The truth about this blog is that I started it about a year and a half ago because Livejournal was getting hacked constantly, and would never function properly. However, I've found an entirely different kind of enjoyment with this blog than I ever had with Livejournal, and I love getting new followers and hearing people chime in. I also love finding more blogs to read!
The point of the award is to recognize bloggers that you enjoy, and to learn more about them along the way.
Below are the questions posed to me by Ames, and my answers follow.
- What was the best day of your life? It's hard to pinpoint one day. Incredibly hard. Before my divorce I would have said wedding day. Since then? I've had many, many amazing and wonderful days, but nothing that stands out in a shining spotlight on it's own. Yet!
- Are you more introverted or extroverted? I used to be terribly introverted unless I was with my core group of friends or family. However, in recent years I think I've really come out of my shell. It's easier for me to talk to strangers and not feel like the MOST awkward person ever. I hesitate to call myself extroverted, though. Maybe I'm extroverted adjacent? ;-)
- What are you most passionate about in your life? I am passionate about writing. I love to write. I used to write a lot of fiction, and I still hope to write more of it. I also love blogging, journaling, making lists, and just working out anything that's troubling me with words. Writing is like therapy to me.
- What's the longest romantic relationship you've ever been in? Ten years. I started dating my ex-husband at 19 and we split when I was 29.
- What's one thing you would change about yourself? I love the person I have become. I have faults, I have flaws, I have bad judgment more than I'd like to admit. But it's all part of the package, so changing any of it would ripple through everything. So I'll say that I wish my hair were long enough to put in a ponytail for working out. ;-)
- What is your best personality characteristic? Loyalty. If you are a (healthy) part of my life, I am unfailingly loyal. I love and commit to the relationships in my life with everything I have, even if that has been a downfall at times in the past. I don't know how to do it any other way. I may be more cautious about getting to that point these days, but once I'm there, I'm there.
- What are your top 5 favorite movies? Clue, American Beauty, The Shining, The Breakfast Club, Ghostbusters. What can I say, I like nostalgia and simple things. :-)
- Where's the coolest place you've ever traveled? I've never been out of the US (I don't count Tijuana for an afternoon!). I love the mountains of Colorado, the beaches and palm trees in California, and the hustle and bustle of NYC.
- What are a few things you want to do before you die? Write a novel. Finally travel outside of the US. Fall in love again. Stay in love. :-)
- What's one of your biggest regrets? Staying in the relationship with my most recent ex (the one who prompted the start of this blog, in many ways) as long as I did. It was incredibly emotionally damaging to me, and I'm still realizing the degree of that even today.
- What's one of your biggest accomplishment? When I separated from my husband, the idea of standing on my own two feet and living independently sounded impossible. Not only did I do it, but I think that over time, with some stumbles along the way, I've done a kickass job. :-)
Here are the questions from Ashley:
1. What made you start blogging? I mentioned this briefly above, but I started the blog because LJ was turning into a technical fail. Also, I was going through an incredibly difficult breakup, and I needed an outlet.
2. What is the one event in your life that either changed you for the better, or the worse? My divorce. It was an unexpected blessing. I never would have left my marriage if my husband hadn't stepped away from it, allowing me the perspective I got as a result. A year after our separation he wanted to try to reconcile, but too much damage had been done, and I'd gotten a glimpse of the person I was supposed to be. I wanted that opportunity, and I think I am a far, far better and more capable, happier person than I ever would have been otherwise.
3. What is your favorite book/book series of all time? The Great Gatsby. I don't know why, but I just adore that book.
4. What is your biggest Pet Peeve? People who don't do what they say they are going to do. I can't stand baseless last minute cancellations, or flaky people who can't follow through on their word or obligations.
5. What is your greatest fear? I fear that my past relationships, in particular the most recent one, have inflicted so much emotional damage on me that I will be too afraid to open myself up again to something better when it comes along.
6. What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment? See above, #11. ;-)7. What do you want to accomplish the most in your life? Similar to #9 above. Write a novel, even if it's just for me, and build a happy life full of people I love. Hopefully that will include one person I can be happy and *in* love with.
As a disclaimer, I'm breaking some rules for my nominations. I'm nominating a few blogs that fit the bill (so far as I can tell with regards to # of followers). I'm nominating a couple that don't fit (because they have way too many followers), but I love them madly, so I'm doing it, anyway. And I'm nominating the two lovely ladies who nominated me, because they deserve it, and rules were made to be broken, especially for good reason!
Blogs I'm nominating:
The Musings of Carrie Blogshaw: I enjoy this blog because I can relate to it, and because it's good to feel like you're not alone in the dating battlefield! Also? Pretty damn funny!
Zombie Love Affair: I love Danielle's blog. It is thoughtful and insightful and familiar to my own life sometimes, too. It is honest and and true writing, and also, we share the joy of online dating and the stories it can offer. ;-)
American Bridget (Jones): A thoughtful singleton blog that I enjoy following. Also, pretty inspirational with her recent running endeavors!
He Loves Me Not: I've been reading this blog for awhile now it seems, and I love it. Sarah is a beautiful writer, honest and funny, and I love following along with her life.
Filing Jointly: I started reading this blog along with a fair amount of folks when she came up on The Bloggess's site, and I'm glad I did! Lauren is hilarious and adorable, and her stories of wedded bliss and daily antics never fail to cheer me up. :-)
Not Necessarily Laughing WITH You: I really like Ashley's blog. She often says the things I want to say about things (like Facebook!) and in addition to random cute pictures to support her bloggy writings, she has an Excel spreadsheet of her books....for that she is my hero!
Onward and Upward: Ames is awesome. Truly. She started following my blog and commenting, I started following her back, and it's been a thing of greatness ever since. When I read her writing, I feel like I am seeing her true personality, hearing her "voice", if you will. She's honest and direct, and insightful to boot. Plus, she lives in the DC area, too!
Seven will just have to do for today. :-) I don't follow a TON of blogs yet, though I'm always on the lookout for more to add to my list!
My questions for my Liebster nominees follow, if you feel like indulging my curiosities. If you've already posted about the Liebster love in your own blogs, feel free to just answer in the comments.
1) Do your friends and family know about your blog, and if not, how paranoid are you about them finding it? ;-)
2) How old were you for your first kiss? (I was 19. For the record).
3) What song gets the most playtime on your ipod/other music listening device?
4) What's your favorite ice cream flavor?
5) Do you collect anything?
6) Do you believe in the idea of one soulmate for everyone, or the concept that a person can have many great loves?
7) Weekend in NYC or weekend at the beach?
8) Is this the first blog you've ever had, or are you an experienced blogger with another one or three under your belt?
9) If you had to use three words to describe yourself, what would they be?
10) Do you have someone from your past who is the "one who got away"?
11) What is something random about you that I don't know?
Whether or not you answer the questions or carry on the Liebster posting, I want to thank the lovely ladies who nominated me, and to thank the rest of you who read this crazy mess of a blog on the regular. I never really planned for this blog to go beyond a few people I knew IRL, and I considered making it a private blog when I started, but I'm glad I took a chance! This is a great kind of community, and I love reading your comments and knowing that people are there, hearing what I'm saying, even when I'm being crazy or silly or anything else.
Also, much love to the bloggers I've nominated, as I look forward to reading along with you about your lives and thoughts everyday, and I love sharing my finds with others so they can get to know you as well. :-)
I make spreadsheets for EVERYTHING!
ReplyDelete1. My friends know about my blog but my parents don't. I don't think my mother would understand and I don't want to ever censor myself to avoid hurting her feelings. She knows how I feel, she doesn't need to read about it publicly.
2. Ooo I was 14 and in a funny twist, he turned out to be gay.
3. Right now "Somebody that I used to know" by Gotye is getting a lot of airtime on my iPod. All time grand champion would probably be "Black" by Pearl Jam.
4. Black Cherry all the way.
5. I guess you could onsider my books a collection but not in the most traditional sense of the word.
6. I believe in many great loves because I believe we are different people during different stages of our lives. I am not the girl I was in college who was engaged to a domineering Cop. I will probably not be the person I am right now, 10 years from now. I do believe that those loves are some of the things you learn from and change because of but in the grand scheme of things you need and are attracted to different things at different stages of your life.
7. NYC in a second. Shopping, art and musicals. What is there not to love. THat and the fact that I'm so pale I'm almost clear means beaches don't really work for me.
8. This is my first blog. I work on editing and managing my company's corporate blog but I don't actually contribute primary content. 'Cause dude, who wants to write about marketing?
9. Quirky, nerdy, insecure. The last is not really something I like to admit but it's true.
10. Not the one that got away in the relationship sense but I have that hot guy I had the opportunity to sleep with but didn't because I convinced myself that a one night stand was trashy. But come on, he was like the George Clooney of my University years and I should have totally jumped at the chance to sleep in his nice warm bed rather than sleeping on an air matress in a tent with 3 other girls. Sadly, facebook tells me that although he is still smokin' hot, he is engaged and thus lost to me forever. ;)
11. I sometimes think I have 2 personalities. I mean I write about my life online but am terrified of public speaking. I have tattoos and a pierced tongue but hide behind corporate wear and glasses. I go weeks where all I want to do is hide in my apartment with my kitten but work in marketing which forces me to be super outgoing and creative and personable with co-workers and clients although I spend the entire time convinced I don't fit in with the cool kids. It hurts my head just thinking about how drastically I flip flop between the two. No wonder I have a hard time dating, the kind of guy that is attracted to one half doesn't want anything to do with the other.
Awesome questions and I love your answers. Reading and writing are theraputic for me as well. If I can't pour my heart out in a journal or a blog, I want to dig into a book that takes me away from my own life.
Love the answers! So well thought out and I think things like this give a really good window into what a person is like. :) I'm SO with you on #6, and I think #11 makes you sound complex, interesting and awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks :) It was a lot of fun to do. I like to think that my difference make me interesting rather than just plain odd. I had to really really think about #6 because I've seen the whole one grand love thing. My parents have been together for 30 years and they're adorable and my dad still pinches my mom's bum when she's doing the dishes. I'm going to go out there on a ledge and say that part of their success may be a generational thing. You don't see grand loves like that as often as you used to.
Delete@Ash: That is so true. I'd like to think it still exists, somewhere, as a possibility, but it's hard to say. Good for those lucky enough to find it, though, truly. That's how my grandparents were until my grandma passed. That's the kind of relationship I aspire to have.
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