It’s Liebster Season And I Don’t Have A Hat To Match

It must be Liebster Award Season.  I was nominated by two bloggers, http://amforte66.wordpress.com/ and  http://liisthinks.wordpress.com/  It’s a bit of a hectic time for me and I was reluctant to accept the challenge, but I’m taking some time for myself and going with it.  Now, the way the Liebster Award works, according to my nominators, is this:

The nominated user must provide a link back to the person who nominated them.
Provide 11 facts about yourself
Answer 11 questions set by the person who nominated you
Choose 11 more people and ask them 11 questions!

Eleven facts about myself:

1.  Even though I am 53, I am always doing childish things like walking curb stops like they are balance beams, seeing how far I can spit my gum in the parking lot, and taking my shoes off and jumping into the river…
2. I am growing my hair out because I always dreamed that I would be a grey-headed, long-haired grandmother with a fat braid of hair hanging down my back. I’m on a tough schedule since my grandson is 14 months old and my hair is just below my shoulders and not nearly grey enough.
3. I like to think I’m humble and modest but really I am ridiculously proud. Because I take pride in my humility and modesty. So it ruins the whole thing. Drat.
4. I lived in only two houses up until I went away to college. Then I lived in 3 dorms in two years, four apartments in four years, and since I married I’ve lived in seven different houses in thirty years.
5. I am only now reading The Wind in The Willows. Proving myself right yet again: The book is always better than the movie.
6. I worked in my father’s newspaper office during one summer and I was allowed to rewrite an AP story about squirrels carrying bubonic plague on a military base and then my dad put it in the paper. The newspaper? The Army Times.
7. I have trouble with authority. I always feel like “who are you to tell me what to do?!”. I’m okay with God telling me what to do though, cuz, like, he’s God.
8. I’ve lived in three different states: Maryland, Florida, and Virginia.
9. Before I discovered I suffered from depression I thought I was just terribly hard to impress.
10. One of the most helpful books I ever read was “Sink Reflections” by the Flylady. Good for my head and my house.
11. I’ve never made my children eat spinach or liver because I hate them (spinach and liver) that much.

Now, 11 Questions from amforte66: (Small panic, are these from amforte or liisthinks?! )
How are you, really?
Well, doctor, today I’m not too bad. I added some DLPA to my amino acid cocktail and I haven’t left my husband nor stabbed anyone, so, yeah, we’re okay today!
Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
I would say I am an extroverted introvert.
Mathlete or Athlete?
Neither, thank you very much. I think I am a bibliophile. Unless that’s an illegal or immoral thing and I’ve gotten confused, in that case, just forget I ever said anything.
What is your favorite television show and what do you like about it?
My favorite television show is The Bletchley Circle, although the last episode was a bit upsetting and I may renounce all dramas, including Call The Midwife.
What have you learned today?
I am not sure I like Pomegranate dressing
What is a habit you have that you like?
I am very self-critical, so it is hard to like anything about myself sometimes. That would be a habit you don’t like about yourself, Laura. Pick one you like. Ummm, I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that I can’t think of anything.
What’s the biggest personal change you’ve ever made?
I used to be a horrible potty-mouthed obscenity spewing cook in a Mexican Restaurant. I taught myself not to curse by drawing out the first letter of the epithet of the moment and then finishing it with a non-offensive word. Example: Ffffff-fudge, or Shhhhhhh-sugar. This training was so transformative that even if I have a shock of some sort or suffer bodily injury I do not curse. Mostly.
What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?
I have to pick one? I’ll lump it all together as one thing: Drink three beers in college on three different occasions. I cannot drink. Each time I did stupid, regretful, humiliating things. I do not drink to this day. Lesson learned at 18.
What are some of your favorite websites?
http://ana-white.com/
http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I am brutally honest about myself to others. I do this because I hate secrets. I have seen people destroy themselves and others trying to keep a secret under the misguided belief that the secret must be kept. I will not keep your secret; Don’t ask me to.
What do you like about blogging?
It’s a way for me to express myself. Cheaper than a shrink.

My 11 Questions to Bloggers (These have to be from liisthinks. They feel like her.)
1. If you could be an animal then what would you be and why?
When I was a pre-teen, I wanted to be a horse. Because they seemed so free and powerful.
2. If the whole world was about to End in one week, what would you do with the last 7 days of existence?
I live every day as if the world were about to end tomorrow. If you are waiting for the Grand Crisis to make changes in your life or tell that person that you are sorry or that you forgive them, realize that any day could be the end of the world for you. Life is not guaranteed each day.
3. If you could choose another Planet in the Solar system to go live on, which would it be and why?
I don’t have the house catalog for any other planet yet and Zillow’s Mars page is under construction. I am not averse to living on another planet, however, and it would not have to be like earth, exactly, but I would prefer it to be solid rather than liquid or gaseous. Not too close to a star, easy access to water, ample supply of a breathable atmosphere. No fiercesome beasts.
4. What would you change about your daily routine?
I was walking every day until my BIL came to stay with us during his cancer recovery. I need to do that again.
5. The best place ever you have traveled? If not traveled yet, then what would this best place be?
I have been up and down the East Coast of the US. Every place is different. I think that if you haven’t traveled in your own country, whatever it is, don’t be in such a rush to travel abroad. You might be astonished at the variety of culture, climate, architecture, etc in your own backyard.
6. Would you rather live in a city or country-side and why?
Oh, Oh, I blogged this!!!! http://goodenoughfarm.blogspot.com/2010/10/tracing-path.html
7. If you could become the president of your country tomorrow, what would you change?
That’s easy. I would change being the president of my country. I am in no way qualified.
8. Ever “judge a book by its cover” and have you been wrong?
No. I judge people by their ‘vibes’. I am never wrong. Sometime people will say, “oh, you would like so and so” and then I meet them and their vibes are all wrong and I will wonder, ‘why did they think I would like this person?’ I will try to overcome my vibe and get to know the person better, but in the end, my vibe detector is always right.
9. If you could travel back in time what decade would you like to live in and why? (be a hippy in 60s? a king/queen in medieval times? rockstar in 80s? a cave man in “donkeys years ago”?)
I used to think I should have been born in the years before the first World War because life was simpler then. I think now that I try to have a simpler life in the time I live in, embracing the technology I’m comfortable with and rediscovering how to do things without some of that technology.
10. Give praise to the person you idolize!
I try not to idolize. People are just people with faults and good qualities. I admire some people but I hope I keep them in the proper perspective.
11. Having fun?
It wasn’t as bad as I thought!

Choose 11 more people and ask them 11 questions

And this is the part I always have trouble with.  It’s like a chain letter. I always break the chain letter and die horrible deaths and am cursed forever and lose my left eyeball.  *sigh*  I don’t even know eleven bloggers….  And what’s with the number 11 anyway?

Let me come up with eleven questions first.  Let’s see….

1.  Name the best book you read as a child and the best book you read as an adult.

2.  Why did you start blogging and are you still blogging for the same reasons?

3.  Do you break the rule to never discuss politics or religion?

4.  What is your most favored pet you have had and why?

5.  Is Monsanto really the Devil?

6.  Paper or Plastic?

7.  If I asked you to write a rant, what would it be?

8.  Does it bother you that they took planet status away from Pluto?

9.  Why do movie makers rewrite the ending of the book when making movies?

10.  If you could be a superhero, what would you want your power to be?

11.  Looking back, at what age do you think you really became an adult and why?

Last, but not least, as many bloggers as can think of (excepting my nominators):

http://jilly-bear.blogspot.com/

http://holesinmyjeans-kpannabecker.blogspot.com/

http://theboiselife.blogspot.com/

http://providence-farm.blogspot.com/

http://musingsfromthevan.com/

http://myslowlivingadventure.wordpress.com/

http://tarolynfarms.wordpress.com/

http://alysascbl.wordpress.com/