Liebster Award

Oh my goodness!! I got nominated for a Liebster Award by the lovely Addison Greene! I humbly accept! How cool is that?! Thank you so much, Addison!! Everyone go visit her! I think her blog entry called A Road Trip Through Childhood was the first entry of hers I read, and I knew I’d be going back for more. She has an enjoyable blog where she writes about travel, which is a compelling subject for me, since I seem to regularly have this sense of wanderlust.

To learn more about the award, I went ahead and googled the official rules which are summarized as follows:

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Why I Started Blogging

Hannah over at Cats and Coffee made a list of blogging ideas! I’ve been enjoying her blog, and thought I’d use one of her listed topics for today’s post. (Thanks Hannah!)

Note: There are currently NO affiliate links in this post, I haven’t set any of that up yet. I just linked a bunch of stuff for the sole purpose of sharing it with anyone who comes across it!
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Why did I start blogging?

In March of 2001, my then-boyfriend-now-husband, Joe, said to me, “Hey, have you ever heard of this site called LiveJournal? I think it’s something you might really like.”

And it was all over from there!

It wasn’t surprising I fell in love with it, as I’d always loved the ideas of stories, journals, diaries, this completely private divulging of one’s deepest thoughts. As a child, I was privy to just a few diaries. Two nonfiction – the diary of Anne Frank, and the diary of Zlata Filipovic, the diary of a teenage girl living through the war in Sarajevo. Also as a teen (as in just barely 13 I believe), I read a fictional diary, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. That is not a kid’s book! But I just snuck it off the large bookshelf in my brother’s room and was quite fascinated!

And of course, part of my fascination with other peoples’ diaries was the fact that I’d been keeping my own for so long. I believe my first one was my Snoopy diary in second grade (excerpt here), and then I moved onto my pink, green, and blue-paged Lisa Simpson diary next, and it simply continued from there!

Just Write

I wish I could remember where I heard it first, but I recall reading that one way to overcome anxiety in social situations is to just say, “Oh man, I’m nervous.” Something about letting it be stated out loud actually alleviates the anxious feelings.

So, here it is: I’m nervous to actually write more in this blog!

Why? I don’t know. Does anxiety ever make sense??

I think part of it is my perfectionism. My inner critic has me believing all kinds of shenanigans. I say things to myself such as: well, all these other successful bloggers have their awesomely branded and well advertised blogs, I should be like that before I really get started. Before I really get started, I should have the right template, the perfect name (is this the name I’ll want to keep for the blog, and if it isn’t, shouldn’t I re-brand before I start writing a lot of posts?). Before I really get started writing, I ought to sign up for ads, or affiliate links, I should know my focus, I should have a niche, I should find my truest writing voice, I should, I should, I should… And then before I know it, I’m should-ing all over myself!!

My Week in Haiku

i.
Summer has arrived.
The sun doesn’t set ’til ten.
It is pretty weird.

ii.
My kid was screaming
Because I didn’t let him
Touch the hot burner.

iii.
My dog barks a lot.
Why are you yelling at that
Other dog, Ashton?

iv.
We had plans to craft:
DIY deodorant.
Instead we drank beer.

v.
Dog likes the dog park.
My kid, however, doesn’t.
Fetch was fun, it seemed.

vi.
Frequently I ask
Am I doing these things right?
As if there’s one way.

vii.
If I keep asking
‘Should I be in therapy?’
The answer is yes.

viii.
Sometimes I hide from
My own kid and everyone.
I need alone time.

ix.
Sometimes it’s hard to
Believe we even live here
I love Mt. Rainier.

A Story by Seven Year Old Me

The following is a story I wrote in second grade. I earned a ribbon for second place, too, I think, in the school wide creativity contest for the Literary category. I decided to re-type it for your reading pleasure. I’m including all errors and adding a few notes at the end, indicated in bold. For ease of reading, I am adding in line breaks, but it’s worth noting that there is only a single (completely random and seemingly accidental) line break in the original. (Which I’ve included, just for the hell of it!)

The contest rules were it had to be written completely by the student, and I took that responsibility very seriously. Not only did I create the story, I typed the entire thing myself. It took me two days (I think four hours total). It’s about a page and a quarter long, single spaced! I was inspired by real life events. I had gone to a pet shop with my mom and loved looking at the puppies. I wanted one, but Mom said no, and as we left, these two girls were looking at the puppies, and Mom said, “Who knows, maybe those girls will give them a good home!” And thus, this story was born…