I'm An Award Whore so I'll Take it! (Thank you)

If I ate this award, I might die.

If you can't tell from my blog, I tend to be a goal driven person. Even if the only one who cares about the goal is me. And if there's an award for the goal? I'm so much more motivated. Even if the award is something lame like a sticker or a packet of M&Ms, I'll secretly pretend I'm not trying but in my head I'm all out willing to cut someone for it.

That being said, Sarah Elle Emm at "My Name is Sarah" nominated me for the "Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award." Nothing says sweet like saying I'd cut someone for a sticker, right? But I digress. I was actually very flattered and considering my last blog was a rant about what can be construed as misogyny, I have to say that I'm very thankful Sarah nominated me. I knew Sarah, albeit not too well apparently, in high school and after reading her blog realize that we may have gotten along better than I thought had I not been a big ball of anger and embarrassment who thought high school was merely something that needed to be endured. Sometimes I still think high school was the cornerstone of my mental toughness.

So, to fulfill my end of the nomination, I get to share seven things about myself that people don't really know and then nominate five other people. I think I can handle that so here goes:

1. I'm allergic to strawberries so the picture on the award actually scares me as I fear if I were to not be able to resist it, I could possibly die. Or at least lose consciousness because my wind pipe has swollen up. I found out I was allergic when I was forced to make a strawberry spinach salad for my friend Julie's wedding shower. I say "forced" because the organizer had pulled recipes for those of us helping out to prepare and bring. She asked me, who was morbidly obese at the time, to bring the salad, which I thought was incredibly stupid of her. You don't ask the fat girl to bring the salad. You ask the fat girl to bring baked goods. Because of this, I learned that I should've made my toffee chocolate chip cookies and that I can't eat strawberries.
2. I'm way more petty than people think I am. At least I'm more petty in my head than I am in real life and while I'd like to stop that, it's just a natural reflex. For example, when I see someone on Facebook or in real life that used to make me feel bad for my weight when I was younger and notice that they're now fat, I feel a sense of justice. Yes, I'm that petty. (And then I hear Chef saying "No one can make you feel something, Ashley. You let them do it." And he's right)
3. I fear that I might never finish my novel. I've been working on it off and on for more than five years--FIVE YEARS--and I know that I need to get it out before I start on anything else, but I fear that I'm never going to really get it out. No matter how many goals I set to do so.
4. I don't think the urge to have children will ever kick in with me and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Society tells me that I need to procreate, but I've rarely let society dictate my life goals so why start now. At this point, my furry kids are enough.
5. I'm secretly ashamed that I think of them as furry children because I do know the difference between a cat and kid  (I really do, I swear). However, I would rather look at 100 random cat pictures than one picture of a baby from someone I don't know or really care about. This does not apply to the pictures of my friends' kids because I love and care about them. They're all cute, but I have to say Miles, Nola, Josh, Jules, Elle and Emily have my attention and heart right now. And no, those aren't the name of my cats or anyone's cats.
6. I wish I could channel Dorothy Parker for even just one spectacular line of prose. And then I would repeat that line in everything I wrote or said for the rest of my life. 
7. Chef and I got married in July in a small civil ceremony, but we still haven't gotten wedding rings or taken a honeymoon. Mostly because I'm lazy and because we're still trying to save money to go somewhere really cool. (Chef's current front runner is the Maldives, but I fear it's still a little too expensive. I'd settle for Belize or Fiji or a European trek.)

Another thank you to Sarah Elle Emm for her nomination. Check out her blog and her books. And to fulfill my duties, I will gladly nominate those who actually do have some genuinely sweet blogs:

• Nicole:  http://nicoleabdou-destinationunknown.blogspot.com/ (a true adventurer!)
• Julie:  http://mommyandmiles.blogspot.com/ (the kid is adorable and the posts are funny-and honest)
• Mandy:  http://babystribling.blogspot.com/ (This mom has cute as hell TWINS and remains a fashion envy-- how the hell does she do it all???)
• Renee:  http://awkwardlystumbling.blogspot.com/ (Nola is one my favorite baby names and Renee is one of my favorite people)
• Laura:  http://jasonandlaurasullivan.blogspot.com/ (Seriously funny blog. I wish I could spew convincing sarcasm like Laura does.)

Okay, folks. Now it's your turn! Here are the rules:

1.  Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2.  Share 7 random facts about yourself.
3.  Pass the award on to some of your own deserving blog friends.
4.  Contact those friends and let them know.