One of my twitter besties and fellower endosister, @furrowedfox has nominated me and a list of others for "The Sunshine Award" after she was nominated by a friend for her own excellent blog. You should know that it is not the first time I have been nominated for a sunshine award. At the end of every high school year, awards would be given out for attendance, high academic achievement in each subject, sports and other high achieving endeavors. I was in the honors program in an academically competitive high school and was by no way on the ivy league track like many of my friends. I didn't do sports. Certainly a young woman with endometriosis did NOT have a chance at perfect attendance. I usually didn't get any awards during these programs unless it was a participation certificate. That is until my junior year. That year, our class voted on The Christine MacMenamin Memorial Award, which has since been turned into a scholarship. Christine MacMenamin was a beloved junior who died in a car accident miles from school. The award was presented to, "The junior whose smile and gentle nature touch all who know her." I knew I had been nominated, but I didn't think I was going to win. But, I did win and the whole class stood and cheered. I was so touched. I came back to my seat and one of my best friends made a snarky comment, "Oh, wow, big deal, so you got the smiley sunshine award." There went my moment. I felt embarrassed and deflated. If 34 year old-not as gentle-Casey could go back in time it would tell 16 year old Casey to tell her friend where she could stick her snarky, hurtful comment and our friendship. (Not so sure if 34 year old Casey would be nominated for that award, but I digress....)
Here is the catch to being nominated, I have to answer ten questions assigned by my foxy friend. I then have to come up with ten questions for ten other blogger friends to answer. I am pretty sure this is just awesome press for the sunshine award people, but I am going to go with it and be a team player since my foxy friend just had endometriosis excision surgery and rocked it. Also the 16 year old Casey would be totally into this.
The Questions:
- Who/What’s your go to music/song/artist when you’re feeling down and need a pick-me-up?When I am feeling down I tend to listen to mellow music and wallow. In high school you would have caught me listening to Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volume 3. If you want to get more depressed you listen to, "And So it Goes." In college you would find me listening to the entire Counting Crows Album, "August and Everything After." I dare you to listen to "Raining in Baltimore" and try to feel happy. During my infertility years I listened to many "mixes" that I put together. I wrote a blog post about it. These days I will put on the Lumineers album if I need to mentally vegetate. I saw them in Central Park last summer, they were awesome.
- What accomplishment are you most proud of? Raising a little girl who is kind, thoughtful and polite enough to get her own smiley sunshine award, but fierce and confident enough to tell her friend to shove it when faced with a snarky comment.
- What is your go to comfort food? I could write a whole blog on this. Basically anything that has dairy or gluten in it, extra points if it has both, like pizza. Also anything fried and salty. Anything with chocolate. None of these things are good for endometriosis by the way.
- What advice would you give your 20 year old self if you could? I would tell my 20 year old self to go to see an endometriosis expert immediately. I would tell her to tell all of the bajillion doctors who had no idea what was wrong with me to shove it. I would tell her to freeze as many eggs as she could as soon as she could.
- To date, what was your happiest moment in life? My happiest moment was when I saw my daughter's heart beating at 6 weeks. It was a tiny blob that was flickering. After surgeries and procedures, we were finally pregnant. I was relieved. I didn't really know about miscarriages. I didn't really know about preterm labor. I didn't truly appreciate how fragile that moment was and how things could turn so poorly so quickly. My ignorance at that moment allowed me to be truly happy and enjoy the moment. It was a luxury that my next four pregnancies that would end in miscarriages didn't afford me. Enjoying the moment and not being fearful of what could come next is a luxury I know so many of my friends that are still fighting hard in the infertility trenches will never experience.
- And what was your saddest? I think it was the final realization that we will never ever have any more biological children and probably will never have any more children through other family building options.
- If you were a Muppet which one would you be and why? Strangely, I asked this SAME question to student applicants who were applying to be a part of my Fordham Global Outreach team to Tijuana Mexico to do service learning on the border. I feel like I am a combination of a lot of muppets! I took a Muppet personality test and got Kermit. But I surely think as a Leo there is some Miss Piggy to my personality.
- Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? I love milk chocolate but stupid endometriosis has me eating dark chocolate because it doesn't have dairy in it.
- Who – person, character, alive, dead, fictional, cartoon – would you most like to have a conversation with? I think it would be Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets. He was an incredible soul.
- Cake or pie? Neither! Again in trying to be gluten and dairy free I avoid both of them. I do make great gluten free dairy free brownies and a mean gluten free apple crisp though.
1. post the sunshine award logo
2. Answer the following ten questions on your blog.
3. Come up with ten questions of your own and nominate ten new bloggers!
My Ten Questions:
1. Do you like your name?
2. What is your most prized possession?
3. If you were to treat yourself, what would you do?
4. What is one of the defining moments in your life?
5. What is your favorite recipe?
6. Who is the first person you call when you have important news good or bad?
7. What breaks your heart?
8. Vacation on a beach by the ocean or by a lake in the woods?
9. What is your favorite smell?
10. Name your favorite non-profit and why.
My Ten Sunshine Nominee Bloggers:
http://www.fromiftowhen.com/
http://www.secretinfertility.com/
http://endendoforever.blogspot.ca/
http://ourlastembryoblog.wordpress.com/
http://journeywithendometriosis.wordpress.com/
http://endofromtheheart.blogspot.com/
http://mischiefmanagedblog.com/
http://jenrutner.com/
http://dellaquella.wordpress.com/
http://onfecundthought.com/
Thanks for playing! I can totally believe that you got that award in high school and that you would still get it today. You are special!
ReplyDeleteoh that flickering heartbeat answer made me sniffly.
ReplyDelete