Tag: Nominees

No Excuses or Apologies

~ JodiLea

DarkCircles

I know that Zombies are all the rage now, and it is not Halloween, but I could easily pass for one. My skin is pasty white, accenting the lovely sunken, black circles under my bleary eyes.  No cosmetic miracle will even lighten them slightly. At this point, I don’t think I care.

When I am feeling “poorly”, vanity is the first thing to go. The next thing is my cheerful and silly personality. I morph into The Ranter.

After four weeks of snail paced healing I started to get worse again. Dammit! I do not feel well, so I do not want to drive mountain roads for 12 miles, in freezing rainy weather to the doctor’s office, then drive another 15 miles to the only chain pharmacy my insurance will approve. – major pout here –

What I want to do is stay in my pajamas and curl up with my warm puppy and watch episodes of The Sopranos. I have been having my own little Sopranos marathon. I just started season 6 – the final season.  I did not recall the show being so gross, or the characters all selfish, sadistic, back-stabbing people.

Why do I feel this way now?  Probably because I am clean and sober, as I watch The Sopranos this time, and that has completely ruined it. Sigh.

So, in my sourpuss mood I must Rant. No, the above is not ranting, it’s complaining (really, it’s whining). After all, there are way worse things going on than my crappy little virus…

  • The Oscars are being ruined over some political and racial issue (is nothing sacred?). No black persons were nominees for the last 2 years. I had no idea! Who is racist enough to keep track of that crap, anyway?  I LOVE Chris Rock and I’m so happy he is not going to back out on being this year’s host.  My respect for Whoopie Goldberg has doubled for what she is saying about the boycott, and as for Mr. and Mrs. Smith – most actors did not get a nomination this year, so stop whining and go choose a fabulous script and try again. Next year is sooner than you think.

And while I am speaking of non-racial issues…

  • California is forcing school districts to spend millions of dollars to remove ‘discriminatory’ school mascots from the system. You know, like the Indians  I mean the Native American mascots like Chiefs, Braves, Warriors, Redskins. Oh Pleeeease. Are you telling me that other ethnic groups don’t have warriors?  You wait. Next, the PC Police will be deciding to outlaw mascots that are “sexually suggestive”: Beavers, Foxes, Goats and Rams for example.  I am in agreement with weeding out “The Beavers”, truth be told. Then there are schools that have mascots of the “you’ve got to be kidding me” class. How about “The Hobos” or “The Cotton Pickers” (What!?!).  Don’t forget “The Maniacs”, “The Orphans” or “The Arabs” (who recently changed their mascot to “The Mighty Arabs” – where are the PC police in that town!?)  Arrrrrrg.

pirate

Now that my puppy thinks I’m growling at her, and I’m sounding like an old pirate (a zombie one, of course), I will be signing off now. It’s almost 1:30pm – is that too early for pajamas?

♥  TTFN  ♥

 

 

 

 

And The Nominees (For The Liebster Award) Are…

~ JodiLea ~ 3 Comments

liebster2_thumb  Willow Scottling, author of Willow’s Corner, nominated me for the Liebster Award on Jan 16th, 2014. It has taken me a long time to accept the award, but this does not reflect any lack of gratitude on my part.   Thank you, Willow, for this honor  🙂

If  nominated, and you choose to accept my nomination of your blog and continue with the Liebster award process – here are the rules:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
  2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
  3. Answer eleven (11) questions about yourself, these will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
  4. Provide eleven (11) random facts about yourself.
  5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
  6. Create a new list of questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer.
  7. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
  8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that you nominated for the Liebster award and give a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.

Willow’s questions for me to answer:

  1. What do you think of when you think of California? Home. I’ve lived here all my life.
  2. What food is too much work for you to eat? Pomegranates
  3. Did you ever have a tree fort growing up? How about a secret club? Dad built my sister and I a “playhouse’ in the backyard.
  4. What technology (if any) in today’s world are you suspicious of? Security cameras
  5. What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? Say a prayer.
  6. What (if anything) would you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances? Why? Eat bugs. What do you mean why?
  7. If you could ask one person one question and get a completely honest answer who would it be and what would you ask? I thought about this a lot, but my brain did not come up with any person or questions.
  8. What is the first thing you learned to cook? Did you enjoy the experience? A Chow Mein Casserole. It was not fun at all, because my mom hovered and corrected everything.
  9. What thing sucks most of your free time away? Do you enjoy it?  Writing. I LOVE it!
  10. Describe a time when a small decision brought big consequences (good or bad).  The time I decided to reboot a critical system and used the shutdown command by accident.  I did not know where this system was located to boot it back up. I finally found a co-worker to show me where it was. Whew!
  11. What major historical thing(s) has happened in your lifetime? Has it changed your life?  Sept. 11, 2001. It changed my feeling of security into fear.

11 Random Facts About Jodi Lea:

  1. My teeth can hold a lot of food ( I have to floss after every meal)
  2. My TMI filter needs to be replaced, according to my daughter.
  3. I think she’s right.
  4. It feels like everyone is the boss of me.
  5. I have a degree in computer science, however, I am not smarter than a 5th grader.
  6. I refuse to update to Windows 8.01.
  7. I’m extremely lazy on rainy days
  8. I have a love/hate relationship going on with my novel
  9. I used to love cooking
  10. I miss the hand-drawn animated classics
  11. I over think everything.

My Nominee’s for the Liebster Award Are…

http://pissykittyslitterbox.com

http://itsames.wordpress.com

http://americanainjustica.wordpress.com

http://pickupmypancreas.wordpress.com

http://funnyfornothingblog.wordpress.com

http://tenderheartmusings.wordpress.com

Nominee’s List of 11 Questions:

  1. What embarrassing moment sticks foremost in your memory of High School?
  2. What activity/thing did your parents forbid you, that practically all the other kids you knew had permission?
  3. Your favorite part of the Academy Awards.
  4. Who do you think was the best Host of the Academy Awards?
  5. What makes you smile?
  6. What sport & Team are you passionate about?
  7. What genre do you prefer to read?
  8. Who is a hero in your life?
  9. What is one of your talents?
  10. What TV show you watch, but don’t admit it?
  11. Any advice (or tips) you would like to share with your fellow bloggers?

Blog On  🙂

It’s Like The Oscars… But Not.

~ JodiLea ~ 5 Comments

On Sunday, January 13th, someone went temporarily insane and nominated me for a blogger’s award!  The Liebster award is recognition for bloggers who are “up and coming” – meaning they have less than 200 followers, or have recently published their blog.

wpid-liebsterAward

Not to be confused with the WordPress.com sponsored blog awards, the Liebster is a blogger generated award that provides links to new bloggers, a chance for your readers to know you better, and increase publicity for your blog.

Susan Mae Detera, author of  Gasm Travels – a wonderful and witty photography & travel blog, included Not Pretending (to be sane) as one of her nominees – Thank you so much, Susan. It is an honor that you deemed my blog worthy!  🙂

Upon receiving the nomination, you are required to do the following:

a. Tell 11 things about yourself

b. Answer 11 questions asked by the nominating blogger

c. Nominate 11 new bloggers

d. Ask 11 questions to the bloggers you nominated

e. Inform the bloggers you choose

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sounds easy doesn’t it?  Well… I may be taking this thing way too seriously, because it has taken days for me to respond. This is my very first award nomination and I don’t want to screw it up 😉

11 Things About Me You May Not Know:

  1. I was a “candy striper” when I was a teen. Not to be confused with “stripper”, BTW.
  2. I began my career as a call girl (switchboard operator)
  3. I not only have a fear of heights, but I can’t stand to see anyone else high up either.
  4. In my 20’s I was in the Army, my rank was military wife. I was not happy, nor was I all that I could be.
  5. I have an AS degree in computer science. I graduated with honors – automatically raising my status to GEEK.
  6. I fell in love with my husband’s sexy voice a year before I met him.
  7. I am a smart-ass. (This you may already know)
  8. I LOVE watching the Academy Awards. Even all the red carpet hullabaloo. Last year, me, my daughter, and granddaughters dressed up all glamorous and walked down our own red carpet on Oscar Night. There are photos.
  9. I am desperately searching for a Bernese Mountain Dog to adopt.  You know you need a dog when you go to your friends (who has a dog) house to get a “fix”.
  10. When I was a little girl I was terrified of butterflies. There was no mercy. Only people telling me “you’re being ridiculous!”  Guess what, people? That sucked!
  11. I have a life-time membership in Ladies of Harley.

11 Questions Asked by Susan, From Gasm Travels:

1. What is the most rewarding experience you have had and what made it so? I’ve been blessed with so many, so it’s tough to choose.  The most recent one is being a grandma, which is deja vu of being a mom, but much more fun!

2. If you had the chance to go back in time for 24 hours, where and when would you go? Kaiser Hospital, Walnut Creek, CA. on August 12th, 2002. To kick some serious ass and change the course of history.

3. What’s something you know you do differently than most people? I play solitaire with real cards.

4. If you could have sex with any superhero, who would you choose and why?  Thor. Why? Because he’s the God of Thunder-Period.  He doesn’t change back into a wimpy mortal like  other super heroes do.  Not to mention, the dude is incredibly HOT.

5. If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be and why? My current age because I like being retired and a grandma. My body however, should go a couple of decades back in time or more.

6. If you had to work on only one project for this year, what would it be?  I’d love to be able to complete the research my mother was doing on our family history, and write a book based on the skeletons I dig up. I’m pretty sure there are some doozies.

7. If you had 1 million dollars, what would you do with it?  I would spend the winters in the Caribbean, and start trust funds for our grand-kids to use for college. That will probably use it all up, the way costs are going up for 4-year colleges.

8. Looking back on your life, what do you regret?  Being too timid and afraid to try new things and believe in myself. I am improving the older I get. I should be a force to reckon with when I’m 90.

9. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?  Missouri – I have a lot of family there that I like and who are already used to me.

10. What is the nastiest trick you played on a friend? On April Fools Day I called a friend and told him I was at the airport and needed a ride to come visit him. I was not even close to California, but in my college dorm at Southeast Missouri State. He was so excited, he was practically out the door before I said “April Fools”.  Boy, was he mad.  Just think how mad he would have been if I let him go to the airport. I felt so awful, that I never pulled anything like that again.

11. If your life were a motion picture, what would the title be?  The Unbalanced

My 11 Nominees Are:

  1. The Amazing MJ
  2. The Daily Informant
  3. It’s Ames
  4. Life is Funny
  5. The Matticus Kingdom
  6. NYC Round2
  7. PissyKittysLitterBox
  8. Raising 5 kids with Disabilities
  9. Random Reasoning
  10. We’re Jumpin’
  11. Writing and Recovering

11 Questions for my Nominees:

  1. As a kid (or older) when you pretended to be someone else, who were you and why did you want to be them?
  2. Have you had your “15-minutes of fame” yet? How did it happen? (If it hasn’t happened, how would you like it to happen?)
  3. If you could change one thing about your personality – what would it be and why?
  4. What was the last novel you read? Would you recommend it?
  5. Who was/is your favorite teacher, and why?
  6. Besides writing, tell us about one of your other talents.
  7. Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?
  8. You wrote a novel about your life growing up, and now Hollywood is making a movie based on that novel. Which actor/actress would you want to play you, and why?
  9. What was your favorite TV show when you were in grade school?  What about now?
  10. What are your top 3 pet peeves?
  11. Do you like your first name? If not, what would you change it to?