And the Winner Is...

Well, it looks like LaBloShoeMo 2007 is shaping up nicely. Since last year's month o' shoes ended, I've bought...

Oh my God, I just went and counted. I've bought eighteen pairs of shoes. EIGHTEEN. Yeah, I'm shocked too. And eight of those I actually bought just this afternoon. What can I say? I love shoes, and when I find out Payless is having a BOGO sale (Buy One Get One 1/2 Off), well, I tend to let myself go a little crazy. See?



Of course, you know that the other problem is you guys. I've become the shoe guru. I've become the expert everyone asks for shoe advice. Just last week, Lady M said, "You have to come shopping with me, because I need some new shoes, and if you're not there, I'll just end up deciding that whatever I have is good enough." I love being that person, but it means that now, when I'm shopping for shoes, and I see a bunch that I really like and totally don't need, I think, "But I'm the shoe lady! I'll lose my credibility if I only buy one sensible pair of shoes! My reputation is at stake! Hot pink pumps! Strappy wedges! Red vinyl ballet flats! Must... buy... ALL!" And when I start to feel guilty, I ease the shame by saying, "Well, at least I can blog about it."

I'm a shameless shoe whore.

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On the heels of the most recent award making the rounds (Rockin' Girl Blogger, anyone?), I've decided to make a list of my own awards, complete with my own choice of recipients. So, without further ado, I give you....




Thirteen Custom-Designed Lara David Blogging Awards


1. The "Kindred Sole" Award - I had to start with this one because it was just so timely. I'm giving this award to the lovely Mocha Momma for her unbelievably excellent taste in shoes. But more than that, I'm giving it to her for her unabashed adoration of shoes and the happiness they bring to the world. (And yes, the pun? It's awful. But isn't it just a little bit funny? Just a little bit?)

2. The "Guilt-Free Zone" Award - This honor is probably the one I'd most love to see continue, because I think a lot of the "mommybloggers" could use this one. It goes to Dee at Voices in My Mind. I realize that motherhood carries with it a great deal of concern and anxiety, and with that often comes guilt. I've heard Dee worry about this often, and I'd like to offer her a little bit of forgiveness and freedom.

3. The "Dictionary-Worthy Blog" Award - This is also known as the "I Need a Better Vocabulary to Read This Blog" award, and it is a tie between Kilgore Trout's Quintessential Rambling and Pistol Pete's Necessary Therapy. Seriously, I don't comment nearly often enough on their blogs, purely because I'm working so hard just to understand it that I can't come up with anything intelligent enough to say about it. But it's all good stuff.

4. The "Snark" Award - Okay, I know I just named Ali of Cheaper Than Therapy a Rockin' Girl Blogger, but a Snark Award is pretty much designed for her, so she's going to have a two-award week. The snark flies around that place with wild abandon, and a snarky chook like me adores her all the more for it.

5. The "New Kid on the Blog(lines)" Award - This award is presented to Blog Antagonist at Blogs Are Stupid. I just added her to Bloglines about a week ago, and I already love her. Soon, she'll be a veteran favorite on my list, but for now, she's still a newbie, and deserves recognition as an all-star rookie.

6. The "Parental Advisory" Award - I like to think of this as the "Most Likely to Write About Her Bajingo" Award, and I'm giving it to Mrs. Chicky at Chicky Chicky Baby. I sat in the apartment one night laughing my ass off at this post and all the comments on it. When I told my mom about it later, I made sure to explicitly tell her, "And I do NOT want to know what the hell I called it when I was younger!"

7. The "Sweet Tooth" Award - The woman most likely to give you a toothache, that's how sweet she is: Mayberry Mom. And I don't mean that in the sickeningly sweet sense, either. I mean that there's just something about the comments she leaves that has me going, "Awwww, she's so SWEET!" I want to go visit her in Mayberry and take a walk down Main Street, looking in all the shop windows, waving at the passersby, and just plain being friends. And then maybe I'd be sweet, too.

8. The "Writer's Support" Award - I've designed this award for Meg of Simply Nutmeg. I know that she's been the biggest supporter of my working towards becoming a paid, published writer, and I'm fairly certain she's done the same for numerous others. Everyone who feels uncertain in a given field needs that inspirational figure to push him or her towards success. For me, that figure is Nutmeg.

9. The "Pillar O' Strength" Award - First, does anyone out there agree with me that everything sounds cooler if you replace "of" with "o'"? Okay, fine, maybe it's just me. At any rate, Ffbgirl from My Life... totally deserves an award like this, because she is just flat out killing me with how amazingly strong she is these days. Honestly, she is going through crazy awful shit, and if you have *any* time at all, go lend her some support. She is so strong - I am in awe.

10. The "MIA" Award - Also known as "Please come back!" I'm awarding this as a tie to both Sassy Belle - from Random Acts of Sass - and Jen - from So Fast Away. I miss these ladies like you can't believe, and I want them to come back to the blogosphere soon. Are you out there? Can you hear me? Do you miss me too? Please come back!

11. The "Grammar Goddess" Award - Mrs. Chili at A Teacher's Education is my grammar idol, and I adore her for her regular "Grammar Wednesdays" that seek to teach the masses some proper English. Since I was referred to as the "grammar maven" in my teacher preparation program, I was glad to find someone else in the blogosphere who prized grammar and punctuation as highly as I do. Of course, that doesn't mean we don't both mess up occasionally, but we'll call that artistic license.

12. The "Meme Queen" Award - Tense Teacher does a meme every Saturday, and I think that is totally awesome. Y'all know that I love memes, so having a new one to read (and possibly steal) at least once a week is great for me. She includes her snappy wit in all of her responses too, which means that I don't consider the memes a break from her regular posts, but rather a really cool version of them.

And finally...

13. The "Animal Exploitation" Award - Even though she is way too famous to ever happen upon this award (and I don't care enough to tell her about it), I'm giving this award to Dooce. You have to go check out her daily pictures of Chuck, a beautiful and VERY patient dog. I'd estimate that at least 80% of the Daily Chuck photos are of him with something on his head or nose. I don't know why he sits still for that, but I like the pics that come out of it.


What award would you give me? How about yourself?



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