I’d Like To Thank The Academy (And Mari)

Back in the Golden Age of blogging (2008-09ish), blog awards were flying around like toasters on a screensaver in the early ’90s. It wasn’t unusual to be awarded multiple times in a month for being crafty, friendly, prolific, just plain awesome, or a myriad of other traits. The awards all “required” that, in order to accept them, you had to pass them on via tagging other bloggers and then jump through a series of hoops in a blog post. Awards made for great blog fodder and, after fulfilling the requirements on each one, we used to post them proudly in our sidebars.

Over the past couple of years, I haven’t seen too many awards going around. I’m not sure why this is. (Ahem, I KNOW it’s not just me…right?) I guess people have other things to write about and feel like they can more freely tag their friends for no reason at all? (Okay, maybe it IS just me.)

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when I was given a very prestigious award by my friend Mari (thank you, Mari!!). Just like in the olden days, the award had lots of rules, and although I’m mostly a rule follower in life, did I mention the award had lots of rules?

That said and due to my desire to:

1. Not pass the award on by tagging anyone in particular because I always feel badly for leaving people out
2. Keep things interesting
3. Alter something to fit my needs because a rule follower needs to break them every now and then
4. Show my appreciation for the recognition while simultaneously not conforming to the rules 100% because see #2 and #3

I decided to answer the questions that Mari issued because I think she did a great job coming up with them and I thought, “Huh, the answers to those questions might be interesting enough for a blog post.”

So without further ado, here are Mari’s questions with my answers.

1. What’s the furthest away from home you’ve traveled? Dresden, Germany in 2006. One of my favorite trips EVER. Almost everything about it was perfect.

2. We’re in detention with the cast of “The Breakfast Club”, in the library, sharing our “special skills.” What’s yours? I can organize and plan the crap out of anything. ANYTHING. In fact, I’m famous for organizing and planning things practically to death. Also, I’m terribly good at trying to control what cannot be controlled. Sigh. Those skills aren’t nearly as cool as tying a knot in a cherry stem in my mouth or applying lipstick from my cleavage but I think perhaps they’re almost as entertaining in a sick and twisted way?

3. We all have guilty pleasures–but what’s your guilty thing you hate to admit that you hate? “Hate” is too strong of a word for this, but I feel a little bad that I didn’t care for “Breaking Bad” and have no interest in “Sons of Anarchy”, “Downton Abbey”, or “Scandal”. I seem to gravitate away from television shows that are popular with the general public.

4. What was your favorite game or toy as a nine year old? It would have to be Barbies. I played with Barbies until I was twelve. (Of course, the story lines were very different when I was twelve from when I was six. VERY. But that’s a whole other blog post.)

5. Do you have a favorite day of the week? Either Monday because although I love weekends, I also enjoy getting back on my routine, OR Saturdays and Sundays because I love weekends. Or Wednesdays because I do two workouts on that day. Or Thursdays because I take the day off from working out. So I guess, no. No favorite day.

6. We’re going on a road trip! What snacks do you bring? Definitely Gummi Bears, Swedish Fish, and potato chips because I love that sweet/savory thing. Or M&Ms and popcorn. No fruit. I don’t like eating fruit in the car.

7. We’re still on a road trip! Who will you travel with: Kimye (Kim Kardashian & Kanye West) or Brangelina (Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie)? Discuss. If I can’t choose “Brad Pitt and Kanye West” (Branye?) because I think they are so much more interesting than Angelina and Kim, I guess I’d have to choose Brangelina because I would rather poke my own eyes out than try to have a conversation with Kim Kardashian. I could talk about Frank Lloyd Wright and George Clooney with Brad Pitt and I feel like I could probably come up with some common ground with Angelina. I guess. Maybe. Is there a third option, like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner? I’d feel better about that road trip. Also, I bet they are more likely to eat the snacks I would bring than those other two couples.

8. You’re writing a letter from your 15 year old self to your whatever age you are now self. What hot tip would you advise yourself of to make life just a smidge easier? “Don’t stress out about Jim, and stop stalking him so much in between classes. You’ll end up together because you’re meant to.” Wait, I wrote the letter from me now to my 15 year old self. Did I do that wrong? Whatever. Carry on.

9. We’re going trick or treating! What treats will you steal from my candy bag? Almond Joys all the way, baby! Also, Mounds, Heath bars, 100 Grand bars…and I will run you over for a Chunky bar because those are rare these days. I guess the real question should be, “What will you leave in my candy bag?” (Answer: Mary Janes, Mike & Ikes, and black Twizzlers)

10. Do you have a favorite color? What is it? Why? I adore the color red. To me, the color red is full of passion and energy. It’s my favorite color in general but also my favorite color to wear: I feel really good in it and people have told me I look good in it, so win-win!

11. How do you respond to telemarketers on the phone? It depends on what they’re selling. If they’re selling something for my house, like windows or services I don’t need, I lie and tell them that I rent and my landlord would be the decision-maker (that gets rid of them immediately). Anything else is usually covered by “I already have that”, “I already did that”, or “I can’t afford to do that right now” and if they don’t take “no” for an answer I’m very good at hanging up on them. My dad is much more entertaining when it comes to telemarketers. He has been known to say to them, “Will you be my friend? I’m lonely.”

And now you all know a bunch of new things about me, most of which haven’t ever been mentioned in the nearly 1800 posts I’ve written since Suburban Scrawl was born. Thank you for the award, Mari. I hope you don’t mind that I switched things up a little bit!