consider this my sally fields speech

via

a big thank you and humble head bow to all those who voted me "best writer" in this year's blogscars. it was a lovely, sweet thing to wake up to this morning and truly made me very proud.

(you know what didn't make me very proud? meryl streep winning best actress last night. and her self-deprecating but somehow simultaneously arrogant acceptance speech. i digress.)

when i was nine, i won a trunk full of crayola and nabisco products after entering a coloring contest on the back of a box of teddy grahams. is there really anything better than cookies and crayons when you're a child? even now, i would gladly and giddily accept an award that could eventually result in crumbs and messes.

that was the last thing i really won, and so this award is not taken lightly.

and on top of thanking my Lord and Savior, my devoted, protective husband, my drooling, cuddly pup and my parents who let me hole up in my bedroom and write poetry when most other children were outside, i would also like to thank my favorite english teacher, mr. eanes. a story about a grown man getting stuck in a mcdonald's playpen on prom night should either be hilarious or sad. in eleventh grade, i sat in my desk on the front row as you told it in a dynamic, interesting way that somehow made it both.

thank you to everyone who believes in the power of words. in the way they dance across a page and create new ideas every single day. readers make everything interesting and populate our imaginary towns with real, beating hearts. without them, the universe would be full of vivid, bright worlds as empty and lonely as a roadside bar on a cold sunday morning. thank you, for continuing to pretend.