Monday, August 13, 2012

Thank You for Being You

A big thank you (followed by a deep sigh) to Katrina Delallo for presenting me with the Thanks for Being You Award. Keep reading, you'll see what I mean.



The rules of this award are:


  1. Thank the person who gave the award to you.
  2. Post eleven facts about yourself. (Thus the first of many sighs.)
  3. Answer eleven questions I will make up for you, and make up eleven of your own for the people you tag. (Another sigh, accompanied by slouched shoulders.)
  4. Tell seven more things about yourself. (A sigh during which I slump forward, my forehead hits the desk and I ever so slightly lift my head and hit it again, and again, and again, ad infinitum.)
  5. Lastly, tag as many people as you want and let them know you’ve given them the award.
Okay, so here goes:

Over the past couple of weeks I read this book which made me think, 


this book, which made me cry, 


  
watched this video which made me laugh



and this movie that warmed my heart.
 

I was inspired by this and disappointed by this.
I'm delighted to be going swimming tomorrow (first time in two years.)
I was uplifted by a church service I attended on the beach Sunday evening
I was relieved that watching the Olympics every night meant never having to channel surf.
I was exhausted, because watching the Olympics every night meant never getting to bed on time.
I was frustrated by Blogger when it refused to save my changes in continual attempts to fix the spacing problems in this post =/
I'm secretly more grateful than annoyed by this (very time consuming) award because I had no idea what to post this week. (Thanks again, Cat.)

Now, I will answer Cat's questions.
  1. What’s the first book you ever read? I have no idea. Do most people remember this?
  2. What’s a movie you saw as a little kid, forgot about, and when you saw it again as an adult you remembered the whole plot in a sort of gosh-I-know-what’s-going-to-happen-next kind of way? Again, no idea. 
  3. If you weren’t what you are now (such as a writer, mother, accountant) what would you want to be? A painter (fine art, not house painting)
  4. What’s your favourite hobby? Crafting
  5. What looks grayer to you? THIS spelling of gray, or this spelling of grey? Grey
  6. How do you pronounce tomatoe? Toe-mah-toe or toe-may-toe? Actually, I say it more like tah-may-toe
  7. Do you secretly wish you were a hobbit? Umm, no.
  8. Would you rather be an elf? Not even for a minute.
  9. Do you prefer British or American spellings of the words honour/honor, colour/color, tyre/tire, laser/lazer, aluminium/aluminum? Honour and colour look more sophisticated to me. I've never even encountered the British spellings of the others until now.
  10. What’s your idea of fun? Spending time with my family.
  11. How many times can you say the words, “Irish wristwatch?” Not even once.
And now, seven more things about me (at which point I totally understand if you skip to the end and leave a disgruntled comment about the ridiculous length of this post.) I can hardly stand all this "me" talk myself. But for the sake of following the rules, here goes:
  1.  A glass of Coke and a handful of M&Ms make me disproportionately happy.
  2.  I've learned to overlook dust and dog fur if it means more time to write.
  3.  I can't wait for the new seasons of Merlin and Once Upon a Time to begin.
  4.  With all of the hours I watched the Olympics, I somehow still missed the synchronized swimming =(
  5. I bought three dresses at the beginning of the summer, but haven't worn any of them yet. I'm more of a cut-off jeans kinda girl.
  6. When given the chance, I opted for a desktop computer over a laptop. I usually like having to show up at my desk to work.
  7. The choice of a desktop came back to haunt me when I had to choose between making a blog post on time this week or watching the closing ceremonies. (Thus, the day-late post.)
And here are my the eleven questions for the bloggers that I've chosen to tag.
  1. Did these Olympics make you appreciate a sport you hadn't given much attention to before? Which one?
  2. Would you rather attend a rock concert or a sporting event?
  3. If you had to get one song stuck in your head for a week, knowing you would absolutely hate it by the weeks end, what song would you choose?
  4. Would you prefer pineapple on your pizza or on an upside down cake?
  5.  Do you prefer to swim in the ocean or in a pool?
  6. What is the last book you read that you think you'll re-read someday?
  7.  Does your beach towel have a cartoon character on it? If so, which one?
  8. How many songs are on your ipod right now?
  9. Are you more likely to overspend on groceries or on clothes?
  10. What's your favorite fast food?
  11. Do you watch reality T.V.?
And now, although I will not be pointing fingers and naming names, anyone who has read to the bottom of this post has, in my opinion, earned the right to grab this award for themselves and sacrifice several hours of their time in the making of the required post. Godspeed dear friends ;) 

32 comments:

  1. Fun post. I loved your answers to seven and eight. I liked the questions you asked. Personally I prefer to swim in a pool, but wade in the ocean. One too many bad experiences with waves and I don't go more than hip deep in the ocean.

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  2. I have to admit that whoever made up the rules has never heard of Occam's Razor or the KISS principle. Oy. You are mighty gracious. That's something you forgot to add to your list.

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  3. How fun! You're brave for answering all those questions.:) I agree with the tah-may-toe thing. That's how I say it too. I even found myself saying it to see how I said it when I came to that question..then when I read your answer, I was like, Hey, that's how I say it too. lol

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  4. What a post, LOL. Cat tagged me too. I need to get on that :)

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  5. Fun post! I'd like to see some of the stuff that you paint. Maybe you can post them on the blog. =)

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  6. What a great post. Fun and well thought-out answers. :)

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  7. I definitely can't remember the first book I read. Maybe if I hired a hypnotist I could find out. That might open some very interesting insights into who I am today. Maybe I don't want to know.

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  8. My, you had to work hard for this award^^^...

    But I thank *you* for being *you* with no demands, from the heart.

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  9. You're good. I totally cheated when Kat gave me this award. ;)

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  10. Great answers, but what strikes me most is the name of the award - what could be nicer (apart from I love you) than having someone say thank you for being you!

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  11. Ruth you made me laugh! There will be no disgruntled comments from me--especially if you make those M&M's the peanut variety ;)Thanks!

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  12. You are so funny, Ruth! I thoroughly enjoyed your post from beginning to end! However, I don't think I have the stamina to accept the award, so I will gracefully defer :) I'm with you on the Olympics, though - I loved watching them and am sorry they're over... there's ages to go before new seasons of anything start, and even though the season finale of Grey's was pretty much the worst ever episode of anything on TV, I am still a loyal fan and looking forward to the new season :)

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  13. What a great post, Ruth. You are the Olympic humorist. I don't have the stamina either, no Olympiads here only jet lagged mom ;)

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  14. Oh the post on the dog and his owner is so sweet! The things humans can do when they choose to ... :) My friend asked me the same question of what I'd be if I weren't a writer, and I'd said a painter, too (and yep, clarified I didn't mean a house painter though I do think I would paint a painting on the wall of my writing room when I have a place of my own soon.) Fun answers, Ruth!

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  15. A lot to do for this award, I agree. But you did a good job and made it fun.

    Pineapple on my pizza.

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  16. HEEHEE! I like this post. You've shared more about you and it's good to have a better "picture" of who you are and what makes you tick!

    I like that Tim Hawkins clip, too. My kids introduced me to him, I think. He cracks me up. Have you ever seen his parady of Dust in the Wind? :)

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  17. Nice introduction to you, Ruth. Glad to meet you.

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  18. I thoroughly enjoyed your post Ruth. This was a tough award to respond to. Liked your creative approach at posting photos for the first time. We've all received so many awards, it's hard to find something knew to say -- but I you managed. Fun post.

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  19. Ruth, loved this post! Many smiles and laughs, thought of many comments to make about it, but then realized my comment would be as long as the post! My conclusion, after all is said and done: Whoo! Thank goodness you didn't tag ME! :D

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  20. Ha ha, now I feel like I know you a bit and want to get to know more about you! This post was a lot of fun. I'm going to answer your question about what book I've read recently that I might read again and that's Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and her daughter. Every author should read this. Here's a little teaser about the book. It's a fairytale told in three POV's. The prince in the story, the prince once the reader closes the book, and the girl reading the story. Peaked your interest yet? This book is fantastic. My new favorite book of all time. It's a YA book but adults will love it too. It even has some really cool illustrations!

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  21. Well done, Ruth, what an Olympian task! And what questions! Hobbits?! Elves?! And now you come to mention it I didn't see any synchronised swimming either. Possibly the BBC being selective again! I really would hate to be a Hobbit, you know!

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  22. LOL, it was a long post to write, wasn't it? I was concerned about posting mine because of the length. But I like reading personal stuff about others, so I went ahead with it.

    And yay for a desktop over a laptop. I use my laptop only when I really want to be upstairs rather than down here in the office.

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  23. The great thing about these kinds of posts is you learn so much about your blogging buddy. Who knew that Ruth enjoyed Coca-Cola and M&M's at the same time?! Thanks for the humor, and the time it took to post! :-)

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  24. Ha, cute. Yes, awards are super time consuming. Good questions and answers, though! Nice to meet you. Oh, and I prefer pineapple on pizza, though I love cake, too. Just had to throw that out there...

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  25. Great post and I liked your answers... yep I tend to ignore dust and cat fur if it means more writing time:)

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  26. Yay for British spellings! I know it's an American site, but it irritates me disproportionately when Blogger underlines "colour", for example (like it did just now).

    My laptop stays on my desk (kitchen table) for writing, but for blogging it goes anywhere.

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  27. I'm all about British spellings! Yay! :)

    Lovely to learn more about you, Ruth. Congrats on the award!

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  28. I do wish we could find the best one way to spell all of these kinds of words and make that stick. I'll vote for grey. How about theatre, too, while I'm at it?

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  29. I love that you admitted being secretly more grateful than annoyed by the award. And you made this very fun. Congratulations!

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  30. That "Irish wristwatch" thing really got me. It's harder than it seems and made me laugh. Good for you for tackling all those questions. :-)

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  31. I DVR'd the synchronized swimming - come on over.

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