When I started this blog I had no idea about the world of blogging. I thought you just wrote something and post it and maybe people would read it; and maybe they wouldn’t. I didn’t really think much past that. I didn’t think about who these people would be; I didn’t think about how I would read what they wrote, about how they would become a part of my day. I didn’t think about how I would get excited to see a message in my inbox saying that they had written something new. I didn’t expect the connections.
I didn’t expect the support from complete strangers. The great comments, the words of support that would pick me up off the ground after a bad day, an invisible pat on the back or a kick in the head, depending on what is needed in the given situation.
I also didn’t expect awards. Yep, in the world of blogging there are awards and I have been lucky enough to receive a few. Lucky, surprised, humbled, so many emotions tied up in these little awards. Bottom line, awards are great. It’s like the adult version of getting a gold star on my homework and that’s pretty great, no matter how you look at it. And the fact that these awards are for writing. something I clutch so tightly to my soul and am slowly learning to let go of, to share, to let it hang out there, makes it even more amazing.
A few days ago I received the Seven Things About Me award from Bonnie at PaperKeeper. I was shocked and surprised to realize that my blog had registered on her radar, such an amazing blogger that she is. I feel like she and I would be friends, if we met out there in the “real” world and I love to see her words on my screen, always seeming to answer the questions that I didn’t even realize were rolling around in my head. Thank you Bonnie for this award, but more for so for your personal comments, and for making me feel that I’m not alone in this thing!
A month or so ago I was also lucky enough to be included in a post by news of the times in which a number of awards were passed along to me and my little blog.
I get excited everytime I see a comment from my friend over at News because the comments always seem to cut right to the issue, right to the heart of what it was I was trying to say, even if I didn’t even know it at the time. It amazes me how bloggers find each other. I have absolutely no recollection of how I found News, or perhaps it was vice versa, but I am so glad it happened, the world somehow bringing us together.
…and then I realized that I never did my full acceptance of the One Lovely Blog Award that was passed along to me from Shoes on the Wrong Feet, one of my favourite bloggers, a few months ago. Shoes is one of the very first blogs that I started reading and shockingly, she turned right around and started reading mine. Shocking because I had no idea what I was doing and the writing, to be honest, was not that great. But she continued to read, and comment, and encourage. And on a particularly low day, one when I was considering just packing in this whole blogging thing, she mentioned my blog in a post she wrote and passed along this award. My first award. It was exactly what I needed to keep going, and months later, here I am.
I apologize for not doing justice to each of these awards individually but in the interest of not stalling any longer, I’m going to do my best to take care of all of these in one post and pass along the love to some of my other favourite blogs!
I’m not too familiar with the ins and outs of each of these awards but from what I’ve learned, I’m supposed to share some tidbits about myself that people may not know and then pass the awards along to some bloggers I love. Originally I thought that seemed pretty simple. That was until I sat down and tried to actually come up with things about me to pass along. It’s so funny because I feel like I share so much of who I am on this blog but, in reality, the basics have been skipped over. We missed out on all of the little details that usually come at the beginning, before I share my fears, embarrassments and challenges so we’ll go back and do some of them now, so hmmm, let’s see.
1) I am a redhead. I think that is important to know because it does play a role in defining who I am…the temper…that part is definitely true!
2) My nickname in high school was Grande Rouge. It started off as Big Red (in honour of the gum and the aforementioned fact that I have red hair) but I decided it sounded much more sophisticated when translated into French.
3) I grew up in a suburb of Vancouver. Although I have now spent just as many years away from there as I have actually living there, there’s something about that place that still resides in my very core. I get testy when people make generalizations about the “west coast” and even more bitter when people who’ve never been there complain about how much it rains there. And no, not everyone in Vancouver spends their days sipping Starbucks, hiking the mountains in Lululemon pants.
Oops sorry, got away from myself a little bit there.
4) I moved away from Vancouver to go to university in Ottawa and immediately fell in love, both with the city and the man who would become my husband.
5) I cry in romantic comedies, and tv shows, and cereal commercials, and at my kids holiday concerts. I cry a lot, often for no particular reason. On the up-side, I always have Kleenex in my purse if you ever need one.
6) I love the sound that Christmas lights make when they bang together. Not the new LED lights but the old-school glass ones that would actually break if you dropped them.
7) My perfect Sunday afternoon would be spent going for a drive in the country, stopping at a local bakery for a sweet treat and browsing through a used book store.
8) I drink tea. Not fancy tea with antioxidants and crushed wildflowers, just regular tea. With milk and more sugar than I probably should but I give no apologies. Some days I wish I could drink coffee but I just can’t do it. I love the smell and hate the taste. Tea will always be the drink for me.
9) I love anything cozy. I love cozy socks, cozy pants, cozy blankets, cozy sweaters. I love to wrap myself up in cozy and just sit, looking out the window at the world going by.
10) I could not imagine my life without books. For as long as I can remember, books have been there, my friends when I’m lonely, my laughter when I’m happy, my tears when I’m sad. I need books like I need food, or water, or air. There is no life without books.
Well there, that’s done. Now I believe it’s my duty to pass along these awards to some bloggers that I lov,e so here we go. To all of you (including the blogs mentioned above who were great enough to bestow these awards on me originally), thank you for your words, your stories, your openness. Thank you for letting me be a part of your days, your moments and your lives. Please know that your writing has touched me and for that, you are worthy of these awards, and so much more.
Please accept these awards and pass them along as you see fit; this is not an obligation, just a gift! Please know you are special and appreciated and please, just keep writing, there are people out here who love to read what you write!
