An Effing Ray of Sunshine

Hey, Y’all…so it seems I’ve been nominated by two of my fellow bloggers for awards. I don’t actually get a trophy or anything, but I get to post the emblems on my blog and then pay it forward to some of my favorite bloggers.

Today, I’ll feature the first one I was nominated for, which was The Sunshine Blogger Award.

Sunshine Blogger Award

I know. Someone actually thinks I’m a ray of fucking sunshine. Thank you, River over at Rivers World for nominating me. I don’t know if I’m really all that Sunshiney, but I’ll do my best not to disappoint.

Rules:

Thank the Blogger that nominated you. Done!

Answer the questions. M’kay.

Nominate new blogs to receive the award and in this case, ask them to list 5 to 10 random facts about themselves. I think almost everyone I know has already been nominated but I’ll think about it while I’m doing this, ok?

List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award in your post/or blog. Yep. Right here.

Notify the nominees about it by commenting on their blog post. Jesus. Can we just get on with it?

So I guess I need to list my random facts. Here they are in no particular order:

Random Fact 1: When I’m not binge-watching something on Netflix or Hulu, I’m usually watching Andy Griffith, Gomer Pyle, and Green Acres because that is what The Husband Dude defaults to.

Of course, I’m still me. I watch Andy Griffith like I’m watching The Real Housewives of Mayberry.

Me: That Clara. She’s such a bitch.

The Husband Dude: Why is that?

Me: She’s always stirring shit up with Aunt Bee and getting her upset.
She needs to go back to canning her award winning pickles and shut the fuck up.

THD:

Random Fact 2: When I was in the Sixth Grade, I got a letter from Ronald Reagan.

Well, actually…we were assigned to write a letter to Ronald Reagan, who was President at the time. We had to write a letter to him asking him to help stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, as we were still in the last decade of The Cold War and movies like The Day After were scaring us into realizing just how shitty it would be if we all nuked each other.

The whole class wrote letters but only a handful of us got responses. They were very generic, typed letters thanking us for being good citizens, yada yada yada with a rubber stamp signature from The Gipper himself and an autographed picture of him riding a horse on his ranch. I’m sure I still have it somewhere.

Random Fact 3: I love store bought white cake with buttercream frosting. I know we’re “supposed” to prefer homemade anything over store bought anything, and usually I do. White cake, though, is my exception.

Maybe it’s because as a child, my mother was a good baker but she just didn’t enjoy doing it, so she bought all of our birthday cakes from Greggerson’s Cake Cottage in El Paso. Yes, I’m giving them free publicity because their cakes are THE BOMB! Or at least they were when I was growing up and all the way into my twenties. Plus, they decorated them literally any way my mother would request from Dallas Cowboys football for my brother to Miss Piggy for me. I hope their cakes are still as good as I remember!

Random Fact 4: I hate fish. Not to look at, but to eat. I’m not opposed to seafood altogether. I love shrimp and scallops and crab. I can eat tuna if it’s slathered in mayonnaise in tuna salad. I just can’t eat fish. No salmon. No bass. No tilapia. None of it. I do not like it fried or baked. I do not like poached or broiled. I do not like it Sam-I-am. I do not like fish in a pan.

See what I did there?

Random Fact 5: I have always been a writer. I learned how to read when I was four years old, and I would devour any book I could get my hands on. Of course, at age four, most books are picture books with a few words on each page. When I got tired of reading those words, I would make up my own stories to go with pictures and tell them to myself.

My mother used to joke that she never had to keep a very close eye on me when I was little. All she had to do was listen and she knew what room I was in because I was talking to myself. What she didn’t know was that “talking” she always heard was actually me telling myself stories that I was making up.

I can remember in early elementary school, folding up notebook paper like it was a book and then drawing pictures and writing stories to go with those pictures. By the time I was in high school, I graduated from these little picture books I wrote for myself to writing full-on novel length stories that I hand wrote and kept in giant three-ring binders.

I entertained my friends by writing a chapter and bringing it for them to read. My best friend at the time did the same thing, so we entertained each other with the latest chapter of our stories. I was pretty sure at that time that I was going to be the next “smutty” author, like Jackie Collins. Especially after I stayed up all night one time, reading my mother’s old hardback copy of Valley of the Dolls. I was sure I could do that.

Ahhhh…youthful confidence!

Yes, I still have all those “books” I wrote. No, you will never get to read them. They are safely tucked away, never to see the light of day again. A friend of mine a while back told me I could probably tweak them a little and publish them independently.

Honey, a meth-head couldn’t tweak that much. A fourteen year old writing about romance and sex is just a recipe for really cringe-worthy fiction.

Fifty Shades of No Way José!

Ok…so now I’m supposed to nominate some bloggers for this award. I honestly don’t know if all of you have received a nomination or not, so if you’ve already been nominated, just ignore this.

Lori at Come Hell Or Highwater Blog. You write some really deep and dark stuff, because that’s what life is about sometimes, but you also give strength and hope to people who suffer from anxiety, depression, and a host of other afflictions. Plus, your posts about The Male Sibling Unit are freaking hilarious, so I’m nominating you for this award!

Sarah over at Fresh Hell. I love your quirky poems! I usually come away from your blog smiling and when I met you in person, your smile was infectious. I don’t know if you’ve already been nominated, but I’m nominating you!

Katie at Fatty McCupcakes. You are a younger, cuter version of me and you are my spirit animal. I always relate to and laugh at your blog posts, and I’m jealous of your travels. I nominate you!

Amy and Adie. I’m not posting your blogs because I know you’re both transitioning and changing things up, but I want you to know that I nominate you. If you choose to participate, that’s up to you! Just know I love your writing (both of you!) 

Thanks again to River over at River’s World for nominating me. Please check out her blog. She posts some of the most fantastic photos of her neck of the woods (Maine) and of her travels. She’s fun and funny and I can’t say enough good things about her blog!

Until next time, Stay weird, my friends. Normal is boring!