To My Pleasant Surprise

Guys! Guys!! Guys!!! I have some wonderful, happy, exciting news for you! "...It's Like a Whirlwind Inside of My Head..." has received it's first award! Thank you to Caroline from Words and Whispers for thinking of awarding it to me. I am truly honored.

There are a few things that the new recipients must do should they decide to accept this award. They are:

1. Thank and link back to the person that gave this award.
2. Answer the 10 survey questions.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic.
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked to let them know about the award.

Now for the questions:

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing this; if you are not anonymous, do you wish that you had started out anonymously so that you could be anonymous now?

• I'm anonymous, in that I don't use my real name. I'm very happy doing this. My pen name is like a security blanket, but people still seem to respect me for it. It feels like it's working out really well for me! I have no regrets. Plus, this way, if I decide that I want to use my real name, that's still an option for me.

2. Describe on incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

• I'm sure there are plenty... I've been told that I contradict everything, but I don't believe that to be true (see? There's a contradiction right there). My memory is horrible, but my "inner" stubborn side usually comes out when I absolutely do not want to do something.

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

• The person that wants to keep everyone happy. The soft-spoken one. Someone thoughtful, with their wheels always turning.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

• Pink lemonade is my summer buddy! Actually, that's a lie. Pink lemonade is my buddy year-round.

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

• When I take time for myself, I'm usually by myself. If I'm feeling especially girly, I'll paint my nails and that whole thing, but on any other day, I'll take time to draw or work on something I actually want to do. I might even get my typewriter out!

6. Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

• Are you kidding? There's so much that I want to do in life. Here's a little list for you. It's just the top five:

1. Become a published author

2. Become a photographer for National Geographic

3. Graduate college

4. Travel abroad for a year to Europe and/or Australia

5. Be a photojournalist

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?

• (I'm still in school ^^ ) I would say that I'm a mixture of the class overachiever and the quiet person. I enjoy putting forth all of my effort into the various projects that I do for school (my stop-motion, my government picture book, etc.). But I'm also rather quiet while doing all of this. One guy in my precalc class asked me, "What's the highest number of decibels that you've hit?" If that doesn't prove my point, I'm not sure what will.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?

• I would have to say making rabbit houses (long story) during recess in elementary/middle school. It's how I became friends with one of my current best friends.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

• I'm pretty flexible with what I post about. I enjoy writing about books, but I feel like my personality comes out in those reviews. That doesn't scare me at all.

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

• No offense to my real-life friends out there, but I would rather read. It's not that I'm anti-social... no, that's not the case at all. I feel like I can't communicate with the spoken word as well as I can with the written word. I think it has to do with the thought process that goes into what I have to say. It's just simpler to write it down.

Now for the cool part! I get to pass this award on to fifteen other bloggers that I've started to follow recently. You guys really deserve it! Everyone should go and visit them when they have the time!

1. Supernatural Snark

2. Alyssa, Jake, and Gregory @ Teens Read and Write

3. Julia @ That Hapa Chick

4. Avery's Book (And Other Fun Stuff) Nook

5. Down the Rabbit Hole

6. Elena's Book Cafe

7. Hobbitsies

8. Holes in My Brain

9. I Read Banned Books

10. Icey Books

11. Lauracea

12. Prue's Book Blog

13. Owl Review a Book

14. The Book Cafe

15. The Paperback Princess

Thanks for reading!

--Jude