I think, therefore I blog. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t think much

Housekeeping thing first: If you are one of the unfortunate who has generously dedicated a slice of your time to posting a comment here, only to have the nasty blog goblin eat it up before it ever sees the light of day, I sincerely apologize. Some of you have emailed me and informed me that you are attempting to comment for naught. If this keeps up, I might have to go and check out typepad or wordpress or something. You hear me BLOGGER??? I might be leaving you if you don’t shape up!! Heed my warning!! You mess with my commenters, you mess with me!!

Now onto the point of this post. My beloved girl Pendullum has gone and awarded me a Thinking Blogger Award. The best part about getting awarded a Thinking Blogger award? It’s that I get to pass it on. The worst thing about getting a Thinking Blogger award? I have come to realize, it’s that I get to pass it on. Because the narrowing-it-down-to-five-people thing is just cruel and unusual. I don’t have a blogroll for nothing. See, it’s my deep, deep belief that you all should be reading every, single one of those people over there to your right between work and play and Dancing with the Stars. They are buena gente. They remind me how indignant I can’t forget to feel about evil things. They show me pictures of my homestate and make me shed tears into my beers. They make me JEALOUS with all their vacations to places with lemon festivals and beaches and Philly. And… I’ll remember here in a minute why I still visit them...

In the meantime, I’m going to give you five random links with some lowdown info on each of them. If you have any good sense whatsoever, you’ll visit these five amazing women.

Strauss at The Brave... This Australian mom living in Canada can describe a rainstorm in such a way that you want to weep at your complete and UTTER ignorance for having never before appreciated a passing storm with the passion and clarity that it so deserves. She’s prolific and wise and, as her blog title suggests, BRAVE. Don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself.

Doc at 10 Rue de la Charme… I met this hell on wheels back in my MSN blogging days. Her potty mouth and loveability hooked me from the word go. I’ve blog-known her through two of her pregnancies, her one-and-only house-building project in France, and a couple of grape-harvesting seasons out in the nethers of that country’s beautiful-freakin’ countryside. She makes me think about how very lucky I am to have Stouffer’s Stuffing and Old Bay at my beckon call. I heart her deeply.

Shoppergirl makes me giggle. And embrace my love for the forgotten randomness of our lives… things like, Who was that guy that Jo almost married in her first season of The Facts of Life? She has fabulous taste in everything and the guts to tell someone who overcooks her germ-infested pretzel to PLEASE give her back her money NOW. My germ-hating spineless self feels so not worthy to blog-know her.

TrudyJ at Hypergraffiti is a NEWFOUNDLANDER (as opposed to Nova Scotian as I originally had typed here), a Newfie?, a mother, a teacher, a novelist and a blogger that I love to live vicariously through. She has written posts that I want to print and pass around at work and say things like, “Can you believe I know this woman?!” Well… I kind of know her. I BLOG know her. People still don’t get that saying over here in my neck of the woods. But Trudy doesn’t just make me think. Oh no. She also makes me ashamed. Because she reads books like a rockstar!! That’s probably a bad metaphor. She reads books like a librarian on speed who’s going to get fired if she doesn’t know every book ever written by heart before the Christmas season! It’s a beautiful thing.

Last but not least, La Cubana Gringa. Where to begin. ‘Kay, first of all, I don’t know where she finds the time to blog. And blog WELL at that. I’ve only just recently blog-met this extraordinary, underappreciated doctor blogger. But already, I find myself very much at home over at her place. Ay Dios mio, pero when she talks about El Gringito and her Tia and Peri-Rectal abscesses, I just want to fly over and make myself comfortable on her couch to hear more. Go say hi. And scroll through her archives while you’re there. You won’t be disappointed. I pinky swear to you.

So to the five awardees, please do the following as per my nominator: Share the love with five other bloggers and link to the originator if you would be so kind.

Thanks again, Pendullum, dearest. I’m honored beyond measure.