I don’t think it’s going to stick, though.

(Also, this is a test post from my new phone.  Pardon the lack of artistic merit in the photo; it is too early.)

Did anyone else play that game growing up?  I think I mostly chewed on the tiny plastic cherries.  It’s a wonder I didn’t choke, which would have been a tragedy — I’d never have had a chance to dazzle my readers with my blogging wit.  (I’m sure you are all shuddering at the very thought.)

Cherry-licious Rules:

• Thank the person (or people) who, in a display of erudite good taste, bestowed the award upon you.
• List three things you love about yourself.
• Pass the love along to five other bloggers.

Thank you, Sespi!  My Russian-speaking, cookie-baking, adorable-canine-owning, ambitious (she’d love to be Secretary of Defense, which I’m cool with as long as she still opens up that café for my tea-sipping pleasure) fellow Navy wife is always a pleasure, whether one is reading her blog at And You Never Did Think or conversing with her on Twitter.

Thank you, Brooklet!  I was so tickled to connect up with another “Fly Navy” bride, especially one who holds felines in such esteem.  Check out her blog, Life and Times of a Displaced Jersey Girl, for stories of her continuing adventures in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Mr. V.

How do I Love Myself?  Let Me Count the Ways…

1.  I am extremely modest. I’m intelligent.  I might not be the next Einstein, but I have always been told that I am smarter than the average bear.  For good or ill, my identity was wrapped up in being “the smart kid” throughout my childhood.  Now that I’m an adult, I hope I have a healthier way of looking at it: one of my great strengths is that there isn’t much that I would consider myself incapable of learning, ergo I don’t have to fight many “I can’t do it!” mental blocks when it comes to intellectual challenges.

2.  I love my curly hair.  It may not always behave, but when it does?  Hot damn.  😉  My husband, however… the messier it is, the better he likes it.  It has become a running joke that if he tells me my hair is looking particularly good, I had better check to make sure it’s not sticking up like I’ve had a close encounter with an electrical socket.

3. I love that I can, much to my astonishment, handle change.  (Good thing, too; ‘twould have been a crying shame to marry into the military and discover that I couldn’t.)  I don’t necessarily deal with upheaval gracefully or with a smile on my face — more like a Manhattan in hand and a stream of profanity on the tip of my tongue — but I do eventually adjust.  I might even be getting better at it; the Navy certainly gives us enough practice.

More Sundae-Toppers

My feed reader is brimming with blogs I heartily enjoy.  I could pick any number of witty, heartfelt, talented, hit-the-nail-on-the-head perceptive writers for the list.  I’m lousy at keeping track of who has already received which award, so apologies if I’m doubling up.  I’m also not married to the idea that these pretty little pictures represent a sacred contract that states you must play along and post in your blog and pass it to X of your bestest buddies, so please do not feel obligated for my sake.

Here is a sampling of blogs written by some very cool women.  You might enjoy them, too.

• Tomorrow Is Another Day
• Kimberly Arthur Lindner Likes to Write Stuff
• Wookie & Co.
• Capture Reality
• Dreams Take Flight

Sunny clusters of blossoms reach sunward at the local botanical garden.

Spring’s arrival mirrors my mood, and life brims with new possibilities.

The illustrious ENS Wifey over at Wife of a Sailor has magnanimously bestowed upon me a pair of awards for my blog.  Many thanks!  My dereliction of the duty to pay the shinies forward should in no way be interpreted as a lack of appreciation, but I will feel better once I fulfill my bloggerly obligations (well, possibly; I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I don’t play precisely by the rules) with an appropriately thoughtful post.  Well, here goes:

Award the First: “Best Blog Award”

The main thrust of this award is to pass it along to the authors of blogs one has recently discovered.  This was a timely task, because these days I feel like I’m adding delightful new-to-me blogs to Google Reader hand over fist.  If you haven’t browsed through these authors’ musings, you are missing out.

• And You Never Did Think
• Lady Evelyn
• My Army Wife Life
• Never Apart In Heart
• Riding the Roller Coaster
• Trying Our Best

Award the Second: “Beautiful Blogger Award”

The rules:

• Thank the person who gave you the award.
• Paste the award on your blog.
• Link the person who nominated you for the award.
• Tell seven interesting things about yourself.
• Nominate seven bloggers or fewer.

It is up to you, dear Reader, to determine whether my seven Nth factoids are interesting or not, but here they are, submitted for your consideration:

1. It really bugs me when I see clocks set to the wrong time, especially when someone has set a clock ahead purposely to “trick” themselves into being on time. I mean, you’re the one who set the clock, so you know it’s fast — how could that have any real effect on your ability to get someplace on time? If it were up to me, all timepieces would be synchronized with the atomic clock.
2. As publicly disdainful of “girly” alcoholic beverages as I am (apparently I am hardcore because I like my martinis so dry that I am essentially drinking gin with an olive or three), I have a sneaking fondness for the layered frozen pina colada/strawberry daquiri at Cheeseburger in Paradise. I especially like the strawberry/pineapple parrot-with-sunglasses garnish, and I don’t even care that I’m paying for a lot of sugar water and very little actual booze.
3. When I was a little girl, I envisioned my dream wedding as taking place underwater. My groom and I would be in scuba gear, a dolphin would be the ringbearer, and the guests would watch from glass-bottomed boats. Luckily for all involved, my revised dream wedding took place in this reality on land.
4. I semi-regularly have dreams where I am in the military instead of or alongside my husband.  One recurring dream motif is that I am looking at the daily flight schedule as usual, but find that my name is listed next to a sim event.  This tells me three things: one, the Navy takes up too much space in my head; two, my subconscious thinks I would look pretty good in uniform; and three, I’m a strange kid because I rather enjoy having such dreams pop up now and again.
5. I cannot remember ever not being able to read.  My parents had to tell my elementary school that, yes, I should be allowed to go to the “chapter book” section when my kindergarten and first grade classes went to pick out books from the school library.
6. I got to know my future husband when we were both acting in our high school production of Romeo and Juliet.  He was a Capulet, I was a Montague, and we got to fight each other on stage.
7. I loved studying Russian in high school, and I would have continued in college had my school not done away with its Russian department between the time I was accepted and the time I started up there in the fall.  D’oh!  I wound up taking two years of German after a brief, shining hope that my school would actually manage to get its new Arabic program going before I graduated.

I am a nosy brat, so if you’re reading this, I am probably brimming with curiosity about what you might come up with for a seven-item trivia list.  If you’d like to play along, leave a comment here and consider yourself tagged.