In Cahoots

Quite awhile ago, some of you might recall I posted some interview questions for an article I was doing on blogging. Many of you were kind enough to respond to my questions. I used your quotes, and the article was accepted by Cahoots Magazine. It took them awhile to use it, and then they went through a transition in which they switched from a paper magazine to an ezine, so the article became a little dated (Karla's baby was still growing in her tummy, and now he's a year old already!), but here it is nonetheless.

But don't stop there... make sure you check out the companion story by Karla. What fun it is to be published together with one of my favourite blog friends (who also happens to be a great writer)!

By the way, if you're visiting through a link on the Cahoots page, please be kind and leave a friendly comment. I love to know where visitors come from!

Be sure to bookmark Cahoots. It is one of my favourite magazines (one of the only things I read cover to cover when it shows up at my door) and I'm positive you won't be disappointed with the electronic version.

Not much to see here

10 reasons why you may not see much of me this month:
1. Not much time to blog when soccer takes over your life.
2. Blogging and reading blogs takes up more of my time than I want it to. I feel the need to cut back. It's all about balance.
3. I'm "fasting" from the internet (and food) every Thursday during the month of May. (If you catch me commenting on a Thursday, you have permission to slap my wrists.)
4. It's Spring outside.
5. The Thursday fast has something to do with the big launch we're planning for work, so my time is fairly consumed with that.
6. I'd rather be biking.
7. I haven't submitted anything for publication for a long time. I want to sink some of my writing energy into that instead - at least for a little while.
8. I just don't feel much like it these days.
9. I'm starting to think May is my "month of navel-gazing". Maybe it has something to do with it being my birthday month.
10. I feel inspired by neither deep thoughts nor witticisms right now.

Who knows - I might have a change of heart tomorrow when I'm cut off from the internet and all kinds of posts come flooding through my brain. But for now, this is where I'm at.

Oh - on another note, if the generous person who anonymously left a lovely Ethiopian gabi scarf in my mailbox at church is a blog reader, then thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I love it! I keep meaning to post a picture, but - well, there's the soccer thing. I haven't had time. But know this - I felt very blessed by your little gift.

And, since I don't have a picture of myself in the gabi scarf, here's a picture of Ephraim in Ethiopia wearing a traditional gabi. They're usually large white blanket-like wraps made of loosely woven Ethiopian cotton and trimmed with various colours and sometimes silk fringes. They're worn by both men and women, especially in the cool morning air in the highlands region. The scarf I got is a much smaller version. (I brought back one of the large gabis, but not a scarf, so this was an especially nice surprise.)

Blogging in bed

Marcel's gone out for a night on the town with his university friends - some of whom are half his age, attractive, AND female. But hey - I'm not jealous. Nope, not me. Why should I be when I'm curled up here in bed with my new friend Mac? He's young, he's smooth, he whispers sweet nothings in my ear, and he lets me blog without interrupting me with conversation (or...ahem... other things...). In fact, he LOVES it when I blog - he says my keystrokes tickle his skin. He even likes to take pictures of me and seduce me with gentle music. Now if only he came with a candle holder and glass of wine, he'd be nearly perfect.

Yes, through the wonders of modern technology, I can increase my laziness even more, and blog from bed. Woohoo! (I'd take a picture with the built-in camera, but my purple flannel pajamas aren't really screen worthy.)

We're not normally the type of family that HAS to have the latest in technology (we don't even have a cell phone), but I do believe I'm falling in love with this little baby curled up in my lap. Aaahhhh....!

Thinking, thinking, thinking...

Vicki and Robyn recently nominated me for the "Thinking Blogger" award, and I'm flattered. Truly I am. Sometimes I feel like Sally Fields accepting the Oscar - "You like me! You really like me!" (I do that almost every time I get a few comments too - it still surprises me that people are showing up.)

Accepting the award means that I'm supposed to pass it on to five more people. I've tried to do that a couple of times, but every time I tried, I had some kind of mental block and never got it done. WHOM should I pick? Out of all of those blogs I love to visit, which ones are written by "thinkers"? Well, they ALL are - otherwise I wouldn't waste my time. (Oh, and by the way, I haven't updated my blogroll for a long time, so if you're not on there, don't take it personally.)

Here's the thing... I'm not going to pass it on, even though there are lots of blogs on my blogroll that deserve it. The truth is, I'm starting to have an itty-bitty problem with all these blog awards floating around the internet. I know they're meant to be genuine and generous, but there's just something about it that makes me squirm a little - like I'm back in high school and stuck in a popularity contest time warp. "Aw, so-and-so got FIVE thinking blogger awards and I only got TWO. What am I doing wrong? Maybe I'm not wearing the right shoes with my outfit. Maybe I need to sit with the cool kids in the lunch room."

It's the same thing with comments. I try not to do it, but it happens almost in spite of myself. "Oh - that post only warranted 5 comments. What did I do wrong? Maybe I'm losing my touch." (Yikes! Now I sound like my mother every time she bakes buns!) Ridiculous, I know. That's why I've stopped looking at my stat counter. I don't want to obsess about how many people are showing up. I just want to write for the fun of it. That's why I started my blog in the first place. If people show up, that's a bonus, but I don't want to feel like I NEED that for validation.

So - thanks for the awards. (And please, PLEASE don't take offense - I'd hate to sound ungrateful or self-righteous.) But I think I'll pass this time. I'll keep thinking, and if my thoughts provoke yours, you're certainly welcome to let me know, but I don't need an award for it.