20 Day Challenge – Day 15

6 things you can’t live without

1. My family
2. Love
3. Sex (sorry, I had to say it)
4. My favorite Ine’s : Caffeine, Nicotine, Benzodiazepine, etc.
5. The Internet
6. My friends

Last of the Belated Blog Awards Ceremony

Sisterhood of the Bloggers Award

Here are the Rules:

1. Thank the giver.
2. Post 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to 7 other bloggers and let them know they’ve been nominated.
4. Include the logo of the award in a post or on your blog.
Angel, again, I’d like to thank you for your thoughtful nomination.  I am overjoyed at the invitation to join this sisterhood.  I think it’s so important to have a camaraderie between bloggers, especially female mental health bloggers.  This means so much to me.  Again, thank you for your kindness and thoughtfulness in another nomination.

Seven bloggers:

1. Withering Tulip
2. Crazy in the Coconut
3. Stuff She Said
4. Manic Monday
5. You Know You’re Borderline When…
6. Seasons Change, and so Have I
7. Pride In Madness

 

 

Reader Appreciation Award

I believe this is the last one from Angel!  You have been the biggest self-esteem booster.  And if there’s something I am just a quart low on, it’s confidence in myself.  Thank you for being an inspiration to me, and such a thoughtful and giving person.

Rules

1. Include the award logo somewhere in your blog.–See above.

2. Answer these 10 questions, below, for fun if you want to.–See below.

3. Nominate 10 to 12 blogs you enjoy Or you pick the number.–See below. It seems so many wonderful blogs have already received this award. I’ve picked 8 blogs and tried to choose those who haven’t gotten it yet.

4. Pay the love forward: Provide your nominees’ links in your post and comment on their blog to let them know they’ve been included and invited to participate.–See below.

5. Pay the love back with gratitude and a link to the blogger(s) who nominated you.–See above.

The questions:

1) What is your favorite color?  Blue.  Any natural blue color, especially turquoise.

2) What is your favorite animal?  Many different kinds of birds.  I love owls and parakeets.

3) What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Pepsi.  Hands down.

4)  Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook because there’s more to do on it, such play games – same

5)  Favorite pattern? Paisley

6) Do you prefer getting or giving presents? I like giving.  I’m pretty awkward at receiving.

7)  Favorite number?  5 and 1 and any combination containing those two numbers.  When I see those numbers, it means something is significant.

8) Favorite day of the week? Saturday.  It’s the only day of the week where I’m not doing anything at all, with the exception of karate class.  Xan is off, so I have another parent to help me, and we usually do something fun that day.

9) Favorite flower?  Daisies.  The white ones.

10) What is your passion? Blogging, music, writing, journalling, reading, crafting
The nominees:

1. Hello Sailor
2. Manic Monday
3. You Know You’re Borderline When…
4. Alice at Wonderland
5. Seasons Change, and so Have I
6. Withering Tulip
7. Anxiety Adventures
8. Views of the Slow Lane

 

One Lovely Blog Award

Mood Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified bestowed this award upon me.  Thank you so much for your nomination!  It was incredibly wonderful!

And now, The Rules:

1. Thank the person/people who nominated you and link back to them in your post.
2. Share seven possibly unknown things about yourself.
3. Nominate fifteen or so bloggers you admire.
4. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know and link back to them

Number 2: seven unknown things about me.

1. Up until last Friday Confessional, my first kiss was from a girl.
2. So was my first relationship.
3. My schoolgirl boyfriend had cancer and was out of school for a year.  I stayed with him in that relationship.  When he got back to school, he dumped me on my birthday so he could ask another girl out.  She turned him down.  Ha ha.
4. I attempted to have my father arrested once.  That’s another Confessional Friday.
5. I have a brother with moderate autism.
6. Sometimes, I talk about a sister.  My sister isn’t my biological sister.  She’s actually my third cousin.  But, we grew up in the same household, so it was like having a part-time sister.
7. I am clautrophobic

I nominate everyone reading this right now.  You may take this, because if you are reading it, then you are a lovely person with a lovely blog.

 

TMI Blog Award

Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars suggested me for nomination.  I guess sometimes I do get a little personal.  Thanks for thinking of me!

 

This one doesn’t really have any rules.  So feel free and snatch this for your blog too!

Belated Blog Awards Ceremony

Today, I’d like to take the time and properly accept all of the awards that were bestowed upon me while I was writing Pendulum.  It was a lovely thing for all of these bloggers to do, and I have yet to take the time to thank them appropriately.

One Lovely Blog Award

Bipolarmuse nominated me for this one.  The rules are as follows:

1.Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2.Pass the award to other newly discovered blogs.
3.Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

2. Withering Tulip
3. Crazy in the Coconut
4. Stuff She Said
5. An Incidental Life
6. bRaving Bipolar

Sunshine Award

Again, I was nominated by the lovely and wonderful Bipolarmuse.

The Sunshine Award, like all other rewards, has some rules:

• Include the award’s logo in a post or on your blog
• Answer 10 questions about yourself
• Nominate 10-12 other fabulous bloggers
• Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated
• Share the love and link the person who nominated you.

TEN QUESTIONS

1. Favorite color: Blues.  All kinds of blues.  Especially turquoise.
2. Favorite animal: Owl.  Wise and a night animal.  Maybe the nocturnal part is right about me…
3. Favorite number: 51.  Or 15.  Any combination of 5 and 1.  It’s a sign to me.  Whenever I see it, I know I’m on the right track.
4. Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Coffee or Pepsi
5. Prefer Facebook or Twitter? Both
6. My passion: Helping others, my son, my husband, psychology, and music
7. Prefer getting or giving presents:  Giving.  I’m very awkward at receiving.
8. Favorite pattern: Paisley
9. Favorite day of the week: Saturday, ruled by the planet Saturn, Cassiel as a patron saint.
10. Favorite flower: Daisies

My nominations:

1. You Know You’re Borderline When…
2. Anxiety Adventures
3. Struggling with BPD
4. Manic Monday
5. Christian Concern for Mental Health
6. Slightly Manic Mummy
7. If You Actually Knew Me
8. Finding Finn
9. Seasons Change, and so Have I
10. Many of Us

Inspiring Blog Award

Kevin, from Voices of Glass, was kind enough to gift me this award.

Rules:

First, nominate 7 other blogs to receive this award

Second, write 7 personal things you wouldn’t normally say on your blog

Nominees!

1. Manic Monday
2. Views of the Slow Lane
3. Seasons Change, and so Have I
4. BPmom
5. Pride In Madness
6. Mood Swings, Mania, and other scary adventures
7. Angel’s Blog

Seven Truths

1. I have nervous habits that I don’t really talk about.  One of those habits is picking at any sores, pimples, blisters, calluses. etc that I may have on my body or face.  I always kind of do it, but when I’m under a lot of stress, it’s the worst.  I’ve been known to cut my toenails down to the point of bleeding.
2. I smoke.  A lot.  I know I’ve mentioned alcohol as being one of my vices, but so are cigarettes.  I’ve never considered myself to be one of those people with an addictive personality, but I believe I stand corrected.  I wouldn’t normally admit that.
3. Sometimes, I’ll drink entirely too much coffee, just to have a little hypomanic fit.  Usually, I just end up giving myself that crawling-under-your-skin, bursting feeling that comes with caffeine overdose, instead.
4. This might actually make everyone who ever lived angry with me.  I am not a Tim Burton fan.  Not in the least.
5. In addition, I really disliked Star Wars.
6. My son likes to pee on his floor, instead of going in the toilet.  So, instead of mopping up at each instance, we have what is designated as “the pee towel”.  I mop every few days.  Kind of gross, I know.
7. I have a gigantic mirror in my basement.  Not for vanity sake, although it is great to check myself out in to see how I look in an outfit.  It’s actually for me to practice my Tang Soo Do forms.

Very Inspiring Blog Award

I’d like to thank Manic Monday for this wonderful award.

Like all the other awards, there’s a few rules: thank the person who nominated you, nominate seven others, and provide seven facts about yourself.

7 nominations:

1. Slightly Manic Mummy
2. Crazy in the Coconut
3. Seasons Change, and so Have I
4. Anxiety Adventures
5. Bipolar Blogging
6. Infinite Sadness or Hope
7. Bipolar Beach

7 Factoids:

1. For Monday:  I’ve had bifocals since I was 12, but I don’t wear them because they’re too expensive.  I’d rather just hold something far away from my face.
2. I wear contacts.  I wear them constantly.  I am that vain, yes.  But also, I love waking up in the morning and not having to fiddle with glasses or contacts.
3. My hair is bleach blonde, but it is actually a natural dark blonde.
4. I don’t like having long fingernails.  It’s just another thing to pick at.  I mean, I don’t bite my nails or anything.  I just bite the skin around the nails.  Ewww.
5. I desperately want to start making “green arts and crafts”, but I don’t know where to start.
6. I almost never throw clothing in the garbage.  I either recycle it into something else, or I donate.  I like to donate.
7. I am extremely superstitious.  I mean, to the point of getting epic anxiety when someone violates a superstition.

Related articles

• More Love Than Your Blog Has Room For (sunnywithachanceofarmageddon.wordpress.com)
• And, the Award Goes to… (ataraxiphilia.wordpress.com)
• Beautiful Blogging Award and More! (poetrycurator.wordpress.com)

Purses Anonymous

Inspired by Ruby Tuesday, who wrote Trust Me, I Know, I’d like to just bare all and show the contents of my purse.  Now, up until I saw Ruby’s everyday purse, I thought I was a serious bag lady.  I don’t know if other women have this problem where they find that each purse begins to get bigger, and bigger with age.  I started out late with purses, having my first one gifted to me as a joke in college.  Now, after a husband and a son, I started wearing ones with a strap across the front, just because my poor shoulder couldn’t handle it anymore.

Mind you, when you see the contents, I have spared you the sight of the occasional diaper, wipes, and Chris’ car keys – all of which have become my responsibility somehow in the last four years.

Pretty, huh?

Now, we spill . . .

And now, pretty scary.

I decided I’d like to make this into a contest. The first one that names all of the items correctly automatically gets first dibs on the Blog for Mental Health 2013 badge.

Up For Some Blog Tag?

I don’t know about some of you guys, but I’ve been coming up short in the writing arena lately.  Not because I don’t have anything to complain about (I don’t), but the Abilify is making my head unusually empty.  So, I’d like to toss around a game of tag!  Enjoy!

Da Rules:

Write ten facts about yourself, all true, and then pass it on to ten people.

Da Facts:

1. I don’t like red meat.  I really don’t.  I am not a big fan of meat in general.  Except cheeseburgers.  I love cheeseburgers.  They are my downfall every time I attempt vegetarianism.
2. I sleep in my contacts.  I’m so vain.  No, just kidding.  I just really love waking up and not fishing for a pair of glasses.  There’s something beautiful about waking up and being able to see the world without some plastic foreign object on your face.
3. I live in Pittsburgh.  For those of you that might not know, I live in the City of Champions.  Most livable city in the US.  Six Superbowl Rings.  Four Stanley Cups (that I know of).  Jaywalking is a birthright.  The most disgusting rivers you will ever see, all three of them.  So bad that Bruce Willis said he will never, ever go in them again.  Most cloudy days of any major US city.  And more sets of stairs than San Francisco, believe that or not.  This city is the best.
4. I was not born in Pittsburgh.  Unlike the rest of the natives, I was not born at Magee Women’s Hospital.  I wasn’t even born in this city.  I was actually born in a little town outside of Atlanta, GA.  I was raised there for several years and then hauled to Pittsburgh.
5. I occasionally have a southern accent.  If I am drunk enough, surrounded by southerners, or actually in the south, I will slip into a southern accent.  The more time I spend in the south, the harder it is for me to get rid of.  I went down for a week for my honeymoon, and couldn’t get rid of it for three weeks, much to my husband’s disgust.  He’s one to talk; he has a mix of a Pittsburgh accent and a Brooklyn accent.
6. I speak three languages.  Good English.  Bad English.  And Pittsburghese.  Look it up, it’s a real thing.
7. I play more than one instruments.  I play most instruments in the woodwind family, and some in the percussion family.  I do not play any strings or brass.  It’s just not in me.
8. My hair is naturally blonde.  Just not as blonde as I dye it!
9. My son has Autism Spectrum Disorder.  I know I don’t talk about it often, but my son was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified in May 2011.  My brother has classical autism, so it was a hard diagnosis to take in.  I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Not again, God, I can’t handle this my whole life.”  The good news is that he’s coming along just fine, though he’s still delayed.
10. I am on five psychiatric medications.  Lamictal, Abilify, Xanax, Wellbutrin, and Temazepam.  I hear that’s actually pretty tame in comparison.

Now, here’s the tagging.  If you come upon this, then TAG, YOU’RE IT!  I mean, if you really want.  I’m just not going out of my way to tag others today.