Always a sweet surprise to find out you’ve been nominated for a fun bloggy-award.  And by my good friend and stalker, Marixsa, is the culprit for this one.  She writes The Endo Zone, an incredible blog about her journey coping with Endometriosis and infertility, her life, and her adventures.  And I love her to pieces.  TO PIECES!!!  Thanks Stalker! xoxoxo

So, what’s the Liebster award?

HERE’S THE RULES:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to their post.
• Answer the 11 questions they asked you.
• Nominate 11 other bloggers, with your own set of questions.
• Tag your chosen 11 bloggers, and don’t forget to tell them as well!

1. Imagine that the blogosphere suddenly disappears—for whatever reason. What do you do?  Well, seeing as I didn’t blog until 2014, I’m sure I’d survive.  Before my blogging days, did I write much? Nope.  When I was a kid, I used to write almost daily in my diary. I kept that habit up until I reached my 20s.  Then…nothing.  But now I have a passion and a drive to share…to reach…to blab.  If the blogosphere disappeared (and assuming so did the ability to create a pseudo-blog), I’d probably reach out to magazines, newspapers, columns, etc. to continue to try to not clam up about Endometriosis.  Social media would continue to be a forum, too, that I would use and abuse.  Smoke signals.  A message in a bottle.  Graffiti.  I’d go nuts…

2. What characteristic do you not possess at all? This was a fun one.  Since I’m not well-versed in the large array of characteristics out there, I hit a webpage to help me out! I spent some time perusing the list, looking up words that were unfamiliar, and analyzing myself inside and out.  I came up with milquetoast.  Not only did I learn a new word that is hilarious to say, but it’s so very true.  As a child and teenager, I was shy and quiet and watching from the shadows waiting for life to happen to me.  As an adult, I could care less.  I’m loud and boisterous and not afraid to go up and talk to strangers and strike up a conversation.  I’ll eagerly step forward to pitch in and participate in whatever strikes my fancy.    There are no more shadows to cling to.  There’s no self-doubt that I won’t be accepted…I’m out and doing and enjoying.  Except when it comes to dancing…I just don’t know what to do with my hands!  And if you try to tell me I can’t do something, that simply fuels the fire and motivation to DO IT!

I’m not sure when the big switch occurred from my shy childhood to my confident adulthood.  But I’m glad it did.

3. Why did the chicken cross the road?  To marry me at Burning Man in 2011. 🙂 Awww, my dear sweet best friend Rosie and I out on our dusty adventures.

4. How do you face critical problems? Horribly. If I have a plan, I’m usually okay.  But most critical problems are also an unsuspected crisis or something I don’t have any control over.  And when I don’t have control, or I can’t plan, or there’s nothing I can do to solve the issue…I tend to freak out.  First, my ears get hot…literally red hot, then I get loud and stompy and annoyed and suffer from tunnel vision. Then I obsess.  Which only makes all the rest of it worse!  BUT…if it’s a critical problem I can sit down, analyze, and formulate some sort of plan to begin to tackle it, it’s a much different scenario.  I’m calm, collected, have my “steps” that I must first accomplish, and can start whittling away toward a solution.

5. One thing about yourself of which you are most proud?  Embracing my diagnosis, fighting through the immediate depression of learning I have an incurable and painful disease, and pushing ahead to find and support others with this same condition.  Due to that urge to fight back, I’ve found an incredible community and am helping others.

6. The happiest moment of your life? The day I reconnected with my family after nearly a decade of strained relations.

7. A word which you hate to use?  Pejorative words used to describe a person’s sexual preference, socioeconomic status, race, etc.  I hate to use them and I hate to hear them used by others.  If you need an example, Wikipedia has a long list.

8. What is your dream job?  I love my job as a paralegal.  But if I lost my job and couldn’t find another in this field, I’d want to be a librarian in some tiny little town…just me and a bunch of books.

9. What villainous character do you most admire, and why?  Cobra Commander.  I don’t really know why, but he’s been my favorite bad guy since I was a little kid playing with my brothers’ GI Joe figurines.  We used to watch the cartoon religiously.  And I don’t think he’ll ever be topped.

10. Item on your bucket list that you would be MOST upset if you didn’t accomplish.  Staying the night at the Titan Missile Museum in Arizona, eating pizza, playing war simulations, and bunking down in the crew quarters for the evening.  It’s an expensive endeavor, but one day I’d love to.

11. If you could have lunch with any famous person, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you order?  Oh man, this one was easy! I’d enjoy fluffernutter sandwiches with Elvis Presley.

The 11 bloggers I nominate are the first 11 blogs (in order) I started following on WordPress 🙂 :

1. Holding My Childhood to Ransom
2. Fanciful Wish
3. Glory Girl
4. Endometriosis – My Journey
5. Fighting Endometriosis
6. The Endo the World
7. The Trials and Tribulations of my Search for True Health
8. Invisible Pain Warriors
9. Surviving Endometriosis
10. Cuilverse: Shadow in the Mirror
11. Shanna Beale

And the 11 questions I pose to these wonderful bloggers?

1.  What are some things that you wished people knew about you?
2. What movie would be greatly improved if it was made into a musical?
3. What is the weirdest thing you have seen in someone else’s home?
4. If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
5. When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with?
6. What was the best book or series that you’ve ever read?
7. What fad or trend do you hope comes back?
8. What are some of the events in your life that made you who you are?
9. What irrational fear do you have?
10. What’s one thing you did that you really wish you could go back and undo?
11. If you could convince everyone in the world to do one thing at the same time, what would that thing be?

     

     

    Have fun!!!!! 🙂

*squee* I love these things. 🙂

A fellow EndoSister and Blogger The Dissociated Press nominated me for this wonderful opportunity to tell you how the Bloomin’ Uterus blog began.

As you know, I have Endometriosis.  I was diagnosed back in June of 2014 with this illness I knew nothing about and could hardly pronounce.  My nurse helped me better understand Endometriosis by describing it as sort of a crabgrass that you cut and it can grow back again and again.

I felt disgusting on the inside.  Hideous.  Infiltrated by some alien.

So, I created the Bloomin’ Uterus and a little mantra to remind myself that I was none of those things:

Then I delved into researching more about the illness.  Why had I not heard of this disease that affects one in 10 women?  What could be done? What caused it?  I obsessed.  And I needed somewhere to write down all of my findings.

I’ve never blogged before in my life.  But I grew up writing in my diaries. So, this was my online diary.  My thoughts and fears and pure opinion.  But that soon progressed into something bigger.

Rather than simply writing about my issues, I wanted to help spread the word about Endometriosis.  I wanted to connect with other women who had it. I wanted THEM to share their stories! AND I wanted to be able to share the books I’d collected and the things I’d learned.  So the blog morphed from an online diary into what it is today.

A place where people can ask me a question, I research the answers, and post my interpretation of what I’ve read.  Am I always right? No.  But that’s the beautiful part about having an illness that has no true black and white answers.

I’ve connected with so many incredible women.  And I’ve learned to embrace my illness; all of it.  Without it, I would never have become the strong woman that I am today.  And I will never stop…

I would like to nominate these fellow bloggers who I find incredibly inspiring in their own ways!   Tell us why you started YOUR blog!!

The Endo The World – Claire ❤ xoxoxo ❤

The Endo Zone – one of my all time favs, Marixsa

Yellow Endo Flower – a wonderful blog started by a woman in Kenya wanting to raise awareness and build a community of Warriors there.