No Blogger Is An Island: The “One Lovely Blog” Award

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”–John Donne, XVII. Meditation

I am indebted to Deborah Drucker for nominating my site for the “One Lovely Blog” Award. While I am usually opposed to chain tags–and am something of a hypocrite for accepting this nomination–it does help us newbie bloggers to feel that, yes, there is someone out there reading our posts. If this award helps any blog to gain readers, then it has done its job. While I was flattered to be nominated by Deborah, whose Notes Tied on the Sagebrush is always worth a read, I also accepted the “One Lovely Blog” Award because I had fun coming up with seven facts about myself.

Seven Facts about Sandi:

1. The first time my husband called to ask me out, he wanted me to be his “back-up date.” (Long story short: we had a When-Harry-Met-Sally friendship.) After his first and second choices turned him down, it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship, to tweak a phrase from Casablanca.

2. My “Forrest Gump” moment: at the age of 18, I got to shake Nancy Reagan’s hand. I was supposed to shake President Reagan’s hand, but he was unable to attend the ceremony on the White House lawn due to a last-minute conflict.

3. Also at the age of 18: I fell into a fountain at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. I was not inebriated–just clumsy (drinking alcohol was against the rules at the private Christian college I attended). My espadrilles were ruined.

4. I spent two months in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province during the Gulf War.

5. During the week that we spent in the UK following our sojourn in Pakistan, my husband and I ate at Pizza Hut three times.

6. I have been a Suzuki mom since 1997. At least one of my children has been studying a musical instrument using the method outlined in Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s book, Nurtured by Love, for 17 consecutive years.

7. The summer after my freshman year of college, I started playing the violin–mostly because there wasn’t much going on in my hometown. Eventually, I became proficient enough to play in the orchestra of the state university where I went to grad school (an adjunct professor was kind enough to teach me violin). True, I was last chair, second violin, but I got to play the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.  (My parents’ LP of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was the first classical music that I loved. My younger brother used to call the Rachmaninoff piano concerti “Rocky I,” “Rocky II,” and “Rocky III”–possibly not original but amusing.)

Here are the rules (nominees will follow). Nominees, if you wish to decline or ignore this nomination, I will completely understand. Should you choose to accept this award, here are the daunting rules, which I copied from Deborah’s post:

The One Lovely Blog Award nominations are chosen by fellow bloggers for those newer and up-and-coming bloggers. The goal is to help give recognition and also to help the new blogger to reach more viewers. It also recognizes blogs that are considered to be “lovely” by the fellow bloggers who choose them. This award recognizes bloggers who share their story or thoughts in a beautiful manner to connect with viewers and followers. In order to “accept” the award the nominated blogger must follow several guidelines:

* Thank the person who nominated you for the award.

* Add the One Lovely Blog logo to your post.

* Share 7 facts/or things about yourself

* Nominate 15 bloggers you admire and inform the nominees by commenting on their blog.

Here are my nominations. Each of these authors has written a post or posts that has, in some way, “connected” with me. The 16 blogs below represent the work of 15 authors (the same professor writes #3 and #4).

1. LESS@NS LEARNED
2. The Metamorphosis of a Wallflower
3. The Professor & Her Garden
4. My Year Away
5. Aileen Hunt
6. Cow Pasture Chronicles
7. Are We “Making You Think”
8. Redbuds and Rose Rocks
9. The Courtney Diaries
10. My Worst Advice
11. Fill Your Own Glass
12. Coolbreezeinthemountains
13. A Will for Will: The Shakespeare Project
14. gracespattern
15. A Hobbit’s Holidays
16. Gelatinous