If you're anything like me you have an unexplicable adverse reaction to coins. Of course, if you're anything like me there are a ton of other things wrong with you too, but that's besides the point. Coinstar is my best friend because it takes the coins from my life and gives me paper... paper I leave on bars as tips.

The new QFC is Ballard recently opened, so I decided to try out their new setup and drove my car (yes, I should have walked) into their shiny, new parking garage. I hopped out of my car and started walking toward the doors leading to the store, but then I heard the soft tinkling sound of change falling on the freshly-cured concrete (Yes, I had to check whether it was concrete or cemembt). I immediately felt like a moron, but the nice parking lot attendants (of which there were no less than 5) started immediately helping me pick up about half of the change, which I eventually cashed in for $45 in real people money.

It wasn't some grandious upgrade to first class or a comped night at a swanky hotel, but the fact that those employees took a minute and got down on their hands and knees with me in a parking garage to help me pick up change that came pouring out of the store-brand sandwich bag I took it there in was pretty great and goes a ways in saying what kind of people QFC is hiring.

So, thank to those people and more importantly, thanks to Coinstar for taking my ugly, dirty change away and giving me two crisp 20s and a fiver.

Cheers to ya.

Leadership isn't something that people are born with. It's not even something that you can will people to have. Having power isn't having leadership and in many times it's giving up power that creates an effective leader.

John Wooden, through something as simplistic as basketball, learned how to become a leader and inspired many a player, coach, and person to become a leader in their own way.

While you may not agree with Wooden's views on faith and religion, you can't argue with his devotion to doing the right thing and leading in a way that inspired his teams, friends, and even opponents.

Cheers to Coach Wooden.

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Check out this Gizmodo piece (via MTV) on "sexting" that clearly shows people love taking naked pictures of themselves and sending them via mobile devices.

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Why aren't these in stores?

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I usually answer them with the ease of an artful PR pro – nearly FAQ-like in my delivery. I’m almost able to answer the Qs while still thinking about something in my head – a definite skill from my PR days of slinging boilerplate at event goers while secretly dreaming of an escape. However, that last question gets me thinking. What would my life be like if I moved back to Wenatchee after college?

Here’s my guesstimate as to what a day in the life of bizarro Ron would be like…

I’d wake up next to my wife (because everyone in Wenatchee my age is married) of two years and pat my loyal golden retriever on the head before walking downstairs in my three bedroom, three bath home which costs less than a studio apartment in Seattle. I’d flip on the news and have to decide between the Spokane news and the Seattle news, because we get both in Wenatchee (a perk of being directly in between the two). I’d make breakfast for myself and check my e-mail before hopping in the shower only 20 mins. before I have to be at work – it’s Wenatchee, nothing takes more than 5 minutes to get to.

After my shower, I’d jump in my 4WD vehicle and take my 5 min. commute to the PUD, because that’s really the only employer large enough in the area to make sure of my marketing and PR skills. I don’t like the work, but it is money and it’s in my area of expertise. I get an e-mail from my friends who say they got hall passes for the night and we make grandiose plans for a guys’ night. Inevitably, the guys’ night will turn into two quick beers and excuses for why the guys have to get home.

I’d go home, talk about my uneventful day, go to sleep and get up the next day to do it all over again…

If you see those tears, don’t worry, they’re tears of joy dear friends… I don’t have anything against my friends who have chosen that life, but I hope that they, and the others who ask me why I’m not living in Wenatchee realize that isn’t the life for me. As much as I love Wenatchee and the people living there, it’s not for me.

I'll keep my tiny apartment, my bus pass, my ability to constantly fall for girls I have no chance of dating, my rainy weather, and my caffeine addiction.

And so, I keep going... I keep plugging away at my work, my life and my dreams here in Seattle because that’s the only way I know, the only way I want to be.

This might actually be more entertaining than Where the Wild Things Are

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