I have been honored by Betty & Boo’s Mommy of The Betty and Boo Chronicles with the “Honest Scrap” blog award. Reading her thoughtful posts is always a highlight of my day, and I really appreciate her nominating my blog for this recognition:
“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find friends and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to other bloggers who must choose to pass this on and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”
This award comes with conditions: to tell 10 honest facts about myself, and nominate three other bloggers to receive it.
- I have decided that I am doing this instead of the “25 Random Things About Me” meme, although I was tagged for it on Facebook (despite how rarely I show up over there) – then again, who wasn’t? I’m not good with the pressure of “randomness on command,” and besides, as a few other bloggers have pointed out, once you’ve been at this for awhile, there are already tons of random things about you out there anyway. At least this list only asks for ten of them.
- I’m already getting nervous about going to BlogHerCon in July – my social anxiety is kicking in. I’m registered, my room is reserved, and I’ve booked my plane ticket to Chicago. I’ve looked over the agenda and have found sessions that interest me, and I do know some other people who have already made their plans to attend, even though it’s months away. But…I booked a double room in anticipation of a roommate, and now I’m not sure I’ll get one (ideally, one who’s not a total stranger). I’m worried about making connections in person and meeting up with people in all of those crowds – I am NOT good at mingling. Now, why was it I wanted to do this?
- I prefer to conduct business over e-mail and the Internet as much as possible, and if I have to make a call, I always hope to get voice mail or an automated system. I have to be extremely frustrated before I will want to speak to an actual person. (GetRobots.com, anyone?)
- The current number of books I have tagged as “to be read” on LibraryThing: 175. It will NEVER get down to zero. Thanks (or no thanks) to my irrational fear of running out of things to read, if I were closing in on the end of the list, I would add more. I only pretend to complain about TBR Purgatory.
- I really do believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – at any rate, it’s the only one I absolutely can’t skip. If I haven’t eaten anything by the time I’ve been up for about two hours, I will get very frazzled and edgy and not be much fun to be around. My husband has learned this the hard way, unfortunately.
- I have a ridiculous amount of sick time accrued at work – at least three weeks’ worth, when I last checked. I am one of those annoying people who almost never takes sick days; it always seems like whenever I don’t feel well enough to consider calling in, it’s a day when I have too much on my desk to be out of the office.
- There are some songs that will immediately improve my mood when their first few notes come through the speakers of my radio or iPod. I don’t know if it has to do with their key, their instrumentation, their melody, or their rhythm, but they never fail to perk me up. A few of the songs on that list: “Here Comes the Sun,” The Beatles
“Thunder Road,” Bruce Springsteen
“My Best Friend’s Girl,” The Cars
“Walking on Sunshine,” Katrina and the Waves
“Stacy’s Mom,” Fountains of Wayne (whose intro, oddly enough, is very similar to that of another song by The Cars, “Just What I Needed”) - I am a practical-car gal. I suspect part of the reason for this is the fact that I’m a small person – I prefer to drive something that handles easily and can be parked almost anywhere, and it’s not like I require a lot of leg- or headroom. I think I was also very influenced by growing up during the energy crisis of the 1970’s – I’ve always paid attention to fuel economy and miles-per-gallon, and small cars are generally better at achieving good numbers in those areas. (My husband thinks it’s all just because I didn’t grow up in the midst of Southern California car culture like he did.) I am currently driving an eight-year-old Honda Civic, and my next car is probably a couple of years away (barring any mishaps like this recent one), but I have my eye on the practical and fairly inexpensive Honda Fit. Then again, even my “dream car” is (relatively) inexpensive and (not entirely im)practical – the Mini Cooper.
- Authorization to work from home at least one day every two weeks – which I don’t think is asking too much, really – would do wonders for my job satisfaction. I’ve been able to do it under special circumstances, but haven’t been allowed to make it a regular thing…yet. Hope springs eternal, though.
- I am not going to select three other blogs to receive this award. Many of the blogs that I would give it to have received it already, deservedly so – some more than once! – so I am going to take the “every blog in my blogroll is award-worthy” approach. You’re invited to try out three new-to-you blogs form my sidebar, with no obligation, but I hope you enjoy your samples and choose to subscribe to their feeds!
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2 Things:
Thing 1: I totally agree with you on #3-I hate talking to people. Unless I need to get something done, in which case, please let me talk to a real person, pleeeeease!
Thing 2: You have yet another award waiting for you at my blog. 🙂
I’m like you about cars – give me old reliable. Expensive cars do not impress me.
Dreamybee – Thanks. I love knowing I have company with the phone-avoidance thing :-). And also, thank you for the award, which I will post about soon!
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I have trouble with the idea of paying more than $20,000 for a car, let alone $50K or more. How much better could they be? (My husband, the Car Nerd, will be happy to expound on that one for me, I’m sure :-).)
Much of what you shared here is exactly how I feel as well. I much prefer email communication over a meeting face-to-face but only when it comes to work or anything that can be considered work.
I am the same way about breakfast especially since I wake at 4am every day. If I skip it, by the time I get to work I am no fun to be around.
Hopefully you will find a cool roomie for your convention. I’m also looking forward to meeting you in April for FoB. That will be weird (and fun) to finally meet some of the blog personalities that I have gotten to know, or am getting to know!
Ti – I get up at 4:30 on weekdays, so I relate! I have to eat before I tackle the traffic.
Looking forward to meeting you, too! And I definitely hope not to be braving BlogHerCon alone, but hopefully there’s still time to resolve that one.
FYI, following up on Ti’s comment and my response:
Some of us California book bloggers are trying to make arrangements to meet up in person at the LA Times Festival of Books on April 25-26 at UCLA. If you haven’t already heard about this, feel free to e-mail me at 3.rsblog AT GMail DOT com, and I’ll fill you in on what I know.
Oh, yes, those first few notes of a song start going, and I’m whisked away immediately.
Oh, yes. Thunder Road. Perhaps if you take it to Chicago it will guarantee a good time. I get nervous at such things, too. Some of us just can’t help it, I suppose. But so much good has the potential of happening there.
Patois – Music seems to tie in to sense memory a lot for me. It’s nice to have that little escape hatch – assuming the music has good associations, of course.
Beth K – I’m hoping that I can keep the potential for good in the forefront enough to keep the nerves at bay. Wish me luck :-)!
My social anxiety is kicking in about the Book Festival. It was one thing to plan on meeting you there, but now it’s a whole group. I am sure you will have a great time at BlogHer and will meet a lot of nice people. Just think of all the blog fodder you’ll have for us! And I’m the same way in regards to #3. Why do I work where I do again?
Literary Feline…don’t be nervous!! We’ll have so much fun!!!! But I totally get it, I’m feeling a bit nervous about it, too! 🙂
Love you Florinda…you always do such a great job turning boring memes into something interesting to read. 🙂
Wendy (Literary Feline) – It’s tough to work in the field that we do and avoid dealing with people, especially on your end of it :-).
As for the Festival of Books, what Amy said. I’m less nervous about that than BlogHerCon, but it will be a much smaller group and a familiar setting, so that helps. I think we’ll be fine :-).
Amy – I try to make them something interesting to write :-). I’m glad that turns out to be something worth reading, too!
Although I feel like I know you already, I’m looking forward to meeting you both in person – and even though it’s a book festival, let’s talk about Lost :-)!
You should go for the Cooper. Those are cool little cars. I don’t know much about the Fit, except that it is made by Honda. 🙂
I love The Cars songs you chose. That was my first album I actually owned. Everything else was a hand-me-down from my older sister. I used to walk around with one of those shoe-box sized tape players and listen to it all the time. Now I have it on CD. It’s not the same. 🙂
Mike – I don’t know that the Cooper will work out budget-wise. The Fit has a friendlier price tag. And I like Hondas :-).
Both of those Cars songs were from their first album, which my husband still has on vinyl (!). I had them on a greatest-hits CD, but they’re in iTunes now, which is definitely not the same.