The Liebster Award: Who Are the Bloggers in Your Neighborhood?

Last week, I was surprised to find a nomination for the Liebster Award from canaf, who blogs about her rural lifestyle at Faithful Homesteader. “I’ll wait until my son’s fall break is over,” I decided. Two days later, I received a Liebster nomination from Lucile, whose delightful, thought-provoking posts can be read at lucile de godoy, on life. To both authors, thank you–not only for your recognition but also for your contributions to the community!

On this rainy afternoon, I watched my son ride away in his roommate’s car. Since my daughter’s fall break doesn’t start for a few days, I have a window in which to accept the Liebster, a word of German origin that means “dearest, sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, welcome, sweetheart and boyfriend” (from Lucile’s post). The purpose of the Liebster is to recognize and encourage relatively new bloggers–specifically, those with fewer than 200 followers. I decided to participate in passing on this award because reading “award” posts has helped me find blogs to follow, including the blogs of my two nominators.

My kids watched a lot of “Sesame Street.” As a consequence, “Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?” started playing in my head as soon as I came up with the title for this post.  (“The Sesame Street Songbook”)

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As outlined in canaf’s post, here are the rules:

• Post the award on your blog.
• Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to his or her blog.
• Write 11 random facts about yourself.
• Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have less than 200 followers.
• Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 11 questions.

This is not an “official rule,” but it’s a good idea to go to your nominees’ blogs and tell them about your nomination, with a link to your post.

This is not my neighborhood–it’s not even in the South–but I did take this picture.

Eleven random facts about the author of sappy as a tree:

• 1. I have worn glasses since I was 8.
• 2. I have always lived in the southern part of the United States.
• 3. I like cooking (but not shopping for groceries).
• 4. I am allergic to poison ivy and dust mites.
• 5. I once ordered a leather sofa over the phone: as you might expect, it is attractive but not particularly comfortable.
• 6. I own two different patterns of Christmas china.
• 7. When I was 7 years old, my mother found me sobbing because I thought I might get a “B” in music.
• 8. I have three sisters.
• 9. I also have two brothers.
• 10. Although I am not a runner, Chariots of Fire is one of my favorite movies.
• 11. I own all three seasons of the original “Star Trek” television show.

If any brave souls are still reading, I will now answer 11 questions from canaf AND 11 questions from Lucile. ( I’m becoming uncomfortable under the glare of the spotlight.) Here are canaf’s fun-to-answer questions with my responses:

1. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods? I like both: this is probably why I’m slightly overweight.
2. Are you urban, suburban, or rural?  Suburban.
3. Do you have a favorite reality TV show? My current favorite is Lifetime’s “The Kim of Queens.”
4. What is your favorite genre of music? Classical.
5. Do you have pets? if so, what do you have? No pets: our goldfish, Aragorn, died last month.
6. Dark or milk chocolate? I prefer dark.
7. If you could live in another time, when would you chose? As a child, I wanted to live in the 19th century. Now, I know enough history to realize that every era has its drawbacks.
8. What is your favorite color? Green.
9. Do you have a favorite sport? If so, what is it? I like playing tennis, but I am not a very good player.
10. Do you prefer a hot or cold climate? Cold.
11. What is your favorite movie genre? Hard question: drama, but I also like non-slapstick comedy and suspense.

Here are my responses to Lucile’s probing questions, for the intrepid readers who are still with me:

• 1. Are you afraid of the dark? Not any more, but strange noises in the dark unnerve me.
• 2. Do you care about recycling garbage? We faithfully recycle newspaper–a newspaper is delivered to our house each morning (my kids like the comics)–but we are not good about recycling other types of trash.
• 3. Are you happy?  I am happy with a tinge of guilt and anxiety.
• 4. If you had to say the truth or protect a friend, which one would you choose?  Eventually, I would say the truth, but I would agonize over it.
• 5. Are you addicted to social media? Yes, I fear that I am: my new WordPress addiction is overtaking my old Facebook habit: this might be better, since I am reading more?
• 6. Do you have a dream? I have a dream that every room in my house would be clean at the same time.
• 7. Have you ever been in love with a friend and never told him? Maybe long ago?
• 8. Tell us the funniest thing that has happened to you.  I am usually the source of my own comedy: at the age of 11, I was told to grease the bottom of a muffin pan; unthinkingly, I turned the pan over and–yes, this actually happened–I greased the bottom of it. I don’t always connect the dots when I am given oral instructions.
• 9. If you could choose another place, where would you live? I live in a beautiful place, but it would be nice to live in a less hilly location so that I could ride my bike more. The beach?
• 10. Don’t you like gossiping? I am ashamed to say that I like reading celebrity gossip: I won’t buy People, but I will read it in waiting rooms. When I do pass on “interesting” tidbits about one person to another, I regret it later.
• 11. Would you let me know if you would rather not be awarded and why?  I accepted, but I was daunted by the thought of coming up with 11 blogs to recommend. I recently nominated 15 blogs for the “One Lovely Blog” Award, and I tried to come up with different blogs for the Liebster Award.

At last: my eclectic list of nominees! I have been impressed by the honesty or eloquence of each of the bloggers below. (With the exception of #2 on my list, I tried to choose people who–as best I could judge–had not already been nominated for this award, but I could have goofed or something could have changed since I wrote this.)  Nominees, please do not feel any obligation to accept the Liebster Award. Like me, each of you has responsibilities outside the self-imposed writing that we do in our blogs. You are the best judge of whether you have time to participate in this. No worries, if you don’t. If you do, I know you will find it time-consuming, but I hope that you will ultimately find it to be rewarding. (I did.)

My nominees (in no particular order):

1. Perspectives On . .  work, life, and leisure
2. Write Out of the Darkness (I’m cheating, since Lucile nominated Terri; if you accept, skip my questions.)
3. LESSONS LE@RNED (I’m cheating again, since I did nominate Beth’s blog for the OLB Award.)
4. Family, peace, travel & fiction
5. Flavia Lozano
6. River of Life Flows
7. glasgowmango
8. Betzcee Rambles
9. our sacred breath
10. From My Plan to His
11. April’s Perspective

And here are my 11 questions, with this caveat: if any question seems too personal or makes you uncomfortable, please substitute one of Lucile’s or canaf’s questions instead.

1. If you walked into a Starbucks, what would you order?
2. Read a good book lately? Please divulge its title and author.
3. How do you feel about rainy days (or Mondays)?
4. Camping: do you like it or loathe it?
5. Name one of your favorite desserts.
6. When you travel from one place to another–via public transportation or personal vehicle–do you listen to news, music, audiobooks, or your own thoughts?
7. What is your favorite holiday?
8. Which section of a newspaper do you turn to first–news? editorials? comics? entertainment? crossword? sports? living? classifieds? realty? business?
9. For a date night, would you prefer a concert or a movie?
10. How long have you been authoring a blog?
11. Jane Austen’s character Lady Catherine de Bourgh famously said about the piano, “If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.” Is there a talent or skill that you wish you’d had the opportunity to develop? What might you have become a “great proficient” at, if you had had the opportunity to learn?