title: Convert OrderedDict to normal dict preserving order?
body: <p>How do I convert an <code>OrderedDict</code> to a normal dictionary while preserving the same order? </p>
  
  <p>The reason I am asking this is because is when I fetch my data from an API, I get a JSON string, in which I use <code>json.loads(str)</code> to return a dictionary. This dictionary that is returned from <code>json.loads(...)</code> is just out of order and is randomly ordered. Also, I've read that <code>OrderedDict</code> is slow to work with so I want to use regular dict in same order as original JSON string.  </p>
  
  <p>Slightly off-topic: Is there anyway to convert a JSON string to a dict using <code>json.loads(...)</code> while maintaining the same order without using <code>collections.OrderedDict</code>?</p>