A Liebster!

How fun is this?! Sean and Amanda over at His and Her Hobbies nominated me for a Liebster Award, and I am so flattered! 

Here's how this works: You get nominated by a blogger (in order to be eligible, you have to have fewer than 200 followers). Then you get to share 11 random facts about yourself, and answer 11 questions posed to you by the person(s) who nominated you. THEN, you get to nominate 11 other people and ask them 11 questions. And then a bunch of questions and random facts later, everybody knows everybody a lot better. Yay!

So to start - 11 random facts about yours truly:

1. I have some pretty terrible circulation, which means my hands, and especially my feet, are always freezing cold. 
2. I have been in nine car accidents in my life. I was only driving in two of them, and only one of them could be considered my fault (even though I still maintain that it wasn't). I did manage to total both cars I was driving though, so you know...there is that. 
3. I was 17 when I had my first kiss. 
4. I used to have the BIGGEST crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Those baby blues....mmmm MMM. My dad liked to call him Timmy Tyler Tomlinson to make fun of me. And the fact that he went by all three names. 
5. I am ridiculously uncoordinated. I try, I really do, but for some reason, I just can't seem to make my arms and legs and everything all work together the way my head tries to get them to. I always end up looking like one of those poor kids still in puberty who hasn't grown into their body yet, which is just stupid, because I already did puberty once, and it sucked, and I'm 29 years old for crying out loud, so can't I just be graceful already??
6. I have a really hard time coming up with 11 random things about myself because I'm really not that interesting! 
7. I don't make friends easily. As a result, I don't have very many. Sometimes that gets lonely. 
8. I absolutely hate - HATE - winter and all things associated with it (except Christmas - I LOVE Christmas). I don't like cold, or snow, or days that are gray and cloudy, or ice, or slippery roads, or early sunsets, or any of those things. I am definitely someone who suffers from SAD. Definitely. 
9. I want to be healthy and toned and all that, but I really don't like working out. I don't like being all sweaty and out of breath. Hopefully, this will change in the coming months, since one of the things I want to work on next year is getting more healthy. I hear that endorphins make a pretty powerful drug, so hopefully I'll be "addicted" to that shortly. 
10. I used to hate eggs. Like, hate them so much that just the thought of them, the smell of them, was enough to make my gag. A few months ago, however, Boyfriend made me an egg sandwich after a particularly hot and grueling walk/run one morning. It was the yolky kind of egg - I don't know what that's called. But anyway, I surprised myself by finding it delicious. And now I make egg sandwiches like that for myself. 
11. And speaking of things I don't like, I hate seafood. Anything that swims is basically disgusting to me. But I keep trying - once a year, at least, I try shrimp, or fish, or lobster, or crab, or whatever. I have found myself liking the shrimp a couple of times in certain ways, but not so much any of the other things. 

And now on to the questions!! 

1. Why did you start blogging?
   I started blogging because my life had just turned completely upside down. I needed some kind of an outlet. I had been reading blogs for a while, I just decided that maybe blogging would be a good idea. I would have loved to write everything down in a journal, but for some reason I just haven't been able to do that yet. So I figure out other ways to tame the chaos in my brain. 
2. Do you have any pets? If so, what kind?
   No, I don't have any pets right now. I used to be an anti-pet person, but ever since I lived with my sister and Snarfles, all I want in life is a puppy. Okay, that's not really all I want in life, but I definitely really do want a puppy. 
3. What is your favorite thing about your job?
   I like the flexibility that comes with working for myself. 
4. What is your favorite destressing activity?
   I think that depends on the kind of stress I'm experiencing. Sometimes I will stress eat, and sometimes I stress starve (both incredibly healthy options, obviously. #sarcasmfont). Sometimes I have dance parties with myself. Sometimes I just need to create something. But when it's really bad, I like to go for long drives - I turn the music up, roll the windows down (even when it's cold), and just drive.
5. How do you spend a typical day off from work?
   Reading, blogging, catching up on TV shows (or rewatching shows I love), going for walks.
6. What is your favorite city?
   Las Vegas, hands down. I love that place, and I miss it like you wouldn't believe. 
7. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
   Um... I'd eat at Hu Hot for the rest of my life. Does that count? Otherwise, I'd probably say apples. 
8. If you had a time machine, what would be the first place and time you would visit?
   Well shoot, if I can go to unlimited times and places, I'd visit the town where Boyfriend grew up, and see what he was like in high school. He'd probably yell at me for saying that and tell me it would be a waste of a trip, but I think it would be interesting. Plus I bet he was just adorable, and that would be fun to see. 
9. What movie would you like to see have a sequel or a remake?
   Pitch Perfect. Although I hear that's already got one in the works, so I'll pick uhhh..... Crazy, Stupid Love, instead. And not a remake, but a sequel. Mostly because I want to see Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling together because they're like, a completely adorable movie couple. 
10. If you could choose any book, TV show, or movie character as your new best friend, who would you choose? HOLY CRAP THIS QUESTION IS TOO HARD DO I HAVE TO PICK ONLY ONE?? Hannah from Crazy, Stupid Love. Jo March from Little Women. Kathleen Kelley from You've Got Mail. Joe Fox from You've Got Mail. Or mostly any character Tom Hanks ever plays. Or Mark Wahlberg, except his character in Fear, because he was creepy there. SEE? IT'S HARD TO PICK!!
11. What one song would you never want to hear again?
    Pretty much any song on Miley's latest album except "Wrecking Ball". (Sorry to everybody who likes her...just kidding, I'm not sorry at all.)
    

And the nominees are...

Karly @ Good Enough to Read

Kari @ Not Quite Ginger

Brittany @ Life Changes

Justine @ Sleepy Single Girl

Sarah @ To Be Mrs. Collier

Lauren @ Sophisticated Sass

Kelli @ She Crab Soup

Rachel @ Raves & Revelations

Kaylee @ With Love and Heartness

And actually I don't know too many bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, so you only get 9 nominations instead of 11. Please be sure to check out all of the amazing bloggers I nominated - they are all so much fun to get to know. 

I'd work for that

A long time ago, the lovely Erin wrote a post about things that she would accept as “payment” for work that aren’t money. I thought it was an awesome idea, and even though I’m like totally late to the party, I still kind of wanted to get in on it.

** Side note: PLEASE go check out Erin’s blog. She is hilarious, and witty, and has a great knack for decorating in colors that I just adore. So basically you guys should all be friends with her. Mmkay? Mmkay.

Back to the topic at hand. It was really fun to think about this stuff, I might add. I just kind of let my mind wander to all the awesome things I love and got totally carried away, and are there really many things at all that are more fun than that? I think not.

So here’s a list of things I would accept for work I do, instead of a regular paycheck.

-         - An unlimited budget to Target, Ikea, Lululemon, Amazon, and iTunes. I think between those five places, I could pretty much get everything I’d ever need.
-         ONE of the following vehicles (I don’t need all three, that would just be greedy): A Porsche Cayenne, a Range Rover, or a Nissan Murano.

-         - Free weekly mani/pedi/massage days.

-         - An eidetic memory.

-         - An ability to see things with an “artist’s eye” and recreate it via painting, photography, sketching, etc.

-         - This bag. 

{source}

-        -  My own personal stylist/nutritionist/grocery shopper/hairdresser. They don’t all have to be the same person, I just want somebody doing all of those things.

-         - Manolo Blahnik and Christian Loubitan shoes. *swoon* 


 - A beach home and a mountain home. Preferably somewhere in Hawaii, and Denver, respectively. Although I’d take a mountain home in the Smokies, too. I’m not too picky. 

-       - The ability to actually know/write HTML and CSS codes. I have tried to teach myself and stuff, but I really just end up messing everything up whenever I try. *sigh*
-         - Unlimited printer cartridges and paper. Those things are expensive.

-         - Unlimited bottles of red wine. I don’t need the super expensive stuff, either…I’d take Apothic Red, Barefoot Sweet Red, whatever. Like I said….I’m not picky. J

-         - Flight vouchers so I could go and see my family/friends all over the country whenever I want.

What would YOU work for if you weren’t getting a paycheck?

I've got it all in the bag...

So there have been a bunch of “What’s in my Bag” posts floating around lately. Mostly, they seem to be women who have their shit totally and completely together, and are organized to a fault. So since I’m not even remotely like that, I wasn’t interested in hopping on board the train.

But then Sarah did a hilarious post about it, and then Shannon informed me that she had written one like, a year ago and a half ago, way back before it was cool, and then I was like, oh, well if these two hooligans did it, and it was funny, then I suppose I can do one too. (And no, this isn't technically about wallets or anything, even though *spoiler alert* there is a wallet in my purse.) 

And here we are.

So here’s a picture of my purse from above. It doesn’t look too terribly disorganized, does it?

And then here’s a picture of all of the crap from inside my purse, unceremoniously dumped out on my desk at work.

And the best part is that basically, even though that looks like a sort of small-ish pile, there are all kinds of hidden gems in there.

So here’s a list. Since I know you’re beyond curious.

·         1 mini sample tube of Aquaphor that I got at the Prairie du Chien Half Marathonand 5k race two years ago

·         1 tube of lip gloss

·         The spare key to my car

·         A random key that goes to something, I’m sure, I just don’t know what.

·         A planner

·         A notebook. For all my notes that I rarely take.

·         My kindle. I’m like Rory Gilmore – I have to take a book with me everywhere I go.

·         48 cents in random spare change

·         3 pens, 2 Sharpie pens, and 2 actual Sharpies (except one’s a mini Sharpie)

·         A tire pressure gauge.

·         A nail file/emery board. (Are they the same thing, or is a file the metal one?)

·         A pair of headphones with a microphone so I can talk on my phone with headphones in my ears cuz I’m wicked cool like that

·         A random piece of gum

·         2 different perfumes

·         A ¾ finished post-it note pad

·         An actual container of gum, from which the aforementioned random piece must have fallen out

·         A granola bar

·         A mini banana type hair clip thing

·         My wallet

·         A coin purse that is ridiculously heavy with lots of quarters for laundry. And pennies.

·         My entrance pin from when Boyfriend and I went to the Walker Art Museum on V-Day

·         1 bobby pin

·         2 hair ties

·         4 snap hair clips

·         A taco bell receipt from like 3 weeks ago

·         A full water bottle

·         A Netflix movie I keep forgetting to put in the mail

·         My old insurance card that isn’t even valid anymore

·         7 napkins (apparently I’m messy)

·         3 mini post-it notes with random movie times scribbled on them

·         A receipt from Caribou Coffee from so long ago that I can’t read the date anymore

·         Two recipes – one for buffalo chicken pizza, and one for buffalo fries.

·         A half-finished grocery list

·         A coupon for $1.50 off a box of trash bags at target

·         2 pairs of sunglasses

·         1 pair of regular glasses in a case

·         A package of dental flossers/picks

·         Cough drops

·         Iphone charger

·         Hand sanitizer

So now that you all know everything I'm carting around with me on the daily...it's your turn to spill.