TBA Wins The Versatile Blogger Award!

As some of you who have been reading a bit know, I am not much for the blog awards; or at least that is what I espoused. I am now changing my tune. I was too new to understand what this meant and way too self-focused to notice that I was ignoring the most important aspect of life as a blogger: community.

It is the community of creative and curious friends that has kept my streak of posts, laughs, comments, and vision for the future alive. It is this community of true kindred spirits that has influenced me to believe in my work and that I am not nearly as alone on the planet as I had believed. In fact, I may even go so far as to say I like people more than I did 3 months ago because of all of you.

I am not cynical, I am just funny. The humor may not always be so cheerful as an episode of the Smurfs or slapstick like the Three Stooges, and it is definitely much more akin to Larry David than Larry the Cable Guy; however, take me lightly and you will laugh all the way to the toilet. Seriously, I am actually so excited about this award that I am interrupting the telling of my Mexico story to fulfill the obligations of this blog.

Ahem...so now the funny part is over and here is the truth

Tania Jessica Smith - nominated me for this award. Tania is one of the most gifted photographers and visual artists on the web. I do not know her personally yet her work speaks volumes. I just saw her photo for the first time and she is incredibly young to be so accomplished. It is work like Tania's that makes me in awe of WordPress. Who the hell am I to shun any honor this woman would bestow upon me? Please check out her work, it is phenomenal.

Thank you Tania, you do indeed Rock!

7 Facts About - The Blissful Adventurer

I think people who believe in the death penalty should be shot (OK, that was a joke)

seriously....

1. I started cooking when I was 11 years old and at one point in time had a sideline business cooking wine dinners for clients and friends

2. From 2009-2011 I ate over 1000 meals in restaurants - I believe it is hard to discuss food and restaurants without being an expert on eating in them

3. When I was a child I created an entire make-believe world for my brother and I. We had country names, world maps, various regime types, races, accents/languages, socio-economic circumstances, and of course football teams, tennis players, and lots of wars. My home country was called BLUE LIGHTNING

4. I have a gluten sensitivity which has virtually forced me to abandon some of the foods that I hold dear which include and are not limited to the following: wheat pasta, pastries (too numerous to list), biscuits, gravy, gravy and biscuits, malt-o-meal, ice cream cones, rolls, sourdough, white bread, sourdough bread, cinnamon toast, cheese toast, garlic bread, hamburgers, hot dogs, and beer. If I eat gluten my stomach swells to twice its size and I am plagued by incessant farting deep in the night.

5. I have a genetic flaw in the enamel of my teeth and I require extensive restoration. My condition has now deteriorated and I must get this done in the next 2 years or I could lose my denti. My brother has already done this so he has a killer smile. I have not so people always assume I am always in a somber or contemplative mood. Few people know that I am always laughing on the inside or that I am not an imposing giant with a stoic half-grin. This has been the hardest thing I have ever had to accept about me (an otherwise dashing figure) and this is easily the first time I have ever admitted it publicly. The procedure is $50,000.00 that is a lot of travel and hence the reason why I have yet to commit. :-( One of the reasons I love to blog is that only the sweeter and more likable parts of me are visible and so everyone's first impression of me is not as intense as I come across in person.

6. I was married and divorced once before. I have no intentions of ever going down that path again, the divorced part :-)

7. I have every intention of turning my travels into a television product as well as writing for television and film in the coming years. I sold my company and changed my whole life to write and I will not accept any other path but success. Naysayers be damned I would rather die a pauper than return to doing anything I find to waste my precious time on this planet. So if anyone has any hopes that I will give up on this dream and return to the working class; just know I would sooner die.

Much live Adventurers!

People who deserve this and may have already been nominated, so, if so I am nominating you again category:

The Rules (should you choose to accept them)

• 1. Thank and link to the person who awarded you (you are allowed to be as gushing with this as takes your fancy!)

• 2. Share seven random facts about yourself.

• 3. Pass the award on to more blogging friends.

• 4. Contact those friends with the link and congratulate them!

• 5. Post your award with pride.

Mike's Look at Life - M5Son is one of the finest bloggers and funniest guys on the web. He knows no bounds to his self-deprecation, yet I know his genius is in the underestimation of this talented man. He may post amazing and thoughtful photos, yet his writing is something to behold. I would trust this guy with anything. He also has a very cool first and last name. I admire Mike and his look at life

This Little Light - Cara Olsen may have converted me back to my Christian roots with her wit, devotion, and resilience. She is one of the most gifted people on the web and she marries that with an exhaustive work ethic. I admit freely she is one of the best friends I have whom I have never met. I look forward to augmenting that status.

Italian Wine Geek - Joanie Karapetian makes me smile everyday. When I was her age I lived and breathed Italian wine with no outlet for my passion other than toiling away in a wine shop where Italian wines were second-class citizens. Joanie brings all the passion and knowledge to our community everyday. She is one of the best in the biz and easily one of the nicest.

The Culinarian Guild - The Passionate Culinarian is as straight forward as an F5 Tornado. This guy cooks and he knows why. He is one of the people I knew I liked in the first exchange because there was no need for flowery formality. TPC is also damned funny and so if intensity and honesty are your bag, he is a winner. I would not be surprised if he told me that this nomination was ridiculous because it had nothing to do with food :-)

She Kept a Parrot - Her name is George (not a typo) and she may be the single most insightful and supportive member of this community. I am 100% certain she has been nominated for this award a few times, yet I am doing it again. George is a  woman of letters and a heart of pure luster. I would have quit this long before now if she did not read and support my work while delivering photos and short observations that make Hemingway look like a drunk and Faulkner a verbose pedant. This woman is like Moses come down in disguise to lead all of us. She could call to Heaven at any point for an express ride to the top yet she chooses to love amongst us mortals so that we may experience a snippet of truth in our lives.

There are so many more of you who deserve this. These 5 are people I believe I know a bit and who know me. We are certainly connected in a way that WP could have never imagined was possible when they began this project.

I love being versatile :-)

7 X 7 Link Award - I was nominated for this but I don't know if I win anything

My wonderful longtime friends over at Come due Maiali (Like Two Pigs) nominated me for this award. I love their blog and especially their take on locally grown foods and how they prepare them.

I did some research on the award itself and I could not find any criteria for how to win nor how to even compete. In effect it just seemed like a chain letter or a thinly veiled Pyramid scheme. I also do not see anyway to know that if I nominate fellow bloggers they will not have been previously nominated and will look disparagingly upon my insistence to comply with the rules.

The rules seem also to be a bit odd to me. Typically if someone nominates one for an award it is based upon their existing body of work. For the 7X7 Amway award it appears I have to actually do some work and tell you all some secret about myself. While I enjoy my Blissful followers immensely, giving away some personal secrets seems a bit invasive and especially without a prize involved.

However, I will dutifully tell you a secret about me and I will leave it at that. I am not willing to potentially SPAM my blogging brethren (most of whom only tolerate me a little and some of whom have told me not to quit my day job) and I am equally  reluctant to include links to my top 7 blogs. Sure, I likely could come up with a hierarchy of my work in my own eyes, and at the same time my opinion of myself rarely means much to anyone other than me (which is sometimes a blessing and often a curse)

Two Pigs, I am more than honored you would consider me for this and I really enjoyed your thorough participation in the exercise and especially your stories from your youth. I hope it will not cause you too much consternation that the chain will indeed break from my end and I will not ask all of my friends to post it to Facebook like some evangelical plea to save one's soul.

If the powers that be over at 7X7 can give me some concrete reason why I should blog at their behest or tell me about some 3 day cruise on Costa that I am missing, I will jump on it with fervor akin to a small monkey seeking to remove ants from his anus. In the meantime I offer a juicy little secret to mitigate any disappointment in my lack of participation and because I am a fan of the Two Pigs.

I. Share something about yourself that others don’t know.

The Blissful Adventurer is afraid of flying. That's right I hate to fly and usually have to medicate myself with anti-anxiety meds before I do. I love to travel and I hate to get there. It all began when I watched a documentary years ago on the Lockerbie, Scotland Crash. I had enjoyed flying immensely up until I watched that just a few short weeks before I was to fly to Rome for the first time.

I was always good with plane mechanical issues or engine trouble being something  that a pilot could control; it was the feeling that the side of the bird could just be suddenly pierced apart from a SAM shot from the back of a pack animal or from a duck blind in a covered marsh that got my imagination into overdrive. I always imagine myself enjoying a cocktail and reading a little Hemingway just as the nose of the plane disappears from sight and in that infinitely short forever before the tail falls backwards to imminent death I have the full knowledge that I am about to cease. I don't want to know and at the same time I do.

This is why I would love to be in the cockpit. If I am there as an observer I could at least use my powers of acute human observation to read the faces of the cockpit crew to know if the shit was indeed about to hit the fan. I don't want to be in steerage when the Titanic runs aground. I figure that every time I fly the odds of my demise increase. Yes I know that driving my car is much more dangerous and that I am much more likely to be wiped from the planet in a car crash, and I could give a flying flip about those stats. Fear is irrational and especially fear of flying which in my case is actually fear of being out of control.

So, when I plan trips I consult with my airplane engineer buddy to see which airlines have good maintenance records. I go for non-stop where possible so as to avoid additional take-offs and landings which I am certain increase my chances of a fiery exit. I even get enormously cold feet just before my departure and have lots of dreams about disasters: tornadoes, car crashes, and of course plane emergencies. I always seem to survive my dreams and usually even recognize them as dreams before they end but that does not help to assuage my irrational fear.

At the end of the day, my disdain for flying does not dissuade me from going, it just makes the process much more stressful than it need be. Xanax and 187ml bottles of schlock calm my nerves and ultimately dehydrate the hell out of me; it is what it is adventurers. This is my 7x7 secret shit storm of silliness. I don't want to go down like that nasty Air France flight from Brazil to Paris. I am reduced to a sniveling pansy the night before any flight but by security I am usually high as a 3rd offense meth-head and ready for my closeup with Jesus.

Buon Viaggio!