Liebster Award

Dyane Harwood, blog author of Birth of a New Brain – Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder at proudlybipolar.wordpress.com, just can’t stop loving me. She nominated me for yet another award. This time the Liebster Award. The Liebster Award is a peer-appointed award created to recognize and discover new bloggers, welcome them to the blogosphere, build the blogging community, and recognize good writing.

The Liebster Award’s four rules are:

1. Provide 11 facts about myself.
2. Answer 11 questions created by my nominating party.
3. Nominate 11 blogs.
4. Provide them with 11 questions of my own to answer.

11 Facts about Myself

1. I am a native Californian.
2. Specifically, and in my opinion more impressively, I am a native San Franciscan.
3. I have lived in two countries: the United States of America and Saudi Arabia.
4. I have lived in four states: California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Oregon.
5. I attended four elementary schools.
6. I attended two intermediate/junior high schools.
7. I attended three high schools.
8. I attended five colleges/universities.
9. In spite of such a seemingly unstable lifetime, I’ve managed to stay married to the same man for seventeen years.
10. I am the proud mother of a wonderful thirteen year old son.
11. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve tried many things, but keep changing my mind.

My answers to Dyane Harwood’s eleven questions:

1. What is your favorite color? Why? My favorite color is green. I spent five years of my childhood, from age two to seven, in Saudi Arabia. Arabia is hot and sandy, not lush, not green with foliage. I always imagined Ireland, the home of half of my ancestors (both my parents are Irish-German American hybrids), as the greenest, most beautiful place in the world. When I turned seven, as we returned to the United States, we spent time in Ireland. It was indeed exactly as I had imagined. Ireland was the greenest, most beautiful place I had ever seen. Instead of sand storms and heat, we enjoyed mists, chasing sheep across fields, and climbing the ruins of old castles. I was home.
2. If you could have one wish, what would it be? (Be Honest): I wish that my son did not have to suffer from debilitating migraines. Nothing wrenches a parent’s heart more than seeing their child in pain. He takes medication to lessen their occurrence and severity, but they remain, always threatening his enjoyment of life.
3. Pick a song that defines you. Why that song? The only song that comes to mind is Aretha Franklin’s version of Otis Redding’s song “Respect.” All I’m askin’ (oo) Is for a little respect.
4. If you could travel to one place, where would you go? France. I studied French in junior high and high school, even taking a course in community college. Living in Southern California, I have little use for the language. I’ve lost my vocabulary and knowledge of grammar. I should have studied Spanish, but loved the beauty of the French language. I would like to some day, some year, some decade, travel to France and use my long dormant language skills. Of course, I’d have to brush up on my French first.
5. Who is your hero? Why? My son claims that his two grandmothers are heroes. He’s right. They are fighters and survivors. They both battle chronic illnesses and refuse to let their illnesses defeat them. My mother has kept lymphoma from winning the war for thirty years. My mother-in-law doesn’t let progressive multiple sclerosis prevent her from living a full and active life.
6. What makes you smile? The humor of my husband and my son and the playful antics of our two dogs.
7. What made you chose the topic you blog about? Hypomania, pure and simple. The words just had to get out of my head. My blog started out in response to a family emergency. My father-in-law abruptly and unexpectedly developed sepsis and was in a coma. The crisis sent me into overdrive. He miraculously survived thanks to medical intervention and the prayers of many people. Almost losing my father-in-law triggered hypomania, and I found myself writing about my mental illness as a way of coping with the stress.
8. If you could live any time period, when you would you chose? Now. Why not live in the here and now? If not now, then at some future date when we would have greater knowledge of the brain and more effective treatment of brain disorders whether they be neurological or psychiatric (if there is indeed any difference).
9. If you had to give up one of your senses, which would you chose? Smell, although that would also compromise taste and sensing pheromones, which might interfere in the bedroom. The other senses, though, are too important to me.
10. What was your favorite movie as a child? Honestly, I do not recall, but I do love Dumbo. Dumbo’s difference, what made him “other,” was his strength. Huge ears and unique differences rule!
11. What is your favorite way to unwind? Every night before I fall asleep, as my husband sleeps beside me, I read on my iPad in the dark. It is my nightly ritual and relaxes my mind.

My eleven nominations for the Liebster Award:

1. Amanda Quirky at amandaquirky.com
2. Bipolar and Beyond at bipolarandbeyond.com
3. Inside the Bipolar Mind at insidethebipolarmind.wordpress.com
4. Bipolar Masks at bipolarmasks.wordpress.com
5. Considerings at summat2thinkon.wordpress.com
6. The Moving Quill at shailajav.wordpress.com
7. Moonside at stockdalewolfe.com (I just read that Ellen Stockdale Wolfe keeps her blog award-free, which I respect. Still, check out her blog. It’s well worth it.)
8. Labeled Disabled at breakdownchick.wordpress.com
9. Montairyus at montairyus23.wordpress.com
10. My Bipolar Roller Coaster at mybipolarrollercoaster.com
11. The Root of Anger at therootofanger.wordpress.com

The eleven questions for my nominees:

1. Where and how do you like to write?
2. When did you start blogging?
3. What motivates you to write?
4. Do you consider yourself a disciplined writer? Why or why not?
5. Are you an early bird or a night owl?
6. Who is your greatest supporter?
7. What do you consider your greatest triumph?
8. What is your favorite memory?
9. What do you do for fun?
10. What adjective best describes you?
11. What would be your ideal vacation?