I got an award!

When I first started my blog I noticed people giving and receiving blog awards and thought that was the coolest thing.  I never figured I'd get one!  When I saw my little ol' rambling's on Kristina's blog, I totally squealed with delight!  It's such a treat to know that someone out there likes reading what I have to say.  I don't sell anything, and I'm not writing with the express intent to get an audience, but it is so affirming to read a comment from someone who knows what I'm going through, who's been there and who can offer encouragement and solidarity.  It's about connecting y'all! 

So, she likes reading my blog and gave me an award for it!  I'm not even making it up - go check it out!  How cool right!  And, in the spirit of receiving this award, I'm supposed to list ten honest things about myself.  I kind of stumbled on that one because all the honest stuff I could think about wasn't great - isn't that the way it always is?  We hide the ugly, always putting only our best foot forward?  *big sigh*  Well, never let it be said that I stop playing when the rules aren't convenient anymore.  *wink*


1.  I'm not a go-getter professionally.  If it's not handed to me, I don't go after it.  It's partly a fear of failure, partly because I've been handed a lot of really great things in my life and I haven't felt the need to strive for more.  If you handed me an awesome job, I would work my ass off at it, but I wouldn't necessarily advocate or campaign for it.  Hence, my job as a receptionist.  I know I could do more, but... *shrugs* meh.  Maybe things will change when the baby comes and I have to set an example as a mother.

2.  I can't stand romantic movies where everything is tied up neatly in two hours with a pretty bow.  I had never seen Jerry Maguire in it's entirety - I knew the 'you complete me' and 'show me the money' lines but I never knew the context.  It's one of Drew's favorite movies and it was on tv the other day.  Within minutes I was yelling at the tv and demanding that we change the channel.  "That's not real life!  He's co-dependant!  She's a widowed single mother and he's taking advantage of her!  What the hell!!!"  We saw Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself and I was so disgusted annoyed at how he just tied it all up, everything's right with the world.  It's just a set-up for failure.  When movies portray your life, only better, we get trapped into a delusion and then go home and expect our lives to mimic what we see in the movies because that line between reality and fantasy is so blurred.  Give me X-Men: Wolverine, Transformers (the first one), Mr. and Mrs. Smith, or The Transporter (the first one) any day.  Take me away from reality, where knives come out of a hot dude's hands - that shit is cool!!!

3.  Even though I love my family with all my heart and I miss them every day, I don't want to move back to Kansas.  I'd rather all of them move down to Dallas with me.  I've grown very accustomed to big-city living and have zero desire to take a backwards step.

4.  I'm a total goody-two-shoes and have the hardest time breaking rules or lying.  I suck at lying.  I over-do it and I have a very expressive face which always gives me away. 

5.  Even though I know I'm pretty and my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, I still have the skinny, awkward, hairy girl inside me that must be protected at all times.

6.  I'm much calmer and more rational than I used to be (and that's saying something!) and the only thing that has ever helped has been years of therapy.  Don't knock till you've tried it - if you approach it with the right mindset, it works.  I'm proof.

7.  I don't make friends very easily.  The skinny, awkward, hairy girl is convinced that new people don't really want to be friends with her, and I'm not great with the superficial nonsense.  Therefore, I don't do so well with small talk or 'networking', so if I reach out to you it's because I think you're really really cool and I really really want to get to know you.  I may miss out on new opportunities (Drew tells me that all the time - he can make friends with anyone, anywhere.  That's why he's awesome), but so be it.  I've been this way for a long time, and I'm not comfortable with changing just yet.

8.  I looooove peaches!  Anything peach and I'm there - peach cobbler, peach margaritas, peach sorbet, peach tarts, peach smoothies, peach pie, peach martinis, peach jolly ranchers, peach lollipops... (Millions of peaches, peaches for me, millions of peaches, peaches for free)

9.  I'm so thankful every single day that I don't have serious illnesses, mental or otherwise.  Every single day I say a quick prayer of thanks for my health.  Seriously, without your health, you have nothing.  Especially in light of some of the really dumb shit I did when I was younger, I'm soooo thankful I'm healthy!

10.  I really wish that I had made a more concerted effort to learn Spanish when I was younger.  I didn't really get to know my grandmother because she passed when I was 8, but also because she didn't speak English.  My strongest memory of her is standing in front of her stove, flipping a tortilla over the gas burner and taking a stick of mantequilla (butter) and swirling it onto the tortilla.  She'd roll up the tortilla, wrap the bottom half in a paper towel so it wouldn't drip and give it to me as a snack.  Every time we'd go to her house, I'd always ask her for a tortilla con mantequilla.  That was the limit of my Spanish back then - I didn't learn Spanish fluently until high school.  I wish I had learned it earlier - I bet my abuelita had cool stories.  Grandmas always do.


So, that's it!  Ten honest things about me - and now I'm supposed to give an award to the other blogs I like to read.  Here they are - enjoy them, I totally have!

Cori - she's the reason I started my blog so I can't leave her out!
Joleene - I totally read her blog for parenting tips and female inspiration.
Kesha - Thanks to the blog world, I got to 'meet' her and she's so honest and awesome!
Kelly - I like popping in on her from time to time to check in and make sure all is well in her world.  I think we need that, other people looking out for us, you know?
Gem - She was one of the first blogs I found and is so massively entertaining and thought-provoking that you just have to visit!
Shanen - Her blog is The Sweet Spot and that so perfectly describes it that you just have to go there to see what I'm talking about.  It's so sweet!
Kristina - I don't know if you're supposed to give an award back to the person who gave it to you but I'm doing it anyway.  She's so nice and funny and makes magic with thrift store finds and she's pretty much the coolest.

And I know the thing said give it to ten people but I'm stopping at lucky number seven.  I guess there's a little rule-breaker in me after all.