I’ve Gotten a Liebster Award!

I’m honored to say that I’ve picked up a Liebster Award. Woo hoo!

Never heard of it? Don’t worry, I hadn’t either, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. The Liebster is a word-of-mouth award given to blogs with great content but a small following. The awards are bestowed by other bloggers and the goal is to generate some buzz for those blogs, so they can be out of the running for future years (you need to have fewer than 3,000 blog followers).

I want to thank the lovely Jeri Walker-Bickett for nominating me. She runs a great blog on writing, so check her out. Per the rules of the award, I have to answer the following questions. Here goes.

1. Who has been the most positive influence in your life?
My parents. They’re cool people, who instilled the importance of hard work and the value of a dollar.

2. What was your most memorable Halloween costume?
My mother made me a witch costume when I was 9 that I really liked. Probably it was memorable because she sewed it for me, and at that time, she didn’t do a lot of sewing.

3. When do you write best? Mornings, afternoons, evenings?
I absolutely love the evenings. For whatever reason, I tend to write best then. Everything tends to flow and the house is quiet. I can hear myself think.

4. Where did you go on your favorite vacation?
Probably in high school, when I went to Paris for a French Club trip. A lot of things we did as a group, but one day the teacher told us to do whatever we wanted, and meet her for dinner. Teenagers. Paris. Unsupervised. Awesome.

5. Why is reality TV so popular?
Because the people who sign up for reality TV have social issues. Usually in life, we meet one or two people who go against the grain and don’t seem to have the social restraint necessary to fit in a normal environment of school or work. However, reality TV brings together droves of these people. And it’s entertaining to see people act in unpredictable ways. For most of us, we can predict how a coworker is going to act when the boss yells at him. The person is going to take it and be thankful they still have a job in this awful economy. Reality TV Stars, you have no idea what will come out of their mouths next. And that is entertaining.  Though, truthfully, I don’t watch a lot of reality TV, so I could be entirely wrong about this.

6. How do you relax?
Watching television, reading a book, doing nothing. Sometimes I find crocheting relaxing. But, if my kids have asked me to make a specific project and they’re nagging about it, it’s not relaxing.

7. Which work of art most inspires you?
I live less than 10 miles from the Smithsonian, so I like to visit the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. I can’t say there is a particular piece there that inspires me, but I do love to go and see the exhibits. There are things that I remember seeing 10 years ago that are so lovely and so simple that it reminds you of the joy of being creative. There was a great piece called “Four Colors Four Words.” It was neon lit piping that contained red, yellow, blue and green spelling those four words: “four colors four words.” On some level, it seems silly that that would belong in an art museum, but it was still lovely and I get why it ended up in that art museum.  So, I like stuff like that.

8. Could you live without electricity?
No. (If you mean without electricity running through my home, powering things like my computer and refrigerator, then no. If you mean, could I live without it coursing through my veins, then the answer is yes, I could live without it. Under no circumstances do I want to come in physical contact with raw electricity.)

9. Are you afraid of the dark?
No

10. Can you honestly say you’ve never stolen anything?
I can say I’ve never stolen anything as an adult. As a child I took a pack of gum from the store. My mother made me take it back and explain, and that is such a crushing and embarrassing thing for a child that you 100 percent lose any desire to ever get caught stealing again (and hopefully you lose the desire to steal, as well).

11. What song lyrics strike you as hauntingly beautiful?
That’s tough because I find so many song lyrics beautiful, but it’s hard to think of ones that are haunting as well. How about I just go with a haunting song with lovely music: The Pierce’s Secret. For fans of Pretty Little Liars, it’s that show’s theme song. Haunting lyrics: “If I show you then I know you won’t tell what I said, ’cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.”

So, now to continue in the Liebster spirit, I have to include 11 Random facts about myself and nominate five additional blogs for the award.

11 Random Facts

1. Last month was the first time in 20 years that I’ve cooked a grilled cheese.
2. I like to crochet
3. I like sweet pickles
4. My maiden name and married name start with the same letter, so I didn’t have to change my initials after I got married.
5. I have four aunts and six uncles (9 of them are my father’s siblings).
6. I am a great aunt. As such, I prefer everyone address me as “Great” when they speak to me.
7. I still have one baby tooth, where an adult one never grew in.
8. I’m sort of named after my grandmother.
9.  One of the most vivid memories I have of my wedding day, is from before the wedding, when I went out to help my dad set up 130 folding chairs in the yard for the guests.
10. I once saw a cow poop in a pool
11. I once stayed in a hotel in Boonville, Mo., that had no phone in the room ( a fact I realized when the manager came banging on my door at 6 am to tell me I had a phone call; It was 1997, so really, there should’ve been a phone in my room).

Here are the five blogs I’m nominating.

• Carolyn at One Story Slinger
• Chris at Story Reading Ape
•  M Cid D’Angelo at http://monkeyscribbler.wordpress.com/author/mciddangelo/
• A.B. Shepherd at http://www.abshepherd.net/
• Chuckles at Chuckles Book Cave

 

Here are your 11 questions
1. Why did you start blogging
2. What’s been your most rewarding blogging experience so far
3. What happened on your worst date ever
4. Who is your favorite Beatle (John, Paul, George or Ringo)?
5. Why is he your favorite Beatle?
6. What was your favorite TV show growing up?
7. If you had to give the yourself of 10 years ago a single piece of advice, what would it be?
8. What’s your favorite holiday?
9. You’ve just gotten home from a long day at work. You’re tired and don’t want to cook or go back out to buy something. What do you eat from your kitchen?
10. If you weren’t doing your current profession, what would you be?
11. Aliens land on our planet and tell you they can fix one world problem. What item would you have them take care of?