Tell Me about Yourself

My dear friend Kim over at 23imaginaryfriends nominated me for this bloggy award, and I'm game! First, a note that I changed the title of yesterday's post "100 pounds, bitches!" to "100 pounds, beeyatch!" I see I lost a follower yesterday :) no doubt due to my crassness and vulgarity - which, sadly, in person exists more than on the blog, haha! Ah, to know me is to love me. But the blog is not meant to offend, and it's an easy fix. I didn't take out the cursing from the post - I'm uncertain how much to pander here, ha. 

The rules of this nomination are:

I get to tell you seven random things about myself as well as pass on the award to seven other great bloggers (see below).

Nominees, in order to accept this award you must:

-Thank and link back to the person who awarded you
-Write seven random things about yourself.
-Award seven other awesome and inspiring bloggers.


Okay, here's my 7 Random Things (aka In Which Julie Pretends to be Interesting):

1. I started with my current employer when I was 19, and I just missed my 20-year ceremony with the Mayor this week due to a conference with my wildcat's IEP team at school. But I hit my monster vacation accrual bump next pay period, and I am looking forward to it! From here on, it's an extra day a year. I need it! All these freaking school appointments, sheesh. I actually started here in 1989, but it took awhile to get my 20-year accrual because I took long maternity leaves and worked a year for another employer back in 2007. I will be able to retire from here when I am 51-ish!!
2. I completed my associates, bachelors (University of Washington - Business Administration) and masters (Seattle University - Public Administration) while employed full-time, and my masters while I had two or three babies at home. It was exhausting. My ex was very supportive while I did my masters, or I don't know how I would have done it. I am the first person in my family to graduate from college. As you see by my diplomas, I can administrate the hell out of things, haha.
3. When I was 21 and had just gotten married, I went to a psychic fair and had my palm read. She told me, "Three kids, two husbands." I was pretty offended - I had just gotten married! I told her I just wanted two kids and one husband. She shrugged. "Three kids, two husbands." Now, I'm looking forward to that second husband, haha.
4.  We adopted my littlest from our niece on my ex's side. She was a teen pregnancy and I remember we heard about her pregnancy and plans to put the baby up for adoption while my ex and I were on the way to the Oregon coast for a beach weekend with my older two. I have always known he was meant to be one of my children because my first reaction was to say, "We can adopt him!!" The words flew out of my mouth -  he was my son. This was not the reaction I would have expected to have had, haha. We participated in the rest of my niece's pregnancy, we were there when my son was born, and we took him home from the hospital. We legally adopted him immediately after birth. Our niece still sees him, and the whole family is open about the adoption. As our social worker said at the time, "the more normal it is to you, the more normal it will be to him." 
5. My uncle was killed in a motorcycle accident when I was about 9 years old. Also, I burned the heck out of the inside of my leg on the exhaust of a motorcycle when I was a kid and my cousin (other side of the family) gave me a ride. I have always been afraid of motorcycles. I refused to let my ex have one when we were married. When we got divorced, I took a motorcycle-endorsement class. I wiped out during my final test and destroyed the bike (and a fair chunk of my arm). I bought a bike, practiced riding in the parking lot by my home, and re-took the test and passed. I sold the bike about a year later because it was too small to ride to work (250cc) and I needed $$. But I absolutely loved it! Her name was Elvira.



This is how I looked on Elvira.




This is how I felt. :)

6. I am an NPR nerd. Saturday mornings on NPR are my favorite time of the week: Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and my favorite, This American Life. The Splendid Table, Travel with Rick Steves, Prairie Home Companion. I never miss listening to the podcasts of This American Life and a non-NPR but lots of inter-ties - Savage Love. I love art, too, though know nothing about it. Art museums, book readings, NPR events, I'm there in a flash. I joke that I can't meet a man at the places I love because the men there are either gay or arty/bookish intellectuals, which I am not attracted to. What a conundrum!
7. I'm suffering from a bit of a mid-life crisis. I am lonely, and bored, and tired of co-parenting my kids with my ex, and being broke, and the future looks long and bleak at times. Instead of letting this get my down, I'm doing hard thinking about who I am, what I want to spend my life doing, how I will fill the void I feel without a mate in case that second husband never comes along! It is an interesting process to think about what I really want, and what it will take to get there. I will probably subject the blog to more of this process as my life's emphasis drifts away from weight loss. Stay tuned! (Or tune out, haha!)

Okay - that was exhausting! Here are my nominees:

This One Body

Ordinary Girl Starts Extraordinary Journey

Once Upon a Time in the Land of Cheese and Sunkist

My Journey to a Healthier, Happier Life for Myself

Losing My Weight, Gaining My Life

In Weigh Over My Head

Manda's Life and Personal Weight Loss Journey