7 Things About Me - Again

Okay guys, I should have done this like two weeks ago when the wonderful Sara Furlong Burr over at the Starving Novelist presented me with this award:





This award comes with a few rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 5 new-found blogging buddies.
4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

And since I had just done a 7 things about me post, I was pretty sure you'd all be tired of hearing about me, so I decided to wait a few days.

In any case let me start out by thanking Sara. Thank you Sara!!!! You should all check out her blog here. She is amazing and talented. And she likes my blog, which means she's smart.

Now on to another 7 random things about me:

1) I love musicals. This includes all cheesy Nickelodeon / Disney Channel musicals like this one here:



Believe it or not I get this from my father who shared with me his love of musicals and classic black & white films, along with his love of science fiction and honey roasted peanuts.

My father's favorite was always West Side Story.



My favorite is a Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers musical called Shall We Dance?

2) I don't cry in public. I'm not a person who is comfortable showing my emotions. This is not to say that I don't cry. I do. I just prefer to do it alone, in the privacy of my own bathroom, or in the car on my ride home from work.

When my father died last year, I took a lot of flack for my failure to cry at his funeral. Several relatives jokingly called me a sociopath. All I can say to those people is that just because I don't grieve in the same manner as they do, doesn't mean I don't grieve. I'm human. I hurt, my heart breaks, and believe it or not, I cry. Just because I choose not to be a broken mess in public does not make me a bad person.


3) My sister Katie is my best friend. Since she is only 11 months older than I am, we are what is known as Irish twins. We went through school in the same grade and have done practically everything together since we were babies.

Katie got me into a lot of trouble when we were younger and is the inspiration for a lot of my work. She is now a proud army wife and a mother of two. That's her below with her husband Casey.

4) I was due on Halloween but not born until November 20th. If I'd been born today they would never have allowed me to remain in the womb so long. It obviously hasn't adversely affected me. I think.


5) My favorite song is Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

6) I'm addicted to Coca Cola. I hate Pepsi. And I prefer to drink it in the small 12 oz. bottles.


7) And last but not least, the first creative writing project I ever tried to share with the world was a play in the sixth grade about a princess who was turned into a tree. Genius. I know.

The opening did not go so well. The lead was sick and didn't show up, so I spent the entire time puking in the bathroom. I'm so good under pressure.

Now to pass on the award to five new blogger friends:

1. Terri Rochenski
2. Kelcey McKinley
3. Allie Burke
4. Claudia C
5. Angela Kulig


-----

7 Things About Me

I don't want to gush, but seriously, I'm overwhelmed by the online writing community. It's friendly. It's amazing. It's more supportive than my therapist. Okay, so maybe I want to gush a little.

I took the day off of Twitter yesterday so I could concentrate on a new WIP that had been gnawing on my brain. Of course as the evening wound down and I started to prepare for bed, I couldn't help but sneak a peak at my tweets. I'm glad I did, because I discovered that I had been given this award by the lovely and talented Ashley Graham @ http://argraham.blogspot.com/:



Wow! Thanks Ashley. I love this award!

This award comes with a few rules however:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 5 new-found blogging buddies.
4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.


 Okay, so let's start!

Thank you again Ashley! You're awesome.

7 random facts about me:

1) I'm intensely shy. Like the-mere-thought-of-public-speaking-makes-me-vomit shy. Since I've always viewed this as a deep personal weakness, I try really hard to hide it. Unfortunately, this leads most people to believe I'm stuck up.  Which I'm not.


2) I have a huge family. I have 4 older sisters -- Sarah, Joanne, and Katie (I'll talk about them on this blog a lot). I have 1 younger brother -- Joey -- who was born on my 8th birthday. My mother went into labor while we were blowing out the birthday candles.

I also have 3 additional older sisters from my father's first marriage -- Michelle, Jodie, and Carrie -- and 15 nieces and nephews.

The picture below is from when I was really young so it doesn't include Joey, but that's me behind my father's head, wearing a shirt that was a pink version of one he owned. Oh, how I adored my daddy!

Also, FYI - the little girl in the bottom left corner is not a member of the family. To this day I still have no idea who she is or why she's in this picture.

3) I'm addicted to the Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 video games. Each of the two games takes 30+ hours of gameplay to complete and I've played each several times. You play as the heroic Commander Shepard and you race to save the galaxy from a race of sentient machines known as the Reapers.





This game is epic. There are aliens, exploding aliens, almost magic-like powers called biotics, and even a little romance. I would compare it to any great novel I've ever read. The best part is that the story line of the game changes with each decision you make. I could play through a 1,000 times and never have exactly the same experience.



4) I eat all of my food in a circular pattern. Chewing the edges off and saving the middle for last. I know, strange, right? There's just something about the very center of everything that I like to save for my last bite.



5) Growing up my father always told me I should be a lawyer. I originally thought it was a comment on my intelligence. Came to find out later it was merely because I love to debate. Most of the time I don't even have a strong opinion on the topic. But since I like to get to the root of everything I will continue to ask questions of those who do and throw out any scenario where their position might not be the most logical.

For the longest time I had no idea that people saw this as my being argumentative. I simply looked at it as character study. I just wanted to know why they had this opinion. I wanted to know what events transpired in their lives to lead them to the point where the point of view they held was the only point of view they could see as right.



6) I on the other hand wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Of course back then I was certain that by the time I was an adult we'd be exploring the galaxy Starfleet style.




Which brings me to my next random fact about me:



7) I had a huge crush on Spock. I loved him! Everything about him from his pointy ears and weird eyebrows to his calm and logical approach to every situation.

My sisters Joanne, Katie and I would play Star Trek all the time. Joanne would always play Captain Kirk, Katie was Dr. McCoy, and I got to be Spock. I think part of me truly believed I would one day grow up and marry the Vulcan.




Okay, that's it about me. Now to pass the award along to my fellow bloggers:

1. Keriann Greaney Martin
2. Stacy Green
3. Kara Malinczak
4. Sara Furlong Burr
5. Kate Larkindale

Okay ladies, come and get your award!!

----