to introduce myself and she recognized my name from the Yahoo! teenchicklit loop. She was awesome, and here I am with her:
We had a HUGE break, so Sara, Mandy, Gail and I went to an Italian restaurant. It was yummy. I got a half order which turned out to be a good decision, because it was the perfect amount of food. When we went back, there was class. Sara and I went to “Get Out of Deadwood” where we met Stephanie Hale (stephhale) and a really cool girl named Carmen. We went and had chocolate at the Chocolate Reception (um, check out this damn sign:)
DESERT????????
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