Tag Archives: about-me

about-me, blogging

Versatile Blogger

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Yesterday, Brittany over at Living in the Moment (Which happens to be one of my absolute favorite blogs! If you’ve not started reading it yet, now would be an excellent time to do. Trust me on this one, kay?) tagged me to receive the blog award Versatile Blogger.

I honored to be in her list! THANK YOU!!

Now, for the steps of this award:

Share 7 things about yourself.

1) I am planning to write a book about the history of Printer’s Alley in downtown Nashville. I have a serious love for that Alley and the history of it just makes me light up to hear. I’ve looked and looked, and I’ve never found a book written specifically about the Alley. I already have several contacts to interview about it. All I need to do is write my book pitch and, the hard part, find someone interested in publishing it.

2) I have two things I battle almost constantly: tooth aches and sinus problems. The tooth aches are from my deep dislike for the dentist, not to mention the sheer expense of dental work. The sinus problems just are what they are. Fall is always the worst, so brace yourself for an extreme amount of whining in the next few months about my not being able to breathe.

3) I play FarmVille on Facebook. My secret is out. Please forgive me! But, I like how it makes me think and balance time spans in the game, and as silly as it sounds… its just plain fun. Time consuming, yes, but hence the balancing time spans. The goal is to always make it such that I play in my downtime, not when it would take me away from my work.

4) I’ve become a total penny pincher. If I do buy myself something frivolous, like today I bought a couple flowers for my front steps, it has to be on sale. Or I have to have a coupon. Coupons are my friends. I’m not as good at the coupon clipping as some people are, but there is a level of satisfaction seeing a significant number under “money saved” at the bottom of a receipt.

5) Labor Day means MDA Telethon. My nephew has muscular dystrophy, and as such MDA is an organization that is very near and dear to my heart. They do wonderful, wonderful things and Labor Day is their biggest fundraiser for the whole year. While many people are out on the lake, etc. I’m watching that total raise, often with tears in my eyes. My nephew is an amazing kid teen, and I am prouder of him than I could ever put into words. Labor Day is a big day for anyone and everyone touched by muscular dystrophy, and I am looking forward to it!

6) My toenails are always painted, but my fingernails are never painted. Well, except for clear. I don’t know why, but its just something with me. I might go a day or two without polish on my toenails, but its only if I am staying home and will probably be wearing socks at all times. It just BUGS me to not have them painted! As for my fingernails, I just don’t like chipped polish, and I can’t go a day without chipping my nail polish. So I just opt to not wear polish at all.

7) I haaaaate making phone calls. There must be a name for that fear, because I literally will get a knot in my stomach and sweaty palms before making a phone call. Well, when I call anyone besides my husband or my parents. As such, I’m a total text message addict. It avoids my phone fear. Anytime I DO make a phone call, I get a sense of accomplishment. I did it! I beat my fear! Yay! But it comes back every time I pick up the phone. Its crazy. I know. But it is what it is.

Pass this award on to 15 bloggers who you love, think are fantastic or have recently discovered.

1) If Mom Says OK — Gotta love Tara… found her via Weekly Winners; I love all her posts and she’s awesome to follow on Twitter as well.

2) Boy Blessings — Follow the story of a Mom whose son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The same type my nephew has.

3) Just One Miss — I always enjoy her posts and point of view.

4) Lesley’s Blog — I’ve literally know Lesley since she was born. She doesn’t post much, but when she does, she always amazes me the type of strong woman she’s grown up to be.

5) Way More Homemade — Recipes and she’s an Aggie. How could I not love this!?

6) Life Ain’t Always Beautiful — A mom. A country music fan. An all around very cool lady. Go say Hi to Missy!

7) Just Malia — A fellow Nashvillian! I love reading about the perspective of others in my city!

8) Milk Breath and Margaritas — While I am on a Nashville run, Amy is also editor of the Relationships Channel of Blissfully Domestic, which I write for. Besides, how can you not love a blog with such a cool title?

9) Newlyweds Next Door — I only just recently found this blog, and what I’ve read so far, I love!

10) Not Quite What I Had Planned — One of my favorite Weekly Winners ladies, her blog has pulled me in time and time again.

11) Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide — Eric is a friend of my husbands. I only just learned of his blog this week, but I am so enjoying it. Anyone reading my blog mostly for my behind the scenes posts to the music industry would be smart to check Eric’s blog out, too.

12) Matty Thoughts — I keep forgetting to visit Matty on a regular basis, but whenever I have made it over there, I’ve enjoyed his blog thoroughly. He’s given me wonderful feedback on my blog and for that I am grateful.

13) The Mama of Mojo — I follow her on Twitter and absolutely love her tweets. Is it not expected that I’d also love her blog?

14) The Young and The Relentless — Another blogger I found via Twitter, if I recall. Great life blog.

15) i am lotus — aka Sarcastic Mom. Blogger I quite frankly have a blogger-crush on… which might be weird since her husband and my husband have been friends for years. Even weirder to say I’ve never met Lotus in person. But I think I’m in blogger-love. Now, I just hope I haven’t scared her off for life with this. ;)

about-me, general-post

Only kind of a pack rat…

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I’m sitting here watching one of the latest episodes of the show Hoarders. The show shines a light on an issue that I think more people deal with than any of us realize. I would have never have called myself a hoarder, exactly, but I think I could have been considered something of a “packrat” at times.

Five years ago this weekend, Hurricane Katrina made landfall and caused extensive damage in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. I worked at a newspaper at that time, so I went back into my archive of articles written while I worked there. Ironically, the way our schedule landed, my column for two days after Katrina hit was entitled, “Cleaning out the clutter.”

An excerpt from that column:

I’m a packrat, and I admit it. I have a lot of STUFF in boxes all over the place, and I’ve recently began a massive project of going through all the boxes with the hopes of throwing things out.

I’m not doing too bad, as bag count has now hit around seven in this on-going project. Five of those bags were thrown out this last weekend.

Is there really any reason to still have a dress code for the school district I attended from 1987? What about a coupon for a free pizza that expired in 1998?

I have no idea how all of this stuff has accumulated over the last 25 years, but it has. My need to save everything under the sun is quickly going out the door along with a receipt for CDs purchased back in 1995.

[Read the full article here]

I think my biggest problem is my need to save receipts and statements. I’ll end up saving them for years and then doing  a mass shred/clean-up like the one I wrote about in that column. The problem is that I don’t save them in files. I have a great filing system set up! I just don’t USE it properly. It all goes in a box that then ends up in a bigger box that then gets shoved in a closet or under a desk.

I do have a method to my madness… generally. My husband tolerates it, but I know he’d rather see more paper clutter get out of the house all together. I’m trying to consciously change here and there to make my collection of receipts, etc. diminish.

I have a lot of books collected. I still have most of my college text books that some days I think I should have tossed. But I’ve recently discovered a need for some of those books. I’ve wanted to go back and re-study things I learned in college, and I am glad to still have those around.

I don’t buy CDs much any more. I do if it benefits a friend, but otherwise I’ve moved away from that. I’m still proud, though, of my nice CD collection. They’re all pretty old by now. Several of them I am sure are scratched. But they are fun to have to show how my musical tastes have changed over the years.

Past that, I have a few boxes of random items that I don’t need, but I’ve just never been able to bring myself to throw away. It’s these random items that makes me feel compassion towards the people on the show Hoarders. Sometimes, you can’t explain it… you just want to save something.

I don’t think I could ever be a full fledged Hoarder. If anything, over the last few years I’ve grown to love keeping things neat. I like to clean out my closet every few months. I have found a peace over my home exists when things are kept in good shape.  I can’t imagine living in a state of constant clutter, in a state of constantly being dirty. I need to vacuum. I need to sweep and mop.

I am a paper-clutter-pack-rat. And I admit that. But I vow its never going to go anywhere past that.