I was pleased/flattered/ thrilled when my writing friend, Jeannine Bergers Everett, nominated me for a Liebster Award.  That is certainly a great way to start your day!  Until recently, Jeannine has written two blogs. Momaiku   was retired this week but please take a few minutes to go back into the archives. I think you will enjoy it. Mobyjoe Café,  the other blog also demonstrates her great sense of humor.

Part of winning the award is to answer questions posed by the nominator. The following are my answers to the questions posed to me by Jeannine.

1. Current song obsession?

I am stuck on a Kenny Chesney rotation. I like it, okay? I think that all of you who just snorted should take some time and listen to him. The three albums that are in the rotation are Greatest Hits II, Life on a Rock and Welcome to the Fishbowl.

2. First book that stuck with you “for keeps.”

Great! Another one of my not very secret secrets! I developed an early love for Jane Eyre and Valley of the Dolls. Yes, they are quite a bit different but do cover some of the same themes.  I am sure that my Mom was not very impressed with the Valley of the Dolls pick but she did teach me to read a variety of books…. (Why can’t I just have a normal child?)

3. What is totally underrated, and what makes it laudably awesome?

Okay, here are two things that can be underrated and I love them – silence and alone time. I do love to be with people but I need to re-charge and just be quiet and alone.  How anti-social, right? Naps can be underrated also…

4. Buy a tee-shirt for everyone on the planet. What does it say?

 Remove the sticker before starting to eat the apple. Maybe just I need that one? Okay but my favorite tee shirt that I only saw one time was “Where are we going and what is a hand basket?” I am so sorry I didn’t buy it when I saw it.

 5. Dream birthday cake – describe it!

I know that there are two schools of thought on this but really, the cake is secondary to the frosting. So, knowing that, the ideal cake has plenty of chocolate buttercream frosting WITH LOTS OF FLOWERS. The cake is yellow cake with fudge between the layers.  The bakery in town makes the best cakes ever. The only thing wrong is that they always need more flowers. (Please remember my husband is the diabetic one not me – it probably should be me.)

(Do you think that if I named the bakery that they would give me a free cake?  Isn’t this free advertising? I don’t think so either….)

 6. One piece of advice for your twenty-five year old self.

Just to endear myself to her, I would start with saying that my twenty five your old self knows nothing. Absolutely nothing. Then I guess I would try and build on the great relationships I just stared and tell her that she should learn how to eat right and exercise. That would be the most important thing she should do right then.

 7. What is your unusual talent?

I can burp really loud. I think that is it. Oh, and I read really fast but that was more training than talent. The burp thing is natural. Just something I was born to do.

8. What is your most irrational fear and what is the farthest you’ve gone to accommodate it?

I really dislike clowns. I try to not go near them. They are creepy. Actually people dressed up in costumes don’t do much for me.  Here it my thought on that – people in costumes think they can do anything because no one know who they are. I don’t like that. It is kind of like the internet, right?

9. Who would you like to apologize to, and why?

There are so many but one comes to mind immediately. There was a guy that I went to grade school and high school with who was a dork. There isn’t even a” kind of” attached to that dork. He just was a dork. He was not treated very nicely. While I cannot tell you any incident that I remember, I know I was not as nice to him as I should have been over the years.

Through the miracle of the internet, I was able to find him last year. He still lives out in the area where we grew up. I contacted him and two women that we had gone to school with and the four of us went out to lunch.  He was so happy to see us. He gave us each a big hug and told us how much it meant to him to see us again. He then told us about his life. He has done really well. It just made me so happy that he has done well and that he is happy. I could not have wished for more for him.

And, as these things can go, he didn’t talk about how lousy we were to him but he talked about how great it was to see us again. He felt that we were special in his life and he was just so glad that we had reached out. I felt a bit guilty about that but the guilt was nothing compared to how much fun it was to hear about his life.  What is that saying? Living well is that best revenge?

10. If you were suddenly six years old, knowing what you know now, what would you do?

Sit in my Mom’s lap and breath in her scent and talk and laugh with her for as long as possible. Oh and convince her to buy stock in Microsoft.

 11. Surprise! I’ve got a present for you this here box. Open it up and tell me what’s inside.

The winning lottery ticket! It doesn’t have to be for more than about 20 million. That is plenty.  After all, I don’t want to sound too greedy.

Oh, or there is always whirled peas.

So, now I need to nominate others to win the Liebster award. Here are my nominees:

Joy Weese Moll – Joy’s Book Blog 

Sharon Grantley – Where Curiosity Led

And then my questions for them –

1.  What is your favorite holiday and why?
2. Describe your favorite place and tell us why it is your favorite place
3. Which is your dream – city living or country living?
4. When you look up from your computer what do you see?
5. What TV show do you watch but you don’t admit that you watch it?
6. What is your favorite book and why?
7. Did you have an invisible friend when you were young?
8. What is your most comfortable pair of shoes?
9. You can have as much ice cream in any flavor.  How much would you have and what flavor or flavors?
10. Let’s say you are having trouble sleeping. What do you do? Get up or stay in bed?  If you get up, what do you do? If you stay in bed, do you just lay there?
11. I will scream when I see a mouse. I don’t know why but I will scream without even thinking about it. How about you? Is there anything that you react to without thinking?

Phew! That was a lot of writing for a post. I hope you have enjoyed it. Please check out the blogs mentioned.

Thanks for reading!