It's Been A Long Time

Before I start my real post, I just want to say happy engagement day to my husband. I love you. 

It was so, so, so sweet of Emily from Domestic Deadline to nominate me for this award. She asked about new blogs or those that didn't have a lot of followers, so I replied because even though I've been blogging forever (okay, since 2007) I don't have a lot of followers. Which I'd like to change, of course.

Anyway, I can't even remember the last time I did the whole award thing, but I think it's awesome that it's back and it's a great way to discover new blogs. This award is a little more challenging than the ones I remember from back in the day; you have to answer interview questions from the nominator, list 11 facts about yourself and nominate other blogs that are just getting started (or are small, in my case).

1. How long have you been blogging and why did you get started? I've been blogging since 2007, although I was a member of some online writing groups before that. I started because I loved to write and wanted to get over my fear of having other people read my work. 

2. What is one thing you wish you could do over?  Maybe start my blog knowing what I know now. :)

3. What is your favorite dessert? Probably a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream. But I'm happy with anything that involves chocolate. 

4. What is your favorite place in the world? I have so many places I love. I think as long as my family is with me and we're having fun together, any place is my favorite. 

5. Do you have a secret ingredient that you won’t share when you give out a recipe? I don't think I've ever given out a recipe. If I did, my secret would probably be that the recipe is really my husband's. 

6. What is your favorite color? Purple, green, black. . .it depends on whether we're talking about clothes or walls or flowers or. . . .You know what? I can love any color but orange. 

7. What is your favorite money saving tip? Buy ahead when it's on sale. When our favorite bread is on sale, I buy a bunch and store it in the freezer. I never run out and I never pay the full (over) price for it. 

8. Where would you go if you went on a dream vacation? I have a serious problem coming up with just one answer for anything. For me, it would be Italy and Greece. But for the family? Probably that Disney resort in Hawaii. 

9. What is your favorite thing to write about? Stuff that ticks me off. I love to vent. 

10. What was your favorite childhood toy and do you still have it? My dollhouses and yes, for the most part we still have them and all the furniture and dolls. Too bad none of my kids are really into them. 

11. What is one thing you do every single day? Eat? Sleep? Hug my kids? That's probably all I can be guaranteed to do every day. 

11 Random Facts About Me

1. Apparently I did do a get-to-know you meme in 2013. 

2. I hate coffee and its evil cousin, mocha.

3. I can read French but I can't speak it.

4. Besides New Jersey, I've lived in Boston, Portland, Seattle, and Kansas City.

5. I've never broken a bone.

6. I cannot keep plants alive.

7. I would much rather sing in the car than in the shower.

8. I would love to take tap lessons again.

9. I love talking about myself until someone asks me to talk about myself. Then I become self-conscious. Like I am about this post. 

10. My first crush was on Rick Springfield. 

11. The only kind of music I don't like is opera. 

My Nominees, not necessarily new bloggers but who definitely aren't getting the recognition they deserve: 

Melt Into the Text

BecominNeurotic

The Dawnie Project

My Mommy's Place

Surviving Mommyhood

Any one of you who wants to be tagged: leave a comment with a link to your (smallish) blog and I'll nominate you! 

My Questions:

1. How long have you been blogging and why did you get started? 

2. If you could have a day to yourself, what would you do?

3. What's your favorite guilty pleasure TV show?

4. What is your goal for your blog?

5. Who was your first celebrity crush?

6. Who is your favorite author?

7. Where have you lived?

8. Gold or silver?

9. What's your favorite thing to drink?

10. The beach or the mountains?

11. What's your favorite vegetable?

The Rules:

1. Thank the blog that presented you this award and link back to their blog. 
2. Answer the questions asked by your nominator, give 11 random facts about yourself. List 11 questions for your nominees. 
3. Nominate several blogs that you feel need the recognition that have fewer than 1000 followers. Contact the blogger to let them know they have been selected by email, commenting on a post, facebook, etc. 
4. Upload the Leibster Award image to your blog. 

Life Is Good

So Soccermom tagged me with the Life is Good award. To be honest, I had kind of fallen out of the whole award thing - not that I don't appreciate them - but this one has an intriguing component. The giver asks the recipient questions to be answered in his or her own post. Here are Soccermom's questions:

1. How do you define happiness?

Hugs. Good jokes. Saying "I love you." Hearing "I love you". French fries. Glee. 30 Rock. Reading. Diet Pepsi. A clean house (I know, I know, but I like clean things. I just despise doing the actual cleaning). Watching a child learn something or try something new. Tone up flip flops. Sunshine. Vacations.
2. Happiest childhood memeory.

Probably any time I got to be with any of my cousins. I am an only child and I hated being one. So hanging out with my cousins was almost like having brothers and sisters and I loved that.
3. Whats harder to have? To have loved once and let it go or to have NOT loved at all?

Oh crap. I honestly don't know. I think it depends on the person and the situation.
4. What brings a smile to your face?

My family. Dirty jokes. Political humor. A really good sale. New books by my favorite authors. Catching Sixteen Candles on TV.
5. Something you have not yet done, that would make you happy?

I would love to go to Italy and to take my kids to Disney.

So I'm not going to  award the Award. At this point I'm reading something like 300 blogs and they are all fabulous and deserving of awards. So instead I'm going to post my own questions for you all, which you can answer in the comments or on your own blogs when you're stuck for a topic.

1. If I told you to put on your all-time favorite outfit, what would you be wearing?

2. What made you happy in high school?

3. If you could only have 3 books and 3 TV shows for the rest of your life, what would they be?

4. When was the last time you laughed out loud? What inspired you?

5. What movie makes you happy whenever you watch it?

Honest Scrap Award

So the fantastic Silken at Madameblogalot has tagged me with the Honest Scrap Award. I am to share 10 honest things about myself that most people don't know. Which has presented quite a challenge, because most things you all don't know are things that NO ONE needs to know. So if you already knew some of these, I apologize.

1. I have a near pathological fear of dentists.

2. Animal House is one of my favorite movies.

3. I believe that no bands will ever measure up to Led Zeppelin or U2.

4. I've lived in Boston, Portland, OR, Seattle and Kansas City as well as Jersey.

(Wow. I am clearly not good at this.)

5. I don't like reading poetry.

6. I have a HUGE CRUSH on Kevin Smith. Despite the poorly titled and pathetically acted "Jersey Girl" movie.

(Is that better?)

7. I am both saddened and relieved that ChunkyMonkey is my last baby.

8. I would rather have a day at the bookstore than at the spa.

9. I have never had Jaegermeister and not thrown up.

10. I cannot stand being touched while I'm sleeping, but I have no problem falling asleep on Hot Guy.

Now I am supposed to tag some other people. Because I love so many other bloggers, I just picked a few at random - who just happen to be wonderfully honest:

Matter of Fact Mommy

Dory at Can't Remember Diddly

My cousin at Off Da Chain

But if you'd like to join in, consider yourself awarded.

Cool News

So last week Vanessa Van Petten wrote a post entitled, "50 Best Mom Blogs". And get this - I'm on it. No, seriously. There are some damn fabulous blogs on that list (well, they're probably all fabulous, but I haven't read them all yet) and I feel like I just got invited to sit at the grown-ups' table. I don't actually feel worthy, so I haven't really done anything about it for a week. But then I realized that Vanessa totally deserves a shout out. And I thought it would seem weird if I praised her post without mentioning that I'm in it. So, um, have I totally negated my cool factor yet?

Well, that's okay, because I have more coolness: Canadianflake gave me an award.



How cool is that? What I would love to do is give this award to everyone who comments and reads regularly and especially to those of you who have subscribed. But I don't know who's subscribed (is there any way to find that out?) and I'm not sure how I'd define "regularly". But if you feel that you fit into those categories, please assume that I am passing the award on to you. And those of you that are on my Google Reader, whose blogs I read and comment on at least every week? The award is for you too. Here. Now go give it to someone else.

Seriously, I can't narrow down all the people I love in Blogland - there are just too many of you. But I expect to see this award on all of your sidebars/award pages right away. For reals, I really want YOU to have it.

In other cool news, have any of you started watching the John Adams miniseries on HBO? I know I'm a history geek, but it is AMAZING. If you've always hated history, watch it and see how compelling it can be. And if you like history, you will LOVE this.

I'd Like To Thank The Academy. . . .

of Haiku Buckaroos and everyone who voted. Even people who didn't vote for me. Because you know what? I won Most Disgusting and Most Erotic ANYWAY.

Uh, I mean, it was an honor to be nominated and I'm glad you voted for the best haikus, no matter whose they were.

Because no matter what YOUR feelings on the matter, I get to display this:



And let me also thank Leslie, who was able to pull off this contest while being pregnant, mother of the amazing Julia, Etsy goddess, fantastic baker and great blogger.

In addition to being a Haiku Buckaroo, I have also had the honor of being tagged by the wonderful Silken for the six word memoir meme.

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.

3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.

4. Tag five more blogs with links. (And here Jerseygirl rebels by tagging no one. If you want to do it, join in.)

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

My Six Word Memoir Is: Did You Really Just Say That?

My visual:

(I don't know. This was hard. If you have suggestions for me, feel free to leave them in the comments.)

Now This Is Funny

I just posted this on my other blog, but it's so much funnier than any Oscar rehash I could write (though may I take a moment to say yay for Diablo Cody?) that I decided to share it here, too.

People Have Died For the Right To Vote, You Know

They have fought in wars. They have been in dangerous protests. They have lobbied Congress. They have walked for miles without stopping. All for the right to vote. A lot of us don't appreciate our right to vote anymore. We might think of it as a chore, even.

But voting in the Haiku Buckaroo contest is no chore. It's a pleasure. Really. If you want, you can even vote for me.

I am the first entry in both the "Most Erotic" and "Most Disgusting" categories. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Anyway, you don't have to walk for miles to cast your vote. You can just click here.

I Am A Blogging Goddess

Er, not trying to be conceited or anything (as shown by my modest title) but I got ANOTHER award.



Jill at Caffeine Court gave me this award for this post. If you haven't discovered Jill yet, you should check out her blog. She's really funny and she obviously has great taste (except for wearing her tennis skirts mid-winter, but then again, no one is perfect). This isn't a pass the love on kind of award, it's Jill's list of great posts for the week. I'm so excited to be on it, I can't even tell you. I don't think I've ever made it onto a great posts list before. Thank you so much, Jill!

But I will say that as soon as I can figure out how to make a cool Jerseygirl icon I'm going to start my own favorite posts list. Because I love to steal other people's cool ideas and all.

In other Jerseygirl news, I just want to report that I STILL SAW CHRISTMAS LIGHTS ON TODAY. It's February 1st, right? My blog stats calendar isn't wrong, is it? Speaking of blog stats, how come no one ever told me how comprehensive and addictive the Wordpress stats are? Blogger people, seriously, it is worth it to transfer to Wordpress for the stats alone. Although I should probably stop checking them every hour, right?

Spreading the Love

So a new reader, LunaNik from Secrets of a Black Heart, has given me an award. I am so flattered. Especially since she compared my blog to heroin, which she totally meant as a compliment. She is cool like that. Anyway, here it is:



I so love getting awards. Not only does it mean that at least one person out there likes me, it also means I get to pass the award on. I get to spread the love. . .just like my award says! (Yes, I know I just said I was passing it on, but much like a former Miss America clinging to her crown, there's a part of me that wants to show off just one more time) Anyway, there are so many people I could give this award to - I read a lot of blogs and pretty much all of them deserve this award. But then I realized the work involved in giving the award to everyone I know in blogland and decided to narrow the list down a bit.

So then I thought about giving this award to the blogs that are my heroin. But I pretty much always give those blogs awards. And it's not that I don't still love all my favorites, but I thought maybe this time I would share the love with some newer reads.

So Many Birds, Just One Stone A fairly new blogger, but any young woman with a crush on Gene Kelly has got to be cool.

Diary of a Modern Matriarch Thought provoking posts mixed in with lots of humor.

I could keep going. But these are my two newest favorites (that I think will actually appreciate the award, I know some of the big-time bloggers get awards all the time and find them a challenge, not a pleasure).

A Little Break in the KC Saga

I have more to write about our trip to KC but I really wasn't feeling it today. I wasn't planning on writing at all today. And then I got this:



The fantastic and prolific Wordvixen tagged me with it. Probably simply because she knows that I need a lot of validation and that I thrive on awards and memes. I am flattered. Actually. . .wait, what's better than flattered? Honored? Then I'm honored. Because this is a WRITING award. From the amazing Shameless Lions Writing Circle. After receiving it, I am supposed to give you three writing tips and then pass it on to five other bloggers.

I don't feel qualified to give anyone writing tips, to be honest. But if I waited until I felt qualified to do something before actually doing it, Ironflower would still be in the womb. So without further over-explanation:

Writing Tips from Jerseygirl

1. READ. READ. READ. Read anything and everything. Magazines, newspapers, blogs, novels, essays, short stories, poems, comic books, graphic novels - they all count. Though I recommend finding the best of anything and everything.

2. Read your writing OUT LOUD. It's probably better to read it out loud to other people, but since I have a hard time with that I don't feel right suggesting it. So I'll just say, read it out loud to yourself.

3. Read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life and Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within .

And now for the fun part. . .passing the love on!

1. Leslie at My Mommy's Place. C'mon, you knew I was going to tag her, didn't you? I think she's an amazing writer. And she needs a little pick-me-up today anyway.

2. Anglophile Football Fanatic. She always makes me laugh. Her post about her in-laws? Hysterical.

3. Life As I Know It. More funny stuff that I love to read.

4. Karly at Wiping Up Snot. Yep, more funny. I like funny. And Karly's attitude is VERY funny.

5. I can't NOT tag Merry at Mom and More. Because she is a great writer. (and sometimes she's really funny, too).

Awards Are Good, Right?

Sara over at Suburban Oblivion (you read her, right?) mentioned the 2007 Performancing Blog Awards on her site and I thought I would do the same. Not only because it's the perfect excuse for a short post, either. Once you register, you can nominate any of the wonderful bloggers you know and make someone very happy this Christmas season. For free.

Go here and nominate your favorite bloggers.

Why Yes, I Am Cool

Jess from The SUV Driving Bitch Your Mother Warned You About (yeah, I totally started reading her because I thought her title was AWESOME) gave me an award last week. The SUV Bitch award, to be precise. I'm so flattered, especially since I only drive a Subaru. :) Anyway, you should go check out her blog - she's got a a great dry wit and she always makes me laugh.

Thank you, Jess! I love awards and memes and stuff - especially when I'm sick. It cheers me up immensely and gives me a blog topic. Yay!

Ultimate Bloggy Coolness

So, I didn't post here yesterday. I've decided, for my own personal happiness, that as long as I post in at least one of my blogs each day I'm still keeping to the spirit of NaBloPoMo. So there. I have NOT flaked out.

Anyhow, the reason that I didn't post yesterday is that I've been feeling sort of unmotivated. And I was reading Alison Weir's new novel (she normally writes really fascinating historical non-fiction but she now has a fictional account of Lady Jane Grey). I highly recommend Alison Weir to any history dorks out there.

And then, this morning I was even more grouchy. I stayed up too late finishing the Weir novel so I am both tired and sad that I've finished the novel. I check my email and find a note from the fabulous Leslie at MyMommy'sPlace; she has something for me on her blog. If the blogosphere were a neighborhood, I SO would have skipped over there.

Anyway, not only did she say wonderful things about me in thanks for me giving her an award, she also gave ME one. It's this one, which I have to admit is one that I never expected to get.

Though I guess I am nice to other bloggers. But that's 'cause I actually like other bloggers. Possibly because I can imagine them all having stains on their shirts too, instead of being all perfect and aloof like people seem around here. Or maybe it's because people who choose to blog tend to be my kind of people. Anyway, Leslie is definitely my kind of people and I really wish I could go to playgroup with her.

*Sigh*

Anyway, I guess it is now my duty to pass this award on. Since I can't just turn around and give it back to Leslie (though tempting, that smacks of laziness and clique-i-ness, and I hate that), I would like to present it to Silken. I think she really is one of the nicest people on the web, plus she has a lot of interesting blogs. I always learn something new when I read her blogs. She is also really sweet and kind, so that totally makes her deserving of this award.

I Knew It, I Am Wonderful

I feel so cool right now. Marci from The Myriad Musings of Marci has given me this award! And considering that she's the creator of the award, I think that's pretty damn cool. (Not that I'm opposed to accepting awards from people who haven't actually created them, of course, I pretty much embrace all awards, except for the ones with "worst" in the title). Anyway, if you've never read Marci, you should go on over and check her out. She's an amazingly upbeat person with a great perspective.

Now, one of the things about accepting this award is that I also get to pass it on.

There are so many wonderful women on the web. I could just copy every one in my "Blogs to Read" folder, and I would, except that I'm lazy. And my folder is HUGE. Please know that if I read you, I do think you deserve this award. (Unless you're a guy, in which case you're outta luck, sorry) But I'm officially giving it to:

Leslie at My Mommy's Place. She is one of the funniest women on the web. She is also one of the kindest. If you haven't read her blog, head over there RIGHT NOW. (But don't forget to come back here some time).

Pandering

Last night I watched a bit of the MTV Movie Awards. I like Sarah Silverman and there was nothing else on. I only caught the last half hour or so, so I missed Kevin Smith, but I did get to see Johnny Depp. And Samuel L. Jackson. And Bruce Willis. And Mike Myers. And John Travolta.

WTF??????????????????????

What the hell are all these people my age and older doing at the MTV movie awards?

Johnny Depp doesn't show up at the Golden Globes but he shows up for MTV? Granted, they actually gave him an award, but still. Those of us who can remember the first day of MTV are not exactly its demographic anymore. I suppose its cool that MTV thought teenagers would respond to all of these adults, but I wonder whose idea it was. Did MTV call John Travolta, or did his publicist call MTV?

If it's the latter, I'm sad. One of the things I like about being in my thirties (and I believe John is considerably older than I am) is that I no longer have to worry about being trendy. I like knowing what's cool but if I don't really like Arcade Fire, I don't have to listen to them (flashback to 1985 and listening to the Dead Kennedys because everyone else was). I had fun as a teenager, but I don't want to be one again. And I'm glad I don't have to pander to them, either.

I'm trying to remember the "older" movie stars of my youth. Michael Douglas, maybe. But I don't recall ever seeing him on MTV. Thank Goddess. It's one thing to know that American teenagers run popular culture, it's another to have to act like you like them.

Guys, I'm so sorry.