The Liebster Award

I know about 2 words in German, thanks to the several trips I’ve made to Germany to visit my dear friend Hanna. ‘Liebe’ is one of those words (it means love). The other is schluempfe, which means Smurfs – as in the blue characters on TV. Don’t ask me why I know this, but I can say that it has yet to come in handy.

Anyway, I was honored and thrilled to find out that Kim from Racing Bananas had nominated me for a ‘Liebster’ award, which is designed to support and recognize new bloggers. Liebster means ‘my darling’ or something along that line – Germans, correct me!

Since we’re already starting off the week unconventionally, I decided to include this as a fun post.

Here are the rules:

1. List 11 Random Facts about myself.
2. Answer 11 questions that Kim wrote for me.
3. Nominate 11 bloggers.
4. Create 11 questions for my nominees.
5. Display the Liebster award for all to see.

Random Facts about Sara:

1. I’m going to count the fact that I know how to say ‘Smurfs’ in German as a random fact. One of my many hidden talents is knowing weird words in other languages. 
2. My biggest pet peeve is unzipped jacket pockets. I think it represents disorder and disarray and I cannot be having any of that. If you’re not using them (as in putting your hands in them), zip ’em up!
3. My other biggest pet peeve is when people think they’re being grammatically correct when they say “So-and-so and I” and it’s supposed to be “So-and-so and me“. Example: “My mom bought a couch for Stef and I.” NOT CORRECT. It’s “and ME”. Easy way to figure out which is which: does the sentence make sense when you take out the other person’s name? “My mom bought a couch for I”. No? Then it should be ‘me’. “Me went to the store.” Sounds like English isn’t your first language? It should be ‘I’. Phew – I didn’t realize how much that bothered me until I actually bothered to write it out.
4. Clearly grammar is important to me and I’m a total linguistic nerd. I speak four languages: Arabic, French, Italian, and English (duh). The only way I have found these to useful in my life thus far is making me really good at ordering things from restaurant menus. Kidding. Sort of.
5. I’m allergic to tomatoes but I eat them anyway because why would a silly little allergy get in the way of my salsa and pasta sauce consumption? The only side effect from the allergy as far as I can tell is that my lips get really red and puffy and look like I’ve spent a little too much time at the plastic surgeon’s office but hey, it’s cheaper than Botox!
6. I don’t drink coffee. Ever. I can count on my hand the number of times I’ve had a cup of coffee and they were all loaded with cream and sugar so I couldn’t taste the coffee. I am not my mother’s child, Exhibit A.
7. I am not my mother’s child, Exhibit B: I am not a huge fan of chocolate. Sure, I’ll eat it but if there’s another type of dessert/flavor of ice cream/kind of candy, I will always choose the non-chocolate one.
8. My ideal weekend is cuddled up in a comfy chair with a limitless mug of hot cinnamon spice tea and a huge stack of books. Most of my childhood Saturdays were spent curled in my papasan chair in front of the fire with half of the Young Adult section of the library piled on the table next to me.
9. Pita chips are my weakness. Actually, chips in general, but pita chips especially. I am incapable of keeping them in the house because my portion control flies out the window and next thing you know, the bag is empty.
10. I have never broken a bone (knock on wood), but I was born with a broken collar bone.
11. Like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, I do get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I constantly complain about how cold I am and normal weather attire does not apply to me. I always add at least one more layer.

11 Questions From Kim:

1. What meal or food do you have to make every week? Overnight oats. And by every week, I mean every day. Seriously though, it’s the perfect combination of fats, protein, and carbs and it tastes like dessert. #win
2. If you had a whole day to yourself to do whatever you wanted, what would you do? When I lived in Rome, this was basically my life every day and here’s what I did: I woke up, ate, walked around, ate, practiced my Italian with natives, ate, read a book, ate, did some yoga, ate, met friends for drinks and apps (where I ate), watched a whole lot of TV/movies online. Looking back, that was the best year ever and my goal in life is to recreate that year in various parts of the world.
3. Are you a dog or a cat person (or other)? I love both, but I’m a total cat person. Growing up, we only had cats in the house and so I guess I’m biased, even though dogs look like they’re way more fun because they’re always down to play and you can take them on walks. But dog drool just totally grosses me out.
4. What is your favorite movie? The Lion King – always has, always will be. I cry every single time (spoiler alert!) Mufasa dies. No shame. If that was actually a spoiler for anybody, you need to dig yourself out of that hugeeee hole you’ve been living in since 1994 and watch the movie.
5. If you had one wish, what would it be? Three more wishes. HA. I’m greedy. Seriously, I can’t answer this question (even hypothetically) without feeling an enormous amount of pressure to make the “right” decision.
6. Who inspires and/or motivates you in your daily life? SO many people all over the world! I am constantly reading stories of people in all corners of the Earth who do inspiring things on a day-to-day basis. I seriously type ‘inspiring things from around the world’ into Google on days when I’m feeling like a Debbie Downer and it always does a good job of cheering me up, if only temporarily.
7. What is your biggest accomplishment? I don’t consider myself to be a hugely accomplished person, especially when I’m comparing myself to all the people who inspire and motivate me, but I guess I would say that my biggest accomplishment (to date) has been graduating with honors from college in three years without accumulating any debt. I have worked multiple jobs since I was 18 to make sure I wouldn’t have a burden of debt when I graduated and I am so relieved when I think about having a degree and not owing money to anyone.
   
8. In ten years, what do you think your biggest accomplishment will be? Holy cow, talk about performance anxiety. Okay, ten years from now I will be 33 (SHIT!) and I hope that I will have my graduate degree and will have started my own non-profit or work for a non-profit that fits the mission I hope to work towards.
9. What is your favorite quote? Isn’t this one obvious? I named my blog after it. If you don’t know, it’s Federico Fellini’s “life is a combination of magic and pasta.” Because it is.
10. Do you have a guilty pleasure? What is it? I have many pleasures and I don’t think I feel guilty about any of them. Except for maybe my ‘Dream Street’ radio on Pandora. Anybody else? Just me? Eek…
11. What three items would bring if you were on a deserted island? A GPS, a satellite radio, and a massive red arrow to point and show my location to those coming to find me. Sorry, I’m practical and I don’t ever want to be on a deserted island.

My Nominees:

1. Wicked Healthy Washingtonian
2. The Adventures of Z and K
3. T-Rex to Tigress
4. Freeing Imperfections
5. Style and a Story
6. The Life and Times of a Pre-Med
7. Fit Pray Art
8. DC in Pearls
9. Sky Blue Sky (Allison’s boyfriend, Will!)
10. Pennies on the Run
11. Heart, Sole & Cereal

Questions for the Chosen Ones:

1. If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
2. You can choose any time period (other than today) to live in. Which would it be?
3. Cool-Ranch or Nacho Cheese?
4. Someone hands you an airplane ticket with a blank destination. Where do you fly?
5. You have an all-expenses-paid trip to the grocery store: which grocery store do you go to and what would be the highlights of your basket?
6. If you could have dinner with any three people (living or dead), who would they be and what would you eat?
7. Feasibility and salary aside, what is your dream job?
8. You can have one meal, one dessert, and one beverage for the rest of your life, what would they be?
9. What is one book you can read over and over again?
10. If you could speak any language, what would you speak?
11. How do you describe your blog to friends/family/anyone who asks?

Nominees, if you feel too overwhelmed to fill all this out, just pick and choose what you want to do 😉 Readers, check out these blogs – there’s lots of DMV-area love and I really enjoy reading them 🙂

Happy Tuesday!