Coffee Shop Sessions

Thank you to both Tom Alexander and Hannah Faulkner for the Liebster Award nomination. This award is aimed at recognizing blogs in the WordPress blog community that stand out amongst the countless blogs in the blogosphere. I am deeply humbled by their nomination as these two have blown me away with their poetry and deserve the award nomination. If there were ever an awards ceremony for such a blog award, I would give them both a standing ovation.

The nomination rules ask the blogger to answer some thoughtful questions and nominate other bloggers. The following questions were provided by Tom Alexander and I’ll do my best to answer.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

1. What is your favorite book and why? 
   • Too many to choose from but currently reading Into the Wild. The story of Chris McCandless is both inspiring and heartbreaking as a young wild hiker treks his way to Alaska to abandon social norms and pressures to live out his truth. It’s a dream of mine to go across the country and abandon the daily norms, to actually live for a purpose.
2. What song do you currently have on repeat?
   • This playlist has been on repeat this week: My Playlist. At a minimum, I run through the first 16 songs once a day.
3. Which season (Autumn, Spring, Summer or Winter) of the year best describes you?
   • I was born in Autumn and my birthday is right around the corner from Halloween. For some people this would seem like a joyous time for celebration, and perhaps the best time of year for the change in colors and the relief from the brutal summer heat. However, this time of year left a bitter feeling in the pit of my stomach that still haunts me and is my worst time of year.
   • Spring best describes a rebirth from the dead season. Spring has always rejuvenated my spirits and inspires me to keep going every year.
4. In the event of an emergency home evacuation what is the first item you’d grab?
   • I’d take the irreplaceable things: photographs, a handful of books, my guitar, my phone, and of course my kids.
5. Which historical figure would you most like to meet and why?
   • Vincent van Gogh. I’d love to have a chat with him, watch him paint, and converse about the world through his experiences. He felt deeply with an intensity for life and had a way of expressing it through vibrant strokes of color.
6. What makes a good blog?
   • I gravitate towards blogs with a mix of poetry, prose, video, audio, photography, and paintings – keeps me entertained. Something that really hits me is when an artist strikes an emotional chord, whether it is heartbreaking pain or inspiring hope. Those things keep me coming back for more.
7. Back to the past or forward to the future?
   • For a long time I’ve said that I would go back to a few certain points in my past and redo those differently. However, every decision has led me to where I am today and I am grateful for the experiences. Onward to the future!
8. Your dream vacation?
   • The pyramids of Giza has been a life long dream of mine. It wouldn’t be a luxury vacation; it would be a small tour group listening to lectures and getting up close and personal with history. I’ve researched it before but need to take the plunge and do it!
9. The greatest movie of all time?
   • My favorites: Manhattan, Stardust Memories (my favorite Woody Allen films), High Fidelity, and Before Sunset. A lot of great quotes and moments from those movies that mirror my life. The following quotes from High Fidelity stand the test of time:
     • What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music? 
     • What really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films – these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the fuckin’ truth.
10. Wealth or health?
    • Health. Health is more important than any amount of money.
11. Your proudest moment(s)?
    • I’m proud of my children. The greatest gift in the world is watching them and supporting them in a life I’ve never had. Also proud of my writing accomplishments, running marathons (and numerous half marathons that were at times extremely brutal), to traveling across the world when I had the opportunity. However, I’m most proud of my ability to persevere whenever I feel like I’m taking steps backwards and giving up.

NOMINATIONS:

Thanks again to Tom & Hannah for the nomination. I’d like to nominate the following blogs that stand out amongst the crowd:

• Summerhill Lane: summerhilllaneerotica.com
• Lucy’s Works: lucysworks.com
• Thistle Thoughts: thistlethoughts.com
• Havoc and Consequence: havocandconsequence.wordpress.com
• Mizpellt wurdz: kacperniburski.com
• The Lonely Author: thelonelyauthorblog.com
• Robert Charboneau: robertcharboneau.com

Rules for the nomination:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
• Answer the questions given to you
• Nominate other bloggers
• Ask your nominees questions of your choice
• Notify your nominees once you have uploaded your post

Thanks for reading and following along.