Wow – in obsessively, like I do pretty much every half hour or so throughout the day randomly checking my email, I just found that I have been nominated for a blogging award by my fellow blogging academic-of-a-certain-sage-age. The award is called the Versatile Blogger Award, and I suspect it means “here’s-an-award-for-those-of-you-suffering-from-undiagnosed-ADD-who-cannot-settle-on-one-thing-and-simply-make-up-your-minds-what-your-blog-is-actually-about”.

I'd like to thank the academy...but I'm pretty sure they had nothing to do with this.

Now, as always, there are certain stipulations involved in accepting an award. Here are the three rules for this one:

Rule #1: Thank the person who nominated you.

Well, that’s a simple enough thing to do, and I’m delighted to shout-out my thanks and shower kudos and gratitudes on maturestudenthanginginthere for the lovely nomination for this award, which is the first one I have earned specifically for blogging (yay!). Thank you so much! :o )

Rule #2: Make a List of Seven Things People May Not Know About You

Well, that’s a bit harder, since I blog about myself all the time, but I’ll take a stab:

  1. I played women’s rugby for five years, on 3 different teams in 3 different locations.
  2. I cut my finger off when I was 2 years old. It was sewn back on. My doctor is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the surgery, because I was at the time the youngest amputee ever to have a severed digit re-attached. Cool, huh?
  3. I once was begged by a club owner to re-create my dance to the song the DJ had just played… on the bar, so everyone could see. The club owner then ordered the DJ to re-play the song – on a busy Saturday night. I drank for free at that club until I moved from the area. (The club and club owner will remain nameless, but they were in Washington, D.C.) If she sees this post, it will officially mark the first time my mother has ever heard that particular story. (Hi, Mom! <waves sheepishly>)
  4. I have sound/color/smell synesthesia.
  5. I did not own a cell phone until this summer.
  6. I could eat tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch every day until I died and never be tired of it.
  7. I (TOP SECRETLY) am a major chick-flick junkie. Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer and Julia Ormond vehicles top the list of movies I re-watch way too many times. Way too many times. It’s really kind of sick, actually…

By-the-by, If you tell anyone about #7, I’ll tell them you are a compulsive liar. Everyone knows I only watch epic films of extremely obvious quality.  Like Lord of the Rings. And Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and King Arthur, Time Bandits, Robin Hood…. OK, whatever. I like movies featuring dragons, elves, men in tights with bows and arrows, gratuitous violence, and really improbable plots. I also (TOP SECRETLY, mind) like chick-flicks. Bonus if I get both in one blow, with the actors spontaneously breaking into song-and-dance montages. Nobody only ever eats vanilla ice cream, people…!

Rule #3: Nominate Fifteen Blogs You Think Should Receive the Award

This was also hard – there are a LOT of great blogs out there. In no particular order, here are some of those I find particularly compelling (and versatile):

http://whimsywhims.wordpress.com/2011/09/

Just what the title says – whimsical. And at times, laugh-out-loud funny.

http://rasjacobson.com/

She’s a teacher. And a mom. And a self-proclaimed twit. And she blogs about it all.

http://becomingherself.wordpress.com/

She writes prose-poetry that is heartbreakingly, staggeringly lovely, and wide-ranging in theme and scope. You will see the world differently.

http://urthalun.com/

She draws a Tarot card a day, with full explanation – it’s like attending Divination School. And collects out-of-state license plates. And cross-stitches dirty things on pillows. And has seriously cool tattoos. And blogs about it all.

http://judiequayle.blogspot.com/

She reads, she writes, she blogs about it – and that’s just for starters.

http://absurdoldbird.wordpress.com/

She’s wonderful – marvelous artwork, and one of the most original thinkers I have come across in blogland.

http://kanatyler.wordpress.com/

I just “met” her, but she is single-handedly responsible for the loss of an entire three hours while I went through her archives. Yep, she’s that entertaining.

http://thebloggess.com/

I have no doubt she has already been nominated for this award fifty times. Probably even a hundred times. But I can’t not nominate her. The woman’s brilliantly, perfectly insane, and gut-splitting hilarious.

http://olivesandartichokes.wordpress.com/

I don’t know if it’s exactly versatile” perse – but it covers a lot of culinary styles. And it makes me ravenously hungry and pea-green with envy every time I visit. Yum.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

It’s Neil Gaiman. Versatile would be his middle name, if he changed it….  Always worth a lookie!

http://lonelyrecluse.wordpress.com/

Generally dark, but from the writer’s heart and soul in very genuine fashion. You never know what’s coming, for certain!

http://www.picture-speak.com/

An interesting, at times beautiful, at times thought-provoking blend of poetry and photography.

http://blackswanpoetry.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/poem-my-pen-it-spits-at-you/

I love this writer’s dark and haunting style, and again, you never know what’s coming, but you know it’s going to make you think about things a little differently than you did before you read it.

http://bloodsweatandpeanutbutter.wordpress.com/

Seriously. OK, not seriously. You’ll laugh your ass off.

http://theballast.wordpress.com/

Never. Ever. Boring. Ever. Currently featuring a post on surgical elf ears…..Just sayin’.