Liebster Award (aka HUGE procrastination attempt)

First of all, thank you to dspence at Donating Hope for nominating me for a Liebster Award. I'm not going to lie...I've seen this award before on other peoples' pages, and it seems a bit like a Chain Letter. Do you guys remember those? I remember when they actually came in the mail and said things like "If you don't mail this to 50 people, a flower pot will fall on your head and you will die." Or something like that. Or the opposite "If you DO mail this to 50 people, you will miraculously get $50,000 back in the mail!" When I was a kid, I really believed these things. Despite my mother's attempts to convince me they weren't true, I agonized and agonized over them. But in the end, I never mailed them out. Because I'm not good at things like that.

Then they switched to emails. As in, "if you answer these questions and then forward them to 50 people, a little girl in a foreign country will be saved from eColi!" I can't remember if I did those either. Probably not. I'm pretty lazy.

So here I am with this Award. On one hand, it's an Award (yay! I rule) and on the other hand, a very sweet person nominated me for it. So I kinda feel like a shit not following through with it. Plus, you know, Karma and Flower Pots falling on my head and all...

So here we go! To the best of my knowledge, A Liebster Award is an award for up and coming (aka poor souls who don't have a lot of readers??) bloggers to increase traffic to their site (somehow??) and acknowledge their efforts to write an interesting blog. According to my "research," which was really just trolling over peoples' blogs, Liebster is German for "cool" or "sweet." Who knows if that's true. Maybe it really means "hamburger??" Anyhow, the deal is, I have to nominate 11 other bloggers who have less than 200 followers (200?? I think I have like 10), then I have to say 11 Things About Myself, then I have to answer 11 questions, THEN I have to write 11 questions for my nominees. Holy shit. In this time span, I could write a lot of case notes at work. Hmmm.

But I'm committed, damnit. All of my bad karma from not mailing out Chain Letters is about to be WASHED AWAY!!

So, here we go.

11 Things You Never Needed to Know About Me

1. I could survive solely on pasta for the rest of my life and be happy. Blame it on my Italian ancestry.
2. Hablo español. Algunos dias, lo hablo mejor que otros.
3. I suck at thinking of interesting things about myself. Because I'm actually pretty ordinary.
4. I have a bachelor's degree in Psychology, a bachelor's in Spanish, a master's in Clinical Psychology, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. So, I guess I like school?
5. I love to travel. Every time I go somewhere new, it just makes me want to travel more.
6. I always type "reproted" instead of "reported." This comes up more than you would think, as in writing my clinical case notes..."Client reproted somatic symptoms of..." Ooops.
7. My dream is to move to Northern California (wine country of course!), build the house of our dreams, and own three horses.
8. Yay, I'm already at number 8?? Ok....how about this? I am not very good at tolerating uncertainty.
9. I have been told, in professional situations, that I am "too nice." My feminist friends tell me this is because women have been trained to not stand up for themselves and not create conflict. I think it comes from being raised by an ultra-polite mother.
10. I grew up in Northwestern Montana. Picture mountains, lakes, rivers, horses, deer, bears, and a lot of really conservative people.
11. NUMBER 11. I made it. Uh oh, pressure to think of something really interesting....How about this? My most embarrassing moment. I once got up in a Salsa bar in Mexico and danced with my husband in front of the whole bar. Later, the waitress passed me a note that my skirt was tucked into my underwear.


11 Questions About Me

1. What is your favorite stage production, musical, opera, or play?
Uh oh, not sure how to answer this. Because I LOVE the theater and plays, but haven't been to many really big productions or "good" shows. Recently, I saw the traveling Broadway productions of Wicked and The Book of Mormon. Both were wonderful for completely different reasons. My husband and I both would love to see Les Mis someday. I've read the book and we're both obsessed with the music.
2.Would you classify yourself as on stage or backstage?
You know, I might say backstage, but I think everyone who knows me would say On Stage. I love to teach, I have to be "on stage" for my job, and I can have a very boisterous personality (rivaled only by my husband's). But that being said, I love to spend my evenings at home with a book and a glass of wine.
3. What is your best memory from your first car?
It was a 1981 silver Honda Prelude. So tiny that the backseat was pretty much useless. I don't know if this is a "best memory," but a funny memory that popped into my mind was driving around playing "Boof." The rules are simple. You drive around with a bunch of high school kids and every time you see a car with one headlight, you hit the ceiling and say "Boof." The last person to do it takes off an article of clothing. Kinda like strip poker. See? This is what high schoolers do for fun in Montana. Good thing we weren't also drinking Vodka at the same time! 4. If money was no object, what is the one trip you would take?
No question. I would get one of those around-the-world tickets and disappear for a few years. I would be sure to stop in Italy for a good part of that trip. Wait, is it cheating to say that? Is that like, if I had one wish, I'd wish for a million more? Oh well.....
5. What did you hate about university/college?
I didn't hate anything about college. Seriously, I didn't. I wish I could go back and do it all over again. But graduate school...that was another story. I hated that it took over my life, my personality, and my marriage. I would never do it again.
6. When it comes to fashion or design, are you timeless or trendy?
Uhhh.......I have no fashion. Seriously. Usually I ask my husband, whose tastes fall with tight and short. *sigh* Lately I'm into long dresses, because they seem to look good on my body.
7. What was your first job?
Around the same time, I had two first jobs. I worked part-time at a daycare (I've always liked kids) and I apprenticed with a horse trainer (awesome job.
8. Did you go to prom?
Many times. Meh.
9. Do you have any tattoos?
Nope. I'm not committed enough. 10. Who do you need to forgive?
The answer to this is pretty personal. But thanks for making me think about it. Good question.
11. Have you personally experienced God’s love and forgiveness?
Ok, I gotta be honest, this question almost made me not want to do this survey/chainletter/award thing, because I didn't want to offend anyone. But the truth is, religion isn't a big part of my life. I was raised by very spiritually New-Agey parents and have never been a part of an organized religion. I'd say the closet I come to feeling something more is when I'm out in nature. Really far out, as in back-packing into the mountains.


So that's it. I did it. I'm done, right? Oh shit, nope. I need to find 11 more people to Tag and ask them some questions.


My 11 Questions

1. What color are your toenails painted right now?
2. Tell a story about a childhood birthday party.
3. What are you addicted to?
4. Do you have any weird habits?
5. Are you happy in your career? Job? Way you spend your days?
6. When did you meet your significant other? Were you too old? Too young? Just right?
7. Describe your favorite item of clothing.
8. So, what's the point of a blog, anyway?
9. What food describes your mood today?
10. Where will you be when you're 45?
11. So why are YOU responding to these questions?


11 Lucky Nominees!


No really, this part is the part that is nice. I hope that this Award does what it's intended and increases readership for those of us who are just starting out. It's really touching that we are pouring our souls out to who-knows-who, and all of these bloggers I've found are so strong and admirable, each in their own ways. SO, I tried to find some people who have less readership, are inspiring, and hopefully haven't gotten this before? If you have (or if you haven't), oh well. Congrats to all of us for putting it out there. :)

1. Fallopian Grove
2. The Daily Grind of Not Enough Time
3. The Nation Plan
4. Bean Journey
5. A Method in The Madness
6. Fit Momma
7. Our Journey Through This Lovely Life
8. Moon on a Stick
9. Just a Little Off Kilter...
10. Daisy to Sunflower
11. Journey to a Better Birth



And...that's it!! I'm sure some of you have already been nominated. But I did try to choose blogs that I thought were just starting out, or those that I wanted to give a nod to. If you don't see your name here it's because I thought you'd already been through this craziness been nominated before.

Wow, i can't believe I just spent almost 45 minutes on this, when I could have been catching up on paperwork. Thing #12 about me: I am AWESOME at procrastination.