Welcome To the Neighbourhood

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Ronnie

Ronnie had never liked the nickname her husband had given her. All her life she'd gone by Veronica, but within a week of dating he'd started calling her "Ronnie" and she was too infatuated with him to say anything. Now, six years since their wedding and eleven months into their trial separation, she still uses the name as a reminder of him. As if it'll bring him back.

She'd moved into the neighbourhood five months ago, as a necessity. Her husband had left her with both the house and the mortgage, and she had been unable to continue payments with her single salary. The bank had forclosed on the mortgage, and she had had to move into a bachelor suite with as much of the furniture as could fit inside. She had gotten rid of the dining set and many of her books, but had kept his leather rocking chair because its smell reminded her of him. Because she could still picture him sitting in it and reading his newspaper, as he had done every evening.

Ronnie felt that his leaving really was only a trial, a trial for her to become a better person. She realized that she hadn't been as good a wife as she could've. So now that she had this free time she busied herself with self-improvement. She took classes on cooking, on sewing, on many of the things she'd seen her mom do as she was growing up. She practiced yoga every day in her apartment, pushing aside the furniture to make room for her mat. She wasn't losing the weight she had wanted to, though, so she started cutting back on food, and the pounds had dropped. She was tired a lot, but she thought it was worth it for when her husband came back to her.

Having lived in her apartment nearly half a year, she still had yet to know her neighbours. The building manager Keith liked her because she paid her rent on time, but because of this he'd never had any reason to call on her and so their conversations were reduced to greetings in the hallway. She smiled at everyone she passed on the street (she had read somewhere that men preferred their wives to be cheerful at all times) but she didn't want to bother them with talk. Mitchell had liked her best when she stayed at home with him, so she'd lost the art of making friends. All of her friends had been his first, and she hadn't heard from them just as she hadn't from him.

The only other person she knew by name in the building was Jill, who had introduced herself when Ronnie first moved in. Ronnie had been polite in return, but she otherwise declined the younger woman's invitation for Irish coffee. Not that Jill didn't seem like a nice person, but Ronnie couldn't understand her. What sort of woman doesn't want a husband? What sort of woman would have muscular arms, and ride around on a motorbike, as if she were a man? Ronnie was well aware of homosexuals, and Jill had declared herself one when they had first met, but still her presence had a negative effect on Ronnie's emotions.

Ronnie refused to admit to herself that it was envy she felt.

17 Comments:

  • I love this blog!

    By Blogger AWGB, at 5/29/2005 10:31:00 p.m.  

  • I'm so impressed with the stuff we've got going on here, and I love that everyone's so enthusastic about it! Woo hoo!

    By Blogger Briana Tomkinson, at 5/29/2005 11:13:00 p.m.  

  • Yeah, this is cool... I have to admit that I kind of skimmed the earlier entries and Troy's diagrams, so I don't have a clear view of what's going on yet.

    I was totally going to write about a completely different sort of character but Ronnie popped into my head and wanted out.

    By Blogger Gillian, at 5/30/2005 12:26:00 a.m.  

  • Uh-oh. Now Ronnie _and_ Wes are interested in the same person. Well, sort of.

    By Blogger AWGB, at 5/30/2005 12:30:00 a.m.  

  • I think that Ronnie is Leo's much younger trophy wife whom he tossed aside when he learned something about her.

    Opportunities abound with this one.

    Maybe she'll get back at him somehow.

    I also like the fact that she's gotten rid of some books.

    By Blogger AWGB, at 5/30/2005 08:30:00 a.m.  

  • Ah but Ronnie calls her ex "Mitchell" in this post, not Leo ...

    By Blogger Briana Tomkinson, at 5/30/2005 08:43:00 a.m.  

  • I've put Ronnie as early-to-mid-30's in my head.

    And yes, the ex is Mitchell, and she hasn't heard from him since he left her nearly a year ago. I love how I left that open for him to maybe show up later on...

    I essentially set up a character who is relatively unknown in the neighbourhood. People will have made assumptions about her, but will obviously interact with her now and we'll see how that plays out.

    By Blogger Gillian, at 5/30/2005 10:02:00 a.m.  

  • What if he (Mitchell) has dual lives?

    By Blogger AWGB, at 5/30/2005 01:00:00 p.m.  

  • Oh, who knows. I don't have him sorted in my head yet. Bit early to introduce him since Ronnie's hardly established yet.

    The wiki'll be good for this.

    By Blogger Gillian, at 5/30/2005 01:37:00 p.m.  

  • Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you! The information and Internet marketing product evaluations that you provide are great for beginner webmasters.

    Now, I have a related online graduate business degree site/blog. It pretty much covers online graduate business degree related stuff. In addition, I supply the secrets that I used to make $12,124 from Google Adsense last month.

    Come and check it out if you get time :-)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/02/2005 05:31:00 p.m.  

  • Gillian GREAT title this post. I am actually looking for equestrian jewelry related information to give my customers on my website. I paused at the title and ran out of time to read, but will book mark you and come back latter to check you out some more. I am off to find some other equestrian jewelry related blogs. Thank you.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/25/2005 02:06:00 p.m.  

  • Hey Gillian GREAT title this post. Thats what actually caught my eye. I was surfing blogs to try and help my customers and visitors with information on my website about ##Keyword## and paused to read but ran out of time. I will book mark it and come back to read later. This isn't really what I was looking for what I really need is information about http://www.horse-lover-gift-ideas-central.com related subjects but thank you and I shall return. I wish you well.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/28/2005 08:12:00 a.m.  

  • Hey Gillian GREAT title this post. Thats what actually caught my eye. I was surfing blogs to try and help my customers and visitors with information on my website about ##Keyword## and paused to read but ran out of time. I will book mark it and come back to read later. This isn't really what I was looking for what I really need is information about http://www.horse-lover-gift-ideas-central.com related subjects but thank you and I shall return. I wish you well.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/30/2005 04:50:00 a.m.  

  • Hey Gillian GREAT title this post. Thats what actually caught my eye. I was surfing blogs to try and help my customers and visitors with information on my website about ##Keyword## and paused to read but ran out of time. I will book mark it and come back to read later. This isn't really what I was looking for what I really need is information about http://www.horse-lover-gift-ideas-central.com related subjects but thank you and I shall return. I wish you well.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/01/2005 09:56:00 p.m.  

  • Hello, I have a fairly new website that has been online for about 8 months. I am doing research as per a fellow website owner suggested to gather information about delivering good content to my visitors. I lokked at alot of websites that are in my area clock giant wall . But was told to search the blogs that I could gather more information then just people trying to sale you something. I have done the internet MLM thing and really got disgusted at the whole thing. So my wife and I thought since we love horses we should build a website around that. We have done preety good so far but I always want to improve. I didn;t realize it would be so time consuming though. But we love it and hope to improve and offer some of the best recourses and products available. Hence the search for content new products and information about what we have.

    Thank you for your BLOG.

    Regards,

    clock giant wall

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1/31/2006 10:44:00 p.m.  

  • Hi there blog owner! I am searching blogs to find information and sources to help with my website:http://all4yournet.com/weddingplanning/ My site is fairly new about 8 months old and have a google pr of 3 and get about 50 people a day to visit. My site has baby jewelry and is all affiliate merchandise.
    I have been in MLM companys for the past 8 years offline mainly and have never made a dime. This is a new frontier for my wife and I and don't have very much experience but a friend suggested searching blogs to get ideas about how people sale and also what kind of information they offer their customers and clients. We are begining to make some good money selling baby jewelry related articles but I also want to offer my customers some quality information to go along with good deals. If you make it to my site and can offer some constructive critisizm I will take it into consideration or if you have some ideas it will be greatly appreciated. Remember we are on a budget and we do all the work ourselves. We have alot to offer in this general area baby jewelry and building. Thank you for your time.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2/01/2006 06:26:00 a.m.  

  • Many thanks for creating your blog. It's interesting how people are so different in their interests.

    Thank You again,

    portuguese water dog

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/10/2006 07:00:00 p.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home