Today started out lame.

I suppose I shouldn’t say it started lame because it started with my little girl waking me up to eat and she was all smiles and cuddles and lovies. We ate, and then she fell asleep on my chest while playing with my hair. That was the un-lame part of the day. Yes that’s a word because I made it so.

Then I went online because today’s March 1st, and March 1st meant that Glimmer Train was going to be sending me an email telling me that I totally made it in the top twenty-five short stories for their December contest.

Nope. Not so much. I read the list five times. No Lina. Sad sad sad. I felt like a marble among bowling balls.

I also got another rejection letter…I became a grain of sand….

Then, I got a message from a magazine editor, gushing about my photography and asking to use a few shots. SWEET DEAL! I was now a baseball among bowling balls.

Then, I figured that since my short story didn’t get accepted by Glimmer Train because it’s, as my college professor called it, “Too Nicholas Sparks,” I would just publish it on Amazon for a buck. My momma and I are currently putting together two shorts for the project. Ah…I became a beach ball among bowling balls…

Then, I see that Eccentric Chai got nominated for the Liebster Award. SWEET DEAL ON THE DOUBLE!

I am now a planet among bowling balls…

Thank you so much Being June for nominating Eccentric Chai! The Liebster Award is a great way for bloggers to get to know bloggers…

“This is a fun award given to bloggers by bloggers to help build community and get to know each other. It is also a great way to help your readers learn more about you. Here are the rules…

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself, and create 11 questions for your nominees.

3. Nominate 11 blogs with 200 or less followers who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen.”

Being June is an awesome blogger who gave me the following eleven questions…I feel like a rockstar author getting her first interview.

1. Who is your favorite author and why?

J.D. Salinger–above all others he is a god. I love his work because it’s so “human” and he’s so flawless at creating real three-dimensional characters. The Catcher in the Rye is my all-time favorite, but I am also a huge fan of Franney and Zooey and I currently have Nine Stories on my shelf for future scanning.

2. Why did you start blogging?

That’s a very good question. I suppose it’s because I started to keep a “writer’s journal” on my computer complete with pictures to help me elaborate my thoughts to myself, and I thought: hey, why don’t I just show everyone else what I’m thinking?

I do a much better job at describing what sparked Eccentric Chai in my First Post

3. What’s the most challenging thing about blogging?

Herm…I believe it has to be maintaining the blog itself. It takes a lot of maintenance to run a blog which is something I had no idea until recently when I had to do a “tag sweep” so my articles would start to re-appear on wordpress feeds. It’s also a lot of work keeping the blog looking beauty-mous and making sure my readers are wowed when they check out the front page.

4. What’s your dream vacation (money’s no object)?

This changes everyday. Right now I suppose I’d love to go to Paris. That’s so cliche of me, right?

5. Favorite childhood memory

It’s not a specific memory, but sort of a ritual in my life as a child. I spent a lot of time at my great-grandma’s house during the young days and she always had birds of every shape and size and color landing on her back porch for some seed–which she scattered everywhere and hung from the roof. During those days, I’d wake up early and feel the early morning breeze setting in through the white drapes, smell the soaked Missouri ground, and listen to the song of hundreds of Robins. To this day, I live for the birds.

6. Who inspires you and why?

My husband. He reads all of my work and tells me how much it rocks–even if I know it’s crapola–and that keeps me writing! My daughter is also a super inspiration. Her tiny little hands and gummy smiles are all I need to get poetic.

Also Thomas Newman. He’s a genius.

7. What’s your favorite dessert?

Ice cream soup!

8. What’s your favorite music?

Jazzzzzz. I love a good Coltrane here and there, sure, but I’m also a super giant fan of Duke, Bobby Darin, and Michael Bublé. My favorite of all? Jamie Cullum!

9. Where do you see yourself in ten years?

I’m a very naive little girl so I see myself as a bestselling author. I also see myself as a mommy to a ten-year old awesome daughter who loves to draw, build model airplanes with daddy, and type on a typewriter.

10. What’s your hobby?

I suppose I should say writing because it’s all I ever do, but you’re all reading my writing so I s’pose that’s a given. My other hobbies are photography, mommy-ing, wife-ing, reaching over 1,000 words on a single wordpress article, and eating fettuccine.

11. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

Sadly, I thought about this question so much when Chris and I got a lotto card–just for the kicks and beetles of it all–that I feel it’s my obligation to everyone to get this much money at least once in my lifetime. I’d pay off the condo, buy a new house, set aside some money for Go’s college, pay off all of OUR college debts, and then donate a bunch to programs that focus on children (like orphanages, state registries, daycares, children’s libraries, etc.)

11 Random Facts ‘Bout Me:

1. I own a 1972 Canonet QL and I accidentally broke the shutter spring while visiting Chicago so it currently collects dust on my shelf.

2. I have an entire shelf of manuscripts and an entire shelf of unfinished notebooks and journals.

3. Bluegrass is my forbidden pleasure

4. I have a black squirrel living in my backyard. I feed it peanuts.

5. I have seen every episode of Monk.

6. I won the spelling bee in 5th grade with the word “confetti.”

7. I love the occasional journey of spelunking.

8. When I was sixteen, I thought I was an elf in a past life.

9. I used to want to write music for movies.

10. I have a picture of Mark Twain on my desk to keep me going.

11. When I finished the seventh Harry Potter book, I closed it, re-opened it, and started reading from the beginning again.

Here are my nominees so far (nine more to go!):

Speed Limit Anarchy

Baking Memories

Artist of a Thousand Tasks

Beloved Pursuit

Thirster 42

Quiet Irish Coffee

and here are the questions I ask them:

1. What made you start your blog?

2. Where’s your favorite place to “create”?

3. What’s your favorite book? Why?

4. If you could meet anyone–dead or alive–who would it be?

5. How do you spend a typical Saturday?

6. What’s your favorite animal? Why?

7. Who was your favorite grade school teacher? Why?

8. What do you want to be when you “grow up”?

9. What’s your greatest accomplishment so far?

10. Who do you look up to the most? Why?

11. You go into a coffee shop, Edgar Allan Poe is sitting in there with a half caff Mocha with a shot of almond. You sit across from him. What is the first thing you say?

I’ll leave you with a picture of my muses…