Sunday, July 21, 2013

Eleven.

One of the best things about blogging is the friendships that are formed with other bloggers.  One of the first bloggers that I met when I started this whole thing was Mary.  She writes a food blog.  I know.  That just sounds whacky, no?  Me.  Food.  I honestly don't follow many food blogs.  However, I love Mary's food blog because I love Mary.  We have become wonderful friends who talk about many things other than food via email.  She occasionally veers off the course of food and offers a peek into the Life of Mary on her blog, too.  I always consider that a treat!  Right now, Mary is on hiatus.  She writes for various food publications in Michigan, and holds down a full-time job, so something had to give for the summer and it turned out to be her blog.  However, she did pop in to bestow this lovely award.  I hope that you decide to visit her place and follow along when she returns.  Her recipes are delish and she is a delight.  Plus, she offers insight into Jewish traditions, so you will probably learn something, too.  Thank you, Yenta Mary the Food Floozie for honoring me and my blog with The Liebster Award.  You are a maven.

 The rules of the award are that the nominee must:

- link back to whomever awarded the prize
- state 11 random facts about him- or herself
- answer the 11 questions from the award giver, and then - finally!
- nominate another 11 bloggers and devise 11 questions for them to answer.


11 Random Facts About Me
1. My favorite color is purple.  It has been purple as long as I can remember.  For the first time in a long time, purple is actually an "in" color in terms of fashion.  The last time I went shopping I bought purple capri pants and a whole bunch of blouses that had purple in them.  Purple is everywhere!!!  I am totally digging it.  Can I say it is the New Black????

image found on www.weheartit.com

2. I hate high heeled shoes.  I love pictures of high heeled shoes.  I like the idea of high heeled shoes.  I hate actually trying to walk in high heeled shoes.  Ergo, I don't own many high heeled shoes.  The ones I do own, I avoid wearing at all costs.

3. I am learning to like foods that I previously wouldn't eat.  All of the greens are back in my diet.  Yeah, I am talking collard greens and turnip greens.  I have liked spinach for a long time.  I am eating squash (previously a "no way") as well as red and yellow peppers.  I still don't care for green pepper.  But, hey, this is Big Improvement!

4. I hate reality television.  The only show I can tolerate watching is Dancing With The Stars and that is because I like the dancing.  It is not because I like the stars.  Sometimes, they grow on me.  Sometimes, not so much.  But, the dancing...  Yeah, I do enjoy that.  All of the rest of reality TV can sit and spin.

image found on www.photobucket.com

5. I adore everything 80s except the clothes.  80s music and 80s movies will always be my favorites.

6. My mom and I are saving up to go to Vegas in the fall.  We were debating going to Tunica, but Vegas is calling our names.  So, Viva Las Vegas it is.  I am so excited.  There is no place like Vegas.  I have written before about my fascination with the casinos, so I am not going to go into great detail here, but suffice to say that there is no place like it.

7. I have started working on a novel again.  Alex J. Cavanaugh said that I would start writing when the timing was right.  It turns out that when a story starts banging around in your head, you really don't have much choice.  I have no idea whether it is brilliant or crap, but I plan to actually finish this one.

8. I hate snow, but I love snowmen.  I have this huge snowman collection for Christmas.  It has gotten a little bit bigger every year.  It is now a fairly large display.  Aside from a nativity scene, I don't have any other Christmas decorations.  It's all snowmen at my house!

9. My favorite smell is puppy breath.  Ironically, dog breath can be pretty terrible.

10. I no longer drink alcohol at all.  Due to my migraines, it is one more thing in a fairly long list that I have given up in search of better health.

11. When I was living in New York City, I worked in the publicity department at St. Martin's Press for two years as an assistant.  This was my first job out of college.  Given that I was a lowly assistant my brushes with anyone "important" were rare and short-lived.  However, I did meet G. Gordon Liddy when he was in the office promoting his book.  Same goes for MacDonald Carey (he was on Days of Our Lives forever, for those of you not in the know).  I also met the infamous "Holly" from Lou Reed's song Take A Walk on the Wild Side.  Yep.  Holly is/was a real person.  And he/she wrote a book called A Low Life In High Heels.  SMP published it and we threw a big party at The Limelight.  I went to that, too.  It was one of the most interesting parties I have ever been to and way too much for this blog posting.  Let's just say I arrived in New York City a naive young girl and left... not.



Mary's 11 Questions for Me
1. What is the first thing you'll ask God when you get to Heaven? (We're all going to Heaven, we're just taking different scenic routes.)  Here is the thing I believe about God.  God is not big into answering questions.  Every now and then, God has given prophets more knowledge than others to try and answer the Big Questions so that people have some perspective on this Life Thing.  And then Jesus came and answered a lot of questions.  For me, the biggest one was that we all have a spark of the divine inside of us.  That says to me that when go to heaven, we won't need to ask God anything, we will literally be plugged into divinity.  We will simply know the things that we didn't know before.  How well we understand that information will have to do with our own spiritual growth.  However, our access will be unfettered.  And God still isn't in the business of answering questions.

2. What is your favorite "me time" indulgence?  This is a love it/hate it pastime, but I really cherish my writing time.  Of course, when the writing isn't going well, it doesn't feel so much like an indulgence.  It tends to feel more excruciating.  However, when it's all flowing, it's wonderful.

3. What is the word or phrase you overuse the most?  I have gone through these phases in the past, but I am not in one NOW.  Too funny.  So, I am taking a "pass" on this one. 

4. What is your favorite side dish at Thanksgiving?  This is hard.  I love Thanksgiving dinner.  The side I miss the most is mashed potatoes.  I became allergic to potatoes back in the early 90s.  I really feel the pain of that allergy on Thanksgiving.  However, I love green bean casserole and candied sweet potatoes.  However, I would give them all up for a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.  ::sigh::
image found on Facebook

5. What is your most cringe-inducing, most appalling, most ridiculous dating story?  Seriously, Mary?  Do you want cringe-inducing, appalling, or ridiculous?  Cringe-inducing would be the long-term relationship after my ex who turned out to be a thief, liar, cheater, and actual criminal.  Appalling would be my ex-husband.  It started with dating so it counts.  It's appalling because it is where I lost all sense of myself and my boundaries.  He didn't respect them and pretty soon I had none.  That is what abuse looks like.  I would like to lay all of the blame on him, but I can't.  It's appalling.  And ridiculous would be the amount of time I dated a really nice guy for whom I had zero attraction and he broke up with me by asking for the return of his garage door opener.  The excuse: his mother's was broken and she needed it.  I gave it up easily.   After that, he never called me again.  It took me several days to understand that it was his way of breaking up.  What makes it ridiculous is that I was just dumped via Garage Door Opener and didn't even know it.

6. What has your greatest accomplishment been so far in 2013?  My first thought was getting off all pain medication for the first time in ten years.  And that is pretty darn big.  My second thought was recognizing the underlying pattern of why all my relationships for my entire life have been so horrible (boundary issues), and working on me so that it never happens again.  I am not sure which of those two is bigger.  They both go toward making me a healthier person in different ways.

7. What website do you check most often throughout the day?  It is a tight race between this one and Facebook.

8. It's Christmas in July; in your letter to Santa, what are you asking him to leave under the tree for you?  I could use an IPad.  Since they are so small, they are very mobile and it would make my life a lot easier when we travel.  I would still have to carry a keyboard to get any real writing done, but still a huge improvement over the laptop.  Plus, I could hole up in my room for quiet time to get some actual writing done without constant interruption, which would be LOVELY.  So, my answer is an IPad!!!!

9. Have you ever been to Michigan?  Yes. 
image found on www.photobucket.com

10. If so, when, where, why? If not, why not??? I went to college in Michigan, so I spent four years there.  I met a boy at said college who was from Michigan, so several years after graduating, I moved back to Michigan with him and lived there (again) for a couple of years before we called it quits. 

11. What is your favorite kind of pie?  Pecan pie.  Maybe that is actually my favorite side at Thanksgiving.  Hmmmm.


My 11 Questions
1. Who do you miss the most?

2. What is your favorite word, and why?

3. Where do you want to go that you have never been, and why?

4. Where do you want to you go that you have already been, and why?

5. If you could relive any experience in your life just for the pleasure of doing it one more time, what would you choose?

6. What is your favorite holiday?

7. Do you feel like you are doing what you are meant to be doing?  If so, what is that?  If not, what is holding you back?

8. Do you remember your dreams?  Have any of them ever been significant in your life?

9. Tell me about the first time you learned the lesson that life simply was not fair.  (It's not a question because I know it has happened to you.)

10.  Who, or what, did you want to be when you grew up (earliest memory)?   (For example, I wanted to be Cher when I grew up when I was about five or six.  That is my earliest desire that I can recall.)

11. Why do you blog?


Choosing 11 of you to pass this on to is the hardest part.  I know that some of you don't accept awards.  I don't always recall who does and who doesn't.  So, I am going to pass this on to 11 people that I don't think have received the award and who I would like to answer MY questions.  Plus, I am interested in knowing 11 random things about them.  So there.  That is my method.  I hope that you will participate even if you don't normally "do" awards.  Here goes...

Jasmine at A Yellow Rose of Texas

Linda Pressman at BarMitzvahzilla

Susan at I Think; Therefore, I Yam

Rawkynrobyn at Life by Chocolate: Robyn Alana Engel's Blog

Red Shoes at Red Shoe's Chronicles

Memphis Steve at Steve's Nude Memphis Blog

Liza at Middle Passages

JJ The Disconnected Writer

Dana Martin at Waiter, drink please!

Manzanita at Wanna Buy A Duck

Yvonne at Writing my life away!




23 comments:

  1. Your garage door opener story beats all my dating stories. What a freakin' weirdo! Thanks for passing this onto me, Robin. I appreciate it...I'll think about it. No offense, if I don't run with it.

    Hope you're having a great weekend.
    xoRobyn

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  2. Congratulations and glad you are writing again!
    Dumped via garage door opener. You do have a unique story there.

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  3. Har!

    This is great! I'm in!!!

    That's a lot of information about you!!!

    I'm not sure I know that much about "me" anymore.

    I've become lost along the way...

    I will send that dream stuff.

    ~shoes~

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  4. Thanks for the peek into your soul

    Hey, hey, hey, to Vegas you will go
    With you I just may stow
    Winning money by the ton
    Till mornings light would be such fun
    And then to shop for hooker shoes
    To have such fun, who needs the booze?

    Thanks for the mention

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  5. Robyn ~ The strange thing about Garage Door Opener guy is that he was a very nice guy. Apparently he was also afraid of confrontations. I don't know, maybe he dated one too many crazies in his past??? I guess he thought I was going to cry and/or throw a tantrum when he broke things off. Perhaps try to guilt him into changing his mind. I don't know. Of course, none of that would have happened. It actually would have been the easiest break-up he'd ever had b/c I was in agreement with him (it wasn't working). hahahaha.

    Alex ~ Some days I am glad about the writing and others I am just frustrated. But, overall, I am glad to be back at it. I probably will be seeing you at the next Insecure Writers Thing. I am now like Mark. I can't figure out how the letters go.... So, glad you didn't change it. I will get it!

    Shoes ~ You are full of interesting stories about you. Think of this as a synopsis of that. The thing about lost is that you can always get found. I was lost for a long time. In fact, I am not sure that I am completely found yet. But, I know that I closer than I was. Just keep going.

    Manzanita ~ You should come to Vegas! We would have so much fun we wouldn't be able to stand ourselves:)

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    1. Who knows. I used to go there at the drop of a what? credit card??

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  6. Yay for your award! If you like dancing, I suggest "So You Think You Can Dance." The quality of dancing is much higher, the choreographers have won emmies, and there are no amateur "stars" dancing. :-)

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  7. My husband and his parents love Las Vegas like no other. :)

    LOL at garage door man. It's not funny, but it's funny, if that makes a lick of sense. :)

    I hope your novel turns out so that you love it.

    And phft to people who cross boundaries so far we begin to lose ourselves. Life is far better w/o such things. :)

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  8. Great you're writing again! I have written exactly two chapters to my story and am stuck like Chuck!!! Loved your dating stories, we need to swap notes. :)

    I love Vegas, but can only be there a couple days, anything longer makes me batty.

    Congrats on the award and when I have some time, I will definitely play! :)

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  9. I have met so many great bloggers.... I go to their blog because I like them... I don't always get nor have anything in comon with what they post about... but I like them and will always take the time to read what they write. Lots of times... I LOVE what they post about so it all evens out... and I am sure most of them don't like what I say either.

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  10. I loved learning more about you. You came up with some great questions, too.

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  11. Lexa ~ I will try to remember to look for it. I am not great about adding new show into my DVR;)

    mail4rosey ~ There is something about Vegas that people either love it or hate it. There really isn't much wiggle room there. Yes, I got your meaning about garage door man. Losing yourself is the worst. It is a long road back.

    Yvonne ~ I think the key to writing is just doing it. One tip that I read before I quit the first time is make yourself stop when you still know where you're going... even stopping mid-sentence is a great idea. It is so much easier to start again. Maybe that will help you to get going again!

    MJWC ~ I think we always get a bit of both on every blog!

    Carol ~ It is tough coming up with eleven random things. I think it is a balance between interesting and "not too long." The thing is just about every post is actually a Random Factoid. Glad you liked the questions. Those took some thinking, too!

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  12. Interesting stuff...you know how I feel about the 80s, of course.

    Just saw Breakfast Club for the millionth time on TV over the weekend. I still LOVE that movie, but I really found myself kinda laughing at some of the absurd dialog. Most of the stuff is raw and real. But some of it definitely doesn't sound very authentic.

    I don't think kids these days can relate as much to it. I think kids aren't as divided into such strict categories. What's funny is, the popular kids are the druggies these days.

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    1. Jay, I know you used the word "funny" but I think it is horribly sad that it is popular to be a druggie. If we want to know where we are as a society, we should look to our youth. It seems to be popular to be a druggie for adults, too. Society is in decline.

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  13. I thoroughly enjoyed this post. Sooo much stuff here to like. First off, I love the name of your friend Mary's blog. I don't know why, but "floozy" is one of my favorite words.

    Great answers to the questions. I agree with your response about asking God a question, but your tale about the garage door opener beats my dating horror story hands down. Then again, mine was more embarrassing than anything. In the '60s, petti-pants, kind of a cross between a half-slip and britches, were popular, as well as practical. In spite of my conservative outer attire, my favorite petti-pants were deliciously outrageous. They had flashy red and white stripes... and a silky white fringe. Well, I made a quick stop in the ladies' room before leaving a restaurant with my date and three other couples one evening, and in my haste, I evidently didn't pull those petti-pants all the way up to my waist. When we were all chatting and walking across the parking lot, darned if the traitors didn't fall down around my ankles! Good thing I'd already gone to the rest room; otherwise, I would've wet myself from laughing so hard. The other gals (also laughing) formed a protective circle of sorts around me so I could hike the undies back up where they belonged, but my date called me D.D. (for Droopy Drawers) for the next several years after that.

    Great questions, too. I'm tempted to accept the award just so I can answer them, but I'd better pass. I've received the Liebster before, and have since declined it from several others on the premise of not wanting to be greedy. Darn it. (Did I mention you have some really good questions???) Oh well. Thanks for the offer, though. I do appreciate it.

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  14. As a former migraine sufferer, I feel a lot of your pain due to that....it's just awful. I'm glad you managed to get off the medicine, though, that's a start.

    I hate reality t.v., too!!

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  15. Oh, thank you for hating heel heels. I often feel like I'm the only one.

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  16. Robin: I never get into these things, but I'll answer your questions right here:

    1. Who do you miss the most? My Dad.

    2. What is your favorite word, and why? "CAN," because I hate can't.

    3. Where do you want to go that you have never been, and why? New Zealand for trout fishing.

    4. Where do you want to you go that you have already been, and why? Western USA for trout fishing.

    5. If you could relive any experience in your life just for the pleasure of doing it one more time, what would you choose? Holding my first born for the first time.

    6. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving.

    7. Do you feel like you are doing what you are meant to be doing? If so, what is that? If not, what is holding you back? Yes. Living my life to the fullest.

    8. Do you remember your dreams? Have any of them ever been significant in your life? Yes. No.

    9. Tell me about the first time you learned the lesson that life simply was not fair. (It's not a question because I know it has happened to you.) In my first business relationship, I learned that business relationships are not friendships.

    10. Who, or what, did you want to be when you grew up (earliest memory)? (For example, I wanted to be Cher when I grew up when I was about five or six. That is my earliest desire that I can recall.) Zorro.

    11. Why do you blog? So I don't bother my wife 24/7.


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  17. Susan ~ Thank you for sharing your story. That was hilarious. And I totally understand about the award.

    Mark ~ Yep. Migraines suck.

    LD ~ I know many people wear heels, but not many people like them. They consider it the price for Looking Good. I think the price is pretty darn high.

    JJ ~ Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions here. I was particularly touched by #5 and #11 made me laugh out loud.

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  18. Robin! I just came over here and read this AND your answers to the questions. This, by far, is my favorite line... you nailed it! "That says to me that when go to heaven, we won't need to ask God anything, we will literally be plugged into divinity. We will simply know the things that we didn't know before." You are such a gifted writer and are so insightful. I love your writing and mourn my lack of time this "season" (I operate haunted attractions) to keep up on my reading. I will keep looking for your amazing words.

    ~d.

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    1. It's always wonderful to have you stop by for a visit. I hope that when you get through the haunting season, we see more of you here in Blogland!

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  19. Robin, Here I am, ridiculously tardy to this post! We were in Alaska and I missed the whole thing, even, till now, your lovely comment on my blog. Thank you so much. I've had a hard time finding my blogging voice again since I published my book. I always have my "book voice" on and am always working, but the blogging mom, the humor in each of the blog entries, seems to have escaped me. I guess I could just write anyway...:) Anyway, I already know the answer to the place I've been that I want to visit again because of our recent trip: Alaska!

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    1. Welcome back home! Look forward to reading some blog posts from you (including your answers to these questions)!

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