Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Meet the Blogger: 10 Facts About Me

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is 10 facts about me. There are lots of ways bloggers could take this topic, and I decided to focus on 10 get-to-know-you biggies that often come up in first conversations. Booknerd is obviously a huge thing, but you all know that already! ;)

Hi, I'm Lindsay. Nice to meet you!
I'd love for you to leave a fact about yourself in the comments!

1. I'm an Air Force spouse (and I grew up an Air Force brat).
My dad was in the Air Force until I was in high school, so in some ways it was a natural transition for me to marry an Air Force guy. There are a million highs and lows to being a military family. Moving every three years means life is a constant adventure, but it also means missing out on family events, leaving good jobs and good friends, and never being able to have nice thing without worrying about them being broken in a move (something we're dealing with right this very minute, in the middle of unpacking from our move from Ohio to Hawaii).

2. I'm from Colorado.
pikes peak 2
My Dad's job took us to Colorado in 1997 and that's where my parents settled down. While I can't say I'm a Colorado native, it's where I attended middle school through college and it's where I call home. I can't help telling everyone I meet how amazing Colorado is. I love hiking and photography and mountain drives and plentiful sunshine and gorgeous seasons and Colorado is the place to be for all of that! Go Broncos!

3. My other big hobby besides reading is knitting.
I taught myself to knit (with the help of the internet) in 2009 while Jarrod was attending some military school and I was between jobs and needed something to do. Now it's one of my biggest passions! I love creating things, and many knitters find the craft to be incredibly soothing and relaxing. After all those years I finally knit my first sweater last year (of course, it's a long-sleeve, thick wool cardigan that I won't have a single use for in the next three years), and I'm working on another one right now -- a short-sleeve cotton top that'll be suitable for Hawaii.

4. My last two jobs were at libraries...

library
...and I hope to be working at one again soon. One of the hardest things about leaving Ohio was saying goodbye to my lovely library and awesome co-workers. Working at a public library can mean some crazy and irritating experiences (you should look up Librarian Bingo if you haven't seen it; here's one version!) but it was so nice getting to share my passion for books with patrons and my co-workers all day.

5. I'm single-handedly keeping the post office in business.

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In a time when so much of life is conducted online, it's such a wonderful treat to find something fun and personal waiting in the mailbox! I send cards for every holiday, plus letters to friends, family and penpals (as in strangers I've never met in real life!). I also participate in postcard swaps through my favorite knitting website, Ravelry, as well as Postcrossing, a super-fun international postcard exchange. I've received some absolutely gorgeous postcards from all over the world!

6. We have a kitty named Lily, and we miss our furbaby boxer, Conan, every single day.

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We added Conan to our family right after we moved to Florida following college graduation -- before we even had a sofa! He was our baby, our joy and the completion of our little family, and we were absolutely devastated to lose him to lymphoma two years ago. We also have a kitty cat, Lily, whom we adopted last time we were stationed in Hawaii. Hawaii has tons and tons of feral cats, and she part of a litter of feral kittens up for adoption. She's adorable and sweet, but she pretty much hates anyone but me.

7. I collect things.
When I was a kid, it was pencils and postcards and rocks, in high school and college it was paper coasters from restaurants, and at the current moment it's Starbucks You Are Here coffee mugs (among other things, like pressed autumn leaves, seashells and Harry Potter books!).

8. I'm an introverted homebody...

(source)

9. ...but I love to travel!

lost lake 
I love adventuring and exploring, especially to beautiful natural wonders. One of my life goals is to visit every U.S. national park, and I think about 2/3 of my bucket list involves travel. I'm lucky to have a willing (and way more competent than I am) travel buddy in my husband. In the last year or so, we visited Gettysburg, New York City, Tennessee with a little jaunt to North Carolina, Colorado, Cleveland, Niagara Falls, back to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and Florida. Now that we're in Hawaii our travel will be much more limited, but of course we'll visit the other islands, and I have plans for an Alaskan cruise and a big trip to Australia and New Zealand.

10. I love watching (and going to!) the movies, and, while I don't watch a ton of TV, there are some shows I adore.

Because what better way to break the ice than to discover you share a fandom?! Some of the shows I love are "Downton Abbey," "Game of Thrones," "Sherlock," "The Walking Dead," "Orphan Black," "Elementary," "Outlander," "Homeland," "Mr. Robot," and my guilty pleasure, "Switched at Birth." I'm also totally pumped for the "Gilmore Girls" revival, and I like (or want to catch up on) everything on PBS Masterpiece (I loooove historical dramas!).

15 comments:

  1. I love the idea of Postcrossing. I think I need to check it out.

    http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2016/07/top-french-ish-things-i-love.html

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    1. Oh, please do! It's such a fun way to get something cool in your mailbox and get a taste of other cultures! I actually just hung up a new postcard display thingy I bought and I had such a great time selecting which of my amazing international postcards to hang up! My favorite one I've ever received was from Russia, a watercolor of St. Basil's Cathedral -- which is on my bucket list of places to visit! You know, I've never really talked much about Postcrossing on the blog. Maybe I should do a post about it!

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  2. I so want to learn how to knit! I think once the kids are in school full time (which means I have a while) I think I will try. Also I would love to travel more but again I have some time. Sounds like you have been to a lot of awesome places! Love that picture of your cat :)

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    1. Knitting is so wonderful and I think you'd really like it once you get into it! It gives you something to do with your hands when you watch TV -- and I know from your blog that you like a binge-watch now and then! ;) I actually feel a little weird and antsy sitting down to watch a movie or something without having knitting in my lap! It's also very relaxing, especially when you get to the point where you know what you're doing. And you can knit adorable winter hats and things your for kiddos! If you ever decide you want to learn, I'd be happy to point you to some great websites! :)

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  3. It's so nice you still do handwritten letters and things. I love that stationary. And Conan was a beautiful fur-child. It really want to work in a library someday - I wish I had studied library science in school but alas, I am a criminal justice major. Yes! for introverted homebodies!

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    1. My library jobs have been my favorites -- I think I may have finally found my career niche. And it's fairly portable, which is good since we move so often! You don't necessarily need a library degree to work at a library, especially not as something like a circulation clerk. I've been thinking about getting my master's in library science (my bacherlor's degree is in journalism) but I can never quite seem to commit!

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  4. I'm a knitter too!! I started knitting 2 years ago as a new year's resolution to pick up a new hobby... Little did I know that knotting would become so addicting. Knitting actual rivals my love for reading and buying books.... And lastly, I knitted all of the gifts I gave as Christmas gifts last year!

    I love postcrossing too and I even collect postcards, which is a hobby I picked up as a kid.

    Here's a link to my TTT post for this week: http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2016/07/top-ten-tuesday-ten-facts-about-me.html

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    1. Well, nice to meet you, fellow fiber artist! :) I think knitting and reading are just about equal passions for me as well. I can hardly believe I've been knitting for 7 years now!

      Yay for Postcrossing! Like you, I've collecting postcards since I was little; my goal was always to get one from every state. It's so fun to get cards from all over the world now, thanks to Postcrossing! I sent one to Russia a couple weeks ago and I'm anxiously awaiting my card in return!

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    2. P.S. Are you on Ravelry? I'm knittinglindsay there!

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  5. I love to travel too! I want to go everywhere :)
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/top-ten-tuesday-65/

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    1. Oh, me too! One of my life goals is to visit every continent! (Not doing too well there; I've only been out of the U.S. once, and that was our honeymoon to St. Lucia!)

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  6. What fun to learn about you more! I too love to travel (and talked about it in my TTT). I love the photos of your pets, and sorry about your dog.

    I used to collect magnets and asked people who went somewhere to bring me one and also bookmarks, but somehow they fell by the wayside and I can't even find most of them because we usually have boxes we never bother to unpack with mementos :) I now collect elephant statues because I respect this species' intelligence.

    Thanks!

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    1. I love the idea of collecting something more specific, like your elephant statues. I've thought about starting a world globe collection, but Hawaii isn't really the place to look for vintage/antique type stuff. I've gone through so many collection phases, including magnets, like you. And I totally forgot to mention my (ongoing) pressed penny collection in the post!

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  7. I love your kitty Lily's eyes! Also, I am just floored by what military spouses deal with. It might help you grew up with it, I don't know, but the constant moving, separation, etc. would just be more than I think I could handle!

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    1. Oh, I know -- they're the most enchanting color of green, and they look different depending on the light. When her pupils are dilated her eyes look gray, and I wanted to name her Artemis, after the moon goddess, but I was vetoed!

      Yes, I think it definitely helps that I was already accustomed to the military lifestyle before becoming an Air Force spouse. I have some friends who married into the military in their mid- to late-20s after living in the same state -- or even city -- their entire lives, and it's a huge adjustment. The biggest struggle for me is missing out on family time. I just spent almost two months in Colorado living with my parents as part of our move and it was SO nice to just be able to hang out and relax and do day-to-day things with them. Our visits are typically rushed and busy, especially when they come someplace like Hawaii and we have to do and see everything!

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