E is for Excellent. And Elephant. And Eggplant.

The proprietress of the Theory of Thought is a woman young enough to be my daughter, who goes by the moniker the Thinker. After stumbling on her blog some months ago and enjoying slices of her life ever since, I have to say, it fits.

That being said, she did a most astonishingly thoughtful thing the other day, bestowing this lovely little award on me and my blog. Methinks I would protest, alas methinks me hath protested enough lately, and so methinks it best to say a simple thank you and get on with bestowing said lovely little award on a few of the blogs I adore for the excellence they bring into my every day, in accordance with the rules. (aaannndd...exhale)

This is hard, you know. Because there are a hu-normous quantity of you I am incredibly fond of. But rules is rules, and so in the spirit of thoughtfulness in which the honor was both given and received, I will follow them. (This time. I reserve the right to pick and choose rules destined to be broken. Ha!)

Ready? Okay. Me too. Here we go.

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I first fell for Jen of Sideways Rain (who is just thismuch older than my daughter, by the way) a couple of years ago when she posted about an exchange with her mother. There was something about her articulation of the moment that stopped me in my tracks and made me say, "Whoa." Because, in that post I could see myself from both sides; I empathized with Jen's frustration as a daughter, but I felt a twang of guilt/recognition/AHA-ness as a mother, seen from a daughter's point of view. I've been wholly engaged, ever since. She's smart and eloquent, even when she's trying to figure out life and her place in it. She's witty and insightful, even when she's the outsider looking in, traveling the world. She's just a lot of things, all rolled up into one lovely human being.

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What to say about this next lady (who is old enough to be my alter ego, by the way)? Karen writes at Pondering Penguin, and while there can be no denying that we travel in different political spheres, it is equally true, and abundantly clear, that there is more that unites us than divides us. We share a lot of common ground between us in terms of family, experience, values and the things we enjoy out of life. And although our politics don't always align, I love her to bits. I inevitably learn a great deal from Karen through her well researched, passionate and subjective approach to sharing her opinion on news of the day. Entire weeks can go by when I just cannot comment on something she has written. I'd like to say it's because of the old "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" adage, but more often than not, the truth is that I can't comment because she has intimidated me with the brain power evident in her words. But let's not tell her that. Because one of these days, I promise the two of us will sit down over coffee and have the most intellectually stimulating "conversations", wo-mano y wo-mano.

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It's highly doubtful that he'll play along here, but I can't let this one pass without throwing kudos to Charles of Dustbury fame. How he does what he does, I will never know, but I can say this much: he knocks me out on a regular basis with his clever brevity on a myriad of subjects, multiple times a day. His frame of reference on any and every topic you can imagine is more expansive than any library's reference desk, virtual or human. His knack for finding the interesting and making it even more so knows no peer. And while his taste in female footwear might be called into question, his knowledge of music that matters can never be doubted. For proof of his cunningly clever mind, just take a look at the 3 Word Commentaries in his sidebar. The man is a world wide web wonder, and I'm happy to "know" him.

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The last blogger I'm going to mention here today (if only because this post is outgrowing the blog itself) is the multi-talented Schmutzie. I'm giving her this honor for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that she LOVES her some awards, as you can see by the sheer quantity she's up for as I type this (and you should go vote for her, by the way, not because she asked but because she deserves it). But seriously, award-lover or no, there is no question she is one of the Excellent Blogs I read on a daily basis. Her life has been turned upside down and back again over the course of the past year. Reading along as she wrote her way through the turmoil was an inspiring experience. It helps that she can write. She can write so damn well that she's made me cry more than once, even though we don't know each other from Eve. She can write so damn well that her x365 people nearly dance off the page in full blown human form. She can write so damn well that...well, that I think you should go read her for yourself.

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You know, this was fun. And almost painless, except for all of the bloggers I didn't get to mention.

Maybe we should do this again sometime.

Yeah.

Maybe we will.

Excellent.

Comments

[jen]

Aw, thanks, Miss Jennifer. I'm sure your daughter only says nice things about you!

[Jennifer]

Ha! Party time!

Yes, I did. The title changed about four times, actually.

[CGHill]

Is it my imagination, or did you originally plan to open this with a Wayne's World reference?

[Jennifer]

You are quite welcome. You know I could do the same for both of you, right? And might still. Who can say? ;-)

[Marsha]

Thanks for the great recommendations.

[wordnerd]

Wellllllll...anyone YOU think is excellent deserves a look, for sure! And I agree with ya on Ms. Karen 100%. Make that 110% -- I actually agree with her politics! Goin' to pay visits to your suggestions!