You Really Like Me! (OK. A Few Do, Anyway)

La dee dah. Minding my own business when Kerri tells me to check out her blog. So I hop on over and lo and behold! She has bestowed upon me the honor of the Thinking Blogger Award! Wow! I am humbled. No. Really. Have you seen this young woman's Ye Olde Blogroll? It's as long as a new roll of toilet paper. So no, she did not have to tap me and to her I say THANK YOU!
It is my opportunity, as well, to tap 5 others with this distinction thus sharing the wealth and drawing new people to peruse our manic musings. It's actually hard to knight the other 5 not because I don't read other blogs but frankly my life is too hectic to read too many others with the regularity their good writing deserves. But I've made a couple of sweet friends here who, if given the chance to meet them, don't make me think I need to first give the FBI a heads up that I'm goin' a visitin' a relative stranger.

There are days when I can blog hop with the best of them and then there may be days when I am incog-negro for a while because I really can't do it all on the same day. But I think of you, truly I do. So I would love to go find more likeminds to get in sync with but it's not that simple to find people like you on the Internet any more than it is to find them in real life, providing the blog version is being their true selves, that is. Ah, but when you do, you hold on for dear friendship. The true blue kind is harder to find the older - and more guarded - you get.

But these are the ones I visit regularly, not to slight the ones I visit a little less often and therefore haven't formed that same connection in my mind. Because I will still be on the lookout for new people to meet and I will keep reading the ones I already do and before long, my little corner of the blogging world will get bigger.

So, without further adieu, here are MY four, yes, only four, very different picks for The Thinking Blogger Award.

YewNorkBabe - Theresa was the first blogger I didn't know to reach out to me with her compliments on my style and I am thrilled to say that when I went to check her out I was equally thrilled. Theresa is funny and her experiences in life? Well, they may rival the cartoon life that Kerri has going on but it's different. She's got this amazing cache of eclectic experiences and a wonderful patience with it all. It's truly inspiring and always a read that makes you go hmmm. She should be bigger than she is in the blogging world. In time. In time.

LooneyBin4Sure - What can I say about Liz? I've never met someone with talent like an onion like this. Peel away layer after layer and you keep discovering new abilities and she's got a million kids ya'll! OK, maybe not a million but I've got 2 kids because I've got 2 hands. Maybe a third will pop up one day but the Lord knows that is my limit. Liz has got me beat times over and she loves it! She's a writer, a designer, a baker, she homeschools, and when you visit her, it's like opening a present because you never know what her blog will look like from day to day. She's always redesigning it! Awesome. She's a woman of God who shares His truth as well as her experiences and I appreciate that.

Field-Negro - Field-Negro may not know how much I appreciate his blog. Believe it or not, being black does not make me an authority on my own culture. There is a level of enmeshment that's hard to realize if you're not actually in a place where you must keep up. It takes work to stay in touch with all the different things that affect us as a people as well as to be educated enough to know our history and apply it to our present. But so far, Field-Negro, in his unabashed truth telling, is doing that. I won't be naive to think his style won't put some people off because I know it can. One of my aunts, a college professor who teaches on black culture, has been known to rub people the wrong way too. But I have always loved her for her unique ways and Field-Negro reminds me of her a bit. He is one of my ways of keeping up with myself. Thanks for that.

Unbridled Bride - She's not a bride and she's not at all unbridled in her behavior. This one is new to the blogging world and you know what? I'm nor even sure she's willing to share her name yet. So I won't out her. She has been compelled because she's just so darn good at what she does and I've never used her professionally! I can just feel it. Before she started posting, I never had a chance to read any writing she may have done and I'm still not sure she does any other than this new endeavor but she is good. Really good. The writing, that is. The planning yes, but the good, funny, clear writing was an unexpected treat. She is one to watch.

OK, so here are the rules Kerri stipulated. If any of you I named wish to take on this meme, here's the deal straight from her blog, with a few tweaks.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think. (I did 4 because that's what I had.)

2. Link to Kerri's post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme or hey, go on back to the source. This award was started by Ilker Yoldas at The Thinking Blog. (Winners, you can go there to get the gold version of the award you see above.) The mission is to create a trail of interesting blogs with interesting content and to spread the word about great blogs.

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ - swipe it from above - with a link to the post that you wrote or go to The Thinking Blog to get the equally stunning gold version.

Happy Awarding!