Phobias and Fears and Scary Things Oh My!

This week's random topic is phobias and fears, so I'm probably going to freak myself out just writing this. I'll keep not too scary though, no nightmares here!

To check out what the other Wednesday Bloggers are afraid of, click on a name below:
Bronwyn
Jess
Kellie
Tess
Kris


Okay, fear number one. And this is probably one of my biggest fears if not the biggest. Tornadoes. I am terrified of them. When I was a kid and there was any sort of tornado warning four counties away, I immediately hightailed it to the basement and sat there until it was over. The street I grew up on was a dividing line for two counties and whenever there was a tornado watch or warning in the county that was the other side of the street, my dad would tell me "It's fine, we don't live in that county." But I was on to him.

Fear number two...snakes. I hate them and everything they stand for. I once ran across a little garter snake (is that even what they're called?) while hiking with my parents and some other people. I can honestly say I totally lost my head and screamed bloody murder until somebody made it go away. That is the only time I have ever run across one in the wild and I hope it stays that way.

The next would have to be things that jump, like frogs and grasshoppers. You never know which way they are going to jump and suddenly they are attached to you. No sir, I don't like it. Bunnies are okay though. Even with their hoppy legs and twitchy little noses.

One more animal one and then I'll move on. Bats. We had a bat in our house once and one appeared in my husband's family's cabin, and I think you could safely say I also lost my head both of those times. I'm not good in a crisis. At least not animal related crises.

The fear of looking stupid. I don't know if this quite fits with the theme, but I have an extraordinary fear of looking stupid to others. So much so that I almost never speak up in meetings or classes unless I absolutely have to. I've overcome it some in recent years, but sometimes I still revert back to that person I was in college where I could go a whole semester without uttering a word in class. It's hard to have this kind of fear when you work in a professional environment because you are expected to contribute in meetings, but I'm always afraid of what people will say about my ideas. Or that I'll say something backwards and everyone will know I'm a fraud and that I don't belong there.

One last one and then I'm going to try to find something fun to do to dispel these evil thoughts.

Lightning. I am terrified of lightning. And really thunderstorms, in general. I like rain, I find it soothing. But the noise of thunder and the power of lightning (and the fact that it could fry me where I stand) scare the stuffing out of me. To the point where I can't sleep and usually make my husband stay up with me for awhile. And I hate being home alone during storms. Its panic-inducing.

Okay, I'm done. I need to find some happy thoughts now. But feel free to share your phobias in the comments.

OMG Pet Peeves!

It’s time for Wednesday Blog Randomness and we have another new person joining! Say hi to Kris Norris and check out her blog!

Click on a name below to visit the blogs of everyone involved:

Bronwyn

Jess

Kellie

Tess

Kris

This week we are talking about our pet peeves. I thought this would be an easy topic for me considering how often I’m irritated (just about every day it seems), but I had to think long and hard to come up with some specific pet peeves.

First and foremost are people who don’t use their turn signals. I know that’s probably a common one, but I get so road ragey anyway, when I come up against someone who is turning (and taking their sweet ever-loving time about it) without a turn signal on, what comes out of my mouth would make a sailor blush. It’s not healthy.

Bending the covers or pages of books. It makes me want to stab someone with an ice pick. Most of my books like they’ve never been read, even though many have been read more than once. I refuse to let my husband read any of “my” books because he rips covers or dust covers, he cracks the spines. He has learned not to dog-ear pages because that means instant death.

I don’t know if this qualifies as a pet peeve, but it’s something I deal with regularly. I’m not quite sure how to word this succinctly… People who behave one way part of the time and then change their behavior 180 degrees the rest of the time. I’m not talking about anything as serious as bi-polar. I’m talking about someone who is a witch to you most of the time and then every once in a while will be super nice so that you are constantly on your guard waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s exhausting to be constantly vigilant. It sounds dramatic, but those “nice” periods make me think something is being plotted behind my back.

Okay, this one tends to be mostly work related for me, but people who don’t read past the first line of an email. I mean, I went through the trouble of typing it for a reason and if I type a longer email it’s on purpose. It’s because whatever I’m trying to convey is easier to get across in writing than on the phone or in a voicemail. Read it! Don’t then come back and ask me a question answered in the third line of the email!

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

One more and then I’m going to stop, both for the sake of my blood pressure and for the fact that if I don’t cut myself off I might go on forever. Once I opened the dam it doesn’t seem to want to close.

This one I get a lot from one particular person. I’ll get a text message that says, “Call me as soon as you can.” The person never tried to call me. Just sent a text. And then, I call and the reason for the request was either something totally not important or can’t be remembered by the person who wanted me to call. Those always give me the urge to chuck my phone across the room.

Those are some of my pet peeves, just a taste. How about you? Everybody has them. What are some of your pet peeves?

What Can't I Live Without?

This week the Wednesday blog group is looking at the top five things we can't live without.  We have some new people joining us this week, welcome to Kellie St. James and Tess Grant!  

Click one of the names below to read the other posts:
Bronwyn
Jess
Kellie
Tess

Okay, so five things I can’t live without. I’m going to stay away from the serious things, family members, friends, pets, etc.... I think those are kind of a given.

So, here we go:

     1. Books. I can’t imagine a life lived without books and hopefully I’ll never have to.

      2. Unfortunately…my phone. I never wanted to be a person that relied on their phone, but apparently I do. I text mostly (talking on the phone is practically a phobia for me) but I also check my email and social apps obsessively. I’m not sure if it’s out of boredom most of the time or if it’s really a desire to know what’s going on.

      3. My Converse. I love Converse shoes; the classic, old school Chucks. For some reason I always feel more like myself when I put them on. I wear them year round, except for when we have four feet of snow on the ground because they aren’t very good cold weather shoes. I have a few pairs, but I always seem to stick with black or purple. My two signature colors.

      4. Ponytail holders or anything I can use to get my hair out of the way. Occasionally, I try cutting my hair short and it bugs me because I can’t pull it back. However, the minute it gets long enough, I rarely wear it down for a whole day. I think I look more like myself with my hair pulled back, if that makes sense.

      5. My purple, crocheted afghan that my husband’s grandmother made for me for Christmas the year before she passed away. Purple is my favorite color and the blanket is soft and big enough to wrap around me and I just love it. I rarely let my husband use it, which he says isn’t fair because his grandma made it. Too bad.

      So, those are the five things I can’t live without. What about you? What do you have in your life that you can’t imagine being without?

Whatcha Listening To?

It's time for another Wednesday blog and Bronwyn, Jess and I are exploring our musical loves. We've hit shuffle on our music collections and we're seeing what comes up in the first ten songs.  Read Bronwyn's post here and Jess' here.

I'm very interested to see what comes up for me in this little experiment. I have a lot of different music playlists depending on my mood or task at hand, but for this I've hit shuffle on the whole collection on my iPod.  Here we go...

1. Working My Way Back to You - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons:  I love so called "Oldies" and my favorite group is Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. Listening to them never fails to cheer me up. And of course I try to hit those high notes, it's not pretty.

2. Careless Whisper - Seether:  Yes this is a remake of a cheesy 80's song by George Michael but I don't care. I really like the vibe to this version, I'm not even sure why.

3. Electrical Storm - U2:  While not one of their more well known songs, I enjoy the way this starts out quiet and builds...like a storm. U2 is one of my all time favorite bands, if not my favorite band. I never get tired of listening to them and almost every song brings me back to a specific place or time.

4. Pray Your Gods - Toad the Wet Sprocket: Another one of my favorite bands. They fall under what I call "Mellow Dude Rock." It's a genre. This song is off the Fear album which I recently realized has been out for 22 years. God, that's depressing.

5. She is Love - Parachute: I'm not sure I know any other songs by this band but I heard this on the radio once and really liked it. Also very mellow...which seems to be a lot of my musical tastes.

6. Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes: Awesome 80's awesomeness.  What more can I say?

7. Hate Your Way - Nina Gordon: She was the singer from the 90's band, Veruca Salt. She has a very distinctive voice (although that never stops my husband from asking if she's that girl from that band). I've been listening to this album regularly since it came out in 2000 or so.

8. Canto Alla Vita - Josh Groban:  I'm honestly surprised only one of his songs same up in this little exercise, I have all of his CD's. I find his voice very soothing and inspiring at the same time.

9. Gentleman Who Fell - Milla: Another song from the 90's (this is a trend, I tell you). This is the only song of hers I've heard, but you may recognize her as the woman in all of the Resident Evil movies, Milla Jovovich.

10. Read My Mind - The Killers: This song always reminds me of a book I read once. For some reason it's very thought provoking.

There a couple of things/groups that I'm surprised didn't come up. The Counting Crows, for one. They make up a large part of my musical collection. Also, no Broadway songs. I'm not even sure the number of Broadway soundtracks I have on my iPod, but oh well.

So, this is what I'm listening to. How about you?

What Do You Keep In There?

This week's Wednesday blog takes us on a different kind of adventure.  Bronwyn Green, Jess Jarman and I are sharing a bit of ourselves on the topic of what we keep in our bags/purses.  Check out Bronwyn's post here and Jess' here.

I admit I don't usually carry a lot in my purse, but I have a few essentials.  And the most important starting point is, of course, the bag itself.  This is my "I hate winter so I'm going to buy this purse to cheer myself up" purse. I love it.  Isn't it such a fun, springy color?

So, what do I keep in there?  The essentials to start with, of course...wallet, sunglasses.

And, because I'm a good little writer, I always carry a notebook and pen. And these are the only pens I use.  I'm a pen snob.

The next items are my awesome Bronwyn promo/swag. If you see her at a book signing, hit her up...they are both fantastic.

I'm obsessed with chapstick, I have some everywhere so of course I have a tube in my purse.  I always use Burt's Bees, I swear by it.

Okay, two items left.  Below is the most useful thing I carry.  It was a gift from my dad years ago and it is in my absolute favorite color. It's not a very good picture color wise, but it's purple.

And last but not least, my keys (on top of my winter hat).  I'm including them here even though they don't always make into my bag because, yes, that's a TARDIS. It is actually an LED flashlight and it's dead helpful. And I love it when I have my keys out somewhere and people notice the TARDIS and comment on it. Fellow Whovians.  :)

So that's what you might find in my bag. What about you? Anything you can't leave home without?

Take Me Away!

This week, the blogging adventure with Bronwyn Green and Jess Jarman is taking us elsewhere.  We're looking at five places we want to visit during our lifetime.  I don't know about these ladies, but I'm so beyond tired of winter and snow that I find myself constantly wishing I were someplace else, so this is a very timely post. Check out Bronwyn's post here and Jess' here.

These are in no particular order for me, but here goes...

The first place on my list is somewhere I have always wanted to go...Egypt.  I want to see the pyramids and the temples that are still standing.  I have been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians and their mythology since I was a kid, I would love to see pieces of it in person. Truth be told, I wish I could have lived in the early 1900's when Egyptology was all the rage and people vacationed there in the winter. But, I'll take what I can get.

The second place on my list is Rio de Janeiro, it seems like such a vibrant, exciting city.  I think it would be great place to experience. But maybe not during Carnival, that might be a bit much for me. I don't know that I can party that hard.

Next on my tour of the world is London...and also Ireland.  I think these qualify as one place since I can easily visit them in one trip. And it's my list so I can do what I want. The British Isles have always been a source of fascination and imagination for me. I love the various cultures, the history. While I am not English or Irish (or Scottish or Welsh for that matter), I feel like a part of my soul might be. There is something about those places that just calls to me.

The next two places on my list bring to mind sunny beaches and relaxation. The first is the Bahamas. I never thought I was a beach person until I went to a resort a couple of years ago and loved it, so the Bahamas are now high on my list. And with the way the weather has been in the Mitten this year, the beach sounds like a little slice of heaven. I mean, check out the pictures.

The last place is one I had probably never heard of until I read the Harry Potter books, but I feel like they mentioned it a couple of times. And I've since learned that Majorca is a popular vacation spot for Europeans.  Doesn't it look glorious?

So, those are my top five places I want to visit. For now. I'm sure it will change again. I love to imagine myself in different places, its one of my favorite pastimes.

What about you? Where do you want to go? What places are on your list?

Three Things I Want to Learn

As is obvious by the date of my last post, I have been absolutely horrible about blogging. I thought about giving up on it, but after some consideration, I decided instead of giving up I was going to try to dive back in with, well maybe not gusto, but at least with a concerted effort.

And, because they are both so awesome, Bronwyn Green and Jess Jarman are letting me tag along on their tandem blogging adventure.  This week the topic is Three Things I Want to Learn; you can read Bronwyn’s post here and Jess’ here.

1.  The first thing I want to learn is to make my own pasta.  I’ve seen people make it on cooking shows and it looks like something I could do, but I have yet to get up the courage to try it. I have a feeling its one of those things that looks deceptively easy, but will be a real bugger to actually do.

2.  Learn to speak Italian.  I’ve been fortunate to be able to visit Italy twice over the years, and I think the Italian language is just beautiful.  It’s amazing how much one year of high school Latin can help you get around, but it’s nothing like being fluent in Italian.

3.  I would love to learn how to re-finish/paint furniture so that it doesn’t look like a five year old did it. In particular, I have this old hutch that is currently stained dark brown and I would like to re-finish it in a light blue, sort of distressed look. Very shabby chic, I think. It would be one less piece of oppressive furniture in my house, that's for sure.

What about you?  Anything new you're dying to learn?