Kudos from a friend & feelings of guilt...

So I posted a hello a couple weeks ago and promised to write more, but have not done it yet. So imagine the guilt (and happiness) I felt when I read my friend Nancy's blog and found that she had awarded me the Versatile Blogger award. I appreciate the recognition and am glad that someone is reading. I feel bad about not blogging more, though. Now that the summer is here I plan to blog more. I don't have too much else to do (except for an AMAZING trip that I'll blog more about later) so I have plenty of time to get some blogging done. Now, the rules of this award, as I understand them, are that I have to tell seven things about myself and then pass the award along to bloggers that I enjoy. So here are my seven things:
1. When I find something I like I stick with it. Movies, food, restaurants, songs on the radio...I stick with them until I've had/heard/been to them so much that I can't stand them any more. Then I have to stop it for a while. But when I go back to whatever it was that I'd overdone it's like visiting an old friend. The only exception to this so far is Mexican food. I could eat it every day to the week and never get tired of it.
2. I have never had a full time regular job during the summer. I went from public school, to college, began teaching, stopped briefly but was unemployed for the two summer months, and then returned to teaching. Of course there were summers where I held down part-time jobs, but I have no idea what it's like to work a full-time regular 12 month job.
3. I am about to go to Europe for the first time and I am so excited I can barely stand it. In less than a month Steve and I are setting out for 9 days in Italy. I've never left North America before, and the only time I've left the US was when I went to Mexico on a cruise. I can't wait!
4. I don't have just one favorite book. There are so many that I have read that I absolutely love that I can't possibly narrow it down to just one favorite. I have been able to narrow it down to a top five. They are: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you need some summer reading any of these are wonderful choices!
5. During the summer I watch more crap TV than anyone should ever be allowed to. I am absolutely addicted to The Real Housewives of New Jersey and last week I discovered You're Cut Off. I can't explain why these shows appeal to me, but they do, and only during the summer months.
6. I long to be a person who does crafty and domestic things but I am terrible at them. My mom quilts and crochets and sews and my friend Nancy (see her great and crafty blog at voulezvouscrochetavecmoi.blogspot.com) is one of the most talented and craftiest people I know and I want to do those things but I am terrible at them. I'm also not a great cook. The food is always edible but I don't ever think it's as good as other people's food. I plan to keep trying and hopefully get better at these things.
7. Conflict makes me physically uncomfortable, and I don't even have to be in it to be uncomfortable, sometimes just watching it on tv makes me feel anxious.
So there are my seven things. It took me a while to come up with seven things that I thought someone else may find interesting. (Probably why it's taken me so long to blog anything!).
Now it's time to pass the mantle on to blogs that I enjoy. So here they are:
Courtney @ Life These Days
Tiffany (Crafty Fanny) @ Live Happy
Traci @ Pictures and Posts of Life and Art
Thanks for the great blogs ladies! I enjoy reading them all!