Aww, Awarded I Am

Lemme see, is it: I rock, therefore I think? Or I think, therefore I rock?

If I am trying mightily to draw out existentialist meanings to blogging, thinking and rocking -- it's just from wanting to show I am truly entitled to the Thinking and Rocking Blogger awards given to me by esteemed blogging buddies. That I just didn't happen to be passing by with my umbrella open upside down when the awards were raining down. That Rachel and Gypsy and Singlguy weren't just mesmerized with my looks and style and charm (Ahem!). And that I didn't bribe them .

Seriously, now. Every blogger worth her dashboard knows blogging is its own reward, much like virtue. And to be given premiums -- medals, trophies, citations (and even tens of dollars and freebies) -- for blogging .. then that deserves an AWWWWWW! As in "Aw can't believe it .. you like me, you really like me (with apologies to Sally Fields.)"

Singl, Gypsy and Rach: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate these gifts -- especially coming from you who I so admire for -- well, what else, blogging, thinking and rocking. Its only measure is my inability to say how much. These are the first awards I ever received for blogging and I pin the medals on the lapel of my heart.

Before I flood this piece with gush and mawk, histrionics and hyperbolics ... let me compose myself and pass on the trophies as I have been instructed to do.

The envelopes please.

ROCKING AWARDS

The Rocking Girl award, is passed on to:

• Noemi, quintessential Prime-time Gal, who translated grief into positive energy, inspiring and giving hope to those who suffered excruciating losses like her -- as she now shines and shines. and rocks
  
• Chateau, Queen of Quirks -- the one, the only who can beat my own royal weirdness. She's very kalog and funny -- though she has to unfreeze first before she goes campy. With a heart soft as marshmallow for Nate, Patricia, Vgood and Technohub and big enough to embrace new friends like me.


• Leah, woman of many talents, not least of them mothering. wifery and blogging with savvy and wisdom and facility of language.


• Gina , whose cheerfulness and goodness of heart and humility just runneth over her blog site.
• Rhodora - blogger after my own heart, goldie, too, though many karats younger. Often giggly like me. Coping with life's ups and downs bravely. I like it, really like it, that she is in Law school pursuing an early dream. Rock on, Rhoda baby.

THINKING BLOGGERS AWARD

Now, the second envelope please. The Thinking Blogger award is passed on to:

• Chesca - whose pieces shift from being really down-to-earth to funny to absolutely deep and intellectual but not pointedly so. And her writing style, ooh, is to die for!
  
• Abaniko - whose "soul" is often kept in check in his posts on everyday things (travel, scrabble, badminton, photography, restaurants) but somehow sneaks out every now and then. The guy's got brains! which he doesn't flaunt.
  
• Myepinoy - though he blogs peripherally and is sometimes deliberately careless with his grammar (his words, not mine) he is an acute observer of events and is usually able to catch a different take on a subject ). Even his comments to others' posts are so well thought out they could be blog pieces in themselves.


• Toe - Need I say anything about Toe? When she first visited me, I felt like Mohammed being visited by the mountain. An illustrada whose heart is in the right place : with the masa.


• Vernaloo - One has got to have great thinking caps to make people laugh so hard and so consistently. She is at her best when laughing at herself. I sometimes call her "The Raconteur." And, yes, Candida -- go figure.

!!Now, the awardees are supposed to hand down the awards to bloggers of their choice!!

MY PARTIAL "TOP TEN EMERGING INFLUENTIAL BLOGGERS"

Speaking of awards, I take this opportunity to address e-commerce guru Janet Toral and submit my partial list of nominees to her "Top Ten Emerging Influential Bloggers" award: GIBBS CADIZ , theatre blogger without equal whose blogging has influenced others to appreciate and write Philippine theatre and music and art; DINE RACOMA aka SEXY MOM of D-spot for her prolific and exemplary blogs on parenting and family life, continuing education, friendship, and other values we hold dear; and PHILOSOPHICAL BASTARD for his not so bastardy and definitely philosophical takes on his young life.

Note: I deliberately didn't cite a blogger twice, though the line between thinking, rocking and influencing can be so thin. And I didn't give back any award to their source as we may end up just tossing the ball, sweet ball, to each other -- in the manner of mutual admiration societies.