The Sunshine Award {Sort Of}

This post is long overdue (sorry, NJ!) but better late than never, right? I'm also going to profess lameness in that I can't think of 11 bloggers to nominate. So, I'm going to half-ass this the best I can! 

I don't know why this is called The Sunshine Award but I like to think it's because the nominating bloggers bring a little sunshine to our corners of the internet. So, my task is to share 11 random facts about myself (let's see if I can come up with something new!), then answer 11 questions posed by my nominating blogger, NJ at A Cookie Before Dinner. Like NJ, I'll also throw in some nice pictures for you to look at. 

11 Random Facts About Myself

Stella, juicing apples for cider. 

1. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost every day when I was in middle and high school, for lunch. Before that, it was jelly and cream cheese sandwiches. 
2. I'm terrible at keeping house and have to work hard to not let my house turn into a total pig sty. 
3. I'm terrible at multitasking. I can do it but I never do anything well when I try. 
4. I took independent study English in tenth grade because I didn't want to be in a regular English class. 
5. The first semester of tenth grade, I studied Zora Neale Hurston and fell in love with Harlem Renaissance literature. 
6. The second semester of tenth grade, I studied Beat Generation literature. 
7. I have an entire living room wall (okay, it's a small wall) of Beat Generation-related images, including a giant movie poster for What Happened to Kerouac?, given to me by my stepmother, Wendy, who knows me too well. 
8. Wendy also gave me a signed, hardcover, first edition of a collection of Ginsberg poems. 
9. My 11th grade Humanities project was a study of the American Dream theme in... beat generation literature. (Are you sensing a pattern here? An obsession, maybe?) 
10. I was on the local news when Ginsberg died. I read a poem I wrote about him, at a memorial event held at a local club in Albany. I have no idea where my copy of the poem is now. Wish I did, though!
11. I didn't mean to turn this into a Beat-themed list, so here's something different: this one time, What Not To Wear called me after my sister and I submitted each other's names to be on the show. But I wasn't home when they called and my sister told them I couldn't do it. Yes, I still hold a slight grudge. It's my only grudge, really. What does that say about my priorities? 

Micah, accidentally waving to Alice in the pool during her swim lesson. 

NJ's 11 Questions

1. If you could only eat one type of ethnic food for the rest of your life what would it be and why? Indian food! It's warming, filling and fills all my carby needs while also being pretty healthy. Also, it's usually cheap and easy to make at home. 
2. Who is the last person you chatted with on the phone? I don't talk on the phone but I do text a lot, and the last person I texted with was my friend Anna-Bain. 
3. What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid? Bonus points here for a picture ! I had an astronaut costume that I wore all the time but I don't know if I actually wore it on Halloween... in any case, I don't remember any of my costumes and to this day, I'm still not a costume person! 
4. If you’re married, where did you honeymoon? If you’re not married, where do you dream of going? We took our honeymoon in Italy. We spent two weeks there, mostly in Todi at our friend's villa, bookended by a couple of days in Rome. We are making slow plans to go back with our kids, my mom, and my sister's family. 
5. What is your favorite pair of shoes and why? My leather boots. I always feel put together when I wear them, even though they are completely worn out. 
6. Coffee or tea? Both, actually. I need at least a cup of coffee a day but my favorite hot drink is hot water with lemon, honey and ginger, which I drink throughout the day when it's cold out. 
7. What movie could you watch over and over? The Thing Called Love, with Samantha Mathis and River Phoenix. Please don't laugh at me. Runners-Up: Dazed and Confused and Labryinth
8. What does your ideal day look like? A day where I accomplish everything on my mental To-Do list. 
9. Do you speak a foreign language? If not, which would you be most interested in learning? Nope. I know a little Spanish but not enough to be conversant. I wish I were more fluent!
10. What is the latest “big” life goal you’ve accomplished? Ugh. I'm skipping this one. I don't have any big life goals, really. 
11. What is your favorite holiday? Sounds corny but any holiday that involves sitting around a table with my family. 

Alice and her cousin are best buds. 

Passing the Liebster Torch

Another part of accepting the Liebster is nominating 11 other bloggers, with less than 200 followers. But, I don't read that many blogs and of the ones I do read, the followship is pretty large. Having said that, I did come up with three blogs that I enjoy reading and that I think have less than 200 followers (though I could be wrong...) and it just so happens that I know all three in real life.
Instead of nominating these bloggers, I'm just going to share them with you, dear reader, and maybe you'll discover some new bloggers to add to your feed, and of course, I would love it if they wrote a post listing 11 things people might not know about them (my favorite kind of meme!).

1. M. Alynn/Old Soul Life I know and love Michelle in real life! Her husband is an old buddy of my husband. We've crashed with them in Vancouver, and they've crashed with us in NYC. I love Michelle's design aesthetic and I always enjoy reading about her adventures, her life as a student and living in Vancouver. 
2. Speaking of Vancouverites, this next blogger is a transplant from my hometown and she was actually my camp counselor! Kim Werker is what I would call a professional crafter. She's known in the industry for her work in crochet, but in the past few years, she's written a lot on her blog about creativity, being in the business of creativity and how to carve out a niche for yourself that balances professional success with remaining true to a love of your craft. I am always interested in reading what she has to say. 
3. Last but not least, is A Cookie Before Dinner, written by my friend NJ. Her blog is honest, painfully so at times, and always thoughtful. Plus her kid is adorable. 

This wraps up my series on the Liebster. Thanks again to Caitlin for nominating me! Her questions gave me a lot to think about, and the challenge of coming up with 11 things people might not know about me was a great writing exercise-- I never realized I had so many potential stories to tell!

PS In case you're curious, the blogs I read daily, or whenever they come up in my reader are:

1. Cup of Jo
2. Sweet Fine Day
3. Dear Baby
4. Bleubird Vintage
5. Soulemama
6. Amalah
7. Door Sixteen
8. Marriage Confessions
9. The Joy of Caitlin
10. Tamara Like Camera

Accepting the Liebster!

When Caitlin first blogged about being nominated for a Liebster and started rolling out her own nomination-- I'm not going to lie-- I was secretly hoping I'd get a nomination. And I did! My first blogger award ever, and from an awesome person, to boot. To accept the award, I need to answer 11 questions that Caitlin came up with, plus nominate 11 bloggers myself and come up with my own questions. 

So, taking a cue from Caitlin, I'll start off by answering her questions, then roll out my nominations over the next few weeks. (What? I'm busy! Or something...) 

1. Where on earth do you feel the most yourself? Probably in my own house. I suffer from a neurotic fear of judgment from others. 

2. What is your favorite quality in a friend? Hilarity. Seriously, the people I'm good friends with are the people that make me laugh and make me feel good about myself. 

3. Best sandwich you ever ate. This is a hard one because I love sandwiches! Last night, I had a caramelized onion and mushroom grilled cheese from a food truck at my girls' preschool fundraiser. It was pretty damn good.  Probably my all-time favorite sandwich is tied between this Green Grilled Cheese from Full Belly Sisters and this dessert concoction that a friend used to make for a group of us after a night of debauchery-- it involved peanut butter, chocolate and a lot of butter. 

4. Window or aisle? Window. Here's a little known fact about me. I'm a champion pee holder and I almost never need to pee when I'm flying. So I sit by the window so I don't have to deal with people climbing over me. 

5. Favorite mistake. Oh, man. I've made a lot of these... where to begin? My favorite  mistakes probably happen in the kitchen, when I end up with something delicious despite doing it all wrong!

6. What is your dream date night? If money were no object, a dream date would involve heading down to the city, starting with dinner at a new restaurant, then gallivanting around the city to various art and drink venues, before getting to sleep in the next  morning at a fancy hotel, and brunch, of course. 

7. What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be an astronaut until I was 5 and saw the shuttle explode on TV. 

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Involved in the education field, in some way. I was already a teacher, and while I loved working with my kids, I hated the administrative aspects of it. I would love to be working for an education policy organization or think tank, doing research and writing policy papers. 

9. Best advice ever given to you. Look at the donut, not the hole. (Thanks, Dad!!) 

10. Worst advice ever given to you. I can't answer this because I block out the bad advice I've been given, especially if the results were disastrous. LOL. 

11. Best advice you can give. Be a good person and have faith. Everything turns out okay in the end.