awards and a tour of bloggyville

Warning: extremely long entry.You'll be here and in other blogs for awhile so save me for the last read. I don't mind, honestly. Just make sure you go potty, wash hands, grab a meal or snack and drink...yadda yadda yadda...you know the drill...before sitting down. Oh and grab some kleenx just in case.


We all know what a poor bloggy buddy I've been. I didn't get my thank yous out timely and this one deals with the awards I didn't post when I should have. As much as I'd like to blame it all on the addiction to that site that I have, I suspect many of these simply got jambed up behind the Journey entry. Most of my usual readers can tell you, if I get something on my mind and I don't blog it right away, well everything else gets tossed to the back burner until it's dealt with. Usually, once I get the problem out of the way...the rest of the entries all insist on being told LIKE NOW!! However, I had a dr appointment on Thursday and it's taken til today to actually feel close to 95%. That's another whole entry though. If you have yet to have these awards given to you, please feel free to help yourself.

Anyhow, these are all the beautiful awards that were either specifically sent my way, OR the general reader was instructed to please take. Many of my friends are like that as we don't like thinking that anyone got left out. The only two that I'm sure of where I got them are the first two, because I made sure to change the name slightly while in the files so I knew who. Not sure why I didn't with the other two. Anyhoo...the first two were swiped off of Deanna's Blog. They were so beautiful that I couldn't resist.



I ~think~ this next one came from Wendy, I'm not entirely sure. I seem to remember making a comment on her blog saying I already had it....


*goes to double check*


Yeah, here we go the rules to this one are on this entry that she wrote on September 2nd.


Now, this one....I have no clue who I swiped it from. I suspect it may have been iggy's blog although I'm not really 100% certain on that. If someone could look into that for me? Thanks.

N/M I found it.

Anyhow, if I recall, this one was supposed to provoke some actual thought and as such became a bit of a speed bump because if you've learned anything about me , it's that anything that takes thought pretty much places my brain in traction for weeks. Well. In honor of this award I'm going to put in some links of my more popular entries as well as a few of those entries of others that really touched me in some way. Personally, I think collectively ALL of you deserve this award and should be proud to wear it on your blog somewhere (oh crap...this means I gotta get these uploaded into the Slideshow stream now...).


The most popular of my entries by far seem to be when I'm in a very dark spot or when I fail at something. Why is that? I thought for sure everyone wanted happy bloggers? *laffin* Anyway, I had two tie for the position of "Most Popular Blog Entry" at a whopping 21 comments a piece (ok, so it aint whopping, but dammit...I got a very small following comparatively speaking and not everyone leaves a bloody comment like some of y'all's entries get!). The first one was written on February 10th, dealing with my then SCSis (now GaSis) who'd called me up and left me feeling very disturbed. The entry was titled In A Dark Dark Spot Right Now . This story seemed to have reached a bit more even footing as of the end of July. However, I'm in the dark....again.... I am hoping it's just that she has no phone service and no friggin common sense to ask the boss if she could make one 5 minute phone call to assure her friend of 30 years that she's ok. I surely HOPE it's nothing more serious than that. Needless to say, it's weighing heavily on me right now. I do have an idea, but it needs to wait until tomorrow.


The next one was written on August 11th in 2008 and was entitled Itshouldabeenakodakmoment. A bitch of a title to write, but one that expressed the frustration of not being properly armed, OR while being properly armed just not having enough juice in the damned camera to get that perfect "Kodak moment". This, too, garnered 21 comments. I think this one may have actually gotten that number because I asked a question at the end of the entry (which is something I don't generally do). Maybe I need to write when I'm pissed off, sad or frustrated more often?

Some of the runners up are:

From the Home page (please remember this blog section plays music automatically BUT the player's at the top so you can turn it off):

The Committed TShirt creation that was made for iggy. This May 12, 2008 entry got 14 comments.

The Super Bowl Sunday post that debutted the new bumper sticker for the upcoming election season. This entry from Feb 2008 had 11 comments.

From the "Padded Room" entries (the Like a Phoenix blog):

The Nov 13,2008 entry entitled Tour of Duty-TRU intermission where I go into a small side track of some of the troubles occurred in the one apartment I was living in. Surprisingly, they WEREN'T caused by the jerk I was married to at the time. That one had 9 comments on it. It only got that many because I'd neglected the blog for so long though.

Then there was the 2 parter I wrote in June of 2008 called Great Escape. Both part 1 and part 2 got 2 comments a piece. Not bad considering that it's a much smaller circulation than the 2 Cents blog.

The last 3 entries come from the Journey blog. It's another that I don't exactly update frequently. Mostly right now, it's a place to whine and put things that I deem much too adult at times for my usual writings. All 3 are ones I wrote in 2007.

Interesting Read dealt with information as to why certain test were being performed and why certain medicines were being considered. We've sense discovered that the one medicine does NOT play nicely with my body. This was writen August 16th and got 8 comments.

Two days prior I posted one entitled Thursday August 2nd where I dealt with the indignity of being a woman, seeing a new doctor and having a very long overdue pap. What some of the issues were that the dr was considering placing me on. All the "Let's try and get this baby started" good stuff ya know. All that stuff that had to be placed on the back burner because hubby had to have certain surgeries to fix him up. At the time, I had to weigh things as to importance. His, which were MEDICALLY necessary.... or mine, which were just because I wanted a baby. Obviously, his were much more important.(7 comments)


The last worth mentioning in this section is I Hate This Feeling which dealt with the fact my dr stuck me on Prometrium and how the drug affected my body. This got 7 comments.

Now. Here are some of my favorites of the ones I read.

The entire Insight Series written by Dorkys Ramos, where I think I saw this reflection type post first. I like these posts because they really make me think (and then the brain goes into traction and I forget to comment most times....just know that they're some of my favs of yours).

There are a few over at Yaya's Place (whose Fragment Friday entries are the bomb all and on their own) that really get to me. Why? Because Yaya and I are sorta in the same boat right now... or at least in two like boats rowing side by side. Each wanting desperately what some women (Octomom, Kate, et al) seem to get so friggin easily. We just wanna be mommies. Her entry on Aug 10 2008 called Why I'm A B^tch goes into the side effects of the medicine she's taking to help her get pregnant and the frustration (and I suspect a bit of depression) she gets every month when the medicine hasn't worked it's magic.

Then there's her entry on March 22nd of this year that actually made me cry. I had to step away from the computer for a good long while after reading How Do You Be Happy For Others where she answers a reader's email in detail on her blog. All those same feelings that I have...right there...and someone else was feeling them too.

Next we're going to visit iggy's blog entry called Trees Are Like People (June 3rd) was stunning and thought provoking even in its simplicity. I haven't seen a tree the same since. A real shame that no one thought to include this gem in their choices. Oh look...it was HIS blog I first saw the award on...awesome.

Oh look...THIS is where I got the award (*whew* I really would hate to think I swiped yet ANOTHER award!) so I actually EARNED this one too!! I got the award from over at Deanna's Blog in August. I am going to agree with iggy on his selection of He Had Curly Hair and a Crooked Smile and I Loved Him Very Much as one of the best entries. I'd say that a close second would go to Change Your Thinking entry. That one got me to thinking of an idea for an entry which I have yet to post but I think I'll stick in the drafts for the next appropriate moment as they seem to hit every year at least twice...

.....7th inning stretch.....

Put down the food for this one. This one is from Marmy's blog and the entry is called Laff Me Red Stripey Sock Off. Actually, most times it's inadvisable to be drinking or eating while reading her posts. It's much too messy and I'm sure the monitor and keyboard don't appreciate getting splattered. This is one of her shorter entries but gives you a good idea what she's all about.

Then there's always a trip to Razors and Vines blog. I suggest reading the entry entitled Ever. I love the quirky writing style. I just may need to adopt that style considering both sides of my personality like to fight for control of the keyboard.

do not

Do so.

And the last stop on this entry is going to be in Shan's blog. Her entry, An Apple For the Teacher? Nope, School Supplies which went into how little teachers get for supplies for their classrooms. Every word of what she had to say was true. Actually, things are much much worse for the private schools... or at least it was at the private Christian school I worked at in Louisiana. I was there for about 3-4 years and I can tell you the average there wasn't even the national average for teacher pay. They were alotted ~maybe~ a grand total of $50 per semester for stuff for the classrooms (visual aids, decor, standard supplies like chalk and erasers were supplied by the school if extra was on hand) and dickyboy's salary never topped $24,000 for the year.

She also wrote one called We Are Women...We Must Backstab that I think should be required reading for everyone. Thankfully, I don't believe I've seen any of my bloggy readers saying stuff to purposefully hurt another around here. Now sometimes, there's the errant question that gets misread, misinterpreted, whatev... but that happens because of the medium. If we could only HEAR what the heart and mind of the writer is writing, then there wouldn't be nearly the hurt feelings.

Well, that completes our 3 hour tour...

Holy shit it took me that long to write???

Yep, it did (thanks to the contant stream of emails that came in while I was writing and we all know I just can't let 'em sit there when I'm at the computer....).