Legend In My Own Mind

A couple of weeks ago I was the proud recipient of a Rockin' Girl Blogger award from Chili. It was super kind of her to include me in her short list of awesome people with VaJayJays...and blogs. I added the others immediately to my Google Reader (I heart Google Reader, you should go get one. I'll hold your place while you do. It's free, go on!) I pat Chili on the back heartily for a lot of things but man, especially for plucking 5 hot chicks from the long list of smokin' hot chicks that she knows is not easy. I'm flattered. Also, nearly paralyzed with making the same choices for myself. You know how I am about commitment, and if you don't you haven't been reading me long enough.

The thing about the Rockin' Girl Blogger award is it's a pay it forward sort of situationality. So I have a responsibility, after being in such good company, to pass the favor toward the front of the class. Plenty of candidates to choose from. Too many but I'm going to do it. If you're not on this list I promise, it's not you, it's me. I'm not even joking about that.

1. For my first one I'm going to cheat because it's going to make my life easier and allow me to fit in 6 bloggers in 5 slots. Kinky, huh? Which is just how these ladies like it. MKAEP and Gert have their own blogs but they also contribute to a team blog, Corner Booth at Hudson's. If you hit Hudson's you'll get all their own bloggity goodness and links to their personal stuff. I love them for bringing the straight up every day honesty they have in real life to the blogosphere. You'll read about driving 3 hours to get laid and having the guy totally screw it up. You'll read about nephews and penises and the hilarious interaction between the two. You'll read about motherhood and hair and being the best friend or sister or daughter or person you can be and trying to reach goals that seem always to be 2 inches from your fingertips. And you'll probably pee yourself doing it.

2. These first 2 slots, by the way, are all brought to you by the letter O for Oktahona, I mean, Oklahoma. They grow 'em smart and funny where the wind comes sweeping down the plain and Chrome is no exception. As a matter of fact she's more Shiny Chrome Example of the phenomenon. Phrases like "hotsie totsie", "one-way ticket to Cuntville" and "Ow! My aorta!" are the norm over at her place. Her little slice of life has nuts on it and she's willing to share.

3. Kath is my go to chick for music stuff. Not like, "I need an accompanist." but "I'm ignorant and don't know who sang this marginally popular song from 1985, do you?" kind of stuff. So, imagine my surprise when one day I came flinging into her kitchen indignantly screeching, "You'll never guess what I just read from this woman who claims to be a feminist and a music lover! She doesn't think women can rock!" and Kath replied, "Me either." And here I am nominating her for a Rockin' Girl Blogger award. I can't help it, she just is. She's into local history, she steals Christmas ornaments from hotels, she writes about music with great depth and insight and she believes in form as part of function, which I have to say not many of us do anymore. Her craft is as great as her art. I know she started her blog as a way to keep far away friends and family up to date without succumbing to a Christmas newsletter or anything but it's more than that now and I love it. We're totally hitting some historical hot spots this summer and will report back.

4. I do not know the Budgeting Babe, I've never met her and, actually, I can't tell you how I found her. I can tell you, though, that she's performing a public service by using her personal financial issues as a jumping off point to help other people get a handle on theirs. She's not interested in contributing to our culture of debt and she thinks there's a way out. To that end she's writing a blog about it and helping others to make good financial decisions. I worry about money. A lot. Even when I maybe don't have to. Reading the Babe's blog helps me take charge instead of sitting in a corner in the fetal position rocking back and forth. She recently challenged her readers to make a budget, even a hindsight budget, to see where our money is going. I will take her up on the challenge. I promise. No, really, just as soon as I can stop rocking.

5. Some might think that I am nominating Antonia purely for the purposes of sucking up and hopefully being introduced to the best accessorized man in France. ( The smile, not the baby!) And some would not be entirely wrong. But, seriously, she's funny. She has that dry, self-deprecating yet utterly oddball humor that feels like a rope pulling me back to London. London, a place where some of my party jokes are actually understood. In a good way! I want to make some sort of hilarious pronouncement like, "She's the mating of Monty Python and the Queen Mum" but, aside from not being accurate it's not terribly flattering. I can't explain I can only recommend, highly. She rocks.


Go out and enjoy some Rockin' Girl's blogs and report back. Tell me who else I should be reading.

*Rockin' Girls pictured are Kate Moennig, Annie Lennox and Julie Flanders.