Awards! My First- and 4 in one day! WEE!

Wow what a happy day.... I have received four blog awards though three of them were the same one which was the Honest Scrap award, from A Life Bound by Books, Books, Movies, Reviews Oh My! and Geeb's Book Club. So, I am going to try to say 30 honest things about myself (But if they get boring, sorry. I can be a boring person and this is kind of a lot all at once....) Thanks for thinking of me though guys- that is really awesome!


1. I don't want kids. I think they are smelly, expensive, loud and gross. I cringe every time I go to the store and kids are running around screaming and think that considering how overprotective parents tend to be these days, in general, a lot of them actually kind of suck at being parents...

2. That little voice in people's head that says DON'T SAY THAT YOU IDIOT is very delayed in my head and actually, just downright sarcastic. A while after I say what I shouldn't have, the voice finally chimes in with, Nice job idiot. Now you get to deal with the effects of that. Then it laughs.

3. I am deathly, disablingly afraid of spiders. Big or small, venomous or not, I freak. Whenever I have spider nightmares (I don't care what happened before, once a spider enters, it is a nightmare), I wake up and can't go back to sleep. I tend to turn all the lights on and sit there with big eyes, looking around and scared. I was reading a book called Bitten one time about different animal bites, and was dumb enough to read the chap on spiders (I wanted to read the WHOLE book...), and at bedtime. Turns out, most people get bitten by brown recluses in their beds because the little jerk is in the sheets and they roll over on it. Yep, I freaked. I stripped my bed, did the laundry in hot water at midnight, pulled my bed out from the wall and sprayed bug spray and sat there, really kind of scared. Recently, I watched I Am Alive on Animal Planet- very first episode, this kid put on a pair of socks and a black widow was in one of them and bit him. IN HIS SOCK! It climbed INTO his sock drawer and INTO his FOLDED socks! Yep, I totally lost it. When Lisa (Yes, A Life Bound by Books Lisa) found out, she got a mental pic of me when ten foot tweezers, picking up a sock and then hitting it with a hammer yelling Die F*****!!!! She was quite accurate. I didn't wear socks for awhile and yes, I beat the crap out of them before I even opened them, then turned them inside out to check, THEN put them on. And now that I have dredged this memory up, I will be doing this ritual again.

4. My dog is my child. But he reminds me regularly why I don't want kids. Its perfectly acceptable to put your dog in a cage, or muzzle them and tie them by a leash to the door to limit where they go but if you do it to a kid, you're a horrible parent and CPS gets involved. I have a love hate relationship with him. He's cute and adorable but a defiant little brat. He is obsessive about licking his feet and makes loud slurping noises that are annoying as anything but he also licks his feet bloody and raw and whines and cries but still licks- we fight often about him licking but he will look me dead in the eye while I am saying no, and just keep right on licking. Yeah, he's a brat.

5. I spend my days at work babysitting adults (See #1- this further emphasizes my reasoning against it) A.K.A. radiologists. Some of them are needier than others but that's my job. Although, I do have some good stories to tell and overall, actually really enjoy the job, especially compared to my last one.

6. When I was little, I had serious name confusion issues- totally not my fault though. In kindergarten, I told my teacher my full name was Kari Bell Paul Joey. The reason- my name is Kari and my parents always call me Kari Bell (And I honestly don't know why but they do). My uncle Paul told me no, my name was Paul. And my oldest brother didn't want a sister (my other brother, the one younger than him but older than me, cried all the time and irritated my oldest brother). He wanted a goat instead and asked my mom if they could send me back and get a baby goat instead. Thus, I thought I was Kari Bell Paul Joey.

7. I'm a shameless flirt but I have no idea when people are flirting back. If I don't know I am flirting, I am great at it (yes, it gets me in trouble sometimes....) but once I realize it, I become totally weird and awkward and shy.

8. My Bachelor's degree is in neuroscience. Since junior high, I have been claiming I was going to be a doctor. Now, I am an aspiring author with no intention of going to med school but in my defense, the MCAT is a REALLY evil exam. We haven't gotten along- we won't ever get along. I accept it.

9. I am a fiction, smut, angst story plotting genius naturally. I sit down and write and it just comes out on its own- I barely plan. I can crank out 10-15 pages in just a few hours time and generally, it's good from the start. Yes that sounds arrogant but deal with it. Feedback says its true.

10. I am really arrogant. Sometimes I can't make it through the door because my head is too big. It's terminal. I accept it.

11. I am crazy awesome at Guitar Hero. No one plays me anymore because I always beat them, even when I play expert and they play a lower level. It hurts my feelings but then I realize- hey, I am awesome- and my head gets bigger.

12. I suck at taking compliments but I suck even more at taking criticism. I defend and fight and argue until I either win or usually, the person just gives up. I know, I just can't be please. Yet another thing I accept.

13. I feel sorry for my future husband. He will have a lot to put up with but he will certainly be an amazing man to do it. But he is sleeping in another room. I can't share a bed with someone- sharing a room is bad enough. Don't get me wrong- stuff will happen- but then one of us is going to the other room. The top of my wedding registry list will be another bed.

14. I am an X-Files fanatic. I own seasons 1-5 on DVD and watch them quite a bit. I just acquired season 5 and its been awhile since I have seen many of the episodes- but I still get just as into them as I did years ago. Yes, I bounce in my seat. And yes, Mulder is hot. And yes, Scully is kind of dumb to be working on the X-Files but think that there is a scientific explanation for everything. You would think that after oh, I don't know, 2 or 3 seasons, she would have figured this out but nope.

15. I have only ever broken 1 bone in my life- my cheekbone. I tried to jump off a slide when I was in 4th grade and slipped (who knew that if you were standing in the middle of a slide and try to jump up and over, you will fall? Not me...) and face planted into the nice big wood structure. It hurt. A lot. This was about two months after another icky face trauma, again with a slide (do we see a trend?) where I was at pool party and went down the slide all wet and what do you know, I got ALOT of speed- which was great and awesome- until the wood fence that was about six feet from the bottom of the slide broke my face, starting with my face.

16. I am really sarcastic and really opinionated. You can try arguing with me, but you won't win. I can keep going- I am stubborn that way (so does anyone wonder where my dog gets it from?). And if nothing else, I am a master at turning your words right around to use them against you. I am shameless like that.

17. I just bought a dress for my work holiday party (I just started this job back in Feb). It is the first dress I have owned in years. I also had to buy new heels for it- the last time I wore heels was my brother's wedding about 6 years ago. I will probably never wear this dress or these heels again, unless I try to get away with wearing it again at next year's holiday party.

18. I think 80% lawsuits are frivolous and people just trying to get money to make up for personal losses whether they should or not. Take a local woman who is suing the city she lives in because her 2 or 3 year old son died last year when he accidentally strangled himself in a basketball hoop net (one of those plastic Playskool ones). She tried to cut him out while she called 911 and claims they didn't tell her what to do when she kept asking, despite her being hysterical and screeching. They told her to calm down- she kept screaming. Now she is suing, saying it is really their fault her kid died because they didn't tell her what to do even though she wasn't watching and just let him play out there with a net that was that close to him, bent down towards the ground. Sorry, but getting money from the city isn't going to bring your kid back. It sucks- its horrible- but money isn't really the answer. That's just greedy and honestly, really kind of selfish and a bad way to make your kid's memory live on. At least, that's my opinion. Following that logic, any parent with a cancer child that dies should be able to sue researches for not finding a solution yet. They still suffer- even worse, actually, because of how long and horrible a process cancer is. Again, just my opinion.

19. I honestly believe that last one should count as 2 because it is so long.

20. I honestly think the new announcement that mammograms aren't needed until 50 instead of 40 is crap. Yes, women who have a history of breast cancer in their family already get mammos earlier than 40 but what about the women who don't have a strong history? It has to start somewhere- and ten years is a long time in which things can happen. The main reason breast cancer is being fought so well now and why the numbers are dropping is early detection and the biggest way for that to happen is with mammography. There are plenty of other things insurance companies need to be looking at to lower costs- and this is not one of them. Which also ties in to point 18- if doctors didn't have to worry so much about being sued for anything, medical costs overall would go down quite a bit (although, I admit it- I work for a group of radiologists so the extreme dependence on radiology is good but that isn't really the point.)

21. I have a small obsessions with knives. I currently own 5 pocket knives- one that has a blade shaped like a lightning bolt. That little buddy will hurt like crazy going in AND coming out. Who needs pepper spray? Not me.

22. I just started blogging in Sept but I honestly love it. And getting books from publishers/authors- which I have been lucky enough to get a few- is an AMAZING feeling. SO worth it.

23. I write fanfics- all Twilight based. After I read Eclipse, I wanted more so I started writing my own. It's from that I learned I had a passion for writing, it was great therapy (what better way to get any anger, sadness etc out than to torment characters in a story?), and I was actually really damn good at it. I have one that is complete and one I am about to complete... the others have fallen by the wayside but will be creative exercises since my main focus now is my original work.

24. I shamelessly self promote when it suits me so here goes- read my fanfics! They are really good! Then you can be like OMG! I read her free stuff before she got published (because yes, I WILL get published, one way or another). So, my fanfic.net profile is here. Go! Read! Now! GO!

25. I am addicted to RPing. I used to help run a Twilight based RPG forum but it kind of died but I still talk to one of the girls from it on AIM and we have a fantastic, intricate RP of our own going. I spend a lot of free time doing that- thus the reason I only read 7 novels in November. It is the best of both worlds- reading and writing. And our plot is amazing. I also help run a horror/haunted based RPG right now- and it does get sick and twisted since I play a big part in the plot developments. If you are interested in at least checking it out, go here. We are about to start recruiting again, actually (again with the shameless self promotion), but we need people that are at least decent at it, that can take some hits, and that will be on. K thanks.

26. I love the Care Bears. When I was younger, I would wake up at 5 am to watch it then go back to bed. In fact, right now I have Care Bear PJ pants and yes, I own some of the dvds with episodes. Laugh if you want. I enjoy it.

27. I get chronic, really bad ear infections that hit fast and go through the entire canal, inner to outer. The last was in May of this year, starting on one side and it swelled shut in less than a day which is basically the worst pain ever because of all the building up pressure that can't get out and didn't start easing for about 4 days, then it was another week for it to fully go away. Day 5, the other ear started up despite being on antibiotics with ear drops. Yep, its awesome. And no, I never had tubes as a child even though I have gotten them a lot- it didn't start until about 5th or 6th grade.

28. Jodi Picoult is by far my all time favorite author. I am always in awe if her writing, her detail, and how she can take some subject that at face value, the right and wrong of it seems so obvious and then totally blur the lines, make it a million shades of gray and rip your heart out, stomp on it, put it back and pull it out again all at the same time. I would love to meet her one day but I would probably just stand there like an idiot in shock and not know what to say and inside be freaking out because I am actually meeting her. Yep, her writing is awesome. 19 Minutes is my favorite.

29. I think powder fresh is the stupidest scent for deodorant. Does anyone like it? Because so far, everyone I know is with me on this one. It smells like baby powder but not quite. Why do you want to smell like baby powder?

30. In general, I tend to be far more compassionate towards animals than people. People annoy me. I have a few close friends but other than that, I prefer to keep my distance. Which is great in the online world. Sometimes I think I have closer online friends than real friends but if they annoy you, you just say brb and stop talking. Its awful hard to do that in person.

Ok, there you have it- 3o things. Yes, some of them are my beliefs more but hey, its still about me. And we established I am opinionated so really, it totally fits. And that was actually really kind of hard.... But... I am going to take the cheap way out, and just nominate 10 people to pass this on to mostly because I admit, I am really just kind of lazy to find all the links and let them know for 30 people. Forgive me? *Puppy dog eyes* The rules say list 10 honest things, then pass it on to 10 bloggers... I did good on 30 things... I fold on 30 bloggers. =)

She Lives in a Fairytale
My Reading Addiction
A Passion for Books
Buried in Books
Dark Faerie Tales
Teens Read and Write
I Was A Teenage Bookgeek
Life After Jane
Michelle's Bookshelf
Not Enough Bookshelves


Now on to the next award I got--

One lovely blog, from Extreme Reader Book Reviews. THANKS!

So here are the rules: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Okay since I am new at blogging, obviously I have discovered a lot of new ones but here are the 15:

Book Crazy
He Followed Me Home (I love that name....)
Reading Nook
Books at Midnight
My Tea Time is Booktime

The Sweet Bonjour
Book Addict
Books Obsession
Pirate Penguin Reads (I still love penguins... and the pirate one is so cute!)
SqueakyBooks

Simple Life and Reading
Serene Hours
Steph The Bookworm
The Book Butterfly
Wondrous Reads