Improv

Who says you can't use an iPad case as a clutch?? Especially when it's a darling Ted Baker one with a center bow. Well, you can. I just did....and I don't own an iPad.

Dress: Ruche// Cardi, tights: Target// Bait Shoes (won in a giveaway!)// Ted Baker iPad case: Nordstrom// hair scarf: gift from Mommy

Happy Valentine's Day, ya'll. 

29.

This is what I looked like on the eve and day of my 29th year, celebrating with booze and cake at Clash in Jersey, and eating dinner at the stunningly dark and utterly delicious Buddakan in New York City (my father-in-law is the best!).

both birthday dresses are from ModCloth (top is Bernie Dexter in Winter Wonderland)

shoes: Swedish Hasbeens Mimmi 

(my sister-in-law has the pics from the restaurant)

My birthday crept up on me this year. I almost missed it, quite honestly. Luckily, it takes zero time to drive down the road and order a Date with Elvis* from my favorite bartender/bar owner and friend, Bob. My buddy Sean from school and his fiance also met up with us; it was my first time meeting Joanna and as you can tell from the pictures, we hit it off really well. No offense to all my good guy friends that came out that night last minute (thank you!), but I don't think it would have been nearly as fun if Joanna wasn't there. I like girls who are loud, crazy, willing to dance to any song (and be the only ones on the dance floor), girls who are a lot like...well, me.  

Anywho, I only cried about three times, so all in all I suppose it was a good, normal fading-20's birthday. 

This post is actually kinda lame. Sorry. I'll try and have something better next time round. <3

*Date with Elvis is one of my favorite specialty drinks at Clash. A mix of whipped cream vodka (or marshmallow vodka--I can't remember what it says anymore), tequila, and margarita mix. It's pure yum.

last New Jersey winter

Oh, heyyy.
Well, I certainly didn't plan on taking a 3.5ish month break from my blog, but what can I say? Life just happens. A lot. And after a while, the guilt that normally encompassed me when I missed as little as three days of blogging disappeared.
I'm here right now because I want to be. I really miss having a sort of picture diary, versus just having my personal daily journal. When I was updating here so much I  abandoned my journal, and I always felt so horrible because, as you would imagine, I shared 'more' there. I miss all the friends I made here and the ways we communicated, but to be honest, I still don't see myself updating this thing as much as I used to (but who really knows with me?). I will, however, update when I can, therefore making this what I initially intended it to be: for me; for memories; just because; for fun. I don't like feeling like things I enjoy are chores and I think that's part of what happened before. Plus, aside from getting their phone calls and texts WEEKLY, I know my mom and sister want so bad to come to this website again and actually see what I've been up to. Our every-other-day phone calls are just not enough for them. :) So, Mom, Mona, this post is for y'all.
Today it snowed. And apparently it's going to snow a lot-lot more. Mikey and I decided to document our last winter/snowstorm here in Jersey. (Dear God, I hope it's our last one.) He recently got a job that will be requiring us to move to Florida before the start of summer. We're so, so excited! I'm eager to get back to the south end of the U.S. I miss not having four seasons. (Hey, I've lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Vegas, Ecuador, and the caribbean--I crave the hot-hot-heat!) But I'm very happy having been able to finally experience a white Christmas, random snowfalls on Halloween, gorgeous foliage sceneries in the fall (my favorite season), beaches a short drive away, and of course New York City and its tremendous energy (and exquisite fine dining) whenever I felt like it. New Jersey & New York, you will be missed. Now, bring on the blizzard!

A (class)room with a view. I love my school (stated on this blog for the billion&fifth time). I think I'll miss it more than any other place in Jersey and NY combined. 

"Wait, I forgot to put on lipstick--I look too pale!"...*runs inside for MAC Russian Red...*

...again with the hand on the head. I had a high bun under the beanie & felt like the hand made the big bulge less noticable. Wrong. 

Licking some snow off my lip, ha!

Today was fun. (Did I already say that?) I baked a batch of cookies and sat near my window, drew the blinds and just stared, dreamily, at the falling flakes. Snow and I have had a long, complicated love/hate relationship the last three winters. It's beautiful as it falls and absolutely charming in the way it decorates ordinary structures, but oh, dear Snow, why must you cause already-subpar drivers to drive even more like shit and scare the hell out of me while doing so, completely interrupting the moment I'm having while singing softly along to Beach House, so that I have to neurotically restart the song--about 6 times--because I didn't get to 'feel' my favorite part? I hate you for that, more than when you become the annoyingly disgusting brown slush that dirties up said structures and my cute Mini Cooper. But I digress. Snow, if this weekend is the last I see of you before we leave then I'll know that you came as a birthday (it's Sunday) gift to me, and I suppose I should say thank you. I know I'm sure your intentions have always been good. 

Was that weird? ^^^ I have had a couple glasses of vodka since coming back inside. Don't judge me, Mom. I needed to warm up, duh. 

Mom, Mona, and anyone else who will happen to see this post, I hope y'all enjoyed the wintry photos and the vodka-induced ramblings of a self-proclaimed tumbleweed. 

Until next time!

<3 a stranger. 

♥ 1st Blogaversary ♥

You guys, I made it through a whole year of blogging! We're not going to count that one time I took a whole month off and the times where I took a week or two off here and there like this last week. I had actually thought about this day and this post for so many months prior and it honestly just snuck up on me today, so I didn't have much time to plan anything special, which totally bums me out.
I've put together a crapload of random outfit posts I liked throughout the last year here on RFN. It was fun going down memory lane and reviewing all the shitty quality photos I was first publishing. (Many of us have those.) I either picked these because I particularly fancied the outfit, or I just loved the day they were apart of...some were also picked based on good hair days alone.

So, what have I learned in this first year of blogging? Hmm...

- I've learned that it's best to keep my babbling to a minimum, which is difficult for someone like me -- I'm a chatter box! Y'all should know, I leave a ton of story-book sized comments :) I can't help it, although, I've gotten better compared to the essay length posts - regarding my day - I was initially writing here; no one had time for all that. But, since this is a commemorative type post, I'm due a little babble sesh. 

- I have been constantly reminded that my schedule to blog is completely unsystematic -- I have no schedule. I post and read when I can, like most of you busy ladies. In the summertime, if I'm not out of state, I am on blogs for like five hours a day, unaware of the time ticking by. But here lately, it's getting to be more and more difficult to post even semi-regularly or read. However, that's to be expected while in school, especially if you're a writing major; I read roughly seven books, plays, short stories, or essays every week and analyze just about all of them...pretty exhausting. With that said, I am beyond appreciative of those of you who still come to my blog, even if it's been a hot minute since I've been to yours. Expect me to pop in on you when I can, and PLEASE don't think that I've forgotten you. I have SO many blogs swirling around in my head just about everyday. Am I the only one that randomly thinks about the blogs they need to catch up on when they're out for lunch or in the middle of a lecture? I look at them for what they are: real life stories that I've developed genuine interest for and when I get behind, I'm like, "what have I missed?" Maybe those are just my problems.
- In the beginning I thought it'd be safest for me to censor myself here. I didn't want to offend anyone. Well, I still don't want to ever intentionally offend anyone, but I'm also most definitely going to be myself in my own little nook of the interwebs. I'm a sweetheart, yes, but I've without a doubt got a colorful language that sometimes does a better job of expressing certain matters than words like "doodyhead" do. Words like "shit" and "asshole" are going to find themselves written here every now and then. So far, no one's offended. Goodie!
- I think the most important thing about the last year with this blog is that I'm still doing it for me, because it's fun, and I've made the kind of friendships I was hoping to when I started it. I always told myself this blog would never be about numbers and doing those comical "follow for a follow" things just so I could reach impressive digits; the majority of those comments strike me as unauthentic and automated, especially when they read, "nice bag, wanna follow each other?" or  "great dress, I'm now following, please follow back," when I'm wearing jeans LOL. It gives me the same pleasure to blog for 140 followers as it did when I was doing it solely for the same three friends that were faithfully reading. Not to say it's not wonderful to have all of you, because it totally is! It's just, I follow bloggers' stories because I want to, and I hope that others would do the same. Overall, I didn't/don't want to ever let myself or this blog become insincere, and certainly not automated, if all that makes sense.
I'll cut it here, 'cause I really need a nap before I work on my next assignment. I just knew I couldn't let this day go unnoticed and undocumented, for my own sake. Mikey and I plan to celebrate somehow this weekend. I'm envisioning my new dress (a gift from Mikey for this occasion), cake, and balloons. 

To all of you that made your way here a day ago or the day I started documenting at this web address, thank you for finding me and for choosing to stick around.

Love,
Roni

the little things ♥

Dahlia dress: ModCloth// Cardi: Express// Tights, flats: Target// Dia de los Muertos bag: Cash 4 Chaos (Vegas) 

So, even though I've been bedridden and miserable the last few days (the flu finally caught me) and I'm sniffling and blowing snot into a tissue while I type this, I still felt it doable to make a list of all the little things I've been grateful for this last week:

~Having good curly hair days like the one shown above. I mean, c'mon, look at those bouncy spirals - they're fabulous. And they're all natural. 

~Staying in bed for about 15 hours on a rainy day. It was magical. 

~Pumpkin raviolis. Seriously, I'm not making this up. They were to die for!

~Rediscovering this 6 year old Mexican satchel and using it everyday, even when it doesn't match. 

~Even though having as many visitors as we get throughout the year can be tiresome (we haven't had our home to ourselves since February), it makes me feel really lucky - lucky to have far away friends that haven't forgotten us. We had two friends visit us the last two weeks and have another coming in this weekend. 

~Having a margarita with Mikey at a Mexican restaurant that only plays doo-wop AND country classics. Amber, I'm pretty sure this is our heaven. 

~Winning a giveaway of something I happened to have on my ModCloth lovelist!! Did I mention I never win..anything?

~Getting to take home a turkey-sized dish crammed with strawberry cake, rice krispy treats, and Cookie Monster cupcakes from our friends' kid's first birthday party. 

~Watching a shi-ton of horror movies. Well, more than normal. I recently saw the Thai version of the movie Shutter - it was amaaazzinngly creepy. You can see it on Netflix if you wanna.

~Loving that my Halloween/horror tattoo sleeve is relevant this month. Unfortunately it's getting too cold to show it off with short sleeves. 

Any costume ideas yet? Halloween's almost here!! I've got three ideas for costumes myself and all the pieces are already in my closet so I won't have to spend much money - woo hoo! 

Have a wonderful Thursday, friends. <3 

elephant in the room

The "Walk Like An Egyptian" pose...but not. No, not at all actually. 

Top (came w/belt): Marshall's// Skirt: Ruche// Cardi: Target// Wedges: Cole Haan// Hair bow: American Apparel 

Elephants + Houndstooth! I personally think it works. 

 "pop lock and drop it" pose

Who else here is uncomfortable when things that need to be addressed, aren't? I'm that person that can never just 'pretend' that things are fine. I won't ever ignore what's lurking. I won't refrain from addressing issues to avoid confrontation. Confrontation doesn't always have to be bad.  Sometimes it's necessary. Confrontation, in my experience, really just turns into a conversation that is however-long-overdue (two minutes or two years, it needs to be said), so I associate these two words rather closely together. Announcing the elephant provides clarity - this can obviously apply to a wide range of scenarios from personal relations to social gatherings to professional atmospheres. Although, for some reason, and I don't know why this is, some people are fine with going about their business and sweeping things under the rug. (I'm on a roll with idioms today.) I guess they don't like to shake things or don't wanna "go there." Let me, because I don't do well with nodding my head and smiling to things that don't sit right. That being said, I will only hold my tongue to a certain extent, e.g. timing and place. I have just always believed in being brutally honest, while displaying tact of course....Hmm, I'm gonna end this since I tend to ramble, but you get the idea. File this in your brain space as things to know about me. I'm Roni and I'm okay with confrontation. But elephants in the room? I'll point those suckers right out! :)
I'll be getting to the comments from my last post and reading all your blogs tonight since I don't have school till late tomorrow. The last two+ weeks have been insane in the membrane and I don't like feeling like a bad blog friend when I get behind on your lives. And just in case it's been a while since I told y'all, thanks for reading my little blog.  It means so much to me! My first blogaversary is actually coming up on the 23rd, eep!!

It's Arrested Development

Blazer: Hot Topic (2006)// Tshirt: Target// Skirt, belt, bag: F21// Tights: ModCloth// Flats: Old Navy// Houndstooth Heels (I changed shoes): Lulu's// Bowler hat: Urban Outfitters

This Bluth's Frozen Banana t-shirt is the first thing I bought for myself in what feels like a lifetime. I squealed like a preteen watching a new Justin Bieber video when I saw this shirt in the mens section of Target. It fits like pajama-wear on my frame, but I made do and tucked this baby into a velvet miniskirt for a night of bartending. I was hoping it might attract other Arrested Development fans and encourage some exchanging of favorite Tobias or Gob quotes. It didn't. I overheard two douchebags talking about the banana on my shirt, asking each other about what I really had on my mind, and then bro-laughing when one of them said the word that rhymes with dock, but starts with a C. I finished pouring their drinks and interrupted their boys-locker-room-esque chatter with a simple "were y'all just talking about my shirt?" Their smiles faded and their mouths dropped as they quickly shook their heads and said, "noooo, of course not." (They looked so caught and pathetic.) I told them that penises were far from my mind and that they should spend more time catching up on the brilliance that is Arrested Development and less time looking for phallic correlations in everyday t-shirt designs. One of them spent the rest of the night trying to kiss my ass with small talk each time he came up to the bar, and the other avoided me like the plague, having his friends order his drinks for him. ha!
If you're a fellow Arrested Development mega-fan, please leave one of your favorite quotes in the comments :)  And ermergerrrd, who's excited for the NEW season beginning early next year?!! I am, I am!