A for Award!

I am so surprised and super excited to report that I have received not one, but two blog awards. I haven’t been blogging very long, and I don’t have a tremendously large following or readership, so I never would’ve expected this. I don’t have a speech prepared or anything! Instead of fumbling around thanking god and my mother, who really have nothing at all to do with this, I’ll just move on to explaining the awards and passing them on.

The first award I received was from Margaret. In the short time I’ve “known” her, I’ve discovered that she’s a tough chick; life has dealt its fair share of blows to her—probably over the fair share actually—and she doesn’t let it get her down. She’s a kindred spirit. When you’re done here, hop on over to check out Margaret.

(As in read her blog. Don’t go over there acting all weird, leering at her and stuff; that’s the kind of behavior that gets people arrested. Also, I don’t want you weirding Margaret out and then blaming me. She’s a nice girl, and she doesn’t deserve to be harassed; even if you are just doing it with your eyes. I know, dear reader, that I really don’t have to tell you any of this, because if you read my blog, you have good taste and good manners and totally understand what I was saying in the first place. Now I feel silly, and yet, I am not hitting the delete key. No, sir; this random little brain dump is here to stay. It’s been a long day, so let’s just jump right past this little digression, shall we?)

The award I received from Margaret is called the Sunshine Award.

The rules for the award are as follows:

1. Put the logo within my blog or on my post
2. Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers
3. Link the nominees within my post
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
5. Share the love and link to the person whom you received this award from

12 fellow bloggers seems like a lot. Because I am a break the rules kinda girl (notice I said rules not laws. I am a good, law-abiding citizen in most aspects.), and I’m lazy and have seen this award already on many of the blogs I subscribe to, I am going to risk upsetting the karmic balance of bloggyland and am just going to pass the award on to the following wonderful bloggers who are all worthy of your visits (ya know, after you finish up here):

Dawn @ Dawning

Paloma @ The Coffee Shop

Sandy @ It's A Jungle Out There...

Shell @ Things I Can’t Say

Yankee Girl @ Adventures of a Yankee Girl

Jessika @ Secret Pie Shoppe

There; I did 6. I've met half of the requirement, which is good enough for me! Congratulations, award winners! Some of you might have already received this, so if you don’t want to pass it on yet again, that’s understandable. The award is yours to do whatever you’d like with.

The second award I received is the Beautiful Blogger award. You can see it below. Isn’t it lovely?

Know who else is lovely? Christine from Raised Queer. She’s the lovely lady who bestowed this award on me, and you should really go visit her blog; she has a nice mix of some very funny and some thought-provoking posts for your reading enjoyment. In the short time that she’s been my bloggy friend, I’ve discovered that we are very like-minded. In fact, I think she might be my long lost twin sister. (I always knew I was adopted!) So, really, after you’re done here, go visit Christine. Seriously. You will not regret it.

The rules for this award are that I have to tell you 7 interesting things about myself and pass it along to 7 other bloggers. Good thing I didn’t do the required 12 above, because I’d almost have run out of bloggers to pass this award along to!

I’m going to pass this award along to:

1. Mochatrina @ Ah…Me So Hongry!
2. WhisperingWriter @ Airing My Dirty Laundry
3. Emma @ Divorced Before 30
4. Inspired Dreamer @ Out of the Extraordinary
5. The Local Cook
6. Maya @ Straightjackets Are Slimming
7. Vivianne @ Vivianne’s Vista

Congratulations, award winners! If any of you have received this award already, then you should be proud that you are so super duper that you’re receiving it again. If you don’t want to redo all the work of passing it along, that is totally your choice; whatever you decide to do with it is fine with me.

Because I've already done a Seven Random Things post, I really struggled to come up with 7 new interesting things. Hopefully you find these things somewhat interesting:

1. I originally started this blog to track my journey as an adult student, but it has morphed into stories of my life as well. This is partially because I had to drop a class, so I don’t have any school stuff to write about at the moment. I’ve thought about changing the title, but because I seem to say “A for effort” a lot, and because I try to do my best at every single thing I do, the title is still fitting. I often worry that my blog posts are a little too verbose for some, and as such, many people probably visit my blog, see a super long post, and decide they just don’t want to invest that much time. I try to figure out ways to shorten my stories, but I guess I just have a lot to say. I like letters that form words that form sentences that form paragraphs too much to try to limit myself. I am very thankful to those of you who have chosen to read this blog and who stick with me through the longer posts.

2. I am somewhat shy in real life. Because of this, I’m often perceived as being a bitch. Sometimes this bothers me and other times I really don’t care, because the truth is I just have a really hard time opening up to new people.

3. I am a major procrastinator. I work very well under pressure; I don’t know if this is a result of my procrastination or if it’s the reason for it. At any point, I often put things off until the last minute and then find myself filled with anxiety, stressing to get everything done on time. Every single time I’m hurrying through something I’ve procrastinated on, I tell myself that it’s the last time I’ll do this to myself, but it never is.

4. I sometimes narrate my life as though I am a character in a book. For example, “As she walked to her car after a long day at work, Elle thought about how happy she was that the day was over. She was eager to get home to her husband and her dogs.” Of course it is only in my head that this happens, and it usually makes me realize that my life is damn boring.

5. I have a major sweet tooth. After a full meal, dinner especially, I need something sweet. I give into this “need” far too often. Sometimes after eating too much sweet, I need salty, which creates a vicious, vicious cycle. Some of my clothes seem to have an attitude problem after I’ve over indulged in sweets, so I try to be more disciplined. Inevitably though a craving will hit, and I will give in.

6. I hate cooking. I don’t know why, but I do. I love baking, on the other hand, which doesn’t help with number 5 at all. There’s something about the precision needed to measure out the ingredients and the order required to successfully carry out the steps of the recipe that really appeals to me.

7. I had a surreal moment on Valentine's Day. Music Man had a gig yesterday afternoon; his band was participating in battle of the jug bands at a downtown bar. Since it was a Sunday afternoon, and Valentine’s Day, I went with. I spotted a man in the very large crowd who looked familiar to me. I knew him. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know exactly who he was, but I knew that I knew him. I asked Music Man if he recognized the guy, and he didn’t. I remarked that he kinda looked like my sister’s murderer’s defense attorney, but I knew he wasn’t. I figured this thought was just in my mind because the newspaper reporter who’d covered the criminal trial was playing with Music Man’s band.

At one point, the man and I made eye contact, and while I tried not to stare after that, I did keep stealing glances at the man. The man seemed to recognize me, or at least seemed to realize that I recognized him and was trying to figure out how I knew him. He seemed as though he was trying to make his way through the crowd towards me just as Music Man and I walked away in order for him to get ready to play. I was relieved, because I didn’t know if the man was coming to help fill in the blank for me or if he was coming to say, “Hey, weirdo, quit staring at me!” Music Man’s band played, and I stood alone in the crowd watching, temporarily forgetting about the man.

When Music Man’s band was finished playing, we decided to leave; we had plans to go home and cook a delicious meal together to celebrate Valentine’s Day. As we were walking out of the bar, I saw the man again. Our eyes met, and the way he looked at me jogged my memory: I’m standing at a podium pouring my heart out, and Music Man puts his arm around me as I began to cry. I grabbed Music Man’s arm and exclaimed, “He’s the JUDGE!” Shocked, Music Man looked at the man and then looked back at me and confirmed my suspicions.

This was the man I saw in a courtroom every single day for a week, the man I poured my heart out to a little over a year ago as I read my victim impact statement at the murderer’s sentencing, but just to make sure I wasn’t completely crazy, I had Music Man ask the newspaper reporter (who was walking behind him) if that was the judge who’d presided over the criminal trial of my sister’s murderer. The reporter confirmed that I was correct.

I was overwhelmed with emotion. I briefly contemplated going to say something to the judge. I wanted to thank him, to tell him how much he’d changed my life by giving us peace and closure. I wanted to tell him how much the words he’d said to the murderer at sentencing had meant to me—how powerful what he said was. I wanted him to know that I remembered him, that he had an impact on my life, and that I’d always remember him. I knew that if I were to try to say any of those things, I would end up crying. I didn’t want that, for him or for me. He was a normal citizen today, just enjoying some good local music. So, I quickly smiled and nodded, and turned towards the door to leave. I think he knew what I was thinking; at least I hope he did.

That’s it! 7 things that you hopefully found somewhat interesting.

Thank you so much, Christine and Margaret, for the acknowledgment! You’ve made me giddy with excitement, and I’m glad to have met and made a connection with both of you. Now, dear reader, I do hope you’ll go and check out Christine and Margaret’s blogs and some of the blogs I passed the awards along to. They’re all worth a read.