Who is the Tonjinator, you ask?
The Tonjinator, aka Mandy or Mommy or Mrs. T, is the wife of the Tonj, who will be nameless through the life of this blog. You see, the Tonj enjoys his privacy. Poor thing married the wrong woman for that. Plus, when I was pregnant for the first child, we bought a house a mile from the one he was raised in. And unfortunately for the Tonj, he was blessed with a surname shared by only three households in all of central Ohio - Yes, we are related to the other two. So, everywhere I go, I am asked, "Do you know J--- Tonj---?" because he inevitably went to high school with, or dated the child of, or sold an appliance to the inquisitor. And I'm forced to reply, "Yep, he's my husband." Fortunately, he no longer sells appliances, or I would be unable to be the stay-at-home mother of our two darling children.
The Tonjinator is the mother of Olivia, a beautiful and intelligent nine year old competitive swimmer with gorgeous brown eyes, and Sophie, a five year old with exquisite blue eyes who is destined to be the dramatic genius of her generation. You'll learn infinitely more about Olivia and Sophie through the course of this blog, as my musings about them on Facebook prompted the creation of the blog. They are currently trying to kill each other. In fact, I should be chasing them through the house with a wooden spoon at the moment..
The Tonjinator was the president of the PTO at Olivia's school for THREE YEARS RUNNING, and thank heaven I turned the reins over 5 weeks ago. The Tonjinator likes to dabble in local politics, though I've never been a candidate, and not because I wasn't asked. I just found my next project, which is going to be a battle. People and their tax dollars are not easily parted with in our hometown (or any, come to think of it), which is a community of nearly 40,000, with a population who believes the community is a village of 500.
The Tonjinator LOVES to read. This summer, I've been alternating classics and smut, which I'm finding is a total riot. After reading the Fifty Shades trilogy in four days, I decided it was necessary to read serious literature. So it took me a month to read Pride and Prejudice in order restore my intellectual pride, and I concluded that Colin Firth as Mark Darcy is far more interesting to me than Fitzwilliam Darcy of P&P. I'm not saying don't read it; just wasn't my cup of tea.
And, the Tonjinator is trying like hell to stay sane, while watching her mother age in a way that is heartbreaking. We (my sister, my aunt and I) still are trying to figure out what is wrong with her - Is it Alzheimer's? Probably not, according to two doctors. Is it late-onset schizophrenia? Maybe, according to one doctor. Mental health diagnoses are difficult to nail down, especially when the sufferer's husband, who we'll call Big G is, well, acting like an obtuse jerk. And that is as kind as I can be while describing the man who raised my sister and me.
It isn't pretty; it isn't boring, but it's mine - The life of the Tonjinator.
