Elegant Blogger Survey

I was tagged for the "Elegant Blogger Award" (thank you kindly, Beast'sbelle at Never Grow Up!), and thought, since I haven't yet finished my Gen Con photos, I would regale you with my answers to the survey:




1.  Why did you start blogging?
     Because I love to hear myself talk. Or see myself type, as it were. Really, I have a lot of thoughts crammed into this brain here, and I want to get them out into the world, but I'm bad at talking. Blogging gives me a chance to empty my brain while taking advantage of the Backspace key. :)

(As for this blog in particular, it spun off my personal LiveJournal, when I realized that maaaaybe all my fandom LJ friends didn't give two figs about American Girl dolls.)

2.  What is your fashion style?
    Nonexistent? I am a T-shirt-and-jeans sort of girl. I wear skirts and cardigans to the office, but they come off within 10 minutes of my arrival home. Comfort is key - I can't wear anything that constricts me, or it will drive me insane.

3.  What is something your followers don't know about you?
     I majored in Art in college, and dreamed of being an animator. Then I realized that I like sleep, and financial stability, and animators generally don't get much of either. I now work in marketing, which isn't the most interesting thing, but I have my evenings free and I make enough money to afford art & craft supplies. (Also, it's amazingly fun to be the only person in the office who knows how to use Photoshop. Mine is an evil laugh.)

4.  What is one of your blogging goals?
     To keep on top of posting? I seriously can go for months without saying anything.

5.  Where is your favorite place to shop?
    Target is the #1 nemesis of my bank account. Also, Amazon, which has everything I can think of, and two-day Prime shipping. I also love the thrill of the bargain hunt - Goodwill and Tuesday Morning are my main targets there.

6.  What would your ideal amount of followers be?
     Frankly, I'm amazed that anyone has stuck around!

7.  What are your talents?
     I am a jack-of-all-trades. I draw, sew, paint, needle-felt, play piano and trumpet, and do some pretty good vocal mimicry. I love to sing, though I'm not exactly talented, and devoted many hours of my high-school days to theater. My main talent is writing, though not fiction - I'm less a writer and more a wordsmith. Other people give me ideas, I make them sound pretty.

8.  Are you a leader or a follower?
     I'm definitely not a leader, but I don't like to think of myself as a follower. I'm more that person standing slightly behind and to the right of the leader, making sure the paperwork is filed correctly and everything is fact-checked.

9.  What is your favorite quote?
     "There is one spectacle greater then the sea, that is the sky; There is one spectacle greater than the sky; that is the interior of the soul."
    ~ From "Les Miserables", by Victor Hugo.

To give you an idea of how much I love the writing of my homeboy Hugo, I had to open up a .txt file full of Hugo quotes I had saved and spent a full five minutes agonizing over my choice. There are three copies of Les Mis in this house - and NO, I am not getting rid of any of them, thankyouverymuch.

10.  Do you have a favorite book or book series?
     Well, see the previous question, for starters. I also love the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and Harry Potter was my gateway to the fandom life (I have two separate full sets of the Harry Potter books - one set was bought in London during my study abroad summer). My copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is almost as ragged as my first copy of Les Miserables. Then there's Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Diana Wynne Jones, John Scalzi, Scott Lynch, Jane Austen, Megan Whalen Turner, a bit of Dickens, Roald Dahl...

...When my husband and I bought this house, the fact that it has one wall that is entirely made of bookshelves was a contributing factor. Have I mentioned that I also majored in English?

(Also, since this blog is read by all ages - please keep in mind that I am 30 years old, grew up with very few restrictions on what I was allowed to read, and I have a lit degree. The above list is not at all curated for age-appropriateness or content.)

11.   Out of all the synonyms for elegant, which would you describe yourself with (smart, dressy, stylish, graceful, or fine)?
    ...

You're joking, yes?

Smart applies the best. The rest aren't anywhere near describing me.

In the interest of due diligence, I went over to thesaurus.com and looked over their synonyms for elegant. And...well, while I CAN be refined, or delicate, or tasteful, or cultured, I can also mooch around the house in ripped jeans and battered sneakers and have been known to burp loudly enough to be heard downstairs. Yes, I live in a nice suburb and drive a hybrid and carry a purse with someone else's initials all over it. I also grew up in the middle of cornfields and swear like a sailor (when out of Pie's hearing) and buy my jeans at Goodwill and the purse was inherited from my sister (who actually cared whose initials were on her purses).

I remember, the first time I saw The Phantom of the Opera - I was 12, and with my parents. My dad was talking to another man at intermission, about how we had driven to Indianapolis to see the performance, and the next day he was coming back to Indianapolis with my sister to see a monster truck show.

That story right there pretty much sums up my upbringing.

12.   What is your favorite flower?
     Oh, good. An easy question! White roses for me, thank you.


Thanks again, Beast'sbelle! I am going to decline to tag anyone - frankly, I don't think 12 people read this blog with any regularity - but do feel free to chime in over in the comments!