Friday, December 01, 2006

Perfect Post and Premiere Pair

What seems like a long time ago now, when I first began to think about my blog less as just a diary of my life events and more as a practice in the craft of writing, and when I first began to really become involved in a blogging community, I set two specific goals for myself. Oh, sure, there were smaller goals that were less direct and more flighty – as J. reminded me, for example, having blog celebs like Her Bad Mother or Mom101 visit my site. But those goals sort of came and went, and I thought of them more as nice things that might happen and wouldn’t it be neat if they did?

But there were two concrete goals I set for myself – things I knew I wanted to achieve, to prove to myself somehow that my blog mattered. That people liked it. That it was appreciated. (By more than just me and my mom.)

The first goal was to get double-digit comments on a post. I achieved this on October 1, receiving 14 comments on “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat.” How did I finally break the single-digit barrier? Probably mostly by admitting, unapologetically, that I am a comment whore. Also, the longer I blog, the easier it gets, purely by the fact that I make more and more blogging connections – I get more readers and more blog friends. And it especially helps when those blog friends are the stalkerish commenting type (ahem *Aly* ahem). But however it happened, I achieved that goal, and I was thrilled.

The second goal I knew was less realistic. It was, in fact, kind of a long shot. But a goal is supposed to beyond your reach, just a little bit, otherwise it wouldn’t be a goal – it would just be something you have. My second goal was to win a Perfect Post Award. The Perfect Post Awards are hosted each month by Lucinda and Momma K, and they are a chance for bloggers to honor their favorite posts of each month. They can be favorites for wit, intellect, immature humor, nostalgia, beauty, sadness - for whatever reason, that blogger LOVES that particular post, and so she or he deems it a Perfect Post.

I wanted to be a good enough blogger to win a Perfect Post Award someday. And occasionally, the thought would cross my mind as I wrote a post that maybe this was worthy of an award, or maybe this was crap and would never win me an award, or any number of thoughts in between. It wasn’t there all the time – it certainly wasn’t the reason I ever posted. I posted for my own reasons, but every so often, the distant goal of the Perfect Post was there in my mind.

When I wrote my series, however, the Perfect Post was far from my mind. Miles away. I wrote those posts for myself, for my own healing, selfish though that may be. Many people have talked about the effect those posts might have on other readers, that others might find it inspirational in some way. And I must admit that I think that’s entirely possible, that my words might help someone struggling with a similar situation, might give her hope when she couldn’t find it anywhere else. If that happens, it would be wonderful, and I never even really need to know that it did. But to be honest about my self-centered motivations, that was not a consideration for me. I wrote the posts for me, and I shared them because putting them out there for others to see was also a part of the healing for me. It was an admission of the reality of what I had experienced – of the truth I had found in the pain. It was not, however, intended to garner attention for the sake of attention (which I certainly like at times).

Perhaps because the series was so unaffected by external motivations – so driven by sincere emotional need – it became the post to help me achieve my second goal. Lady M has presented me with a Perfect Post Award for the month of November for my post series recapping my recent struggles. To win the award for something so meaningful to me personally is more than I could have hoped for. To win the award from Lady M, a wonderful woman I am proud to have as a friend and mentor, only makes it that much more remarkable to me. I am beyond honored.

Plus, I got a cool button to add to my sidebar, and we all know this place needed some sprucing up. :-P

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To abruptly change the subject with no segue whatsoever, it is the first day of December, and that means – LaBloShoeMo! Time for Pair #1: The Tweed Ballet Flats.

I adore these shoes - though, I suppose, I adore most of my shoes, so that says very little. This is one of only three pairs of shoes for which I have an *exactly* matching purse (excepting, of course, the obvious black, white, and brown pairs). It is the one and only pair for which I have both a matching purse AND a matching coat. They also keep me from being too tall, what with their being flats and all, and that little bow in the front is just precious. The one downside? They still give me blisters if I walk around in them for too long. Ah well – they’re worth it.

(P.S. The pants are hand-me-downs from my mom. They didn't fit her, so she offered them to me to try. They are a size 4 Long, so I figured there was no chance they would fit my size 10 legs. But then they fit! A SIZE 4! I think I was in shock for days over that. Thanks for the pants, Mom!)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations chook on that award! I am proud of you, especially because of the nature of your posts. Your honesty really DOES win awards! *hugs*

Those are CUTE shoes. I am so excited, I just want to take photos of shoes all day long..

Anonymous said...

the perfect post award AND the tweed ballet flats--it's almost too much goodness for one day!

congrats!
on the award AND the shoes.

Anonymous said...

My big chance! To ask the question! That I always have when women* talk about shoes! Here it goes: W. t. f?

Seriously. Cute bow, makes you short, matching purse - oh, right, and gives you blisters. Shoes? Blisters? Rome didn't conquer a good part of the northern hemisphere with bows on their shoes; no, they did it with shoes that prevented blisters.

I demand - ok, impolitely petition for - in-depth analysis re: this issue.

*To be fair, I know that some men equally flabbergastingly wear uncomfortable articles, too.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the Perfect Post(s). It is well deserved.

And the shoes are cute. I look forward to seeing which other shoes you choose...

Don't be afraid to be too tall.

-TB

Lady M said...

You're a beautiful writer and a beautiful person!

Anonymous said...

You're welcome for the pants. Having been a size 4 for years I will say that I'm not worried about your weight...yet. Should these pants get baggy, I will find that unacceptable (and this is said with love in my "mother's voice").

Anonymous said...

dude, CUTE shoes. love them. I commonly refer to myself as... a shoe whore. 29 pairs of dressy/cute shoes, alone. That doesn't include sneakers, rain boots, flip flops, sandals, et al.

a perfect post, indeed. congratulations!

Lara said...

aly - what, exactly, is a chook? i will work under the assumption that it is not an insult and say thank you. :)

dre - i was indeed a bit overwhelmed by so much good in such a short period of time. especially when you commented, which only added a new layer of amazingness. ;)

nym - man, i was cracking up when i read this comment - just so you know. a lot of the time, i don't have to wear these shoes for long enough for them to give me blisters. the rest of the time, it's easy enough to put precautionary bandaids on my heels. but also, with my particular shoes, i generally only wear uncomfortable shoes because they aren't broken in yet. once they're less new, they're no longer uncomfortable. i'm not down with wearing permanently uncomfortable shoes. women who are, well, they're crazy. crazier than i.

TB - can't help being afraid of being too tall. too many years of feeling horrendously awkward beside shorter guys. not to mention all the guys in my dance classes who consistently managed to be at eye level with my chest. ugh...

lady m - thank you so much! you are wonderful yourself. :)

mom - i thought of you at dinner recently, because a friend was acting like my mom telling me to take "just two more bites" before letting me claim i was done with my food. i thought you'd appreciate the effort everyone's making not to let me waste away here. ;)

sassy student - well, ms. shoe whore, you should totally participate in KaBloShoeMo with me and aly! post some pics of your shoes on your site!