You Like Me, You Really Like Me!! :)

My friend, Jamee, over at A New Kind Of Normal has bestowed upon me the Honest Scrap Award!

I feel so loved... and so honest! And perhaps even honestly loved :P
Ok, I'll stop gloating now.
The rules are that I list 10 honest things about myself and then pass the award on to some fellow bloggers.
The part about passing it on sounds fun, but do I really want to list 10 honest things about myself? Because, honestly (har har), I feel as though I might end up with my foot lodged in my mouth.
Here goes nothing!!

1. I have some weird ass phobias. I don't throw around that word lightly, either (phobia, not ass). I mean that they are actually debilitating fears. One of my phobias is of puking. I have not thrown up since I was 16, so about 10 years :::::knocks on wood:::::. I'm also terrified of *seeing or hearing* someone else throw up. It doesn't set off a chain reaction of vomitous proportion or anything, but usually when I see or hear someone puke, I immediately faint. Not one person has ever really been able to figure out why. I'm like one of those fainting goats!

2. My second phobia is of bugs. I'm ok with ants, but that's about it. Again, phobia is not an exaggeration. Want an example or two? We get these bugs in North Carolina, I'm not sure what they're called but they must breed in April or May because there are a bunch of them just lounging around the entrances to our house, sipping bug-martinis and waiting to scare the living shit out of me just by existing. I believe they are crane flies, but to me they just look like some evil crossbreed of a mosquito, a dragonfly and Satan. I will not go into my house if there is one in the immediate vicinity. I have literally sat in my car for 30 minutes and been late getting back to work (I work from home) because one of those demonic bastards was just hanging out on the wall near the front door. :::::shivers::::: Eeeeeeeew! Oh, and don't even get me started on beatles. I will seriously scream, curl up in a ball and cry if I see one near me. Like I said: PHOBIA.

3. I am *obsessed* with sharks. Go ahead and ask me about any specific shark and I can tell you something neat about them. When I was little, I went to the beach with my babysitter, her son, and my brother and I was hanging out on the sandbar (I lived in Ft. Lauderdale at the time) and a shark swam right past me. I could have reached out and touched it. To my small, young self it looked HUGE, but I'm sure that in reality it was probably only 3 or 4 feet. That experience really changed me for some reason and ever since I have done a lot of personal research on sharks.

4. I'm big into ocean protection/conservation. I am a regular contributor to www.oceana.org and I get super mega pissed when I hear about people screwing with coral reefs, oceanic ecosystems, and endangered marine life.

5. I am the biggest beach bum at heart. I could listen to Jimmy Buffett and drink pina coladas all damn day (well, maybe not the pina colada part... but it's 5:00 somewhere right? Ha, pun). I moved to Charlotte from Ft. Lauderdale without even thinking about the fact that I was 20 minutes from one of the most gorgeous beaches in the United States and I miss the ocean every day. Even with it being only 3 hours to the beach from here, I literally feel parched and sad and my soul feels all dry. Every time I go to visit family in South Florida I seriously have to breathe deep and clutch the steering wheel or I will cry because I can actually FEEL that I'm closer to the ocean. It sounds so incredibly stupid, but it's true. My husband calls me a mermaid... most people call me weird LOL.

6. I think it's strange when people scoff at others who think mythical creatures like Loch Ness, faeries, and mermaids might actually exist (cryptozoologists and others). 500 years ago, everyone who thought the Earth was round was viewed as a complete psycho because any sane person knew that it was flat and that you'd drop straight off the edge if you went too far. Millions of people believe in God and no one has ever seen Him but they know in their hearts He is real. Why is it so different with something else that no one has ever seen? If you've never seen something with your own two eyes, how can you possibly believe in it so strongly and then believe so strongly that someone else is wrong about something they've never seen? Got me? People are weird.

7. I like to put barbecue sauce on my tuna fish (it makes it sort of sweet) and I *love* to get cheese pizza and put oreos on top of it. Seriously, try it, it's awesome.

8. My favorite kind of pizza is Hawaiian. I usually pick off the ham and just leave the pineapple on, but sometimes I'll eat the ham too. I could eat Hawaiian pizza 7 days a week.

9. I have never eaten a tropical fruit I didn't like. Give me coconut, bananas, pineapples, papayas, mangos, guava, etc. and I'll be good for the rest of my life. Mmmmm, fruit! :)

10. I'm obsessed with my blog. I check it every few minutes to see if I have any new followers or new comments. Every time I get a new follower I go running to my husband like a crazy woman "I got a new follower, I got a new follower!!" I think my ultimate dream is to be the next Dooce. It'll never happen, but this is Honest Scrap, so I'm admitting it. :P
And now, to pass it on! And the award goes to :::::drum roll::::: I love drum rolls!!

1. Drea at If Only She'd Shut Up! ... she is actually the most honest person I know. Sometimes I wish it weren't so :P
2. Shannon at Milk and Cuddles
3. Sara at Sara Spelled Without an H
4. Mommakin at Keep in Touch With Mommakin