chickfest

Madame Chick has called for a lovefest. And Madame Chick shall get one.

I agree with others - it is so difficult to pick just one. But from the moment I read her post, I knew I would write about i obsess , not because I am not madly in love with several others. (Mad, Momish, Crazymum, Bar Kicky, Doggy, Lucia, Kiki, Meno, Bad, Maiden, Tab, yes, I am talking about you) but because Queen Obsess got me started blogging and she doesn't even know it.

I lurked for months before starting my own blog, fascinated by the whole gig and still unsure if it was for me, and I Obsess was one of the first blogs I stumbled onto. I ate hers up like one would eat wonton soup with a perfect ceramic spoon - until one day I finally thought I could give it a try. And then I stopped lurking and started commenting at spots I liked, but for some reason felt almost intimidated over at I/O.

You know when you are in a new school and that one girl is so pretty, and everyone likes her, and her locker has the best stickers, and her jeans fit just right? And so you'd walk by and hope she'd look at you but was always busy helping a disabled kid up the stairs or running a pep rally so you never got a chance to catch her attention? Yep, that's her. And I was the shy geeky girl who chewed her pigtails.

And then (believe it or not), I calmed down and allowed the superficial admiration to churn into something more real and would find myself time and time again, awed and inspired and moved, as much as before. This woman really cares about life. She feels and breathes and takes things seriously and with ball breaking humor and naked honesty all at once. And she can be conflicted - she might struggle over how much she can give, and how that might let others down, and she does it in such a way that you feel warm inside all the way through. A way that says all will be well, no matter what.

And lastly, she makes you want to be a better writer. To attempt to feel and articulate and embrace the real and the honest and the magical. She's brought whimsy to my sometimes darkened mind, she's inspired me to try and write fiction, and she's shown me countless times that mothering can be looked at from so many different angles, some broken, some shiny and new, but always, always, real.

And when all of that should be entirely enough....then came piratey ballooney embroidered baby shirts.

I heart I Obsess.