I have been neglecting my poor personal blog again. Quite a while ago (we’re talking months), Jessica at Ghost Stories and Haunted Places was kind enough to pass the Beautiful Blogger Award on to my humble little Court’s Corner.

I decided I needed to hurry up and acknowledge it so I can pass along the award. (Even though I’m positive all the blogs I’m passing it to likely have already received it before.)

At any rate, thanks again, Jessica, for honoring Court’s Corner with such a nice nod.

Now on to the award process…

BEAUTIFUL BLOGGER AWARD RULES

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

I’m doing them a smidge out of order because I was always taught it’s impolite to talk about yourself first. (Never paid much mind to directions though.)

15 BLOGS COURT’S CORNER PASSES THE BEAUTIFUL BLOG AWARD TO:

1. A Baked Creation
2. A Fanciful Twist
3. Above the Norm
4. Candid Canine
5. Charli and Me
6. Cuisine Kathleen
7. fiberdoodles
8. Frog on the Pumpkin
9. Jade Walker’s Oddities
10. Maggie’s Station Stationery Blog
11. Marbella Jewelry Designs
12. Mommy D’s Kitchen
13. The Random Mind of Miss Julie
14. The Stiletto Gang
15. The Whimsical Cottage

7 THINGS ABOUT MYSELF:

1. I lived with two guys at the same time before I was married. (One was my boyfriend, who later became my husband, a.k.a. Wayne. The other was our gay roommate.)
2. Part of me regrets not studying meteorology in college. I’m fascinated by the weather. The Weather Channel is definitely one of my faves.
3. I have some form of IBS. Or something. Basically I carry all my emotions in my gut. If I get upset, too stressed or too excited, so does my tummy. It’s caused more emergency potty stops than I can count, and has put me in some pretty embarrassing situations. It’s why I’m always apprehensive about doing things with people for worry about how my tummy will behave. (Or not behave.)
4. I’m nuts for games: Wii (any kind of video games really), air hockey, Foosball, word searches, trivia, and especially find the difference between the pictures games.
5. I’ve always wanted to do a triathlon, but so far have never buckled down to give it a go. (And I’m not talking the Ironman kind Wayne does. I just want to do one of the mini kinds where you swim like 400 yards, bike 12 miles and run 2 or 3 miles.) Maybe I’ll shoot for that in 2011.
6. I believe I might’ve lived before and am curious about having a past life regression session.
7. People are always telling me what a great cartoon voice I have. I think it’d be fun to do voice overs for cartoon characters!

I’ve been seriously writing (serious meaning not only writing but submitting my work for publication) since 1997. The first contest I ever entered was the Glendale Public Library’s Short Story Contest in Arizona. My story, “Grandma Jo’s Alligator Honeymoon,” placed 3rd.

I thought that was a pretty good showing for my first contest. Since then I’ve entered dozen more contests, and have racked up several Honorable Mentions, 3rd Places and even a couple 2nd Places, but a 1st Place has eluded me. (Well, I did sort of get one for an essay I wrote. And I think $5 or $10 for it too. But I also think it was split between other winners. It wasn’t a true 1st place.)

But today I received a surprise package in the mail from Writers’ Journal. I’d forgotten I’d entered their Fiction Contest back in January. I submitted “Night of the Villistas,” a historical romance. I thought maybe I’d gotten another H.M., or maybe it was a package trying to solicit a subscription.

Nope, it was a winner’s packet, complete with my complimentary copy with my story in it, a certificate, and $500! Hot damn!

I’ve always loved the story but could never seem to get it accepted anywhere. It always got great compliments but it just never seemed to be right for anybody.

Until this contest. I’m glad I didn’t give up hope and kept believing in it. It was the little short story that could!

Last night I had the nuttiest dream. I woke myself up from it shouting even. But now I’m wondering if it wasn’t a harbinger for what happened this a.m.?

THE DREAM: GORILLA IN THE MIDST

I had one of those dreams that’s a combination of places I’ve lived. In this case, it was a combo of my current home and the one I grew up in, which I often refer to as the Akron Street house.

I dreamt of my neighbor’s tree across the street. The house looked like the neighbor’s house across from us now, which is on a corner, but the lot was the corner lot across from the Akron St. house.

There was a huge tree (maybe it was from the Jacksonville house neighborhood because there are no big trees here like that and certainly not in Denver). Something was falling out of the tree or being thrown and it caught my eye. (Like leaves coming down that shouldn’t be.)

I looked up and saw an enormous black creature. At first I was like, “Big foot is real!” All I could think was I had to run to get my camera because what a post that’d make for Haunt Jaunts!

But as I looked closer I realized it was a gorilla. Still, I needed to get my camera. A gorilla on the loose in a suburban neighborhood? What a story!

I got my camera and Murph came out with me right as the gorilla was climbing out of the tree. But there wasn’t just one. There were two. Baby was coming out of the tree, but Mama (a big ol’ mama at that!) was still up the tree.

But mama had her eye on Murph, who spotted baby, got all excited about making a new buddy and made a beeline for it.

All the National Geographic and Animal Planet shows I’d ever seen about moms being protective in the wild slammed my mind. I didn’t want to call out to Murph and cause any mama any undue alarm, but I didn’t want her viewing Murph as a  threat and attacking either.

So I started running to try and catch him, but as I did mama slipped down out of that tree. She headed toward Murph and her baby, but the baby was pointing at Murph all excited and went to pet him. Then mama kind of smiled (or that’s how it looked) and my heart kind of melted. It was clear she was thinking the baby making a friend with Murph was as cute as I thought it was.

Murph even went to say hi to her, then he kept going on one of his Sniff Missions, oblivious he was heading toward the busy street. Worse, baby was following. That’s when I started shouting for him to stop and come back, but he wasn’t listening. I think he was in bunny hunting mode.

I ran after him, and sort of skirted the outside of the mama gorilla, but even in my panicked state trying to catch Murph I still had “photo op” on the brain. As I dashed past her I flipped on the video function of my camera, pointed it in her direction and hoped I was getting some kind of footage of the gorilla on the loose.

But all the while I was yelling at Murph to come back. I yelled myself  awake trying to get him to listen to me.

7:30 A.M. REAL TIME: “NEW YORK’S CALLING…”

Okay, the dream was weird and left me shaken. I looked up “gorilla” in my dream book because that’s a new one. I don’t think I’ve ever dreamt about a gorilla before.

Here’s what my Dreamer’s Dictionary had to say about gorillas:

To dream of this frightening big ape portends a painful misunderstanding, unless the animal was very docile or definitely friendly, in which case the dream forecasts a very unusual new friend.

Before I could get too worked up today trying to figure out if I’d said anything to anyone that might be painfully misunderstood, the phone rang this morning at 7 a.m.

Wayne was watching TV and eating breakfast before work. He saw the caller I.D. on the screen.

“New York?” He groaned and ran to answer, figuring it was one of the New York office partners needing something.

This is what I heard: “Yes, Courtney Mroch lives here.” Pause. “She’s here now if you want to talk to her.”

To me he says, “New York’s calling…”

I don’t know anyone in New York, so I figured it was a sales call of some kind. I was sort of miffed Wayne didn’t just take the call, but there were ways to get even. My mind was already working on them.

In 100 years I never expected to hear, “Hi, my name is Josh and I work at CBS Radio. My producer gave me your name and wanted me to call you about a blog you once wrote about your choice not to have kids. There was a new study that came out today about how the numbers are increasing. Would you mind answering a few questions about your decision?”

Turns out the article was one I wrote while writing for Families.com: Another Reason I’m Married Without Children.

I answered the questions right then. I wished I’d scheduled it for later and had a chance to reread my article. I may have given better answers.

But I did the best I could having just woken up and being caught off guard. The interviewer was really nice, but most of all…how many times in my life have I ever gotten a call like that? Exciting!

But also interesting: I can see how the gorilla dream interpretation (all of it) can apply to the call. And how the dream about the mom/kid theme even goes along with what the call was about.

But what’s funniest of all. My period is super late. First time I’ve been late since it started back up after chemo. How crazy would it be if, surprise!, I’m pregnant right now? I think that’s an example of irony…

Yesterday I got an email from Amazon saying I’d been sent an Amazon.com gift card redemption. I immediately deleted it.

There was no name and I knew no one I knew had mentioned they were sending me an Amazon gift card. It must be some kind of spam or virus or something bad. Hence, the delete button.

But then something nagged at me to go back and check it out.

Could it maybe be legit? Had I perhaps actually earned some money via my Amazon Associates program? That’s the only thing I could think of that would explain the gift card.

Incredibly, after going to check my AA account and learning that, yep, my balance had finally earned enough to merit paying me, I about busted out of my skin.

It’s nothing huge. All of $10.06.

I’ve had an Amazon Associates account for how long now? Since I launched courtneymroch.com back whenever that was. (I can’t even remember what year I did that. 2000? 2001? It seems I’ve had it forever now.)

After seeing where my fees came from, it’s all from my Haunt Jaunts blog. Amazing. It actually works.

No, I can’t buy much with it, but what a neat feeling to know it does actually work. I’ve read about other people making money that way for years, but until now I couldn’t say I ever had.

First time for everything!

…is that they’re their own worst enemies.

Oh, and in case you’re not clear on what a PIA is, it’s Pain In the Ass.

Sometimes it’s only a temporary condition. I can be a PIA to Wayne when it’s Moody Cooties time. (You know, when Aunt Flow’s due to visit?) He can be a PIA when he’s working too many hours.

But then there are those people who are permanently (and IMO irreversibly) afflicted with PIA Syndrome. I had to deal with one of those yesterday.

I knew she was going to be trouble from the get go. She’s a very uptight, controlling person who believes she’s more important than she is. And everything’s got to be done a certain way (hers) and she must have a say in how things are orchestrated even when she really shouldn’t.

Like when she’s a guest blogger on my blog. It’s my terms, bitch. Deal with it.

Anyway, normally I’m way too laid back to be bothered much by so much intensity. I’m pretty good at smoothing over ruffled feathers (even ones that are determined to always have something to be ruffled about), but when it’s Moody Cooties time my patience flies out the window.

Yesterday she was all about the drama, and the thing of it is…she was creating it all. Instead of stepping back and giving someone the benefit of the doubt that they (me) knew what they (I) was talking about because it is my blog and I know a thing or two about it, she jumped on the accusations.

“It’s wrong. This is the right link.”

I tried to politely explain that, no, that was not the right link. The original one was.

“But it’s not centering or pulling up right. It’s all wrong and all my people from East Coast to West can’t see it. Stop promoting it. There’s no point if it’s not right.”

Excuse me? You better back up the bus, Martha, and get a better ‘tude with me. I ain’t got time to be dealing with that kind of nonsense.

Normally I would’ve, though. I would’ve coddled and placated her until I could get the matter clear. We might even have a good laugh about it.

But yesterday I had an extremely busy day. I was also stressed because it was a three month oncologist check-up day.

“What ifs” plague me when I have to go for check-ups. And to boot while I was there Aunt Flow decided to land. (She didn’t full on arrive until I got home thankfully, but the pains had already flared.)

So my mental state was pretty keyed up for a change. That’s why when I got a snarky email from Miss Intensity freaking out because she can’t understand the link I sent her WAS the right one, I snapped.

The link was not pulling up weird for me as she claimed it was. I would of course happily fixed it if I saw there was a problem. I don’t see it on my end therefor I don’t know what’s wrong or how to fix it for her.

But to have the nerve to tell me to stop promoting a link on my own site or via Twitter and Facebook? Step off!

That’s just poor policy. I won’t be dealing with that person anymore.

And I can bet others aren’t going to put up with that kind of nonsense either because most people aren’t as nice as I am. She’s shooting herself in the foot with her high maintenance PIA ways.

Okay, what the hell is going on?

Yesterday I got a Facebook friend request from Leslie Cochran. The name didn’t sound familiar, and the profile picture sure as hell didn’t ring any bells. (It is really a doozie of a pic. Bearded, long haired man wearing a tank top and stuffed bra. Floating purple hearts superimposed on the pic.)

I know some people who would dress like that as a joke, but his face just didn’t look familiar. So I clicked to be taken to his page and found this in his intro box:

Leslie Alicia Cochran (born as Al Leslie Cochran on June 24, 1951) is a vagrant cross-dresser and arguably the most locally famous street person in Austin, Texas. He is an outspoken critic of police treatment of the homeless in downtown Austin

Interesting. How he heard of me and thought to send a friend request who knows. (Or got access to a computer if he is homeless! I guess the library…)

Either it’s a big joke or this guy is for real. No telling.

I thought about whether to confirm or ignore his request overnight. I decided he looks far too much like Charles Manson for me to take the chance pissing him off by ignoring him. (No joke! The resemblance is flipping uncanny!)

I accepted him as a friend today.

But also today as I was trying to catch up on both personal emails and Haunt Jaunts business, a rather innocent and harmless one about link swapping led me to Old West Ghost Investigations site and a suicide threat!

That really tripped me out. I’m still shaken up about it and my conscious won’t rest until I figure out if this is a hoax or a legitimate cry for help –one people can be in time to respond to. Shoot, all I can think is the lady sent me the email Monday. She could have done herself in by now. (If she was the one who also posted that plea on the site. There’s no name attached to it.)

I’m praying fiercly it all turns out to be a hoax. Pissed as I’ll be, at least no one’s life is in jeopardy!

Wow. What a wacko week! And its only Wednesday!!!!!!!

My husband complained to me the other day, “I’m a blogging widow.”

He’s not far off. Every free second I get anymore I’ve got my laptop fired up and I’m in front of it. When he asks what I’m doing I chortle, “Blogging.”

“How can you be blogging? You always say that, but with all the banging you’ve been doing on those keys I’d have expected 50 posts by now.”

At this point I always sigh with exasperation.

“I’m doing blogging stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” he asks haughtily. (Because he caught on to my insinuating tone that it’s far too advanced for him and his fancy CPA mind to comprehend so I have to put it as simply as possible. Doesn’t get much simpler than “stuff.”)

So I sigh again. (After all, he’s taking away from my blogging time!)

“Blogging is more than just writing posts. I’ve got to visit all the blogs I follow and leave comments. I’ve got to scan my Google alerts and Tweet the links. Oh, and speaking of Twitter, I have to scan all my lists there and see what’s going on and RT or ‘at’ followers in my responses to their Tweets. That can take up a lot of time. Then I have to stop by the Haunt Jaunts Facebook fan page and…”

“Stop right there. I’ve heard enough. That doesn’t sound like ‘blogging’ to me. That sounds like you’re goofing off.”

I release a full on “I’m very annoyed with you now” huff.

“See? That’s why I just say ’stuff.’ You don’t understand that blogging is more than just writing a post. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work.”

“Goofing off.”

This is usually when I’ve had enough. I turn back to my computer and go back to my blogging, wishing he had something to blog about. Then he’d understand.

I got my complimentary copy of the Bylines 2010 calendar the other day. (Actually it was maybe two weeks ago now. Sylvia was a smidge late getting them out. I’ve been a smidge late remembering to write about it.)

It’s my third year to make it in. (And part of the payment is a complimentary copy.)

Each week a different author’s essay is featured. They’re very short. (Less than 300 words.)

My week is coming up soon. (The week starting February 21.)

The first year I made it in I wasn’t able to do much promo before I moved my mom in with us and assumed full-time (and then some!) care taking duties. Then last year I was far too sick from dealing with hitchhiker complications and chemo to do much of anything except veg or sleep.

So this year I need to start spreading the word. I figured I’d practice via my blog.

If anyone wants a copy, let me know. I can get them for 1/2 off! (They’re $14.95 and you can either get them from the Bylines site or on Amazon.)

They’re very cool calendars with lots of space for jotting notes and plotting plans. My favorite thing is the “Goals” and “Tasks” checklists for each month at the front. Super handy and organizationally motivating!

Julie from Above the Norm jinxed me yet again. First off she said I’d hit 1,000 Twitter followers when I reached 500. Next thing I know I did!

But when I wrote how I had no Follow Fridays last week, she said this Friday she might have to get involved in all that FF business.

I do believe Julie is a jinx for me –in a great way.

She did do some FF shout outs and threw a couple my way –which I think is what broke the zilch spell for me. I ended up with 25, not counting a few that were RT FFs in nature.

Julie, thank you. I know you didn’t mean to be a jinx, but I’m serious. I really believe you are!

Well, I knew it was coming. I had myself psyched up for it. But it still sucked when I was snapped back to reality.

Last Friday I had no Follow Fridays (a.k.a. #FFs) on Twitter. Zip, zero, zilch.

I did have someone RT one of my FF shout outs, and I had a few people thank me for including them on mine FFs, but I didn’t make anyone’s FF shout out list this week.

Bummer.

But, like I said, I did know it was coming.

It sure was fun while it lasted. And it just might happen again someday. Something to look forward/aspire to.