Fit Fun Mom

I do enjoy a chance to go on and on about myself (define:blogger), so I was pleased to see that recent half marathoner Wendy from slowgirlfastdog nominated me for a Liebster Award! With such a thrilling honor comes the great responsibility of naming 11 random things about myself and answering 11 random questions from the nominator.

Without further ado, I give you 11 random things about me:

1. In high school I appeared on the television game show Wheel of Fortune. I came home with consolation prizes including a 3-foot high chocolate Santa and more Rice-a-Roni than I ever wanted to eat.

2. It took nearly two years for me to conceive my first child. Infertility stinks and it’s a lonely, hidden sort of condition (so if you’re going through it too, know you have my sympathies). I was lucky and figured out the cause of my infertility (see random fact #3), and now I have three lovely girls ages 10, 7 and 4.

3. I have Graves’ Disease. That sounds more grave than it is. Basically, after the birth of my first daughter, my thyroid went into overdrive. I lost a lot of weight, my heart rate went up, and I developed insomnia. Once I figured it out, I went on anti-thyroid medication. Then my thyroid burned itself out completely, and now I’m on thyroid supplements. Thankfully, my thyroid levels have been normal for years now.

4. Over the course of having three young children, I breastfed for a total of about 9 years, sometimes tandem nursing a toddler and a baby at the same time. I loved it and blogged about it for three years on a breastfeeding blog that eventually had 100,000 pageviews a month. Sadly I’m no longer part of a blogging network that can drive in that kind of traffic!

5. I don’t like being called Angie and only a few close friends and family members can get away with calling me Ang. Call me Angela or better yet, Hey You Yes You the Girl Who Finished a Marathon.

6. I’ve lived in Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and California. For one fun summer I lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and that’s my favorite big city (although I enjoyed living in Boston too).

7. I’m a lawyer but I choose to call myself a born-again non-lawyer. I graduated from University of Michigan law school in 1997 and went on to practice estate planning law for three years. It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 years since I’ve practiced law. I do not miss it one bit.

8. I want to write a novel one day. The problem is that I really want to have written it. I don’t actually want to write it.

9. I love to read and have read over 50 books this year. I am not joking when I say 18 of those books are audiobooks that I listened to while driving my kids back and forth to preschool and elementary school. I am currently reading Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mystery), and Running Doc’s Guide to Healthy Running: How to Fix Injuries, Stay Active, and Run Pain-Free, and I am listening to Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. I never used to read multiple books at once but my tolerance for that has increased.

10. I think the public library is the best invention ever. So much so that I make many monetary donations to the library each year (so what if the library calls them “overdue book fines.”)

11. As part of the Liebster Award I am supposed to nominate 11 other bloggers. I don’t wanna. (This is in keeping with my Official Policy Rule 10.4.1: Do not send chain letters.) If you want to participate though, I’d be happy to read your answers to my 11 questions. Either post the answers in the comments or a leave a link to your blog post with your 11 answers.

And now for my answers to Wendy’s 11 questions.

1. What was your favorite comic strip as a child? It’s a tie between Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes.
2. Do you own any pets? If so, what kind? I have a cat named Camo (she’s a calico cat with camo-like white, black and orange patches. I didn’t name her — she came with the house when we bought it!)
3. Why do you blog? Because for some reason my friends and family refuse to listen to me go on and on about running and triathlon and training and injuries and me me me me.
4. If you could only own one book, what would it be? Pride and Prejudice. Sure, you think I might say the Bible but I’m not religious (I’m spiritual).
5. Do you color inside the lines or outside? Inside. Who do you think I am?!
6. What word would your mother use to describe you? Delightful. Right Mom?
7. What word would your best friend use to describe you? Wife. Right Mike? I’ll let him come up with another word for me.
8. What is your biggest pet peeve? People who do not give cyclists and runners proper respect on the roads.
9. Have you ever been in a bar brawl? No. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a bar.
10. Do you believe in ghosts? No. Wait, what was that sound?!
11. What have you done to prepare for a zombie invasion? I keep an earthquake disaster kit of water and supplies in my garage, does that count?

And now my 11 questions for you all:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
2. What book are you reading right now?
3. What’s your favorite book?
4. What’s the farthest distance you’ve ever gone under your own power (racing or training or hiking or walking or whatever your definition of farthest distance and “own power” is)?
5. How many days a week do you work out?
6. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Explain.
7. What’s the most exotic place you’ve ever traveled to or the most interesting site/tourist attraction you’ve ever seen?
8. Do you think money can buy happiness?
9. How often do you eat fast food (I’m talking traditional fast food like McDonald’s, Taco Bell etc.)?
10. Do you buy organic?
11. What is one thing you’d like to work on changing about yourself?

Now you go!