Thanksgiving in January

I’ve been sporadically blogging for almost two years now. In the beginning, most of my readers were friends and family, but in the past six months, I’ve slowly started becoming part of the greater blogging community, which means I’m spending at least as much time—probably more—reading and learning about other people as I am writing about myself. And it’s been so much fun! There are so many interesting people out there with so many amazing stories, talents and ideas.

Last September, to my surprise, I received my very first blogging award–Very Inspiring Blogger–courtesy of the The Retiring Sort. Please check out the TRS blog for some truly inspiring posts.

I can’t tell you how delighted I was when I got the notification! My acceptance of the award is ridiculously delayed, but my appreciation of it is heartfelt and sincere.

In December, I was again surprised and delighted to receive another award, The Versatile Blogger, from Lasesana.

Her blog covers a variety of topics from Spanish lessons to cycling to cooking. Talk about versatile! You can spend days wandering around her site … and you should!

So now it’s time to pause for a moment and share my gratitude with my fellow bloggers … and spread the love.

As part of the acceptance process, I must share seven random things about myself and nominate 15 bloggers for the awards.

Below, you’ll find 30 bloggers (15 for each award) whose musings most certainly deserve recognition (of course, there are many, many more), but only seven random things about me … I can’t come up with 14!

Random Me

1. If we had a contest about who had the most impressive, ridiculous, interesting bicycle stories, I would totally win.
2. In college, I learned how to play the sitar (but couldn’t play one now).
3. I suck at math.
4. I LOVE flip flops.
5. I once spent three days jumping into the Olympic training pool in Park City, Utah—with a snowboard strapped to my feet.
6. The first sentence I learned in Bangla was “Mosha ami pochando kori na!” which means, “I don’t like mosquitoes!”
7. I’m usually pretty smart, but sometimes I’m a complete airhead.

Very Inspiring Blogger Nominees

The following bloggers are inspiring (at least to me) for many reasons. I admire the paths they have chosen in their lives and their willingness to share them, their various talents, and their ability to help me see the world from a different perspective.

1. Life Out of the Box
2. A Word in Your Ear
3. Steve McCurry’s Blog
4. Izzy Lynch
5. Brian Cooney’s Photography Blog
6. Traveller Soul
7. This Man’s Journey
8. Everywhere Once
9. Serenity Spell
10. Cee’s Photography
11. Adventures of Andrea
12. Dreamlife Moments
13. Trading Places
14. Hot Milk for Breakfast
15. Ken Thinks Aloud

The Versatile Blogger Nominees

The following blogs are a great source of ideas, tips, inspiration and sometimes just plain random or humorous rants to make your daily reading a little more interesting. Check them out!

1. Wayfaring Teacher
2. Taste for Adventure
3. 3rdculturechildren
4. Native to the Place
5. Bolt in the Blue
6. Joy and Woe
7. Alice through the Macro Lens
8. Fabulous 50′s
9. Tom Reeder’s Blog
10. Sometimes Interesting
11. You Monsters Are People
12. Trash Backwards
13. Yoga Spy
14. Zeebra Designs and Destinations
15. Stolen Goods (Maybe this nomination will encourage her to start writing again!)

Award Acceptance Rules

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and share a link to their blog.
2. Attach the award icon to your site.
3. Share seven random things about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 bloggers.
5. Inform the nominees and explain how to accept the award.

Thanks again SO MUCH for the awards!

Happy reading and happy blogging everyone!