I'd like to call them my posse...

http://spaghettiwesterner.blogspot.com

Often I’ve thought blogging could be summed up with this quote:  I have three kinds of friends: those who love me, those who pay no attention to me, and those who detest me. - Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort

There are moments in blogging – when a post I’ve worked really hard on doesn’t go over like I hoped or I find out I’m breaking yet another rule of “Twitter etiquette” or I spend two hours commenting on other people’s blogs only to find one lonely comment on my own – that I’ve wallowed in self-pity, sung “Everybody hates me; I guess I’ll go eat worms,” and thought about giving up on the whole shebang entirely.

In those low points, I’ve found support in unexpected places.  Many of these relationships started out professionally: me pleading for help in figuring out what in the heck “SEO” meant or an email from a reader about links on some page or another that I’d screwed up.  But somewhere along the way, business started feeling more like friendship.

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What I’ve found is that the blogging community is filled with wonderful people who I feel lucky to count among my friends.  I think that some of them are so great, in fact, that if our teenage selves had a sleepover, I would try my hardest to convince them that it was a good idea to French braid ourselves into Siamese triplets.

So today, I want to introduce you to some of those people.  Each one of them has supported me in some way – even if it was just a particularly needed comment on a rough day.  They write the blogs I love to read, the blogs I laugh at every time, and the blogs that inspire me to be better.

I have to say that if I wasn’t worried about it looking like I was trying to bribe the judges, I would totally have recommended Heather from My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream, Amy from Non-Stop Mom, and Random Girl from Random Girl Blog.  Also, if I wasn’t worried about all my loyal followers voting for a fellow competitor after reading how funny her writing is, I would have recommended Roni at Mommy in Law.

But since I don't want to be a brown noser nor do I want to be totally counterproductive, here are my top 5:

 
Michelle at Momma Bird:  I’m a sucker for a good photographer, and Momma Bird does not disappoint.  While the images first attracted me to her blog, her fun stories keep me coming back.  And last week, she announced something that delights the former children’s librarian in me:  She’s going to start doing Story time via Vlog.   My toddler is captivated by her story reading, so this is as much his contribution to the top 5 list as it is mine!
 

Lily at Mom Next Door: When I read her post titled “101 Things You Never Needed To Know About Me, But I’ll Tell You Anyway,’ I started to suspect that we were long-lost cousins.  Especially the part about her favorite meal ever consisting of a baguette and sausage in a hotel room in Paris and the fact that she has requested stuffed artichokes for her birthday dinner.  The more I get to know her, the more I’m certain we were separated at birth.  She’s funny, clever, and sarcastic.  That’s all I need!

 

Mary at I Need A Playdate:  One night, I posted about how I wanted to redesign my blog.  The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised by a tweet from a complete stranger offering to help me do just that.  I’d been an admirer of Mary’s for a while, but her offer floored me.  I’ve come to learn that she is all about giving back to the community: online and in real life.  She’s kind, she’s smart, she’s giving, and she’s got cute kids (one of whom might be destined to be a weather reporter). 
 

Sandra at Absolutely Narcissism:  Upon reading this blog, I developed a secret challenge for myself: My goal is to someday read this blog without laughing.  I’ve not yet succeeded.  Sandra is hilarious, no doubt, but every once in a while, she throws in a kernel of raw honesty that makes me feel like she is an old friend instead of just a comedian. She’s also a fitness model who posts gratuitous (but smokin’ hot) photos of herself in bikinis on a regular basis.   See, a little something for the men in the audience, too.

 Brandon at My Own Private Idaho: Even if I don’t win Blogger Idol, I will look back and feel lucky for what it has brought me.  One of those things is this blog.  I clicked on Brandon’s link during the Blogger Idol Week 1 Play At Home, and I have never looked back.  While that post was serious and actually made tear up, I quickly learned that mostly he writes about life as a California transplant to middle-of-nowhere Idaho (where, he says, “Half the town doesn't know what terms like ‘email’ and ‘wi-fi’ mean”).  As if the scenarios he finds himself in weren’t funny enough – think of the exact opposite of the Beverly Hillbillies – the stories he tells are even better, complete with a dry sarcasm that I love. 



There are many, many more (I hope you know who you are), and I’d recognize each and every one if I had space. That's the beauty of the blogging world: there's always more: more friends, more lessons, more growing.  Thank you for all you've given me thus far; I can't wait to see what's next!


Judges Comments:

"Haha i love the french braid. Thats true friendship right there! These blogs are great!! You have a great variety of blogs/bloggers you love reading. thanks for sharing these with us! "
Erica, from Good Job Momma

"I agree with Erica. Nice spread over a bunch of different niches."
Allison Duncan, from SVALLIE.NET: The Nerd Connection

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The Dude, from The Daddyyo Blog