30 Day Challenge - Day 30

Finally done!

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.) 

Day 30- Who are you?

After reading through all of these answers, you should know by now! ;)

30 Day Challenge - Days 27, 28, and 29

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Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Well, when I started it I thought it would be fun and a good way to occupy some time out of my day. But now that October and early November have turned out to be pretty busy, I have no idea why. :)

Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?

December 2009:

With the cuddliest/floppiest cat in the world, Sneakers

November 2010:

In our new car, Prudence

Well, a lot has changed since December of last year, but I don't think I myself have changed a whole lot. I am still the same person I've always been, just with a little more life experience under my belt, which of course will always be true. 

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
I have learned a heck of a lot about Foursquare, Tumblr, and Posterous. I have learned the names of the sixteen billion James Patterson novels coming out in the next couple months. (Hint: if you come up & ask "what's James Patterson's newest book?" you're going to get a list.) I have learned that I get paid a day early both paychecks this month thanks to holidays. I have learned about astronauts and space travel thanks to the book Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. I learned about the Battle of Gettysburg for my review of Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead. I learned that Loki does not like it when it is cold in the morning. I learned 15 large crickets are a good meal for him (vs. 30 small). I learned that I really like the movie How to Train Your Dragon, and bought myself a Toothless for my desk. ...I guess I learned a lot. :)

30 Day Challenge - Days 25 and 26

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Day 25- What I would find in your bag
I actually posted earlier in October with a picture of the contents of my bag (minus the camera I used to take the picture). Here's that entry. My bag is pretty ordinary, I think, except for the hearing aid accessories.

Day 26- What you think about your friends
OK, I admit this question is a little confusing to me. For one thing I don't have a ton of friends, but for another I don't know what I would think about them other than "I like them as people and like spending time with them." Maybe overanalyzing simple questions is why I don't have a ton of friends ;)

30 Day Challenge - Days 22, 23, and 24

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Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
*shrug* I've actually never thought of myself as different than everyone else. There's no reason to. Everyone is human, and makes the same mistakes. We all live our lives differently, and everyone is unique in some ways, but I think focusing on differences often just creates more problems. I think of myself as pretty normal.

Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
"For" shouldn't be there. Anyway. Chocolate (particularly Hershey's milk chocolate - something about the taste - and Milky Way candy bars). Apple limeades from Sonic. Juice, if I haven't had any in awhile. Hm. It's all food. Weird.

Day 24- A letter to your parents
Mom and Dad,
I love you. Just want you to know that.
Love, Megan

30 Day Challenge - Days 20 & 21

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Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future

That's him right there. Already got the "marrying" thing out of the way. :)

Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy

Flowers and my purple Converse.

30 Day Challenge - Days 17, 18, and 19

 I decided to do NaNoWriMo this year. It's kind of great because we are also doing write-ins at the library! It's on our Facebook page if you live in the East Valley in AZ. I have 1,715 words so far in my story. It's going well.

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.)

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Ooh, this is a toughie. It seems so easy to pick a rich person or a celebrity, but honestly it seems kind of boring (depending on the person, of course). You can practically already experience a celebrity's daily life with all of the reality TV out there.

I think I would pick an average person in a country I've never been to (which is all of them except the USA). I would love to get a peek into someone's ordinary, daily life, and see what's the same and what's different, in, say, Japan, North Korea (how crazy would that be?), Ireland, Switzerland, etc... 

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
(In no particular order):

• Get my bachelor's degree (probably in History/American History)
• Get my master's degree
• Buy a house
• Have 2-3 children
• Buy a Chevrolet Blazer or similar (to replace the truck when it eventually dies... hopefully this will be a couple years)
• Get a dog
• Be published

Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Well, a lot of older people like to call me "Miss Megan." That one is pretty common. Scotty and a few other people call me Megs. He also calls me chica. And if misspelling my name counts as a nickname, I get that a lot, too! :)

30 Day Challenge - Day 16

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Day 16- Another picture of yourself

Staring contest.

30 Day Challenge - Day 15

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Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

Well, it's not my iPod, it's my SD card in my phone... but here you go. You have no idea how many Christmas songs I had to skip over to get normal songs. I am really lazy about moving stuff off that card.

(Oh, and I see now it says 10. Whatevs! You get 15.)

1. Come Sail Away - Styx
2. Number One - Hazel Fernandes

3. Forever and Ever, Amen - Randy Travis
4. When I Look to the Sky - Train
5. Good Morning Beautiful - Steve Holy
6. The Valley of the Shadow of Death - The Tossers
7. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
8. Samba De Janeiro - Bellini
9. Happy People - Skoop on Somebody
10. You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi
11. Dream On - Aerosmith
12. Take Me Home - Celtic Thunder
13. Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
14. (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar - The Guild (a webshow)
15. Wichita Lineman - Celtic Thunder

30 Day Challenge - Day 14

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Day 14- A picture of you and your family

Oh yeah. I love my family. I'm just going to use photos I haven't already used...

My dad's side of the family on Christmas Day 2009

My brother

My in-laws

30 Day Challenge - Day 13

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Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Naaaaahh. I don't like drama and I especially don't want to write about it on my blog. Although I could go the funny route and write a letter to my lizard, whose claws leave scratches on my arms every time I pick him up, but I'm not funny enough to make it funny. Or if I was funny I could also write about how ferrets' claws are also kind of poky and it is very difficult to go on a walk with two ferrets and an old arthritic dog* (and you can get hurt in the process).

But nah. No letter today. 

*We're currently "housesitting" for a friend of ours, which entails stopping by in the morning and evening (another friend is taking care of early morning/afternoon duties). With two ferrets, two inside cats, two groups of outside cats and the aforementioned elderly dog it's certainly interesting.

30 Day Challenge - Day 12

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Day 12- How you found out about Tumblr blogging and why you made one

(It originally said Tumblr, but I changed it to blogging since I don't use Tumblr.)

I don't remember how I first learned about blogging, but I really like reading them, and one day I thought it would be fun to start blogging myself. I started with the blog Hearing Sparks, which is about "deafness, science, and geeky stuff." I wanted to give a young person's perspective on deafness since most audiology stuff out there targets seniors and (from what I've seen) many deaf bloggers are middle-aged.

I started this blog to post random stuff, recipes and updates for family members, and Loki's blog is to keep tabs on his growth.

30 Day Challenge - Day 11

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Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

That's what I get for answering with multiple pictures at once. I went back a little further in Photobucket for this one.

Me with PJ & Scotty at Pete's Fish & Chips

Me with Alicia, Chris & Virginia

Me with my uncle Ryan and PJ at the AZ Science Center

30 Day Challenge - Day 10

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Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

I've never been the type of person to listen to specific songs when I'm in a certain mood. If I want to listen to music, I either put the music in the SD card in my cellphone on shuffle, or I play my last.fm, so there's no control over what comes up. And generally, the only time I listen to music is in the car, or if I need some noise (which is rare for me; usually, I just want quiet.)

30 Day Challenge - Day 9

I'm still trying to get over my stupid cold. :( I don't think it's ever going to go away, and my chest and tummy and throat feel so yucky. Ugh.

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.)

Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days

I helped out with the teen Halloween event for work on Tuesday and it was a lot of fun. I'm proud of the "Horror Movie Trivia" sheet I made, with 10 questions about recent (and a few older) horror movies. Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, Carrie... they were all covered and it was great.

30 Day Challenge - Day 8

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Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why 

(Wish I could remember where this came from)

Hmm, well, there are only 11 days left in October, so I don't have much time to complete any "goals," but here's what I hope to have done by the end of the month.

• See UFC 121 this Saturday
• Add more money to savings with Scotty's paycheck next week
• Pay the old Sprint bill next week
• Get into the housesitting routine
• Work on my epic "monster vs monster" idea inspired by Dan & Scotty
• Get the library's Facebook fans up to 100

I'm sure there's more I want to get done, but that's all I can think of right now.

30 Day Challenge - Day 7

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Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

Continuing to totally ignore the request for one picture! These people have had impact on me because...

My in-laws! They have helped me see other points of view, and welcome many many awesome people into the circle of people I call family.

My mama! She has taught me so much and helped me grow up into a good person.

My grandparents! They have always been there and they are awesome at who they are.

My brother! We may be 4 years apart but sometimes it feels like we're twins.

My dad! He's always been strong and he gave me half of my sense of humor!

And finally, my husband! (He's a cute monkey here!) He has shown me a lot in 7 years. How to truly trust somebody, love somebody and just be relaxed with somebody. <3

30 Day Challenge - Day 6

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Day 06- Favorite super hero and why

I'm going to go with Iron Man here just because I have an Iron Man figure on my desk and he cracks me up with the way he scowls at everything.

I also love the Iron Man movies and the sense of humor that Robert Downey Jr. brings to the character.

I don't think they technically count as superheroes but I also love the Endless from the Sandman comic book series. (Which is one of the only comic book series I've read all the way through.) They're pretty awesome.

30 Day Challenge - Day 5

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Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to

Another excuse to go through my Photobucket! I know it says "a" picture, but why include just one when more is just more fun?

So here we go. Here I am at...

...a Suns game with Alicia and the gorilla!

...a Relay for Life event watching my brother PJ play!

...Schnepf Farms in front of pretty spring blossoms!

...a convention!

...Toy Story 3 in 3D!

...work!

...a family reunion!

...the yearly Geocaching event my father-in-law puts on, stuck on a cactus!

That was fun... and definitely took my mind off the cold/sinus infection/weird head thing I have going today.

30 Day Challenge - Day 4

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Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have

I am such a worrier, and sometimes it is a pain. I worry about everything, from if I left the car headlights on to if I'm hearing everything in a conversation. It's difficult to write about to explain just how much I worry. It's not typical anxiety that people experience in new social situations or when they are in a new place. It's constant.

Stuff No One Told Me

I even worry in my sleep. I talk in my sleep and often it is to ask Scotty worried (and nonsensical) questions about if everyone in the house is here, and stuff like that.

If I could, I would love to relax a bit, but worrying has become a big part of who I am; it's kind of a way of exerting mental control over my situation. So, if I could, I would change some of the habits that come from worrying. For example, the OCD-like way I check the car headlights, make sure I locked it, make sure the doors are closed all the way, and make sure I shut the refrigerator door. Sometimes I can convince myself I don't need to check things multiple times, but most of the time it sits there bothering me until I check. Since it takes away time from what I'm doing, that's what I'd change.

30 Day Challenge - Day 3

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Day 03- A recent picture of you and your friends

I had to look through my Photobucket album for this one. Here's what I came up with... (yep, more than one picture, I consider my family my friends, and I'm not in all of them)...

Me with Scotty, Alicia, and Chris

TJ, PJ, Ashton

TJ, PJ, Candice

Me & my mom

Me & my grandparents & Uncle Lonnie

My in-laws

Me with my in-laws and Scotty

And finally, me with my coworkers!