You need to know about these ladies. Truly, ya do.

Hannah Johnson of The Scribbles of Girltaristhan nominated me for a blog award. I’m not a huge blog award person. I prefer to write my posts and scribble my little diary-like entries in the folds of notebook pages and type them up for your reading pleasure, but since one) this is the second time I’ve won one and two) I really think Hannah’s awesome and three) I have a lovely lineup of ladies you need to start following, I’m going to partake.

The rules:

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 15 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.
3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
5. In the same post, include this set of rules.
6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

My seven facts?

1. I signed up for HowAboutWe.com last night after reading a tweet from @kirasabin about it. And now I’m addicted to looking at profiles of boys I’ll probably never actually consider dating.
2. For all of you who don’t know me IRL, I’m only 4’11’’. Which is why I instantly loved @eddymusic.
3. I am a Twitter converter machine. In short, I make my friends join. Beg them, really, by talking too much about people I’ve never seen face-to-face.
4. I justify my crossword puzzle addiction by saying its brain-stimulating.
5. My intense love for the NY Giants and ability to make hot wings will probably surprise you.
6. My name is super Irish, but mostly, I’m Italian. Sadly, I’m only two weeks in to my Italian 101 course.
7. I believe in the power of the Internet to connect with like-minded individuals whose hearts are wrapped up in the same loves and frustrations as mine. But you already knew that.

Without further ado, my fifteen fabulous bloggers:

Ashley from Writing To Reach You. She understands the concept of “writing to reach you,” and not “writing to tell you super lame stories that drag on forever and rehash all the boring details.”

Katie from Katie Blogs. She has infectious persistence in her work and personal life, and you cannot help but love her for that. She also runs Drop A Love Bomb, which is wicked awesome.

Chelsea from The Diary of a Love Virgin. Diary is the perfect word. Not only do I feel like I shouldn’t be allowed to read her posts, but each time I find myself nodding my head. “Yes, this is me. You understand me.”

Hannah from H. Pigeon. She’s an artist with a wonderful insight into life’s little unanswerable questions. She reminds me of myself, turning small personal moments into larger ideas.

Rachel from Encountering Love. She’ll make you feel like you’re sitting in an Adirondack chair on the beach, watching your kid splash ocean water in blue jeans and a white shirt. Sipping tea and having a conversation on a lazy Sunday.

J from Zebra Sounds. Her posts are deeply insightful and economical. They force you to wonder about where you lie on the spectrum of truth she seeks to understand every week.

Karen from Karen Hammons. She turns honest, personal moments into those worth exploring and sharing with the rest of us. And we are just grateful to listen and ponder with her.

Taylor from Confessions of a Dreamer. Between old stories of long ago memories and new recounts of fumbling through this messy life, Taylor does not pretend to tie everything into a bow. She simply seeks to be real and hopes God helps her find the way.

Julianne from Calling All Cool Moms. I cannot help but laugh out loud each time she retells a story about her adventures as a mom with a clever and witty son. She’s honest and refreshing and classy all at once.

Kerry from I’ve Got Roses. She does not hold herself back out of fear, but rather reminds us that knowing how we feel and being unapologetically honest about that is the only way to live in this life.

Mackenzie from Whatever, Gatsby. She is ridiculously cool and hip and super intelligent. Every post is short and sweet and packed with beautiful photos or hilarious stories.

Lauren from Life With Lauren. She keeps it real, relatable, and inspirational. And she’s blogging all over this world wide web about post-grad life.

Ashley from The Shine Project. She’s changing the world, one random (intentional?) act of kindness at a time. And it’s beautifully captured on her blog.

Justine from A New Beginning. Her own lists and life goals will inspire you to drum up a Future You to work towards. And her blog is absolutely beautiful.

Sarah from Starving Artist. When I read her bio, I knew we were secretly BFFs. She’s tumbling about Taylor swift, books, love letters, and activism, among another hundred inspirational and thought-provoking things.

I hope you all love these ladies’ blogs and find at least one that pulls you back to it again and again.

I’ll be back on Monday with my traditional posts, all metaphors and life questions and stories. I promise.

She is all ambition and heart, rock solid and unquestioning.

Katie Colihan of KatieBlogs.com

Katie asked me to get coffee before we’d typed so much as 140 characters to each other. I actually stopped halfway between a side street in downtown New Brunswick and the spot where Henna’s car was illegally parked to read the notification on my phone.

You have to understand: people don’t take chances on me. I’m not among the instantly intriguing shimmery and sequin-rimmed cardigans hanging on mannequins in the front window at Express.

You also have to understand: that’s just the kind of heart Katie’s equipped with. She doesn’t need much to go on, just a little reassurance that you are a kind soul stuck inside a sometimes nasty and lonely world.

When I realized how many hands Katie had, how many pots of honey she’d dipped her paws into, I was only more impressed. Every single one of her five, count ‘em five, jobs is scheduled for a day of the week.

Mondays are for Stratejoy, Tuesdays and Thursdays for Love Bomb, and so forth.

And that does not bother her. She does not feel ready to drop one, two, three, heck even four jobs when some of us run and run and run and think we cannot even handle one.

She is all ambition and heart, rock solid and unquestioning. She knows the word “no” but chooses “yes” when she means it and doesn’t apologize to herself later.

She taught me about scheduling, about dreaming only big enough to keep you from hurling yourself onto the floor in quiet desperation that you cannot possibly do enough. She taught me a lot from her spot on the other side of the screen, probably only half an hour from the house I grew up in but a solid four-hour car ride from my temporary residence in western Virginia.

Mostly, she taught me that a cup of coffee is not a cup of coffee. That should she chisel a thirty-minute block out of her organized and jam-packed schedule to someday sip java with this girl over here, it will be for the same reason she runs wild and fierce in this big ole world.

She cares.

Enough to construct a giant love bomb when a best friend of mine was hanging onto hopes of her own happy ending like the last sheet of toilet paper on the public bathroom stall roll. She saves lives, literally, and reminds me that there is nothing wrong with juggling projects, with organized, facilitated chaos.

Maybe, I think, she’s making up for those of us sitting on couches watching Simpsons reruns. [Nothing against the Simpsons. I just had to pick a show.]