I'd Like to Thank the Academy

I received a blog award.  Crazy, right?  Most of you can’t bother to write a single comment to let me know you’re out there.  Stalkers.  Anyway, I “met” Jenn at Random Lunacy last year, when I made a half-ass attempt to get more readers by finding other blogs to follow and comment on.  It did not last long, and Jenn and Chris are the only two people I stuck with.  Jenn’s my idol because she actually self-published a book.  And it was great!  I read it.  I have it if you want to borrow it, but you should buy one yourself because it’s important to support self-publishers.  She’s also from Boston, so there is a lot of love for The Package between us.

Anyway, she graciously bestowed this Liebster Blog Award on me, which is meant for bloggers with smaller followings.  The only issue I have with accepting this award is that one of the rules is to pass it on to 11 other bloggers and I don’t really follow anybody else that fits this bill, because I am lazy and just end up following people that Jen Lancaster and The Bloggess follow.  But I can at least go through with some of the requirements of acceptance.

So, thanks, Jenn!

The rules:

1. Post the award on your blog.

2. Thank the blogger who nominated you for the award and display a link back to their blog.

3. Post 11 random facts about yourself.

4. Answer 11 questions that the presenter of the award has asked you.

5. Nominate 11 new bloggers with fewer than 200 followers that you want to pass the award on to.

6. Ask your nominees 11 questions.

11 Random Facts About Me

1. I’m a middle child, but you probably knew this based on how I scream for attention.
2. In order to correctly spell the word restaurant I have to pronounce it in my head like it’s in Spanish without the e on the end.
3. At 5’4” I’m too tall for my dream job as the Alice face character at Walt Disney World.
4. Who am I kidding?  All those kids would drive me bat shit crazy.
5. The first words I ever uttered directly to Scott were sarcastic.  “Next time, don’t talk so much.”
6. I am the female version of Chandler Bing.
7. I hate being told I HAVE to do something.  (Be an OSU Fan, Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Avoid Red Dye #40) So much so that I will actually do the opposite.
8. I’m a Political Science major and I would have to Google to find out what number president we are on.
9. I sometimes end sentences in prepositions and don’t bother to figure out the correct way to say it.
10. I’m addicted to movie trailers.  The kind that you watch before movies, not the kind that have wheels on a movie set.
11. One of my favorite quotes of all time, which is befitting this blog…”Is it that hard to make us look cool?!” – Jeff Bebe (Almost Famous)

11 Questions From the Presenter Answered

1. What’s your earliest childhood memory?

Nobody believes me when I say my earliest memory was of our multi-family vacation to Canada.  Mainly, they don’t believe me because I was two.  They think I just remember things I was told, like Pam breaking her arm and some basketball ending up in the oven.  But I have one memory that is all my own, that nobody could have told me about.  Waking up in the room I shared with my Aunt Cereal (Cheryl) who was not technically my Aunt yet.  I guess it’s more like a feeling than a memory, because my Aunt Cereal was probably my favorite person in the world beyond my immediately family.  It’s very hazy, with an Instagram 1977 filter on it, even though it was 1976.

2. What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Anything with corn syrup and artificial colors and flavors.  Bonus points for marshmallows.  Top 10 in no particular order: Lucky Charms, Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Cocoa Puffs, Trix (Just realized that this rhymes with Kix which was the same cereal without the above required ingredients and therefore disgusting.  Seriously, how did I just now notice that?), Honeycomb, Golden Grahams and Cookie Crisp.

3. Do you remember your third grade teacher’s name without looking it up?

Apparently not, because I thought it was Mrs. Woodrum, but when I inquired of the girl with the freakish memory she informed me it was Mrs. Vincent and Mrs. Woodrum was the name of our 5th grade Reading teacher.  Regardless, they were both like soft little granny angels.  In contrast to my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Bates who was every evil teacher scenario that her name implies.

4. Would you rather be too hot or too cold?

If I have to answer, too cold.  But I seriously object to the lack of a “just right” option.

5. Have you ever traveled outside your own country?

Caribbean Cruise that included Mexico.  And then there is Canada.  In addition to my first memory on record, I went several times during the course of my E&Y career, one of which almost got me deported back to the US, because we didn’t have work permits.

6. Where do you think would be the scariest place to discover a body?

Okay, the first thing that came to my mind was “in bed beside me”.  Sorry, Scott.  But it is one of the places you would least suspect.  I mean, it’s not AS scary to discover a body in a haunted sanitarium, because you kind of expect to find one there.  Am I right?

7. What’s your favorite book and why?

Seriously?  Why not just ask me to tell you which child is my favorite? (I might have stolen that from somewhere.) I guess if we go by shear number of times I’ve read it…Are you there, God?  It’s Me, Margaret.  Actually, just writing that makes me want to go read it again as a pushing-40-year-old and see if it’s still as perfect as it was back in the day.

8. What is your name?

Anna.  Anna Marie (when I’m in trouble). Annie.  Anna Banana.  Nannie.  Kirschner.  Chuck’s Little Sister.  Amy. Actually, I answer to almost anything that starts with an A.  Most notably, my alias Amy Rogers, who’s social security number is mine backwards.

9. What is your quest?

To save the planet from the evil emperor Zurg.  Wait.  That’s Buzz Lightyear.  To write a book that makes enough money to pay for the years of therapy my kids are going to need.

10. What is your favorite color?

Burnt Sienna

11. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

One point twenty-one gigawatts.

Now that that’s over…I know precisely one blogger who writes consistently enough that I could bestow this upon her.  Her site has 71 followers (double me, by the way), but on the other hand, her facebook page has something around 5000 likes, so I’m not QUITE sure she qualifies.  Anyway, her blog’s only been around a year, so she obviously doesn’t need my help in attracting readers, but if you make your way over to Fit and Healthy, tell her I sent you.  I pray that one day her enthusiasm will stick with me for more than 8 hours.  Debbie, if you are so inclined, feel free to pass the award along.

These would be my 11 questions.  Anybody could answer any of them in the comments section here or on facebook. Anybody?  Anybody?  Bueller?  Bueller?  You don’t have to elaborate like I did.

1. What’s your sign?  Follow up.  Do you match your sign’s characteristics?
2. What is the best OR worst vacation you ever went on?
3. What movie can you watch multiple times without ever tiring of it?
4. What song is currently in your queue?
5. What is the best present you ever received?  (And don’t say something cheesey like your kid or your spouse)
6. Are you a Mulder or a Scully? (For those that aren’t X-File versed, do you believe in extra-terrestrial life?)
7. What would be your last meal request when you are on death row (Which you totally don’t deserve to get, by the way. I mean, you KILLED somebody!)
8. You have to put three things in a time capsule that will explain who you are at this moment in time when someone digs it up 50 years from now.  What would they be?
9. Name something important that happened the year you graduated from high school.
10. What’s the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you that you are willing to share?
11. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?