My Spirit Animal is a 7th Grader in 1996 Named Traci Who Dots Her "i" With a Heart.

You! Guys! I got tagged in a blogging game-thing! My friend Staci from the aptly named My Friend Staci tagged me and asked a bunch of questions that I'm more than thrilled to answer because I love to talk about myself. Just ask anyone, really.
I was going to write another post, today, but perhaps I'll just work a little harder on that one as something like this is a welcome relief from the editing, reworking and confidence battering that sometimes comes from doing a project post. And so we'll begin with The Rules:


The Rules:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
4. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

Eleven Fun Facts (do not forget that "fun" is a relative word):

1. I have finally become the type of person who loves to wake up at 6:30.
2. I recently discovered that raw zucchini is just plain delicious. Raw yellow squash--not so much.
3. If PMS didn't exist, I could be a vegetarian so easily. But sometimes bacon cheeseburgers.
4. Visiting the Fjords of Norway: still on my very short bucket list.
5. I have no desire to visit anywhere that is even vaguely tropical. 
6. For years, I have been practicing saying exactly what I mean as long as I know what that is. It is still an every day challenge. 
7. I misspell the following words at every single attempt: vacuum, ridiculous, definitely, refrigerator, and knowledgeable.
8. I. Hate. Poop. Jokes.
9. Cherries are my favorite anything. Maraschino. Black. Bing. Jolly Ranchers? You name it.
10. Your septum piercing makes me think of industrial boogers.
11. My favorite go-to meal when I don't want to think too hard is pasta, jarred artichokes, chopped tomatoes, garlic salt, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Sometimes I'll add chicken if I have enough foresight/ leftovers. 

Questions that Staci asked me:

1. Do you have a signature (or simply favorite) perfume? What kind is it? I've been looking for that scent for a while, now. I don't want to be a walking Scentsy advertisement or anything but ever since I tried their solid perfume in Enchanted Mist, I've been a in love. It stays on all day and sometimes even longer. I wear it behind my ears and inside my elbows (if I wear it on my wrists, it will get washed off in no time). That's also the smell that I have in my car, too.
2. If you had to pick one song to be your ringtone–FOREVER–what would it be? My ringtone has been Elliot Smith's Waltz #2 for several months, now. I like it a lot. My phone rings so rarely that I never get sick of it and it's far from embarrassing if people hear it in public. I know, I know. Pretentious people will ask, "how could you use Elliot Smith as a ringtone?" Well, just calm down already.
3. Favorite kind of shoe? Hands down, my favorite shoe is the slipper that looks so much like an everyday moccasin that I can wear slippers to work and no one can tell that my feet are warm and cozy.
4. What was your favorite subject? (any grade, k-12) I loved art class. We didn't have art past the fourth grade because of budget cuts and maybe our art teacher hooked up with a student? Or something? I don't know. Anyway--I didn't get to draw anymore after 4th grade.
5. Do you enjoy exercising? Do you actually exercise? I enjoy certain parts of exercising. I like walking because it gets me out of my house. I hate running because I don't like pounding my feet on the ground. Which leads me to the elliptical which I would do all day long if my legs didn't eventually turn into jello. Do I actually exercise? No, I do not because I went through a can't-afford-my-Y-membership phase and let that lapse and it's been too cold to take comfortable walks at night. I would love to get myself an elliptical machine, though.
6. Favorite season? Autumn. If I could live somewhere that it was autumn all of the times, where would that be?
7. How often do you go out to eat? Where? On average, I'd say that I go out to eat not that often. Every couple of weeks? But this week my kitchen has been a wreck and I haven't had all that much time to take care of it so I just end up grabbing something when I'm out. Which I actually hate to do because I love to cook. When Ryan and I want to eat out, we'll usually grab Chinese takeout and get a movie (helloooo Valentine's night) or get hot dogs from Sonic and then take them to the park to eat them. When I want to impress people with our small-town fare, I take them to Amics.
   
8. If you had to donate all your money to one charity, which would you choose? Oh! I want to split it up! But if I had to give it all to one, I'd give it to the Liz Logelin foundation which helps out families who have just lost a parent. There are families who find themselves in times of financial crises after the death of a spouse or parent every single day. Having been in a similar situation, I know that's a terrible burden to bear at a time when how to pay the rent should be the last thing on your mind. The Liz Logan foundation swoops in to help out needy families at a most critical time.
9. Name a detail that you always notice that most people overlook (nice paper, clean cars–something like that). Texture. In clothes or decorating or paper--I don't really care too much about color combinations or patterns but I love mixing textures. My rough, holey jeans and a silk shirt or a bouquet of feathers in a glass vase.
10. Most-used tool in your makeup bag? Aside from my own fingers, which I do not keep in a bag, I suppose it would have to be my eyelash curler.
11. One cherished memory.  I'm thinking about the first time that I ever hung out with Ryan one-on-one after moving here. I was very new to town but it was his 29th birthday and he wanted to go take pictures of the meteor shower and asked if I'd want to tag along. So, I was terribly shy and didn't say much to him at all. At all. But we drove out to the cemetery very late at night and laid out a blanket and he took lots of pictures and I laid there, quiet and thinking, "I would be a lucky girl to fall in love with this boy some day." Cut to two years later and he's the one sitting with me on my couch every night.

Questions for Kellory, Deanna, Jamie, Sarah (who doesn't blog often but will do it for me), and Hilah (even though my boyfriend told me that Hilah's too famous and cool for this--dream big, Libby):

1. What age do you most look forward to?
2. Have you ever wanted to go by a different name? What would you have chosen?
3. What is your favorite go-to meal for an easy week night at home?
4. What is the most recent book that you loved?
5. When was the first time that you were certain that you were in love?
6. What is your favorite thing about your home?
7. Last impulse decision that turned out to be a great idea?
8. What's your usual at a bar? At a coffee shop?
9. What do you do in order to get the creativity flowing?
10. How often do you vacuum/ sweep the floor?
11. What are your thoughts on nail art? Zooey Deschanel loves it but does that mean that I have to?

Alright. That's everything, I do believe.
I love this kind of stuff because my spirit animal is a 7th grader in 1996 named Traci who dots her "i" with a heart.

Stick around, my next post is a How-To and it includes this picture:

All of my love,
Libs