Fulfilling a promise: rewards before blogfest week

Hey! I'm here! I really am!

I promised in my last post, before I had a fairly long break, that I would give awards, tell some truths, and tell some lies. I didn't lie! Almost, but not quite! Because, of course, tomorrow is Simon C. Larter's PG Love scene blogfest. And if that had been my next post, then I wouldn't have done all of this. And then I would have lied. But since I didn't, no lies were spoken.

Do you follow? I hope so.

OK, so to start it off, all of my awards are on the side, or will be soon. If they aren't on the side, then they're in the previous few posts. First of all, I want to open up the Circle of Friends reward to all of my followers--I really am just so excited at the number of people who have added me to their reading list, and it's just so awesome...you are all lovely and friendly, and deserve it!

I actually have been stressing about who and how I want to award the rest to, so I want to give a shout out and re-award the other four ribbons (Creative Writer award, Sugar Doll award, One Lovely Blog award and Lesa's Bald Faced Liar Creative Writer award) first of all to the four lovely people who gave them to me--whichever you so choose to take, gals, because I think you're all wonderful, talented and fun to follow:

Elle Straus
Amalia T.
Karen Amanda Hooper and
Stephanie Thornton

Sorry that I don't have more to hand out--I'd love to give back more, but I'm afraid I only have the five for you to gather and choose from, although I think you mostly all have all of them.

Then, I want to also especially *hug* and hand out the Sugar Doll award to some especially sweet blogging buddies. This goes to Jon Paul, who made me smile with his comments, Tricia @ Tailspinning, who is so wonderful and welcoming in her blogging ways, Shannon Messenger, who was one of the first to add me, and who makes me laugh with her Shannon shame, and Laura Canon, whose blog has a quiet quality, but is interesting.

Now, as for my truths/lies, the only thing I remember I'm supposed to do. I've sort of shortened it, because I need all the time I can get to prepare for the two upcoming blogfests this week (one hosted by Jon Paul on St. Patty's Day, when I perform the Highland Fling at work): here are my four lies and four truths. Which is which?

1. We traveled a lot when I was younger, and so I have been to 48 of the United States, as well as several other countries.
2. One of the states I haven't been to is Louisiana. Another is Hawaii.
3. I am allergic to fur, but I have had some very interesting pets...among them, a snake, several frogs (Hoppy, Junior, Carla and Sadie), at least a dozen goldfish, and now I have a pet pig, Wilbur. I know, kind of unimaginative, but he really looked like a Wilbur!
4. If I could, I would ballroom dance professionally for the rest of my life. I teach some, though I'm by no means like the professionals. I briefly considered trying to get on a soap opera so ABC would contact me to go on Dancing With the Stars.
5. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn't know for sure, usually. I had several ideas throughout my life: I wanted to be an angel, a Barbie doll, a mermaid, an artist, a marine biologist (for about a week), and then by the time I turned 13, I knew I wanted to write. Who knows which of these is most attainable.
6. I love to color--especially with crayons. The look of the wax, they way they smell, the way they write on paper--it's magical!
7. Kirsten Dunst walked right by me at work one day, and though I smiled at her and saw her, I had no idea it was her until later, when one of my coworkers started to talk about how nice she was.
8. I have a twin brother. We're really close, and finish each other's sentences and all that behavior people think is typical of twins (it's not always). But we don't look anything alike, so most people get really confused when we're around, and we always have to convince them that we're related. Oh, well.

So! Which is true, and which is false? There are four of each. Have fun....

A few loose ends, which aren't completely tied

Hello! It's been a while!

I think everyone has been posting such lovely exciting stuff. Contests, like Elle Strauss' new agent contest (congrats!), Amber Murphy hosting a B-Day giveaway (Happy Birthday!), and Sara McClung's March Madness thing-a-ma-bob (Hooray?)! (I think this is all of the ongoing ones I know of, right now.) Tons of award-giving and lying and truth telling. Lots of discussion. And many upcoming Blogfests!

And I haven't even thanked the very sweet Stephanie Thornton @ Hatshepsut for giving me such a tres awesome award:

Thanks, ever so! I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this! Really! It made my day. :)

And, I still haven't passed on any of my awards...not one. I'm starting to feel guilty. I think, gosh, everyone already has one!

So...in my next post...I will go through and gift all of my awards. All five, I should say. And too bad if you already have it! I'm giving it again. :) And I'll do some lies and some truths and will try to remember other such things. So stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, one little shout-out to a pretty interesting blog post I read today: Amalia T.'s post is on heroes. And it's awesome. And I want to talk about heroes till I'm blue in the face right now, because I get all worked up about the whole concept, the idea of them, how they work in narrative and all that. Yep. I believe the term is geek out?

So check everything out...and have fun in blogland. (Blogdom?)

Happy Tuesday, all.

Things I'm thankful for

I know it's not Thanksgiving right now, but I find that I am suddenly thankful for many things. So, I made a list for your viewing enjoyment. 

1. First of all, I am thankful for the fact that I have some (several) things to post about! First of all is a great big thanks to Karen Amanda Hooper for giving me two, count 'em, two awards (with some other swell bloggers). Squee! I felt all warm and toasty inside.

Thanks, Karen! Which means I will have to pass them on. And I haven't passed on any awards, yet, because I just haven't been sure to whom and how I want to do so! Especially so new to the blogging world, really. I know, if you look at my blog, you'll see it was established in 2007 or so...but sincerely, I blogged three times and decided to give up. And then I just changed my mind. So really, I am new. Thanks to you--and to all my followers. And yes, I'll pass these awards on soon...I swear!

2. I am very thankful that Simon C. Larter got himself into the situation where he is ever so slightly grudgingly hosting a PG love scene blogfest! To air March 15. Because, as he said, that worked well for Caesar. I'm a little bit concerned as to how he thinks this blogfest will turn out, comparatively.

3. I am thankful he pointed me to Laurel's upcoming Whoops! Blogfest. Whoops! I have to find something to post for it ASAP!

4. I am thankful for Peanut Butter, unless I eat too much of it, which has happened in the past. It's just so good! Especially the Smuckers variety.

5. I am thankful for...my friends...and family...and other things one would normally be thankful for.

6. I am thankful to join a community of writers online!

7. Finally, I am thankful that it is starting to be springtime, and that soon I can wear skirts and not worry about freezing my legs off!

That's my list. I'm thankful about many other things as well, but of course, those are the main things.

What are you all thankful for?

Awards (thanks!) and challenges

OK. So. A few things to discuss, today.

First is a great big thank you to Elle Strauss for giving me this lovely Circle of Friends award! She said it would warm me up, and though my fingers are cold, she is so totally right. Her blog is pretty interesting, by the way, and would be fun to check out, if you haven't, yet. She has lots of great thoughts about writing.

So, I suppose I should pass this along...along with the award that Amalia T. gave to me a while (Lovely Blog Award).Which I will do...eventually. So many people deserve these awards, and I'm just so touched to be included in the giving. I just can't decide who to give them to! So. That will come eventually.

Secondly, I want to discuss writing challenges, and challenges in general.

I was looking at Kate from The Neverending Shelf's blog today, and she is starting a mini challenge. I keep getting excited over these challenges--the Kiss blogfest, the No-Kiss blogfest, an upcoming Love-at-First-Sight blogfest that I signed up for...somewhere. (I can't remember! But I do remember it's on the 14th of February. Perfect for V-Day, right?)

Here's a link to this new mini challenge: Read a bunch of books, and then clear out the ones you won't be reading again. Clear the Clutter! Perfect for me and my library of books, which, as much as I love them, are sort of also my bane. Seriously. Do you know how heavy it is to move boxes and boxes of books?

I have to sift through and decide which ones I want to read, but I will be posting that soon...and then...hopefully...sticking to the challenge. Which I have some time for--two months, I think?

I love this challenge especially, because it's coming at the beginning of the year, and I feel that this fits into my goals for the New Year--to downsize, to simplify, to create peace. It feels lovely just to think about it!

Anyway. That's all, for now--break's over. Back to work.

Sweating Bullets--update--and award!

Hello!

This post is to serve two parts. One, to thank Amalia T. for granting me an award! I am so honored! The other to update you on yesterday's uneventful post.

Let's start with the first.
 
Amalia T., my wonderful friend and fellow-blogger, and writing buddy, gave me this award, today: One Lovely Blog! I am so honored. Amalia and I have known each other for some time, and have been writing buddies for some time, too. She has helped me with my writing, and has been encouraging to me with everything. But more than that, she is a wonderful friend, and I am lucky to count her as one!

And now for the second: the update.

Yesterday's class was... interesting. I couldn't get one of the microphones to work, and then at the beginning of class, the microphone's pouch (like a fanny pack) fell off! And I had to try and fix it (the strap unwound from the snap) right in the middle of everything.

But...it was okay.

Really! I mean, sure, it could have gone better...but--not just through the power of positive thinking!--it was seriously not bad. I had about 50, 55 people--a huge class! Almost too many. But they had fun--I had people smiling, sweating and jumping. And it was awesome! I felt so good when the class was done!

So, it has to be uphill from here, right?