I haven’t won a blog or Web site award in years. But the awesome Priyanka at Girl on the Move was nice enough to award me the following, which I guess means I’m versatile. Or something. 🙂
YAY!!! So, now I get to pass it on! 🙂
1. Thank and link back to the person that gave it to you!
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Send the Versatile Blogger Award on to 15 other bloggers and let them know you have awarded them!
OK, so 7 Things About Me:
1. I LOVE to read, and I read mostly YA novels.
2. Guilty pleasures of mine? Stupid Zynga games like Cafe World and FarmVille. I know, right?
3. I’m a night owl.
4. I don’t like the sound of footsteps, especially high heels.
5. I imagine what it’d be like to be a Time Lord.
6. I’m a nerd (see #5).
7. If I had more room in my apartment, I’d have an aquarium, a snake, some bearded dragons, and possibly a guinea pig, as well as my cats.
So, now I get to tell 15 bloggers that I love reading their blogs. I bet some of them have received this award before. Well, they’re getting it again, so there! 😀
Here are my 15. Some of these are blogs I’ve just discovered, and some of them are friends I’ve known for a long time. All of them have the effect of making me drop everything when I see a new entry from them in my RSS feeder. Please visit them and tell them I sent you. 🙂
As far as I’m concerned, a migraine is one of the more pointless headaches one could get. At least with a tension headache, stress or something has caused it and there are things you can do to make it go away. Not the case with a migraine, at least, not for me.
I have all this cool stuff to blog about, but all I can concentrate on is how much my head hurts. Sometimes when I get a migraine, the light sensitivity is too much and I have to turn off every light and simply lie still. Right now, it’s progressed to the sort of headache that lying down in complete darkness doesn’t help (now I get to be in pain in the dark!), so I figured I might as well blog (with the screen brightness turned way down) while I wait for it to go away.
Medicine doesn’t help when it gets to this stage. I have Vicodin, but all that will do is make me loopy and nauseated. I took one Excedrin Migraine–usually that’s enough to take the edge off–but not tonight. If I take another, then hello nausea. Plus, Excedrin Migraine has the added benefit of caffeine. So tonight I get to lie AWAKE and be in pain. Great. Awake with my mind racing with all the stuff I need and want to do, but knowing that the best thing for me to do is to get back off the computer (don’t worry, I’m going to, I promise!) and lie back down in the dark. Maybe take another Excedrin Migraine and deal with the nausea. At this point, it doesn’t matter. Either way I’ll feel icky.
To add insult to injury, I think I’ve caught Adam’s cold. My throat feels pretty scratchy and my nose is awfully runny. Boo.
In spite of how crappy I feel right now, the last two days have been really super, and I will blog about them once this headache lets up. It has to soon. It’s been here on and off since Wednesday.
I know I have blogged about this before, but watching YouTube today brought it back to the forefront of my mind.
When I was in high school, I LOVED LOVED LOVED the all new Mickey Mouse Club. This is the show that spawned Britney Spears, Keri Russell, and Justin Timberlake. I was a fan from the beginning–well, once we got The Disney Channel installed in my house. Back then, I had to beg and plead for us to get cable in the first place, and The Disney Channel was a premium channel, like HBO or Showtime! My parents knew how important Disney was to me, so they sprang for the premium. Back then, my cable life revolved around The Disney Channel, MTV, BET, and VH1. I loved music videos and there was no shortage of them in the early 90s.
I started watching MMC when I saw the video for Summer Vacation by The Party on MTV. I thought Damon Pampolina was the hottest thing on TV. I was ready for a new crush–I was over my New Kids on the Block phase, Joey Lawrence and Kirk Cameron did nothing for me, and Dino and Glenn Medeiros were just too old. I am not sure how I figured out that The Party had to do with The Disney Channel, but once I realized that The Party was made up of Mouseketeers from MMC, I was hooked. My crush on Damon was short-lived, though. I started watching MMC in its third season, and that’s the season that Ricky Luna started. More on that later.
The show, to me, was so different from any other show. It wasn’t a typical multi-camera sitcom filmed in beta. It was a variety show, with skits, singing, and dancing. My favorite was the musical numbers. I liked learning the dance steps and I liked singing along. The cast members used their own names, and at the end of a taping, they let the audience come down and dance with them, which made them seem more approachable than say, the kids on Blossom. I really wanted to be friends with all of them.
My life back then mostly consisted of school (ugh), an after school job at the deli, marathon phone conversations with my best friends (our record: 13 hours), writing (mostly fanfic), and music. I wasn’t getting out much nor was I participating in a lot of school activities. My life was MMC and those kids. I wrote fan fiction about them before it was cool. If I wasn’t planted in front of the TV at 5:30pm Monday through Friday, then the VCR was recording the show. That show was the reason I got up some mornings, the reason I got dressed and did my hair. Maybe I was just going to be in front of the TV all day, frantically rewinding the VCR so I could learn yet another dance step, but I was up and moving. And that was a good thing.
There were two Mousketeers who inspired me the most. One was Mylin Brooks. I thought she was absolutely beautiful. She had this gorgeous dark hair, this beautiful face, and she was on a TV show that was filmed at Disney World. She was smart and talented and I desperately wanted to be her.
It was this video here that started my fascination with Mylin:
Please refresh if the videos aren’t showing up. YouTube is being a pain in the rear.
Ah yes, Disney Channel’s watered-down pop lyrics. I didn’t care. I watched the video all the time. I even learned the steps. I can still do most of the steps. I NEVER in a million years would have imagined that one day, this would happen:
Through the wonders of the Internet, I reached out and asked Mylin to be my friend on MySpace back when MySpace was cool. She accepted, and we began talking back and forth. When everyone moved to Facebook, she and I kept in touch on there. I was part of her “American Girl” street team back in 2006. It was amazing to get to work with her.
In July of 2010, I finally got to meet and spend the day with this woman, and let me tell you, she is just as sweet as she is beautiful. My mom is tickled pink because she knew how important MMC was to me, and she knew how important those kids were to me.
The other Mouseketeer that changed my life was Ricky Luna. I had an obscene crush on him when I was a teenager, and I didn’t care. Every single day from 5:20-6:00pm, I would sit in front of my TV, VCR remote in hand, ready to tape anything with Ricky in it.
When the MMC came on, the Mouseketeers would pop into a circle and say their names. He popped into his circle, yelled “Ricky!” and I was instantly head over heels. Well, as much as a girl can be with a guy whose first name is the only thing she knew about him. But we don’t need to worry about that. Look at this video:
He’s the one in the red shirt and the suspenders. I dare you to say you don’t understand how teenage me could have fallen for that total Mr. Hottyness.
I got to meet him for the first time in 1993, when MMC came to Cleveland to do a tour. Boy did I make a fool out of myself. I grabbed him and yelled “I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU.” Mortifying. Forgive me. I had no social skills and I was face-to-face with the object of my teenage fantasies OMG what was my life??? Don’t judge me.
Here are a couple of pix from that weekend:
Forgive the blurriness. I scanned these back in 1997 when I had no idea how to really work a scanner.
In late 1997, Geocities came out. I could make my own web page, what! So I did. I made a Ricky Luna fan site. If you google “Ronni’s Ricky Luna Fan Page” some old, old, old mirrors of that site will come up. Good times. I made that site in hopes that Ricky would do a search of his name and find it. He did. That site was the top hit in all the search engines. He contacted me and we kept in touch on and off over the next several years. MySpace and Facebook kept us even more in touch. Back in 2009, this happened:
Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I got to hang out with him and his manager’s family. It was a really fun day. He lived up to the crush that 17-year old me had on him and then some because he’s just an awesome, kind, and warm human being. We laugh about my declaration of love for him at Tower City mall back in 1993. I still can’t believe I did that. Anyway, now he’s a super talented producer and he makes really good music, which you can download for free from his site. I recommend the Electro Bomba mini mix. You can get it here. 🙂
I’m proud to call him my friend.
I leave you with this video. I just watched it again and it gave me chills because I loved it so much back then. And as I belted along with it, remembering all the words, I realized that I still love it today.
If only The Disney Channel was still this awesome. Oh well. At least they have Phineas & Ferb.
This post is cross posted at my Disney blog. Feel free to visit and follow!
1. Can you cook?
Yes. Adam would probably disagree because I rarely do cook. However, when I do cook, it’s good.
2. What was your dream growing up?
To live in the suburbs.
3. What talent do you wish you had?
I wish I could sing, draw, or play the piano. I’d also love to be able to do elite gymnastics.
4. Favorite place?
Disney World
5. Favorite vegetable
Spinach
6. What was the last book you read.
Entice by Carrie Jones
7. What zodiac sign are you?
Sagittarius
8. Any tattoos and/or piercings?
No
9. Worst habit?
Procrastinating
10. Do you personally know anybody on blog?
On blog? Do you mean do I personally know anyone who blogs? Yes, yes I do.
11. What is your favorite sport?
Gymnastics
12. Negative or optimistic attitude?
I think I’m in the middle.
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an lift with someone of the opposite sex?
Try to brainstorm with him to get the hell out.
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
Well, everything bad that has happened has had something good in it to pull me through.
15. Tell me one weird fact about you.
I hate the sound of footsteps, especially high heels.
16. Do you have any pets?
Yes. Three kitty cats.
17. Do you know how to do the macarena?
Yes. And the best part is that I learned it years before it became famous. My Spanish (Alicia Chavez) taught me in my Spanish 104 class.
18. Is the sun shining where you are now?
No
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
Cute
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
I’d have six-pack abs with no stretch marks.
21. Would you be my good angel or bad angel?
Good angel. 🙂
22. What color eyes do you have?
Hazel
23. Ever been married?
Yes
24. Bottle or draft?
Neither. Beer sucks.
25. If you won £10,000 today, what would you do with it?
Exchange it for U.S. dollars, pay off my Capital One, shop a bit, save the rest.
26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
I don’t really chew bubble gum, but I like Extra.
27. What’s your favorite bar to hang at?
None. Hate bars.
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
Not sure.
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
Read
30. Do you swear a lot?
Yes
31. Biggest pet peeve?
Other people in my way
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
Silly
33. In two words, how would you describe yourself?
Loving, nerd
The temperatures have dropped to the 50s and 60s, but I am still in denial that summer really is gone. Honestly, I’m still holding out for an Indian Summer, so I haven’t packed away my summer clothing just yet. Never mind that I spent Friday wearing a winter jacket.
There was a receipt in the winter jacket. It was dated May 26, 2011. I gasped in horror. I was wearing a winter jacket at the end of May. That means that so far, there have been only three months out of this year that I haven’t had to wear a winter jacket. And that, my friends, is depressing.
I hate being cold, and I am almost always cold. I always feel bad on the occasions that I am hot, because I know that normal people must be sweltering. And being in Chicago, well, that’s a surefire guarantee that it’s going to be cold outside at least seven months out of the year, but lately, it’s been more like nine. Because I’m now doing the majority of my working from home, this winter shouldn’t be nearly as hard on me as the past winter was, though.
Still. Winter makes me feel like this:
So, I need to prepare for it so I can try to keep the depression at bay. That means a massage (one is scheduled for next Friday), my last mani/pedi of the season (although my voucher is good til next Spring–maybe I’ll wait ’til then to use it), and thinking of the upcoming holidays. The first few weeks of winter weather are all fun and games. It’s usually not too terribly cold yet, and I’m in full on holiday mode. December is always super busy for us and I love it. This Christmas, my mom and Aidan will be here in Chicago, which is great on many levels. So there’s that. But once all that’s over, here’s nothing but months and months of cold and grey. *shudder*
BUT. NOT DWELLING ON THAT NOW. I (hopefully) have plenty of time before the snow flies!
That’s all for now. Short(ish) and sweet. ‘Til next time… 🙂
