Celebrating Independence Day by myself…relaxing.

Time for another quarterly update on my goals!

Goal #1: Read 60 books. 

Though I’ve been slacking in the last week or so, I have read 46 books in the first half of the year.  If I don’t make 60, it’s because I’ve suffered some sort of personal/physical crisis that left me incapable of reading.  (Check out the Books Read in 2009 page for updates.)

2.  Complete my novel. 

Do ta do ta do…

Yeah, not getting a lot of progress on this done.  Right now, I need to focus my writing time on writing the SS lessons that I need to have done by August.  I really just need to make it a daily habit of doing a little writing at least (besides this here blog).

3.  Exercise 3 times a week. 

Getting better about taking walks in the evening, with or without my roommate.  I usually go to do water aerobics once a week, too.  I need to restart my lap swimming, though.

4.  Write a letter once a week. 

Yep, still going on this one.

5.  Memorize 4 chapters of the Bible. 

Still haven’t started, though the desire is there.  Doesn’t count though, does it?  Hopefully I start this soon!

And now, for the “news” section of this post…I’m no longer an hourly employee.  As of yesterday, I’m a full-time salary employee!  Not only do I get better compensation, I get paid timeoff and holidays, just in time for July 4th!

First of all, the scoreboard:

Jen 90%
(she’s very proud to have won…she’s a bit on the competitive side)
Elizabeth 80%
(I’m impressed…but I guess you have the benefit of knowing me in RL and my blog)
Dori 70%
(some of these were particularly easy for her…but others weren’t)
Amanda 70%
(not bad…better than I did on yours!)
Dana 60%
(I’m actually surprised on this one…but I guess the little stuff tripped you up!)
Liz 60%
(Good job!)
G. Zoe 50%
(You weren’t as bad as you thought!)
Sleepy Jane 50%
(not bad for mostly guesses!)
Iva 30%
(no, I want unfriend you!)
Francesca 30%
(because you picked the wrong person to copy off of!)

And now, the answers:

1. What nickname did my family give me?
a.  Ronni
b. Bubby – or Bub, for short.  I have no idea how this got started, but I’ve been told I’ve had it since I was born.
c. Short Stack
d. Ronni Jon

2. How many boyfriends have I had?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3 – a very long time ago

3. Which reality show do I not watch?
a. American Idol – I watched part of one season, but after watching SYTYCD, it’s a whole lot more boring.  This is a hard one, because I don’t know that anyone but Dana knows that I’ve watched Survivor at all!
b. So You Think You Can Dance
c. Survivor
d. The Amazing Race

4. What country would I live in if I couldn’t live here?
a. Turkey – love this place
b. Australia
c. Mexico
d. Italy

5. What’s my favorite sport to watch?
a. Major league baseball
b. College basketball
c. College football – Boomer Sooner!
d. Professional golf

6. What is my favorite non-Pixar Disney movie?
a. Beauty and the Beast
b. Little Mermaid
c. Sleeping Beauty
d. The Emperor’s New Groove – I enjoy most of the princess movies, but this one beats all for sheer entertainment value.  Hilarious.

7. What is my favorite sport to play?
a. Volleyball
b. Tennis – though I rarely do it.  It’s hard to find someone who is as bad as I am yet still knows the rules.
c. Basketball
d. Softball

8. If I had to eat the same type of food everday for a month, which would I choose?
a. Mexican – yum, yum, yum.  I miss good Mexican (Tex Mex, really).
b. Italian
c. Chinese
d. Milk and cereal

9. Which is NOT a pet peeve of mine?
a. Others using the same knife as me to spread butter – I’m not a germaphobe.  Yes, the other three things really bug me, just ask anyone who’s lived with me!
b. Doors being fully opened/closed
c. Light in the room while I’m sleeping
d. Things being symmetrical and/or at right angles

10. If I had to, which movie would I be most likely to quote word for word?
a. Legally Blonde
b. one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
c. one of the Ocean’s movies – Ocean’s 12 specifically, though I have a good grasp of the other two as well.
d. Enchanted

And a bonus question:

If I didn’t have to worry about making a living, I would want to be:
a. A dancer
b. A writer – Not that surprising, I know.  I’d also like to teach, though.
c. A teacher
d. A musician

You know those quizzes on Facebook about how well you know someone?  I avoid all such things over there, but I thought it’d be fun over here.  Are you game?  Answer the following multiple choice questions in the comments, and I’ll reveal tomorrow the true answers!

As always, remember to pick the BEST answer, some of these are tricky! Some answers might be able to be found on my blog. Even if you’re taking shots in the dark, I’d love to see what impression you have of me.

1. What nickname did my family give me?
a.  Ronni
b. Bubby
c. Short Stack
d. Ronni Jon

2. How many boyfriends have I had?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3

3. Which reality show do I not watch?
a. American Idol
b. So You Think You Can Dance
c. Surivivor
d. The Amazing Race

4. What country would I live in if I couldn’t live here?
a. Turkey
b. Australia
c. Mexico
d. Italy

5. What’s my favorite sport to watch?
a. Major league baseball
b. College basketball
c. College football
d. Professional golf

6. What is my favorite non-Pixar Disney movie?
a. Beauty and the Beast
b. Little Mermaid
c. Sleeping Beauty
d. The Emperor’s New Groove

7. What is my favorite sport to play?
a. Volleyball
b. Tennis
c. Basketball
d. Softball

8. If I had to eat the same type of food everday for a month, which would I choose?
a. Mexican
b. Italian
c. Chinese
d. Milk and cereal

9. Which is NOT a pet peeve of mine?
a. Others using the same knife as me to spread butter
b. Doors being fully opened/closed
c. Light in the room while I’m sleeping
d. Things being symmetrical and/or at right angles

10. If I had to, which movie would I be most likely to quote word for word?
a. Legally Blonde
b. one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
c. one of the Ocean’s movies
d. Enchanted

And a bonus question:

If I didn’t have to worry about making a living, I would want to be:
a. A dancer
b. A writer
c. A teacher
d. A musician

I have now lived in North Carolina for 4 years.

Note to stalkers - I no longer have a KS tag

For the life of me, I can’t exactly remember what day I moved here, or the timeline of that move.  My parents and brother helped drive me and my belongings out here: my dad and mom in the Budget truck, Riley in my parents’ Explorer, and I in my week-old Toyota Camry.  We took 3 days to get here, stopping by Mammoth Cave and generally enjoying the miles and miles of construction zones…without a single construction worker.  We never quite figured out why there was no one working in any of these places, when it was not a normal weekday during normal hours.

Unlike my first blind move (to go to school in Oklahoma), I knew this time that I had hard times ahead of me.  I had an apartment (with roommates I had never met) and a school that I would be attending in the fall, but that was all I knew about my future life.  Sure, I had already applied for the job that would soon be mind, but I had no idea at the time that that would be the case.

I moved to North Carolina in order to attend seminary.  My thought at the time was to get a seminary education, and then head up a women’s or children’s ministry somewhere in the West (my top choices were Phoenix, Salt Lake, and Portland). Instead, I’m happily staying in North Carolina, working with the children at church as a layman, and working a secular, non-profit job in a field I had no prior experience in.

Little did I know that day 4 years ago that God was bringing me home.  Sure, my real home is in heaven, but that heaven-on-earth, my church family, was right here.

Today my care group from church went to a local food bank to help out.  Our task?

Putting over a 1,000 dozen eggs in cartons.

It was a lot of fun, and actually didn’t take as long to do since there were so many of us.  I personally probably packed up several dozen cartons of eggs.  We had to make sure they were clean and uncracked…I don’t think I’ll look at an egg the same way again.

Afterwards we headed to Sonic to enjoy one another’s company, and there I shared my story about Polite Video Store Dude.  They definitely keyed in on the fact that it was a amicable guy that I was rude to.  Yeah, they know me (and my issues) too well…

This morning has already been rather frusterating, as much so towards myself as to anyone else. It bugs me that I’m not able to separate my emotions from my work and from the times I have to deal with credit card companies, video rental stores and people not giving me the information I need. I suppose that’s not a bad thing, but I really can’t stand my emotions sometimes because I feel like I should be just a rational being, logically making my cases.

One example of how I let my emotions sinfully get in the way:

I received a call from the video store this morning saying that I have 3 movies still due.  I know I returned them on Monday, when they were due.  I know the store doesn’t open until 10, but I thought if there was an employee there to pick up the phone, it might be easier to do before it opens.  I call at 9:15, and a man politely answers.  I tell him the deal, and then…

Polite Video Store Dude: We don’t open until 10.

Me (rudely, if I do say so myself): I thought if you could answer the phone you could help me.

Polite Video Store Dude: It’d be rude not to pick up the phone.

Me: Not as rude as not helping me when you answer the phone. [Yikes...did I really say that???]  Never mind, I’ll call back.

It’s not bad enough that I was rude to someone on the phone, I know this dude.  The store is within walking distance of my house, and I’m always going there.  I have rappor with the guys that work there.  When I call back in a few minutes, he’s going to know it’s the same person, and I’m going to have to give him my name, so now he’ll know who was being rude to him.

He wasn’t even the problem.  Though I don’t know why he would answer the phone if he couldn’t help someone, he wasn’t the one who didn’t check in my movies (okay maybe it was, but I don’t know that).  He wasn’t the one who didn’t send me the right information to complete this grant application.  He wasn’t the one who is not answering the phone when I call them (quite the opposite, actually).  Yet I took out my frusteration on him.

Though my emotions were out of hand, that wasn’t the full problem.  I allowed my emotions to rule me.  They ain’t king, so why do I let them be?  That doesn’t mean that my emotions should be ignored or suppressed, but they should be placed under self-control and in proper relationship to God.

Today’s verse: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” – Psalm 46:1, NASU

Definitely helps me put things into perspective.

Happy birthday, G. Zoe!

1. Romans 7-8

2. Colossians 3

3. Philippians 4

4. Isaiah 53

5. Psalm 1

6. Psalm 51

7. Psalm 27

8. Matthew 6:33-34

9. 1 Corinthians 15:55

10. Proverbs 31

What about you?

This post is a part of 20SB’s Looking Back Blog Carnival, and Ben & Jerry’s is awarding free ice cream to lucky bloggers and readers!

Trying to choose a blog post from my first two months blogging has been difficult…they’re all so bad!  It makes me very thankful that I’ve grown as a blogger in the last 3 years, but it’s still a bit painful to look back.

I decided to choose “Two Homes Away from My Home Away from Home” because it’s fairly representative of where I started out as a blogger, basically using the blog as an online journal.  It was originally published June 2, 2006.  I couldn’t help but include some commentary as well.  Enjoy…if you can!

It’s been 11 months since I moved out here. I know that’s not a big marker, but it feels like it to me. [For whatever reason, 11 months was a really big deal, but 1 year wasn't as much.] So much has changed in these 11 months; it seems like yesterday when I was crying over leaving behind dorms, friends, BSU, car, church. [Oh yeah, this was the summer that I studied rhetorical devices.  This one, omission of a conjuction, is called asyndeton.]

Lately I’ve been blessed with deeper friendships with a few different people here in NC. It’s a total answer to prayer! Just last week I was praying for more gospel-centered relationships. I don’t want to merely exchange pleasantries with the believers around me…

This week I’ll be housesitting for two different houses. At the one I simply will be caring for the cats, but at the other I will be caring for a dog, 2 finches, and some plants while I stay there. It’ll be nice to have a little mini-vacation right in Wake Forest. [It was nice to get "away"...but that dog was a bit of a pill!]

What did I tell you…fairly boring!  As a cherry on top of the ice cream, here’s a picture from that time:

See, I was embracing the Tarheels early in my North Carolina life.

I love to read.  That’s nothing new.  Many of you read, too.  There’s two major reasons why we read: to learn and to be entertained.

Yet, even the reading for entertainment requires discernment.  Though I’m just a baby fiction writer (”embryo” might be the better term…a complete novel has yet to be birthed), I know that part of why I write is to express my worldview.  Even if that wasn’t my obvious goal, my worldview is bound to work itself into the piece.  Even the more entertainment-only authors still express a worldview.

That’s why I don’t buy arguments for books like The Shack that say, “It’s just fiction” as if that’s code for “no thinking allowed” or “for entertainment purposes only.”  I imagine William Young would take offense if you were to tell him that it was a great story but nothing more.  I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m pretty sure he meant there to be a deeper purpose behind his writing than just a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.  It’s the same thing for many other books and authors, though it might not be as clear.

Lest you TV-watchers and movie-goers think you’re in the clear, these forms of media are also excellent conductors of worldview.  Possibly more so, since we tend to be in a more passive position (rather like a sponge) when we’re imbibing them.  I love these types of visual entertainment, but I also enjoy parsing them a bit.  I listen for key value statements and look for stereotypes.  The world of a show or movie is often what the creator makes it…is there a part of reality that has been written out?

When I see these things, I ponder them, and when I have a young, captive audience, I’ll point them out, too.  Thankfully, Lana didn’t mind me pausing the movie to point out something…like how often the Star Wars characters entreat each other to look to their feelings for validation (more often on the dark side, but both do it) as if that was the final source of truth.

So what do you think…do you think fiction can just be fiction?

Photo by swruler9284