Can Your Blog Award Be Revoked?

So, I'm back from my, um, let's call it a sabbatical, and the first order of business on this fine first day of NaBloPoMo is to graciously and very belatedly thank Sleepy Joe for the Reader Appreciation award she bestowed upon me lo these many weeks ago.



This bloggy award, like so many bloggy awards came with rules*, and like so many rules, I will not be following them because I'm naughty that way. I will not be passing along the award because it has already made the rounds of our little corner of the internet, but if there is anyone who does wish to play along who hasn't had a chance, let me know and I will devise a list of questions for you to answer.

Now, the answers to the questions asked by the ever-patient and thoughtful Sleepy Joe.


1. Who is your favourite band or singer or song?
So much of my enjoyment of music has to do with my mood-of-the-moment that I'm not sure I could fairly pick an all-time favorite in any of these categories. I will say that my tastes tend to be both mainstream and all over the map, which means that while many of the artists I listen to are fairly well known in their genres, it is not uncommon for a mixed CD that I made to feature both Tanya Tucker and Eminem, Loretta Lynn and Five for Fighting, Dierks Bentley and Soft Cell.


2. Describe yourself as the main character in your own fairytale.
I would be the socially awkward, overgrown tomboy who learns, over and over, of both the power and limitations of words. There is great magic in words, thoughts, ideas--they can be tremendous tools or terrible weapons. They may save the world or utterly destroy it. Of course, this being a fairy tale, my money's on the first.

3. If you have a nickname, what is it and how did you come by it? If not what would you like your nick name to be and why?
When I was a freshman in high school, my mother bought me a T-shirt with "Witchy Woman" written on it in lettering in the style of the album cover for the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975). It was intended more as a reference to my hormone-driven behavior around the house than as a reference to the song itself. Regardless, I wore the shirt to school a few times and suddenly, I was "Witch" for the rest of my time there. For whatever disturbing reason, I found it kind of flattering.

Currently, I frequently refer to myself at work as "Chief Nag." But I'm pretty sure it doesn't count as a nickname if you give it to yourself.

4. What is your favourite word?
I'm pretty sure that's a diabolical trick question designed to leave me so overcome with indecision that I crawl under my bed to hide.

5. Who are your favourite literary couple?
The fact that I cannot at this moment (nor at any other point since I originally read this question) think of a single literary couple leads me to believe I most likely do not have a favorite. I'm sure something will come to me at 3:47 a.m. when I wake up from a sound sleep under my bed where I've gone to hide from the trauma of question #4.

6. What is your favourite Poem?
I am kind of intimidated by the concept of poetry and tend to love any poem I "get" right off the bat. I tend to like short but powerful poems. The one that almost always comes to mind is Charles Simic's "War."

7. Do you like having someone play with your hair?
This is by far the easiest question on this list for me to answer. NO. I not only don't like it, I have an active phobia of it, especially when it comes to a stranger (including, unfortunately, salon personnel) touching, let alone "playing with" my hair. I'd rather have spiders in my hair than someone else's hands. No idea why.

8. What is your greatest ambition?
Self-acceptance. At this particular moment, in my particular frame of mind, I think of that as the "greatest" ambition both in terms of the value of achieving it and the magnitude of the unlikelihood of achieving it.

9. If you have time alone, where do you go to feel at peace?
Outside, near water. Or the library, where I can hide in the corner and bury myself in my own words or someone else's.

10. What is your favourite film?
Still The Breakfast Club. It is the media gift that keeps on giving. I have bonded with more people from more age groups and walks of life over this film than over any other single item of pop culture or outright art.


*The rules can be found here.