liebster award!

happy thursday!! today i feel very honored to announce that lisa over at making life's lemons has nominated loosefromthezoo for a liebster award!
as i have already been nominated for a liebster award previously, i figured i would modify the process a little to make things shorter and sweeter.  if you've never heard of the liebster awards, head over to lisa's blog or my previous post to learn a bit more about what they mean!
here are my answers to lisa's questions!
If you could go back to any moment in time or time period, what would it be and why? if i were just visiting moments of history dr. who style, i think i'd try to find f. scott and zelda fitzgerald sometime in the 1920's to party hard.
if i had to LIVE sometime in the past i'd absolutely pick the 1970's.  i like being able to fly in an airplane, but i secretly wish the internet had never been invented.  i also rock a pair of bell bottoms pretty well.
If you had to sing karaoke, what song would you pick? if you get enough margaritas in me i can tear freddy mercury to shreds singing somebody to love.  (though let me add: with the exception of this song, as a general rule, i despise the music of queen.  and journey.  and fun.  basically all bands that sound like queen are terrible in my opinion).
If time and money were no matter what would you do? steve and i would visit every single place on the planet, excluding those locations that are likely to kill me from cold weather or political upset.  i would attempt to write novels in between sight seeing and possibly attempt to become a b-list actress if i got really really bored.
What is your favorite piece of clothing?? Pictures?? i have this emerald badgely mischka silk evening gown that i plan to wear to my friend's wedding in a couple of weeks.  it's pretty fierce.
What would be your ideal vacation? either a multi-country eurotrip, or a two month road trip of the continental united states (i may or may not have created an itinerary for the latter).
Do you have any hidden talents? What are they? i'm not sure what constitutes hidden... 
i can draw decently well.  i also have a small host of skills that have made me what i believe to be a decent actress.  i can do a variety of accents reasonably well and i can make myself cry real tears if i need to.
i can also do a hair-raisingly accurate lois griffin impression. and i can move my eyes side to side independently of one another.  but nobody ever wants me to.
 Flats or heels? varies week to week.  it definitely makes you feel like a beast when you can strut in heels, but if i had to pick one for the rest of my life i would go with flats for the comfort factor.
Where/when are you the happiest? hanging out with steve by a body of water. extra bonus happiness points when one or all of the following are included: snacks a puppy good music alcohol
If you had to change your name what would you change it to? maxine kaye
What's your favorite cookie? a cupcake
What item could you not live without? a car.
word count: 22,833

six things

happy friday!

earlier this week, emily, one of my very favorite bloggers, who writes sparrow in the treetop, tagged me in a six things about yourself post.  this means you all get to read my answers to six questions emily wrote up!

fortunately, this means i'll finally get a chance here to stop sounding like a broken record (blah blah moving, blah blah weddings, blah blah cats, skulls, and trying to write a novel).

so without further ado, commence my attempts to seem interesting:

1. What makes you cranky?

if i'm cranky, it's almost a guarantee that i am hungry.  i call it "food rage."  other potential sources of general displeasure include:  cold weather, getting a middle seat on an airplane, eating a cinnamon flavored jelly belly when i am expecting it to be cherry, drivers who do not use cruise control, and camping.

2. If you were an animal, what type of animal would it be?

this one

3. What’s your favorite season?

summer (see question 1).

4.“Which would you rather be if you had the choice– divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?”

this is a wicked question.  i suppose it primarily depends on how ugly, stupid, or evil you would be given the choices you passed up.  there is, for example, little value to tremendous goodness if you are too stupid to implement your altruism effectively ("the road to hell is paved with good intentions").

my inner philosophy major is coming out now, but it's hard to reconcile tremendous amounts of evil with tremendous amounts of intelligence.  this isn't to say all intelligent people are good people (not true) but once intelligence crosses a certain threshold (which i suppose is nearly crossing into omniscience) it seems to follow that tremendous amounts of evil would have a rational reason not to exist.  this is fantastical speculation, though, suggesting things like prejudice would get weeded out with a certain amount of intellect.  if you max out intelligence up to omniscient, you'll inevitably be maxing out goodness as well, unless you can find a way to logically make evil more sensible than goodness.

divine beauty is an exceptionally useful commodity (frighteningly so, in fact), but unless you have a certain level of intelligence or goodness to put it toward it's not actually incredibly valuable on its own.  i suppose if you were beautiful and very very stupid it would help you snare a man that could take care of you, but easily fostering dependency doesn't quite seem like a lofty enough reason to make this particular choice.

i suppose i'll select the only one of the three that i have much experience with, which is cleverness (though i don't know what constitutes "dazzling," i do have an iq of 137). however, as a woman, cleverness doesn't get you as far if you are too ugly, or not nice enough.

forget it.  if i had the choice, i would choose to be born a man.  not in a gender-queer way, just a rational one.

5. Are you an early riser or a night owl?

night owl.

6. Savory or Sweet?

savory.  my sweet tooth is made of salt.

now apparently it is my turn to tag and ask questions?  yay!

lisa, court, johanna, and ali

if you ladies have the time, do please answer the following questions on your blogs!  i'd love to pop by and read what you have to say!

1.  what is the greatest compliment you have ever received?

2.  if you could "fix" one thing about the world what would it be?

3.  if your life had a theme song what would it be?

4.  what is/are your vice(s)?

5.  an anonymous, but trustworthy donor drops $10,000 into your lap.  what do you do with it?

6.  if you could have one skill or talent, but you could not profit from it in terms of money or fame, what skill would you pick?

word count: 21,323

sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome

i was going to bore you with some more of my fretting over steve's college graduation / job finalization, but that will all be more fun to talk about in retrospect so let's wait till monday!

instead i am just so happy to announce that the darling blogger in south africa meghan silva nominated me for a liebster award!  the liebster award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  "liebster" is a german word, which means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

rules for receiving this award:

1. each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.

3. choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. go to their page and tell them.

5. you cannot tag your tagger back

note from becky: (so ok, it's a little myspacey, but the best part is that it is an amazing way to discover new low-profile bloggers and i am all about that!)

11 things about me:

1. my brother, sister and i were all born on the 29th of the month.

2. my cat is named for the father of analytic philosophy, bertrand russell (who also invented the peace sign)!

3. i am a diehard disneyworld freak.

4. i have been to most of the 50 states and 5 countries.

5. i work in a renovated stone church that was built in the mid 1800's with an original tiffany stained glass window.

6. i collect wine, antiques, and fine art.

7. i love writing fiction but i have yet to find the dedication and attention span to get beyond 26 pages.

8. i prefer savory foods to sweets.

9. i used to have an impressive indie music library of over 6000 songs with artists from the format to godspeed you! black emperor.  then one day my mac stopped turning on and i was devastated.

10. i am obsessed with art museums.  my favorites are the MOMA in new york, the pompidou centre in paris, and the london national gallery.

11. i am a dog person.

meghan's questions:

what makes your blog unique?

in a lot of ways it isn't unique, but it's about US!  steve and i are weirdos and so far i haven't focused loose from the zoo on any one particular topic.  i like to think our personalities make the blog what it is!

how long have you been blogging?

i suppose that depends.  i have had a billion blogs over the years  from expage websites i made when i hadn't hit puberty and websites like homestead, expage, geocities, and freeserver actually existed (not kidding... I made this website when i was in middle school...it still exists).  i was actually a huge tech nerd girl when i was quite young.  i was addicted to tumblr through most of the first part of college.  i made this blog a few years ago and let it fall by the wayside.  as far as blogs that i've actually kept up on, this one has been around for about 5 months now.  i also have another blog where i write verbose social criticism and opinion pieces which i have updated sporadically between april 2012 and now.

flats or heels?

if i could only wear one for the rest of my life i'd have to go with flats.  but i love heels too!!

if you could live in any era which would it be?

i want to say the 1950's but realistically, as a woman, i like my opinion to be taken seriously so i don't think that would work.  i'm going to say the 1970's were probably my calling.  i genuinely despise technology more complicated than the color television.  and i think i would have made a pretty hip baby boomer.

which blog is your absolute favorite?

honestlywtf.com ...it's just too perfect.

where do you see your blog in 1 year?

i'm not entirely sure.  i suppose i see it more as a reflection of steve and i's life in 1 year.  i have some ideas about what you might see, but i wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for you! ;)

how important is fashion in your life?

not very.  i like fashion and i like to try being stylish with fun trends, but in terms of my interests it's pretty low on the totem pole.  i'm much more passionate about writing, travel, and personal culture!

in 5 words how would you describe yourself?

fun, creative, witty, adventurous, and lazy.

favorite song at the moment?

i really can't stop listening to sigur ros's new single - isjaki.

what would be your one blog related tip for people who want to start blogging?

make yourself do it every day if you can.  even if you think you have nothing to say or nothing to contribute.  your blog is about you.  it is so much fun to look back on your own archives and see the record of your life laid out before you.  it reminds you of your strengths and your best memories.  make yourself do it and you'll realize that even the boring days were lovely.  because they existed and you made them worth remembering!

whats your beauty secret?

1.  learning to walk in heels.  and i don't just mean walk across the room i mean WALK in heels.  Obviously there are some pairs for which there is no hope, but the day you can strut around town in a pair of heels you will feel like a rockstar.

2.  lancome's teint idole ultra 24H foundation.  it's like new skin in a bottle.

my questions:

why did you start blogging?

if you could move anywhere on earth where would you choose?

what is your favorite thing about your blog?

what is the craziest thing that's ever happened to you?

what makes you happy?

what blog inspires your own the most?

how do you feel your most confident?

what's your occupation?

guilty pleasure?

who are your 3 favorite people from history?

what is your favorite book?

i recommend checking out any of the little blogs below because they are all simply lovely and i adore following them:

your turn: alyssa at glitter and gapske, lauren and josh at cornwellfam.com, jordan at jordan diane designs, brianna at itsy bitsy brianna, marie at smittenbyangels, mat at buckets and spades, ali at dressing ken, simona at i heart black, paulyne at pinky promise, valerie at sundaes best, anne at the hills are alive