Hey--Who Borrowed My Genes?

I'm back to normal. I no longer suffer from Kardashianitis. But that does bring me right into my next topic: what celebrity do you look like? Everyone has a twin out there, and oftentimes it's someone famous. Lately, the one I get all the time is "You look like Pam from The Office." One of my favorite local families has taken to calling me Pam. When I walk into a room, a hear a chorus of "Pam! Pam! Pam!"

While preparing this post, my son said, "Mom, who took that picture of you?" Alas, it was not me, but this picture:

I do like Pam a whole lot, so I take it as a compliment, even though Pam has had her share of bad hair days. (As have I.)

When I was younger, everyone thought my twin was in The Last of the Mohicans. You know--the girl who jumps off a cliff.  (Sorry if that was a spoiler for anyone, but hello! That was 1992.)

In case you didn't know me back then, or forgot what I looked like before I had wrinkles and padding, here's me, circa fall 1991:

I'm the one in the yellow, in case you couldn't tell. And don't be scared that we were two decades behind in style; we dressed up for a Flower-Power dance.

You would think that since Jodhi May from Last of the Mohicans looked like me then, she would look like either me or Pam (Jenna Fischer) now, but there's no resemblance. However, I didn't realize until now that Jodhi May is the Jewish girl in Daniel Deronda. When I watched it, I remember thinking that she looked like she could have been one of my relatives, who are not Jewish.

How does it happen that there are look-a-likes all around the world with no blood relation? And have you ever wondered if other people have lived in previous centuries who looked a lot like you? (ala the Nicolas Cage vampire story.)

In case you are thinking I've been visiting Montana's "green" pharmacies and you don't want to discuss celebrity look-a-likes, I will offer you another aspect of the topic to discuss. Who do you take after the most: your mom or dad or ever a grandparent? If you have children, who do they take after the most: you or your spouse? Anyone know how it happens when families have cookie cutter kids and other families have kids who barely look like siblings? Sometimes it's fun to think about genes more than just in this manner:

Share with us! Help us get a better picture of what everyone looks like!

A Tooting Winner

There. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? I can picture you guys typing your comments with sweat on your brow thinking, "I cannot possibly say this. They will think I'm so conceited." But you did it. I am so proud! Pat yourself on the back and say "Toot, toot." 

Anne's comment totally cracked me up, because I've often said that a bunch of people butted to the front of the talent disbursement line and took all the talents before I could get any. I must have been distracted by all the yummy food too. 

Livingstonslifeinmt: I got my cheerleading uniform out of the closet, thinking we could get together and you could show me some of your moves, but the uniform was a little snug. What do you think? Does it look okay?

This week's winner gets something beautiful. Whenever you wear it, you must say to yourself, "I is kind. I is smart. I is important." 

It's a set of three bracelets that can be worn together or separately, and I bought it right here in my lovely little village. (That means that this gift is classssyy!)

This week's winner is # 11 Team C! You're on a roll girl! I hope you will wear this bracelet with pride and tell everyone it was given to you by your bilf. I'll get it in the mail to you.

Have a super duper weekend all you talented, charming gals!

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

OK, that's not really me saying that, even though people tell me I look like Kim Kardiashian all the time. You don't think so? Maybe you better take another look at my profile pic. Anyway, do you remember the Pantene Commercials from the 80's? (If you say no, it's because you are too young to remember, and if that's the case pfft to you!) I never understood those commercials. "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful?" My answer was always "I don't hate you because your beautiful, I hate you because you are snotty."

Well now that I'm older and wiser, I understand! It makes sense! Society, as a whole, tends to hate people who are beautiful. We covet them. Especially when you add riches in to the mix. That's why stories of rich, famous people falling from grace are so sought after by tabloids. How often do you see headlines like, "Guess who's got cellulite?"   or "Look who needs Botox!" We (society, per se) love it when we see imperfections in others. I know all you lovely Blogaway readers are above this type of pettiness, but sometimes, deep down in your heart, might you possibly get jealous of another because they might be achieving a greater success than you?

This happens a lot in the publishing industry. An author gets an amazing book deal, and there's always backlash from people who would like the same kind of deal. They say things like, "s/he's not even a very good writer. I write better than that." You see it in other professions when someone receives a promotion and others think it was undeserved.  Basically, what it boils down to is that people have a hard time being gracious when they are feeling unsuccessful and when someone else achieves that level of success.

Not that I've been on the bad end of this and had to endure snide remarks, it's just something that I've been thinking about. We should all be proud of our own accomplishments and a little less resentful of others. How do we do this? By acknowledging our talents and actually letting our talents shine. Since we were all raised properly and taught to be humble and unassuming, oftentimes when we get compliments, we shrug them off. Yes, that is the polite thing to do. But sometimes, doesn't it feel nice to revel in the sunshine?

Well, here's your chance to do just that. It is time to toot your own horn. What are you good at? What have you achieved recently that you are proud of? What attribute do you have that makes others envious? Go ahead, toot, toot toot!

Oh, do I have to be the first to go? OK, I'm creative. I'm witty. I can type fast. There. Now it's your turn. TOOT!

A Loving Winner

The smell of love is still lingering in the air around here and it's not the candle: it's you guys! You ladies are amazing! (I can say ladies this week because our dude was absent from the comments. I think lovey-dovey stuff scares fellas away.) Every single comment made me say, "Awe!" I sounded like a teenage girl in a puppy store.

This week's prize is a $10 iTunes card. I haven't given one away for a while, so I figured it was time. Plus, we all love music, books and movies, and you can get all of those on iTunes. And, I love technology, and iTunes is technology. I also love not leaving the house, and guess what? I didn't have to leave the house to get you an iTunes card. Happy happy!

This week's winner is ... is ... is .... (I know the suspense is killing you!) #13. Janice! It's been many moons since you won. Yay! It will be in the mail shortly. (I'm not calling you short, even though you are shorter than me. Notice I did not place a comma in front of the word shortly. See how important appropriate punctuation is???!!!,,,:::;;;...)

Thanks everyone for playing along. See ya next week!

For the Love of ...

Happy Valentine's Day! Can you smell the love in the air? It smells pretty strong around my house. Or maybe that's the new chocolate candle my hubby bought me. Anyway, something smells good, including my fridge, which I finally cleaned out!

Do you sense that I'm easily distracted today? I might be experiencing a sensory overload. Pretty colors, flowers, candy; it's just too much for a romance author. I might just sit down a write an epic love story today!

So let's keep this week's topic simple. What do you love?

I love:
Hubs
Family
Friends
Diet Coke
Sleep (but not after drinking Diet Coke)
Fuzzy things like robes and slippers
Books and movies
Montana
Almonds
A quiet house
A CLEAN quiet house
Music
Technology
Writing
Josh Groban's voice
Jewelry
Sunshine

Share your list of things you love with us!

And speaking of things you love, do you not love getting something for FREE? Well guess what? Generations: Wilder Times is free on Kindle this week only! Make sure you go download it, even if you've already read it. It's at #1000 in free downloads and I really want to see it get into the top 100. Spread the word!  Merci! (French seems fitting for Valentine's Day. I think I shall speak in French phrases and with a French accent all day. Oui!)

A Not-Naked Winner

I've come to the conclusion that if the frontier years are going to be relived, it will have to be done without clothes on. As in naked. No one liked the clothes back then, so what is the other option? In fact, I think it would make a great TV series. Remember PBS's Frontier House? It'd be like that, but I'd call it Naked Frontier. Oooo, that's good. It gave me goosebumps. Or maybe the goosebumps came from thoughts of being naked in Montana in the winter. Burr! Not a good mental image either. I might have to put a "R" rating on the blog. Sorry about that.

I have repented and I shall now show you the coveted prize:

It's a scarf and matching gloves. Why this prize? Because I LOVE scarves. The Renaissance did not have scarves, therefore I will not be time-traveling to Europe to live in a castle. Every time you see someone wearing a scarf, you can think to yourself, "I am so glad there are scarves otherwise there would be no more Lori. And what would we do without Lori to write our blog for us??? Oh ... there'd be that other guy. Steven! Yes, Steven could write our blog for us!"

And this week's winner is: (Just clicked on Random.org and I am laughing my head off!) #11. Steven! It will look fab on you! Please send a picture. (Or you can just give it to your sweet gal for Valentines. She'd never know where it came from. Right, Nicole?)

Anyone who thinks Steven should write us a guest post about his bizarre dreams, please leave me a comment. We are a democracy around here, so if we have enough votes, he will HAVE to do it.

Is This The Bus to the Renaissance?

You know what's cool about the internet? If you answered that you can look up all the Superbowl commercials on YouTube, yeeeessssss .... but that's not exactly what I had in mind. I think it is amazing how we can find people with common interests anywhere in the world, making it so you have more friends than ever! (Which is good, especially when you live in a town of 222. (My town's not that small. That's the population of Aleknagik, Alaska, just in case you were wondering. (Hey look, I'm doing the parenthesis within a parenthesis again. Awesomesauce! (How do you pronounce Aleknagik anyway?)))) Anywho, it was fun to read JazznJenna's post last week and see what we have in common with her. Do you know what else we all have in common? MOVIES! I have never met a person who says "I do not like to watch movies." Have you?

Wow, that was a roundabout way of getting to my topic, wasn't it? And I wonder why my wordcounts are always soooo long.

Since I prefer living in a fantasy world over my monotonous, boring one, I often let my thoughts linger on movies for hours or even days afterwords. And there's been many times when I've wanted to live on a certain set. Or ... live in that time period. Anytime I watch a movie that took place in the Renaissance times, I think "I so could have lived then." But only if I was a princess; not a pauper. I don't think about being born in the wrong century as much anymore, but when I was a teen, I thought for certain I had missed the bus from Heaven to Earth during the Renaissance times and then I got lost for a few hundred years and was born much, much, much too late. I even had a teacher reaffirm this for me. (And teachers know EVERYTHING.) I was in a high school play of Camelot, and as we were in dress rehearsal, the music teacher/director said, (in front of the entire cast) "Lori, you were born a few hundred years too late." I was giddy with excitement that someone else knew that there was a mess-up in heaven. I was not supposed to be born in 1985.

I think it all started with watching and reading Sleeping Beauty. Sigh. Love that story.

I know this may seem abnormal to some of you, but my husband is the most normal person I know, and he has similar thoughts. When he saw Dances With Wolves, he KNEW he was supposed to have been born as a frontiersman. Watching Last of the Mohican's reaffirmed this for him. He still insists that he would have loved to live back when there were more buffalo than people and when nothing but nature could be seen for thousands of miles.

 The picture is tiny because cameras were smaller back in the days of the untamed west.

So there is your topic this week: If you could have been born at any time, under any circumstance, when would it have been? What are your favorite movies from that time period? Mine are: Ever After, The Princess Bride, Tangled, Sleeping Beauty and Robin Hood (1991).

(Birth years in this post may have been change to protect the old.)

A Long Distance Winner

I SO loved reading about JazznJenna's life, didn't you guys? She's got the power of positive, that's for sure!
And not only is she positive, she's positively talented too! Just look at what she makes:

You can see more of her cards here. I love the s'mores one ... and the bear in the tent too! So cute!

Jenna is giving away five handcrafted cards (might differ from the ones pictured) and five envelopes so that the winner can keep connected with friends who no longer live near. How fun! If I won the cards, I'd want to frame them and put them on my wall, next to my Wall Graffiti. (OK, truth, my Wall Graffiti was from Christmas, and I don't still have it on my wall. But do still have some Christmas candles in my window. Eek! I need to order something from her etsy. I love those owls ... or do I like the monkeys better?)

This week's winner is #3 Kats Kradle! How fitting that someone who tied for moving the most is the winner. Email me your address, alrighty? (I was just one away from winning. Drats!)

Thanks for playing along everyone, and a special THANKS to Jenna. She'll be posting part two of her blog post about moving in her adult life on her family blog. Make sure you check in a couple of weeks and read that too. Jenna, wave at all your new friends you made without even having to move! :)