Almost Famous

Well, in my own mind anyway. But Kim gave me an award so I feel famously famous now. So cool!

There are, of course, rules that accompany this award. You have to share five addictions. And then you have to pass the award on to five other fabulous bloggers.

I had an incredibly difficult time limiting myself to five addictions. But once I stopped thinking about it as five obsessive compulsive behaviors and started limiting it to addictions only, I had an easier time. . .

1. The Internet. Probably not a newsflash there. Each day I'm slightly more disturbed by how much time I can spend not only answering e-mail and surfing all of the blogs I follow and looking up useless facts like what brand of margarine Mother Nature endorsed in the 70s (it was Chiffon), but now. . .drumroll please. . .I just joined Facebook and my descent into the black hole known as the Internet has sent me into a whole new space and time wasting continuum. Eamonn doesn't (didn't) know I started a Facebook page. His first question after he reads this is going to be, "What's Facebook?" And then after I tell him he'll roll his eyes, shake his head and say something sarcastic. It's just his way.

2. Popcorn. I know this sounds harmless on the surface, but I suspect it's really keeping me from becoming a thin person because I eat it from a trough that a herd of cows would envy. I think I've mentioned before that I follow this online exercise program. I've had OK results. I'm guessing I would have far better results if I cut several thousand calories of popcorn a week out of my diet. Apparently I really don't want to be thin badly enough. Maybe I should trade being addicted to popcorn with being addicted to exercise. Please note: exercise will never appear as one of my addictions. I feel safe saying "never" here, Mom.

3. Baking. Hmmm. This might be another nail in the coffin of the online exercise program. I love to bake (and let's face it--eat loads of cookie dough). I love the rituals involved in it. I love experimenting with it. I love how my family and friends react to my baking. Except when I have a baking flop. Which tends to happen pretty frequently here at altitude. Even cookies come out differently and it's taken me these 2 1/2 years to figure some of it out. Some of it I'll clearly never figure out. Last weekend I made a gingerbread cake (delish) that looked like Mauna Loa. It tasted great, but Martha Stewart would have been recommending me for an intervention. But altitude issues aside, my passion for baking remains unshaken.

4. Christmas. I'm already ready for it to be here again. I love the spirit that hangs in the air around Christmas--especially now that we live 2 1/2 hours from the nearest mall (unless this horrible developer gets his outdoor mall built in our town, which I hope he doesn't, but don't get me started on that because I'll never stop raging about it) and I don't have to deal with people doing crazy things in parking lots or fighting over the last Cabbage Patch Doll/Furbie/Tickle Me Elmo/Wii or whatever it is people fight over at the mall these days. The best thing about Christmas? Andy Williams, of course! And remember, don't forget to nominate me for Andy's Biggest Fan 2009. I'm pretty sure there's NOT an official contest out there, but just in case you hear something through the grapevine and I don't, I hope you've got my back.

5. Organic living. Eamonn and I just had a conversation over dinner tonight about where we could cut our budget. This is sort of my last hold out. We've cut the entertainment budget, the travel budget (which is going to severely impact my hoped for trip to Branson to visit Andy Williams in November), the gift budget (Whew! Thank goodness my new ski boots made it in under the wire. Because doesn't everyone need new ski boots in a recession?), the clothing budget--it's all gone under the knife. For years I've been addicted to Whole Foods, and then when we moved here, Vitamin Cottage. I've been good--I've cut back. But man, it's hard. I showed great restraint when I was in Whole Foods in Denver last week, literally only buying the barest necessities. This is one of my favorite indulgences. Ahhhhh, raw, organic buckwheat groats--there's just nothing like them.


Now, on to blogs I think are fab. The list of blogs I follow has become crazy big. When people comment on my blog, I start following them/you. Hey, if you're going to know what I'm doing, I'm going to know what you're doing. And if you have good ideas, I'm going to steal them. So I think a lot of us seem to follow the same pages (Hello, Kristie. I'm not even going to link to her here since we all go there). These are some that maybe I haven't mentioned before:


The NieNie Dialogues by Stephanie Nielson. I first heard about Stephanie on the Today Show after she and her husband Christian had been in a plane crash. It was a terrible, terrible tragedy. While she has been recovering, Stephanie's sister has been taking care of her children, which brings me to the next blog. . .

cjane enjoy it, which is written by Stephanie's sister, Jane. She has chronicled Stephanie's recovery and life raising her own child as well as her nieces and nephews. An amazing story of family and sisterhood.

Hannah's Shenanigans touches my heart and then turns around and makes me giggle as Beth chronicles the goings-on of her daughter, Hannah. Puts a smile on my face every time.

I never go a day without checking in on Ann. Brought together by a mutual friend years ago, Ann has followed Finn's journey from the start and posted on the CaringBridge guestbook nearly every day. I love to read Ann's blog because she's in Columbus, where I grew up, and so I can picture most of the places she's talking about. I love that. Her blogs about her mother's progression with Alzheimers hit close to home.

And finally, Susan. I started following her blog around Thanksgiving when she was on the turkey talk line and I realized she was Chris' friend so I started reading her blog. I wonder if in real life Susan and I could be friends. She would be the stylish, witty friend and I would be her alter ego--the frumpy, sarcastic friend with the dry sense of humor. Ah well, the world may never know. But I do like her new dining room. It turned out really great (Jan. 7, 2009). Kristie got to meet her. I bow down to Kristie once again.