A sick day and September's BLOGGER OF THE MONTH.
September 01, 2006
Happy Friday, blog buddies!
Since it's the Friday before a three day weekend and I still don't feel 100%, I decided to stay home today and blog from my couch. Right now as I type, Louise is snacking on a bowl of food, I'm under a blanket with the air conditioner on (sorry Al Gore - just one day, I promise!), and a Sex and the City marathon is on the TV. I hate being sick, but sick days aren't so bad.
In other news, it's the 1st of the month - time to announce the BLOGGER OF THE MONTH!
The BLOGGER OF THE MONTH is always voted on by both you, the blog readers, and me, the blog writer. I created this honor because I wanted to publicly recognize those of YOU who go above and beyond the duties of an average blogger. Some people have received this honor because they're always welcoming to newbies in the chat room, others because they comment everyday and bring energy to the blog, and others because they've created web-spaces outside of this blog for us all to hang out.
But the common thread is that the BLOGGER OF THE MONTH extends him/herself to people they only know from here - a growing blog community that I am so proud to be a part of. Click HERE to read about all our prior BLOGGERs OF THE MONTH.
This month's BLOGGER OF THE MONTH is no exception:
Jeanne
BLOGGER OF THE MONTH
September, 2006
Here's the story:
Joey from SC, a regular blogger around here and prior blogger of the month (click HERE), had computer issues and, due to circumstances out of his control, didn't have access to another computer. Joey had become a staple around here and his presence was greatly missed.
Jeanne went above and beyond the call of duty as a blogger by donating her old laptop to Joey, a total stranger to her outside of this blog, so that he could come back to blog with us everyday. She sent her old laptop to former BLOGGER(s) OF THE MONTH Berry and Glynis (click HERE) for Berry to fix it, after which it was sent to Joey.
I'm moved by this kind of generosity and am proud to be associated with a blog responsible for bringing together these types of people.
Congrats, Jeanne!
In her own words:
OMG, I'm overwhelmed and can't believe that I've been chosen to be September's BotM! Much mahalo goes out to those that nominated me! So, here's a little bit about me... I was born and raised in Wahiawa, Hawaii, and am a true "local" girl at heart. I went to school at the University of Oregon in Eugene (though I didn't get my degree from there!) and thus started my love affair with the Pacific Northwest and coffee! I moved back to Hawaii in the early 90s and entertained thoughts of moving back to the Mainland, but can't seem to part with this beautiful place that I call home! I actually now live in Honolulu, but my parents and my beloved doggies still live in Wahiawa, in the home that I grew up in. I'm usually MIA on the weekends on the blog and in chat because I'm out in Wahiawa soaking up as much Emma and Chloe time that I can get! One more thing about me, I HATE and I mean HATE taking pictures, and honestly was hard pressed to find a decent picture of me actually facing the camera. So, the best that I could do was a picture with my baby-girl, Chloe, in which I look horrible and she looks unhappy! The first time I saw Ross on The Tonight Show was when he interviewed Gwenyth Paltrow and they agreed to become BFFs. That segment cracked me up and I was hooked and have been following Ross' career ever since. I happened to be on the NBC website looking for the schedule of Olympic events in Torino when I stumbled upon his blog. I loved, loved, loved reading his blog and got a kick out of the comments that were posted, but was still not brave enough to post myself, and I remained a lurker. After the Olympics, I signed up to receive updates on Ross' website and when he started his daily blog, I was again hooked and HAD to start posting. And, I'm glad that I did, because through the blog and through RossChat, I've met the most amazing people. Part of the group of amazing people that I met was a really special guy, Joey. He adds so much fun and humor to the blog and chat and I felt like Joey and I had bonded one late night (for me, early morning for him) when we were exchanging emails via Myspace and he told me about losing his computer. I had just began taking classes to work on my Masters degree and bought a new laptop, since my old one had been corrupted and infested with spyware and such. That poor little laptop sat in a bag, in a dark corner of my apartment waiting to be fixed up, loved and used. A couple of months had passed, and there was no Joey online, and the idea finally dawned on me to send the computer to Joey (should have thought of it sooner!). I used to work for an IT consulting company and one of my co-workers from there now owns his own business. He used to be our network guy and originally setup that laptop for me to use at work and at home. I asked him if he thought the laptop would be able to be reconfigured and used and he said he thought so. And, being the great kid that he is, he wiped out everything and cleaned off the drives for me for free. He refused payment after I told him what my plan was. After that, off it went to Glynis and Berry. I had e-mailed Glynis asking her if Berry would be able to get the laptop up and running and we agreed to keep our little project top secret, just in case the laptop wasn't able to handle the newer operating systems and software. But, Berry being the guru that he is, was able to get everything setup for Joey, and now we have Joey back online, on the blog and in chat. Without Glynis and Berry, there is NO way that we would have been able to pull this one off! Ross asked me to write about why I decided to donate the computer, and my answer is pretty simple. As I mentioned before, the blog has allowed me to meet really amazing people, people that I think of as part of my Ross Ohana. And, for everyone who has seen Lilo and Stitch, "ohana" means never leaving someone behind. I didn't want to leave Joey behind, and I just plain ole' missed him!
And Joey from SC's side of the story:
After losing access to my computer in late May 2006, I began experiencing withdrawals from the wonderful friends I had met at the Rossblog. I carried on with everyday life, checking the blog from friends' cell phones or the public library. Still knowing a little about what was happening was a great feeling, but it wasn't the same. Many of the bloggers including JACNY, Glynis and Jeff called me regularly and helped to lift my spirits. Little did I know what was going on behind the scenes. After Glynis' random thought post about getting me a computer that noone was using, Jeanne from Hawaii offered to donate me a laptop. On Friday, August 25th when my mailman knocked on my door with a package was the FIRST time I knew what the amazing blogger friends had been up to. It was a laptop mailed from Berry and Glynis(Tech expert Berry did the hookup on it)! I almost fainted. They actually made ME speechless for once! I cannot begin to express the gratitude and tell you how humbled I am to know that such great people still exist in this world! A big thanks to Jeanne, Berry and Glynis, JACNY and any others who had a hand in making it possible for me to return "HOME" to my Blog family in Rossland! I will never be able to repay you for the gratitude you've bestowed upon me! Thanks for letting me come back to LMAO daily with you all!
Again, congrats Jeanne! And welcome back, Joey!
Until tomorrow, gang!
Ross