Awards, awards, awards! So, a while ago, the lovely Erin from The Speckled Plate nominated me for a Liebster Award. Life was busy, so I didn’t get around to it. And then this week, the amazing B from You Fancy Me Mad nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award.
I’m grateful to both ladies! Erin I’ve known for some time now, we met through 20SB. Not only is she a great photographer, but holy wow do I love her cooking blog! She shares so many great recipes. I send a lot of them to my mom with a note of “you should make this when I visit!” I’ve only recently gotten to know B, and I can’t remember if it was before I joined or through the Female Geek Bloggers G+ community. She’s a terrific and nerdy woman, and I hope one day to run into her at C2E2.
I know this post is going up late in the day… but with all these confession posts, coming up with 18 facts about myself is taking a little time. And then the Liebster’s got all these questions… But you know, I love a fun challenge!
For the Liebster Award, you need to:
Mention the person who nominated you with a link to their blog.
Share 11 facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions provided by the person who nominated you.
Nominate 11 other bloggers.
Create a new set of 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
11 facts about me:
I joke about wanting to be a hermit in the woods, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’d be ok with it.
I have a love-hate-indifferent relationship with my hair. It’s been a while since I’ve actually loved it. Mostly I’m just like “meh, that works.” And then a lot is “ugh, whatever, I can’t change it.” I just want it to look good and I have no idea what that means.
I only wear really dark colors on my toenails. My favorite was a matte gunmetal from OPI. But this summer I’ve switched to Mind Your Mittens from Essie — it’s a really dark navy. Any other color just feels weird and wrong. I admire women who don’t have this hang up.
I’m slightly jealous of the relationship my sisters have with each other. For 11 years, I was the only girl between my brother and my cousin. And then I four sisters came along, but with 11 to 19 years age difference, well, I’ve never really gotten to build that bond with them. At the same time, though, my brother and I were really close growing up — and they didn’t get that same relationship either. I just have closer sisterly relationships with friends than I do my own flesh and blood sisters, and I just feel guilty about that.
Somehow, I’ve turned into my niece, and have a hard time sleeping unless I put a movie on first.
I want to live inside the Field Museum. Sue would be the coolest roommate.
I have a serious weakness for chips and french onion dip.
I’ve been working with a broken computer screen for 3 years now. I’d love to get a new laptop, but I just can’t afford it. And, yeah, my Chromebook works just fine… but I use Photoshop quite often, and that’s not really possible with that laptop. So it’s broken MacBook Pro until it completely gives up on me.
If I know something on tv is going to be too gory or oh so utterly overwhelmingly awkward, I’ll close my eyes, put my knuckles in my ears, and start humming loudly until I think it’s over. (Yep. I’m totally an adult.)
I absolutely love my cats, and am so grateful for them to be a part of my life… but I so want a dog as well! However, 3 animals might be a bit much… and my apartment is definitely too small right now.
I have a bad habit of being lazy with washing the dishes. It’s on of the few chores I have a hard time with. While I can’t always pick an apartment with a dishwasher, you can bet that I’ll have one in whatever home I own.
Questions from Erin:
(1) If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
Right now? As much as I’d love to go some place like the mountains or somewhere internationally… Right now I want to go back home so I can visit my nieces. G is turning 9 tomorrow, and the twins have just turned 9 months. I miss these girls so very, very much.
(2) What is your favorite dish to make for yourself? What do you like to cook for company? Are they the same thing?
I think for myself, it’s probably any sort of comfort food… And being a midwest girl, it’s meat and potatoes. Namely, steak and mashed potatoes. That or maybe my lemon goat cheese pasta sauce. When it comes to company… I don’t get many opportunities, but mainly it’s anything that seems challenging. It doesn’t actually have to be challenging, but yeah, I do like to give the appearance that I can impress in the kitchen.
(3) What is the most difficult dish you’ve ever cooked?
I’m just going to say microwave Chex Mix because for some reason when I tried to make it, it caught fire and ruined my microwave. Microwave-safe bowl my ass.
(4) When you’ve had a bad day, what’s the first thing you do when you get home?
It’s not necessarily different than any other day… Try to lose myself in Netflix… eat some comfort food… Curl up on the couch with the cats. Call my mom if I really need to be distracted. Just got to give myself some time to be distracted and move past whatever it was that tripped up my day.
(5) When you’re working, what kind of music do you listen to?
Either 90s pop rock (Third Eye Blind, Sister Hazel, anyone?)… or today’s pop stuff. OR. Or. Arrah and the Fern’s All the Bad in One Place album.
(6) Favorite mindless TV show… go!
Probably any CBS reality tv show.
(7) If your life was turned into a movie, who would you want to play you?
If she wasn’t too tall or, you know, British, I’d say Miranda Hart. Can we go back in time and have 1994-era Claire Danes play me? If we’re sticking to the present, as much as I’d love to say Felicia Day or JLaw… maybe Allison Scagliotti would be my top pick?
(8) If anyone in the world was going to bring you a dish they cooked specifically for you, who would you want? And what would you like for them to make?
I’d like to say Alton Brown, but that’s more for the dinner conversation and not the food. Same with Anthony Bourdain. Sort of the same with Gordon Ramsey… I mean, as long as the food is flavorful, balanced, but also hearty (because, it’s basically Fall and I’m ready for hearty)… I’d be happy.
(9) What is the last book you read? Would you recommend it?
Last book I finished… that wasn’t a comic… Between the Spark and the Burn. And yeah, I’d recommend that series — starts with Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
(10) What is your favorite hobby?
Possibly cooking. I just wish I had a better kitchen/workspace. It’s a way of creating AND you get yummy noms too. Win, win. After that it’s really any sort of creative activity: writing, drawing, painting, ceramics, paper crafts, sewing (though I’m terrible at it)…
(11) Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Oh lordy. 40. The cats will be old-timers by then. Hopefully by 40 I will have put some sort of roots down. I’d love to still be curious, still exploring. I think I’ll be having fun regardless of what comes in the next 10 years.
My Questions:
If you could live in any fictional world or city (books, tv, movies), what would it be?
What’s your guilty pleasure food?
If you could do one thing for someone else — either someone you know or a stranger — what would that be?
What’s your favorite song to dance to?
What’s your zombie survival plan?
If you could work with any brand, who/what would that be and why?
What’s your favorite show to binge watch?
If you could be famous for one thing, what would it be?
Do you know a second language (or multiple languages)? If not, which would you want to learn?
What was the big toy from your childhood that you always wanted? Did you get it?
What is one happy moment from today?
For the One Lovely Blog award, you need to:
Thank the person nominating you and link back to them in your post
Share seven things about yourself
Nominate fifteen or so bloggers you admire
Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know
7 things about me:
I’ve only ever had 1 piercing. Well, the same piercing twice. In college I pierced the cartilage of my left ear, only to have to remove it for a job. After said job, I got it re-pierced. But it kept bothering me, so I had a friend (who was a nursing major) remove it for me. That was, like, 8 or 9 years ago… and the spot still hurts every so often. Like this stinging, pinching pain.
Like a lot of people, I love watching reality tv. And apparently my favorite thing to do is yell at the people through my screen. But as much as I enjoy it, I rarely talk about the shows themselves online.
I am terrible at returning library books. I think I still have one from 2 years ago. Maybe longer. I know I have one from maybe 6 years ago.. but that one I paid the “lost book” fee even though I knew exactly where the book was. I was rescuing it.
Even though I have positional vertigo, I sort of love anything spinning. EXCEPT cars. My college ex thought it’d be funny to do donuts in an icy parking lot. NOT OK DUDE. Especially since he knew that I spun out on my own one winter and landed way deep into a corn field.
While I appreciate all 4 seasons… I sort of really love harsh winters. I don’t know, maybe it’s that Chicagoan pride that’s gotten into me, but there’s something fun about that challenge. (Though, yes, related to #4, I hate driving in winter because it gives be crazy anxiety.)
Even though my brother will smack me for this, my dream car is still an AMC Pacer. I’ll take a 70’s Chevette or Gremlin, though. Both equally bad in my brother’s eyes.
I actually don’t care if I win video games or not — though, yes, I do enjoy winning — I mostly play just for fun and as long as it’s a good game (talking gameplay between players, not just the content or quality of the game), then it’s like I’ve won already. Yeah, I know, cheese city right there. But it’s honest. Same thing with watching sports. Yeah, I want my team to win (BEAR DOWN!), but as long as it’s a good, entertaining game… I’m good.
Holy wow, you’ve made it through this post! This is supposed to be the part where I nominate various bloggers… But really, this last one wants “15 or so” nominations?! That alone is hard, so I know getting 26 out… So. Basically. I’m going to do that thing where if you want to join in, do so. Let me know if you participate so I can see your answers!