Sisterhood Tag

Back when I was in college, which for me started in 2001, there was no Facebook or social media.  It was the early days of internet connectivity.  We all sat in our dorm rooms, downloading illegal music and chatting on the fabulous msn messenger.  You could hear those little "blup blup" noises ringing through the halls as girls received messages and everyone's computer always had little blinking rectangles on the task bar at the bottom of the screen.  There was also a trend of emailing surveys to people which they would mail back to you and send to their friends with lists of questions to answer so you could get to know them better.  Some people would get really in depth and serious and some would just try to make their friends laugh!  I'm sure you can guess which type I was...haha.  My friend Dana, who writes the blog The Green Acres Report (you can see it on the top of my blog roll list on the right.  It appears that I have some obsolete blog over there that need to be refreshed!) tagged me in a fun event, the Sisterhood in The World of Bloggers Award, where we answer questions about ourselves that might not come up on a blog otherwise.  As a former email survey lover, I can't turn this down!

1. Why did you start your blog?

 

In 2006 I embarked on an adventure of studying abroad in Norway with my law school classmates.  Everyone told me to email them pictures and tell them about what I was doing.  Blogs were just becoming a "thing" that a person could easily make on their own even if they didn't know how to write code and design webpages.  I found Blogger and set one up once I arrived and regularly posted on "Law School in Oslo" while I was there.  I still like to look at it sometimes because reading it and looking at the pictures brings me right back there.  I stopped as soon as I returned home but a few years later we were buying our first house and I was also unemployed and bored so I decided to make a new one so I could post pictures and talk about what we were working on.  Soon, it was a fun diversion that I looked forward to adding to whenever I could and people told me they looked forward to checking it everyday and that it made them laugh so I kept posting. It is still a fun way to use my brain when I feel like I am going brain dead from toddler B.S. on a daily basis and is a more convenient and affordable hobby than many of the other things I would like to be doing such as sewing or decorating. 
 

2. What is one thing you can’t live without?

Hmmmmmm...this is makes me a stereotype of my generation but I have to admit it is the Internet.  Also music. And the Internet brings me music in ways I never imagined as a young teenager!  I love it!

3. If you could travel one place, all expenses paid, where would you go?

This is hard to choose but probably back to Norway or to the Middle East to see the places my family frequented when we lived their for a short time when I was 6/7. 

4. What’s one of the scariest things you’ve ever done?

Taking the bar exam.

5. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

So many different things that changed regularly.  I wanted to be an author in early elementary school and when I was really young, like preschool and kindergarten age, I loved airplanes and I don't remember wanting to be a pilot but I had this lego rescue plane so I suppose I wanted to be a rescue paramedic or something I didn't know how to verbalize at the time.  As I got older I wanted to be a fashion designer and as a teenager I thought it would be a dream job to design athletic shoes and uniforms.  By my senior year I had no idea and couldn't even commit to a college major until I had been in college for three years.  I guess everything seemed boring and unattainable compared to those old childhood dreams!

6. Who in your life has influenced you the most?

Of course my parents and family.  I think that is what anyone who grew up in a functional and happy home would say. 

7. How do you like your steak cooked?

Well!  I don't like seeing blood in my food!

8. What are some of the first things you do in the morning?

First, I wish I could sleep more even though I have never been a person who sleeps in really late.  Just ONE TIME I would like to wake up when I feel like it instead of when someone else feels like it.  Oh well.  Then I change a diaper, get my kids milk and food, and get myself food because I'm always starving.  Then I try to drink tea or coffee and watch or read the news in peace but it never happens.  Oh, and kids TV shows are always turned on during this time.  Judge away.  I don't care.

9. What is one of your favorite quotes?

I love quotes and words.  Right now I will choose a favorite old Bruce Springsteen line from the song "The Promised Land",

"There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted..."

Of course, it has more of an impact with Bruce screaming over the loud orchestration of music in a live recording (very intense) but to me this means overcoming challenging times and facing your problems head on and coming through them without losing yourself. 

Also, since I have a legal education I have to include something from law, right?  Since my 1st year Constitutional Law class I have been moved by the following majority opinion by Justice Kennedy in Lawrence v. Texas (which basically said that what people do in their own bedroom is no one's business but their own as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else).

"Had those who drew and ratified the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment known the components of liberty in its manifold possibilities, they might have been more specific. They did not presume to have this insight. They knew times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom."

It's so true, isn't it? Think of all the dumb old laws (Slavery?  No vote for women?) that we have set aside.

10. What is your favorite season of the year? 

Summer.  I'll always be a lifeguard at heart!  Now that I have little kids, I love it because warm weather greatly reduces the hassle of going places.  Not dealing with coats and hats is so liberating!

Now I am supposed to tag some other ladies but as you can see I need to do some updating in the blog roll.  These people all have jobs so I get it.  I read many blogs but many of them are about sewing and fashion and have hundreds or thousands of followers and they have no idea who I am!