It’s Friday and it feels a good day to do one of my outstanding memes. And at the top of the pile? Josie at Sleep is for the Weak has tagged me with the “Proud to be Me” meme, where I have to think of five things to be proud of. Oh, and they’re supposed to be things I’ve actually done. Hmm.
First, I’m proud of my parenting. I know there are one or two teeny areas where there could be some improvement (cooking, housework, getting up on time) but I appear to be raising a fully-functioning member of society. Given that I was adopted when I was 10 and Flea's really the first blood relative I've ever known, I was never totally confident I had the right stuff to do the parenting thing. But I appear to have sort of worked it out, so yay me.
Second, I’m proud I’m making a living. In a recession, being a freelance journalist is a tough game. I’ve worked really hard these past three years to diversify my client base, keep my existing clients happy and break into new markets. I'm in one of those phases as the moment where I just keep having ideas upon ideas, and I'm having to find new clients just to use up the ideas! It's good, though I may need to start sleeping more and drinking less coffee sometime soon. But definitely still earning a decent living, so I think that merits a pat on the back.
Third, I am proud of the fact I never got my ‘fifth’ star when I worked at McDonalds as a 16-year-old. If you ever go into McDonalds (and really, I advise against it), you’ll notice the staff badges have little stars on. The more stars, the more you earn. You get stars for passing competency tests in five key areas: the fry station; the lobby and restaurant floor; the tills; the burger station and for showing appropriate cheerfulness and a positive attitude. Go on, guess which one I never got…
Fourth, I’m proud that when I was eight my Granny made me take an IQ test that scored me an invite to join Mensa – but even at eight, I was cool enough to realise that joining Mensa would be a social kiss of death. This should in no way be taken as a sign that I am actually smart – my brother Ross used to delight in telling boyfriends the story about the time he told me he was stuck in the microwave… and I looked. No, I don’t know why I looked, either…
Fifth, I’m proud that I finally worked out today – after living in my house for almost two years – where that damp patch in the hall is coming from. Ha! Take that, leaky radiator! Of course, might have been handy to work this out before having the hall, stairs and landing redecorated and then watching all the new paint slowly flake off the wall, but you can’t have everything.
Now I need to pass this on to some other people who I think will enjoy a bit of blog boasting and I choose….Lindy at Squidgyboo because she takes amazing photographs and should be proud of that (among lots of other things), Claire from Dandelion Lounge for Tweeting us through the birth of her new baby (this shows impressive multi-tasking), Dawn at Little Green Fingers because her comments on this blog frequently make me laugh out loud, and 40 Not Out just because I think she's one of those effortlessly good writers.
