MayB has honored me with an award!

In receiving it, I am to say something nice about my man, list 6 ways I measure success in life, and then bestow the award upon 6 others.

About Rob: He takes things in stride and puts up with my shit. Also see here, an entire category comprised mostly of me saying nice things about him. Along with the occasional mocking.

About success: I don't have a good answer for this, frankly. I can't say I spend much time considering how to be Successful, or what that even means. I guess, in general, being successful to me is being on top of my shit, even if that's just small things: managing a busy schedule, keeping things organized, maintaining friendships, eating right, not killing anyone in my sleep. On a much broader scope, I suppose success to me is similar to happiness. I feel successful if I'm content with the life I'm living. I suppose what I strive for is Maslow's idea of self-actualization. I like to explore and grow, through travel or reading or trying something new. This is sometimes a struggle, as my biggest ideas can be thwarted by my fear of failure. And that I have a fear of failure is rather ironic considering I don't have a definition for success.

And now I'm pleased to recognize...

• Poop and Boogies - One of the best blogs I read. Humorous and human. I adore William and his entire family.
• Doc Ern - She's smart, strong, and sincere. And even though I've never met her, her posts are like letters from a good friend.
• What Was I Thinking? - Susie exudes grace, compassion, and humor no matter the situation. More than any other blogger, she has affected the way I view things, and I think everyone who reads her would say the same.
• Janasayqua - Jana's posts always make me smile. She's got a great way of portraying everyday moments. She also has the best blog name ever (although I won't say how long I read her before I figured it out...seems I'm not as smart as I'd like to think I am.)
• Simply Geeky - Great cook, awesome photographer, and also a computer geek. And she loves crossword puzzles. This is probably the woman Rob should have married. But anyway. Her blog is a reflection of her interests and is always fresh and fun.
• Fat Orange Cat - I love Karyn's style, and by that I mean both the items she creates and her aura. She's very cool, and her blog (and Etsy shop) has lots of beautiful things. Even her cats are ridiculously gorgeous.

(Those recognized should feel welcome but not obligated to participate.)

Thanks again to MayB! Her blog is also one that's worth a visit. I always enjoy her perspective, and lately she's been posting a daily list of things for which she's thankful. Also, she's Canadian. I love Canadians.

Over at Hit and Run I've been tagged for a meme in which I am supposed to list eight random things about myself...

• I have a favorite plate. Its pattern is more swirly than the rest in our set. When Rob sets the table, he knows to give me the swirly plate. If he forgets, I switch them.




• I love to scan barcodes. For this reason I am slightly addicted to self-checkout lanes. And those price-check kiosks at Target, which I might perhaps use every time I go to Target, just because I can.




• I get really grumpy when I get hungry. Like, beyond reasoning with. Rob claims there is a very small window of time (about 2.5 minutes) between when I am not at all hungry and when I am STARVING, and that the most important survival skill he has learned in this marriage is to "recognize the warning signs and act quickly."




• I only wear nude nail polish. You know, like the flesh-toned color they use for french manicures. I like how it makes nails look nicely finished but still natural. I don't think I've worn a real color on my fingernails since high school. I've always painted my toes with a maroon or deep rose, but just recently I've abandoned colors altogether. I have nothing against them on other people, but I don't like the look on myself.




• In the morning while driving to work, I can only listen to NPR. NPR is quiet and mellow; everything else is too loud and too damn perky. When Rob and I used to drive to work together, he liked to listen to some obnoxious morning show on the rock station, with lots of crude jokes and loud laughing and the people constantly shout-talking. It was all I could do on those mornings not to fling myself out the car door.




• I was a DJ for awhile at my college radio station. Doreen and I, and another friend, had a folk show.




• I grew up listening to country music, and so completely missed all 80s pop and rock music. The only time I ever heard any of those songs was when we went to the skating rink, and so as a result, I'll say, "Oh, this song reminds me of Skatetown!" about any 80s song I actually recognize. I don’t listen to country anymore, but I’ll never catch up on all I missed. Rob is still amazed when a classic rock/pop song comes on the radio and I swear I’ve never heard it before. But, name a Dolly Parton song and I can sing it.




• I go to great lengths to ignore people I know when I see them out and about. Unless you are in my very closest circle of friends or family, I will avoid you. I'll duck into an aisle or become very preoccupied with my cell phone to prevent us from having contact. It sounds snobby, but mostly it's just because I'm lazy - making inane chit-chat is such a pain in the ass.

I won't tag anyone, but feel free to play if the spirit moves you.

The Kept Woman tagged me as a blogger who makes her think in some way. (How John Stamos is not one of the things I make her think about, I have no idea. Clearly I'm not writing about him nearly enough.) Thank you for the honor, TKW.

In turn, I'm supposed to list five blogs that make me think:

Von Krankipantzen - I thought of Kranki immediately for this meme because her very way of thinking is one of the things I adore about her. She views the world with such wit. When I read about her life, I marvel at how I completely relate to her and yet, at the same time, how uniquely creative her perspective is. To get a glimpse inside her mind is a delight.

Crankopotamus - Dave makes me think about the moments. As you surely know by now, I love the little moments. And Dave writes about them in a way that really reaches me. He's a recent widower raising his 3 year-old son, and I've become quite smitten with both of them. You will, too.

mind the gap - Written in poetic prose, Anna's posts are always profound.

Superhero Journal - Sincere thoughts of a beautiful spirit. Andrea's musings actually make me consider how I can be a better person. Click through her archives for gorgeous photos and rich reflections.

big Alba - A different perspective.

(Those tagged may continue the meme, but are in no way obligated to do so.)

I've waited until now to post this because Rob and I are going on a trip and I thought I'd leave you with some folks to visit while we're gone. But don't wander off too far - I'm hoping to update some along the way.

So apparently some of you people are under the impression that I HATE Christmas. I have no idea what might have given you that idea, other than this post in which I might possibly have uttered the words "I hate Christmas." But you need to understand that I uttered those words to my mother, and that the "hate" part was really more for effect than anything. You know, to get her to hush. I think the holiday season is a perfectly lovely time of year - it's just that the older I get, the more of a pain in the ass it has become. Christmas is that relative you would miss if you never got to see her, but her once-a-year visit is almost too often. Like, if you saw her once every 18 months for no longer than 4 hours, that would be perfect, right? Yeah, that's how I feel about Christmas.

Anyway, if anyone can make this bah-humbug bitch feel festive, it's Susie. She has suggested that we swap recipes, traditions, gift ideas, and articles of clothing (I KNOW, right? Naughty!) in the spirit of the holidays. She admits this may be perceived as a tad dorky. Which it is. But hey, I can get down with the dorky.

Recipes

Here and here are two that I especially like for the holidays. I have a blog category just for recipes and so I'm keeping them separate from this post. Because I'm anal. Deal with it.

Traditions

Growing up, every year my parents gave my brother and I each an ornament. I mean, we got other stuff, too, but we always got an ornament. Often the ornament represented something about us - glass baby shoes when I was an infant, a piano when I was taking lessons, etc. Each one always had the date on it. And it sounds totally cheesy, but probably my favorite part of Christmas was bringing my box of ornaments down from the attic and pulling each one out and hanging them all on the tree. It was sorta a history of me, in ornaments. Yeah, totally cheesy, like I said.

Ever since we were little, my brother and I have super-wrapped one of the presents that we give each other. I'm talking layers and layers and layers of wrapping paper. With lots of tape. And sometimes multiple boxes. The rule is that the person opening the gift can't use scissors. A few years ago he completely bested me by wrapping the entire thing in DUCT TAPE. Awesome.

Celebrating on Christmas Eve is the tradition Rob and I started. Since both of our families are local, Christmas Day is always packed with family stuff. So we reserve Christmas Eve as our time, and I protect it viciously and everyone else knows better than to schedule any events for that evening. The two of us have a nice dinner together, at home, and then do the gift thing. And then the cats pounce on and run through and roll in the wrapping paper and it's all very "big happy family" but without the nuisance of kids or getting up early.

Then there is the tradition that Rob killed dead. Our first Christmas together I told him that in addition to presents we also had to do stockings. Because in my family, we have always done stockings. So I happily hung our Kelly and Rob stockings and before dinner on Christmas Eve, I stuffed his stocking with all the little stocking stuffers I had bought him. And after dinner I brought it out to him, proudly, and he was like, "Wait, you mean you were serious about the stocking thing? Really?!" And I looked over at my stocking to see that it was hanging limply, very much empty, very much abandoned. And I was like, "Um, WTF?" And while he apologized profusely and pretended to feel bad about it, I could tell that he thought the whole stocking thing was totally lame. And so I gave my goddamn stocking back to my mom and she continues to fill it each year.

Gifts

My "thing" is creative gift tags. One year I tied little wooden ornaments to the gifts and wrote the names on those. Last year I bought mini chalkboards and tied them to the packages with red ribbon and wrote the names in chalk. This year, I'm not telling. (Because I DON'T KNOW yet. Because I suck.)

The gifts I most like to give are handmade ones. The year I was into stained glass, I made some stained glass gifts. Totally stressed me out, but it was worth it. At the beginning of this year, I decided to take up knitting. I would love to give everyone stuff I've knitted, but at about the same time that I started knitting, I also started blogging. And as much as I like knitting, I like blogging WAY better and so there has been very little time devoted to knitting. As in, I'm still working on the scarf I started in February. Too bad I can't give everyone a little piece of my blog for Christmas...

Perhaps the best gift I've ever given was the winter coat that I stole from my dad, wrapped, and gave to him for Christmas. (See 9th paragraph of this post for complete story.)

Clothing

I don't have anything special I wear for Christmas or holiday events. Honestly. That is where I draw the dorky line. Well okay, so I do have a pair of snowflake undies I wear when it is supposed to snow. But they are Victoria's Secret, so officially not dorky.

Many thanks to Susie for organizing the first annual blog cookie exchange!