Alright, I’ll be honest. This whole blogging award chain deal gets a little under my skin. First, I find it exclusionary. I follow a lot of great blogs, so it’s hard to narrow it down to 15 to share. Second, it feels an awful lot like bragging to say look at me, some other blog thought I was great.
However, I really like the blog that nominated me, and I think it’s always nice to share good blogs, so I’m doing it even though I’m internally conflicted, (kind of the story of my life, right?!). So, I’ll just start by saying thanks Aneesa & Faraaz, it’s nice to be noticed and supported in this gigantic world of words! I hope that my little rant in the opening didn’t take away from my genuine humility in being noticed, it is a very nice gesture, thank you.
Now for those pesky rules, what am I supposed to do next?
Oh yes, that’s right, mention 7 random things about myself:
1. Wow, this is harder than I thought. Let’s see, my dog is named Simon because my husband did not want me to name our kid Simon, but now he loves our dog so much that he says we should name our kid Simon, but I refuse to name our kid after our dog, funny how those things work, right?
2. If we get another dog, we plan to name him/her Garfunkel as in Simon & Garfunkel because it makes us laugh. I feel like Garfunkle is going to have to be a big dog.
3. My senior project in high school was learning to race and work on muscle cars. My dad bought me a ’92 5.0 Mustang GT. Gosh did I love pulling up next to fast cars at stoplights in that bad boy. Engines revving, men/boys ready to race until they saw little old me behind the wheel. Hilarious. I outtalked a lot of boys about cars at school. One chick even wanted to kick my ass because I told her my car could beat her boyfriends tuner. Memories.
4. I was fully enrolled and ready to attend law school out of college but backed out when it was time to sign the financial aid agreement. Working for a lobbying firm pouring through briefs left me unwilling to sign away six figures of my future earnings to student loans. Ended up a good decision, I think.
5. I once auditioned for a travel show and got called down to LA to sit in front of a panel of producers. They did not like me. They kept asking me about my boyfriend and how he felt about my desire to be on the show. I think they wanted us to break up. The worst part of the audition was when I teared up telling them about my favorite travel moment because it was so moving for me, I felt like a raving lunatic. Then I started to tell my worst travel moment and realized it was not PC so edited midway through and blew it. Sigh. I guess it is better that I finished my last quarter of college instead.
6. One of my secret life aspirations was to be an actress. I’m not sure why that embarrasses me now, but it does. I even got cast in this super low-budget local indie film that wanted my character to be in a rape scene at the end of the movie. I insisted it would have to be implied because I was not being raped on film, ever, low-budget or not. Thankfully the whole thing fell apart before anything ever came of it.
7. I’m a Leo, but not sure I believe in any of that. Just felt like a fitting number 7, like hey, what’s your sign?
Now for the fun part that I actually signed up for, promoting great blogs. Truth be told, if I included all the blogs I really loved, this list would be a lot longer, so bear with me if your amazing blog is not on the list, (who am I kidding, you’re probably only reading this if your blog is on the list!). In no particular order:
1. http://educatednotdomesticated.blogspot.com (This Sac teacher has awesome taste and great tips for the classroom!)
2. http://betweenfearandlove.com/ (I really enjoy this mom/writer’s inspirational posts)
3. http://covetotop.wordpress.com/ (This Spanish blogger uses their blog to practice English and takes amazing photographs of Spain that make me long to travel!)
4. http://runningmylifemyworld.wordpress.com/ (Awesome teacher/runner with a positive outlook on life, exercise, & the classroom!)
5. http://shethoughtoutsidethebox.com/ (Beautiful photographs of Berlin that leave you feeling like you escaped to a much cooler world and curled up inside all of its amazing places)
6. http://neuroticnancy.wordpress.com/ (Teacher, friend, liver of life speaking honest truths about the world and daily experiences)
7. http://kingmidgetramblings.wordpress.com/ (Sac writer musing on all aspects of life and writing)
8. http://lesleycarter.wordpress.com/ (Good escapist fun with a travel-loving, adventure-seeking couple)
9. http://welcometograce.wordpress.com/ (A teacher/writer that is a speaker of intensely relatable truths!)
10. http://hopeengaged.blogspot.com (One of the truest Christians I have ever encountered. She walks in other people’s shoes to help them and lives life with an admirable kindness and optimism. And, she loves to travel, which doesn’t hurt either!)
11. http://newtotheorleans.wordpress.com/ (Okay, this blog just straight up makes me laugh out loud– this teacher captures the truths of her students and life with incredible wit!)
12. http://drawntostyle.blogspot.com/ (Fashion designer and artist extraordinaire that encapsulates life in little uplifting snippets.)
13. http://allaccesspassblog.wordpress.com/ (Intervention specialist and new blogger with highly relatable teaching stories that leave me feeling motivated to try new things in my classroom, as well as much less alone in my experiences as a teacher.)
14. http://19eighty8.wordpress.com/ (I admire the honesty and vulnerability of this Sac blogger, she’s not afraid to put herself out there, which I think is pretty awesome).
15. http://cristianmihai.net/ (Good old fashion writer’s blog with good insights and advice to keep you writing.)
Wow. I started out thinking, no biggie, I’ll just grab 15 blogs and realized that it was quite the process to wade through my reader and select 15 to include. In retrospect, not sure I would do it again, so let those be my words of caution. Hopefully if you’ve stuck with me to the end you’ve found a couple new ones to check out!
oliviaobryon 
Wonderful post!!! 🙂
Well, thank you for including me in your list. I’m honored and look forward to looking at the other blogs you listed, although there are a couple on your list that would be on mine also.
What law school were you about to go to? You clearly need another dog. I’m a Scorpio but don’t believe in it either. However, if you ever read the Sacramento News & Review, take a look at the horoscopes on the back page. It’s amazing how many times that horoscope writer gets it right for me.
McGeorge, which is funny because they convinced me to attend with reduced fees, but then when I added it all up with living expenses, I was still going to end up paying about 100k. In retrospect, I probably could have done it a lot cheaper if I just lived at home, but my 22 year-old mind did not work like that. I think we have a lot of lives to choose from, so I’m sure it would have worked out fine, just grateful I’m where I am now.
Nineteen years ago I graduated from McGeorge’s evening program. I’m still paying off my student loans after borrowing just north of $50,000 and that’s worth working mostly full-time the first two years. I look at the cost now and marvel that people are continuing to enroll. I couldn’t stand the thought of the debt load being what it is now for law school grads. You definitely made a better choice.
Better, I don’t know, but good for me and where it ended up leading instead. I think the debt can be worth it if you make decent dough. Life is full of a lot of trade-offs…
Yes, it is. Trade-offs. Trade-offs. Trade-offs. I’m tired of the trade-offs. 🙂
Thank you thank you thank you for including me in your list of blogs! You are so kind.
I am so honored you picked me for this list! Being a newbie, this is a huge confidence booster. I love your blog and your writing style and am so happy that you enjoy mine enough to pass it on to others!! Thank you again!
Wow! Thanks friend!! And I’m excited to check out some of these other blogs! 🙂
Thank you so much for adding me to your list! I feel so honored and humbled that someone other than my fiancee reads my blog and enjoys what I write. 🙂
Hey there, interesting blog! I liked reading your “7 Things.” Mine would probably make a lot of people cringe or go slack-jawed (e.g. My mom was very nearly shot by a campus security guard when I was in her belly; I just completed 2 years in prison for marijuana trafficking, during which time I handwrote about 2,600 pages of creative writing; I’m 27 and have written 6 complete novels…) I’ll bet you’ve never seen a blog like mine =)
You also seem to like photography–I’ve got a good amount of my lovely nature photography posted on mine, I would love for you to check it out (and the rest!). Some fun travelogue memoirs too, buried back a bit…
–Love and Liberation–
Jan @ TheRewildWest
Thanks, I took a little peek at your blog, looks very interesting. It sounds like you have an amazing story of your own to tell, too. Have you written about that yet? Look forward to reading your blog more when I’m home from my trip.
Thank you. I actually also wrote about half a memoir in prison, but I had to put it aside after a few hundred handwritten pages because it was too painful to live in and write about at the same time. I needed the escape of fiction, which saved me from being wretchedly depressed and probably suicidal! This resulted in my writing probably my best work–I went on a 9-month tear of obsession that resulted in a 1,600 page political epic/thriller about a group of underground animal liberators and their efforts to save animals, avoid infiltration and capture by the Feds, and handle internal betrayals, all while trying to find the strength to love and care for each other.
I’m thinking of typing out the opening scene of my memoir, which begins when the cop pulls in behind me on the highway, and posting it on my blog.
The memoir (Rebel Hell: Doin’ Time for Barely a Crime), I’m reimagining it in my head as a crazy postmodern whirlwind of footnotes and intentionally, manifestly fake dialogue and flashbacks-and-forwards and dreams to try to recreate some iota of a facsimile of what’s it’s like in there: the time and memory warps that you get sucked into, and how prison is its own self-contained universe…
I found one of my travelogues toward the beginning of my blog, it’s long but I like it–Mono Lake and the Eastern Sierra:
http://therewildwest.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/mono-lake-part-1/
thank you so much for including me on this list!!! I can’t wait to read your blog [I never could find it when I just clicked on your name from comments] and also check out the links that you have posted above! so yeah, awesomeness, it made my day 🙂
Thank you for including me! I was just thinking that now I have to do this, but I dont think I follow 15 blogs yet! But I will definitely hop on it as soon as I do! Thanks again, makes me feel like this blogging thing is worth it!
[…] Being just a newbie in this blogging world, I feel honored and excited that someone who’s been blogging for so long thought of me when she had to list 15 blogs she enjoys! Thanks so much for the nomination, Olivia! […]