Awards

I think it has something to do with my childhood among the people who invented the phrases"doe maar gewoon dan doe je al gek genoeg" (acting normal is crazy enough) and the "niet boven het maaiveld uitsteken" (don't be any better than others), but I really like awards. And medals. And any kind of recognition really. Moving to France and enrolling in an American school was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to my little pre-teen soul. Suddenly, it was not acceptable to get As and study hard, it was actually rewarded! I felt like I had arrived. I can still remember the first academic award I got (I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere), and the feeling of excitement when people actually clapped for me.

Since receiving that "Excellence in History and French" award, not a whole lot has changed. I'm older, taller, possibly a little wiser, but I still love getting awards. I save all of my running medals and awards, I pin my race bibs to the wall in the garage, have placed my "McDonald's employee of the month" plaque in a very visible spot in my office, and I am still upset that the organization of the 15k race I ran last year forgot to ever send me my award for my third place.

So you can imagine my excitement when Bibi gave me the "Love your blog" award.

Someone likes my blog! Wow! Thank you! If I could print it out and frame it, I would. Trust me. Hhm..don't tell anyone, but I might actually just pin it to my wall in my office. Right next to the McDonald's plaque.

But, with privilege comes certain obligations. And in this case, that means passing the award on to six bloggers I really like. Talk about difficult. I am a very haphazard blog reader, meaning I read when I can, and will occasionally miss out on weeks of reading. But there are several blogs I always check out, really enjoy, and thus really deserve this award. Unfortunately, there's more than six of those. So I had to make a difficult selection, and here are the six blogs I think deserve this award, in no particular order:

Annemiek - I love reading all of your diverse blogs about life up north; you've really inspired me to start growing my own vegetables!
Cisca - Someone who writes such comically short blogs and who is from the one town where I spent more than three years deserves this award more than once!
"Elmosplace" Because I love being confronted with strange, or "way out there", or comfortingly familiar music, and I would really love to see more!
Dennis in Colorado - Although your blog is currently closed, I really hope to read more about your life in Colorado.
Van Dijks - Your stories are so unusual, full of adventure and unexpected twists and turns, I simply love reading them
Petra in Virginia - To me, you seem like the uber-blogger; your blogs are full of wonderful detail, are on time every day, and you really make the reader feel as though they're part of your life.

But everyone who writes a blog and reads this one - thank you. Thank you for reading my mindless chatter, and thank you for letting me be a part of your life.