As my blog is slowly and organically growing, I feel a little glowy to be nominated for the Real Neat Blog Award by My Pink Champagne Life! Thank you so much! My blog is anonymous except for a handful or two of the souls dearest to me, so this nomination makes me feel like maybe I am not writing in vain. My Pink Champagne Life actually wrote and published a book, people! Her blog is filled with wit, humor, compassion, and perspective. She blogs about family (adopted and biological which is so cool for me), writing, PTSD and other generally awesome subjects you should check out. I am thrilled she thinks my blog is worthy of reading. So, enough of “Yay for me!” talk. Here are the award rules!
The Rules:
- Put the Award logo in your post.
- Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
- Thank the people who nominated you, linking their blogs.
- Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs.
Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blogs).
My questions from My Pink Champagne Life:
1. Describe your perfect day. Any perfect day? What a fun dream session. Okay. I suppose I will make it my husband’s birthday because he is so sweet and low key. It’s fun to have a day to spoil him. We would wake up on a chartered sailboat and have mimosas, toasting to him and our beautiful, imperfect life. Our dog, Hollywood, would be with us, too, just eating up the waves and sun. We’d sail until noon, catching glimpses of whales swimming beside our boat. Then we’d dock for lunch on an island with white sand, like in the Whitsundays, and have a fresh seaside lunch and share our dreams over delightful conversation. The afternoon might entail a deck-level nap under the gorgeous open sky and swimming, including a diving contest off the boat with Hollywood jumping and paddling alongside. By night, we’ll watch the stars take their place in the sky after a golden sunset and sharing a birthday dessert. This quiet, collective, and natural day would be the kind of day that invigorates me from the inside out.
2. What do you do to relax? Run, read, solve the world’s problems with my girlfriends, and play games with my husband (we’ve been on a Sequence streak and he wins with about 3-1 odds).
3. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve done recently (that you’re willing to share)? I don’t get embarrassed too easily, so I will have to go back a few years. Having said that, I have recently written about how I have the best massage stories, and here is another one I’ve alluded to in passing only once, I believe, on this blog. A few years ago, I was working full time and my company was going through a huge changeover which I was primarily responsible in more than a few ways. I was also smack-dab in the middle of my graduate program that I did nights after work. I had zero time and was completely fried. I had a big push to get a new website up at the end of the week, and I didn’t know how I would make it through the next few days.
My husband and I had been the highest bidder at a fundraiser on a massage certificate that was about to expire. While neither of us had time to use it, I just couldn’t see it going to waste so I made an appointment, squeezed into a lunch I didn’t have time to take. I thought maybe the time taken would come back to me by being relaxed enough to focus on the next few things that had to get done. I don’t make a practice of talking in massages as they are a real treat to me (I don’t get them very often even though, from my stories, you’d think I was a regular). But, the masseuse was talking here and there, and then made a comment about how, “No one your age should be this tense,” and that’s all it took. I broke out into full out, not-able-to-breathe sobs, right on her table. I was mortified. Between gasps for air I explained to her how surprised I was by my emotions and how this had never happened previously. Long story short, she told me she’d seen grown men lose it more than I had and she gave me a sweet hug after I was dressed and was about to leave.
It still baffles me to think I was this keyed up. The only time I have ever cried in a work setting was 1.5 years later when this same company laid me off, shortly after paying for my grad degree (so I had no way of seeing it coming, thinking I was a valuable investment to them). Eh, well, life is full of surprises and that’s what keeps us growing. So, this is my go-to embarrassing moment, albeit a little sad, too. Actually, now that I type it all out, I was pretty darn embarrassed when I got laid off and then cried about it in front of the men doing the laying off, too.
4. Name three people you’d most like to eat dinner with (dead or alive). 1. Beyonce, for obvious reasons (in case you don’t know what those are, think after dinner dance party and karaoke sesh); 2. Pope Francis (I want to know what he REALLY thinks about gay marriage, birth control, and women leaders in the church); and 3. my dad’s father whom I never got to meet.
5. What would you change about your life? Easy. I would be on my way to meet my Haitian sweetheart and bring him or her home instead of knowing we have 2 years left, give or take, in process. I can’t say I would take back my miscarriages, even the one where I delivered my son. Life is weird that way; I want nothing more, but – yet – I know that just wasn’t either of our paths.
6. What’s your favorite ice cream? Does pastachio gelato count? I first had this in Sydney, a short walk from the opera house, back in 2003. The taste always brings me back to that truly magical oceanside night with the stars shining and fancy people dressed in fancy clothes, climbing the opera house stairs.
7. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you recently? I like this question. As My Pink Champagne Life and I have in common, we like to focus on positivity when we can. I might say that the best thing that has happened to me recently is that I have a new real-life friend. A fun person just moved into my area and we’ve been working out together by day and sharing tea or wine together by evening. Friendship is a wonderful gift.
My Nominations:
I have a small little blog circle along with my small little readership circle, but here are a few blogs that light me up. Ginjuh, Laura, and Frank, there is no pressure to keep this award going. Reply with a post if you’d like; skip it if you’d like. Thanks for being out there for us all!
- Post Secret: This is a crazy cool blog that collects and publishes anonymously written secrets, mostly submitted on creative postcards.
- Ginger’s Grocery: Touching and funny writing about kids, life, and the human condition. She doesn’t take herself too seriously which is something I like to be reminded to do.
- In Others’ Words: She is an inspirational writer, dog lover, and abuse survivor. I love survivors, especially those trying to help others get through their shit buckets.
And Your Questions:
1. What’s Your Happiest Memory?
2. What Motivates You to Keep Blogging?
3. What Is Your Secret Strength (e.g. mine, randomly, is spatial skills)?
4. What’s the Next Place You Want to See?
5. What’s Your Favorite Quality About Yourself?
6. What Lights You Up?
7. What Holiday is Your Favorite?
Stealing Nectar 