I’ve been “blogging” (if you can call it such) about 15 years. It started out as an online journal at different websites I had at the time.  This blog was the first I actually wrote simply knowing others would definitely read it.

It’s been amazing.

You’ve been amazing.

I read a variety of other blogs, though I’m not able to get to them as often as I would like, unless they have e-mail subscriptions. I use my reader but it is so full. Anyway, one that I read is written by Sally Brown and she authors a really interesting blog , Live and Love with Passion at speakingoflove.net. It is a positive affirmation that we can always be growing in a healthy direction. I’ve really enjoyed her stuff, especially when having difficulty emotionally.

Sally has very kindly nominated me and fourteen others for ‘The Versatile Blogger‘ award.  How awesome is that, folks?

Upon receiving this award (which is uber cool, I might add) share fifteen newly discovered blogs that one wishes to pass this award. Also, show you appreciation by linking to the person who awarded it to you. It’s just good manners. Then, share seven things about yourself . After, remember  to let the bloggers you are nominating know so they can choose to accept (or decline) this sweet baby.

The fifteen newly discovered blogs part is gonna’ be rough. Everyday I am subscribing or finding bad ass blogs that are new to me. Bear with me and know, I don’t follow a blog unless it kicks ass in some way, so if you aren’t named here it isn’t because I don’t find every one of you worth you’re weight in cupcakes.

So, without further ado, I present

My list of seven:

1. 

   Not mine but OMG I WISH

   I collect “things-to-put-stuff-in”. You know, like baskets, boxes, bowls….things like that…I don’t know why, I just like them. In fact, when I moved I got rid of about twenty baskets. I have brass boxes with handles and cut outs from Turkey, I have crystal and silver bowls that were my grandmothers, I have a handmade wooden box that Jeff gifted me before he passed  that he made when he was about fourteen. I own jars, boxes of every shape and material, baskets, containers… I’ve begun to cut back my acquired compulsion that started in my early twenties. I don’t know what it is or why it exists, but it can’t be healthy.

2. I love color. Not just because I’m an artist but, I think, because it represents life. I can simply play with a new watercolor and not “make” anything simply because the color is so mesmerizing.
3. I don’t watch t.v. Sometimes, Lizz and me will watch one of the shows she likes on Netflix, but we are not t.v. watchers so I saw no need for cable or dish. People think that’s odd. I get bored when it’s on, though.
4. I have two middle names. Being Roman Catholic when I was a child, I was confirmed at twelve years old. When one is confirmed, one picks the name of a saint they wish to emulate. I chose Jeanne D’Arc but I wasn’t allowed to use the French version (trust me, it wasn’t the church, it was that particular teacher) so I was confirmed as Christal Anne Joan La Fountain. Most Catholics don’t use their confirmation name any more, so I stopped using it very soon after. That kinda’ sucks and I’m sorry for it.
5. I was a clown in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for about 20 minutes in sixth grade. See, I had made a pastel poster for the circus and won the contest at my school. The prize was two tickets to the show in Philadelphia. I just knew my parents wouldn’t spring for the night out and dragged my way home and sorta’ heavyheartedly told them about it. One of the best moments of my life was when my step father said, without hesitation, that not only would we go, BUT they would buy tickets for my sisters and themselves, also! I got to dress up in a sequined clown outfit when there and, even though my grown up pumps had shredded the backs of my heels, I walked around waving to everyone as if I had always been a clown and this is what I always did every single night of my life. I still have the program book. It was the best time of my childhood.
6. Speaking of childhood, I once found my mothers feminine protection under the sink in the master bedroom bath when I was about four or five. Of course, my sisters and I had absolutely no idea what they were and spent some time trying to decide their use. I opened one and said they were throw away earrings that you colored, looped the string around your ears, wear and then throw out. My older sister Laura shook her head slowly and a little fearfully. She just had a sneaking suspicion that wasn’t their use. Nuts to her, if she wants to miss out on the chance to wear some kick as earrings, so let it be…I was doing mine up. So, two of my sisters and I (the fourth sister wasn’t born yet) used markers to color our “earrings” and went about the neighborhood with them hanging off our ears. I almost died soon after when Mother just about killed me for it. We still laugh about it.
7. I have a tendency to get caught doing stupid shit, obviously. At the dental office I worked at for many years we had soap dispensers that were motion sensor controlled, so they used a bag soap with a reeeeeeeeeally long “nipple” on it to dispense the contents. If you squeezed the new bag just right when you were replacing the old one  it would make the nipple pop up like an erect penis. Finding this hysterically funny I was doing this from the pelvis area angle in the narrow hall at my co-worker in an operatory and got caught just as the electrician I didn’t know was coming walked around the corner. I tried to explain but I could see he didn’t want to make eye contact so I slithered away like the guilty thirteen year old I am deep inside.

So that’s that…you now know all my hidden skeletons from my messy closet. I will pass the septor on and thank Sally for thinking of me and trusting me not to say anything stupid……

oh wait……….

Sorry.

For you:

1. Maggie at ‘You just watch me change’
2. Andreea at ‘Curious Tendancies’
3. Evan at ‘Food God, Laundry Bad‘
4. Beth at ‘By The Time I’m Fifty’
5. Mary at ‘Miss Mary’s Blog’
6. Miraelle at ‘Parsleyarse Mundanity’
7. Kimberly at ‘All Work and No Play Makes Mommy Go Something Something’
8. Trish at ‘I Am Succeeding’
9. Michelle at “VSG Mom”
10. Cari at ‘Cari ETC.’
11. Sagittarian at ‘Discovering It Just Now’
12. Judy at ‘LDS Chic Weight Loss Trail’
13. Mitzy at ‘Roux En Y Mitzy’
14. Sam at ‘The Modern Promethius’ (her being my kid has NOTHING to do with it……..much)
15. Jorielle at ‘LonelyToes’

And so, with my humblest thanks to Sally I shall bow out now and leave the stage to the other bloggers because they don’t do stupid shit like I.