Me think pretty one day

Gerbil. I read a blogger named Gerbil. I think she is awesome even if she is named after a rodent. Seeing as how I am named for a small decorative, usually salty, hors d'oeurves served at cocktail hour thereby encouraging people to drink more, I guess I really can't talk.

Guy gave me this name right after we watched "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" together. Alison Eastwood presents a tray to John Cusack and simply says, "Canape?" He said that the southern accent and coy presentation are why he started to call me "salty appetizer," but then I sealed the deal for him. And my fate for me.

We had stopped at a visitor's center on our first road trip together. After looking around and stretching our legs, he was headed back to the car. We passed the restrooms and I asked, "Can I pee?" To his adorable Yankee ears though, it sounded like, "Cahn-ah-pay?" Rather, "Canape?" And thus, the name has stuck to this day.

Back to Gerbil.

She has thoughtfully bestowed The Thinking Blog award on me. Which is ever so nice, because had I been passing them out before her, she would have been on my list.


I do not consider this a blog where I think a lot. Ponder maybe, but think? Not particularly. I suppose because it is such a personal blog, I do not consider it an intellectual blog. Plus, for every complete sentence I write, there are at least 2 sentence fragments. And sometimes I don't spellcheck. And I start sentences with "and" and "but."

Perhaps though, it can be personal and intellectual at the same time?

Grammer and spelling notwithstanding, I guess it would be nice to think I made someone think once. Or twice. So thank you, Gerbil, for giving me my first blog award. I am surprised at how excited it made me.

One of the great things about this award is that you get to pass it on to five bloggers who make you think. Ilker started this back in February, and you should go read the original post here. Since then, I have seen it pop up on many of the blogs that I read.

So now I move it forward, on from here, directing you to five bloggers who really make me think. Not just bloggers that I adore and feel smooshy about, but bloggers who have made me think.


Toddler Planet. Whymommy does happen to be my bestest friend, but there are no favorites being played here. She is uber-intelligent balanced with uber-down-to-earth. She has great dialogue for career moms who now stay at home, but then surprises you with a post about taking her newborn with her to a scientific conference.

The House of H. Lizzy has a beautiful one year old little boy (Happy Belated Birthday, Henry!) and writes about her family mostly. But she writes about them in a way that makes me feel like I already know them. Plus, she has this former job and former life that fascinates me . . . I think she has boatloads of stories to tell. She describes blogging as a "live action memoir." I love that.

The Kids Are Alright. Kgirl has a newish blog. At least that's what I think I can tell. I didn't know about the oldish blog, and I think I missed out. I found this on the list of Perfect Post Awards for February. It is an amazing post. But then there is this, this, and this too. Personal, thoughtful, and thought provoking. You are supposed to pass this award to bloggers who have not yet received it. I have this feeling that I am just racing other bloggers right this second to get my post up first so that I can be the one to nominate her. There has to be a gaggle of us who would do it.

I Obsess. If James Joyce were a female blogger. Jump in and swim around with her for awhile. It's quite a ride, and when you come up for air, you just want to dive right back in. She is one of the best examples of a writer who doesn't just tell how she feels, she makes you feel how she feels.

Mommy, PhD. So you obviously know she's a smart one, just from the title. Her writing though will prove it. You have plenty of time to dig back through all the archives, because she's going to be giving birth here soon. I don't imagine she'll be posting that much for a few weeks! You get a great mix of mommy meets doctoral student meets current issues.

So that's it. And it was totally hard. I actually thought long and hard here, in honor of being a thinking blogger and all. But I didn't really edit, don't worry. Not breaking any long standing traditions at this point.

There are three bloggers who completely deserve this who I deliberately didn't give it to. Following Ling Ling as She Gives Lymphoma a Beatdown and Twisted Ovaries are both at the top of my Thinking Blogs list. However, it just didn't seem appropriate to name them right now. Their blogging is focused on personal and intense issues, and I didn't want to pass an award that was also a meme to them. Go read them anyway please.

The third would be my mom's blog. Yep. Momma started blogging. She has posted two entries, and I'm surprised at how open she is and how well she writes. You can so tell though, that we are related. It is really funny how our styles are not that far off.

Blogging though, is not something I share with my mother. Yet. She doesn't know about this blog, and I'm not sure I'm going to tell her. There has been nothing said that would be intentionally hurtful, but I have been raw and honest. Without editing.

So I'm not giving it to her either, but she deserves it.

In fact, everyone I read deserves it. If they didn't make me think, or make me care, I wouldn't continue reading them.

Group hug.