I am actually very competitive. I’m so competitive that I refuse to compete. Really. The first time I was nominated for a blog contest (it was the first year of the BOB awards), I asked to be removed. For one thing, I was up against friends and I don’t LIKE competing against friends. And for another thing we all know that any blog contest with voting isn’t even a popularity contest — it’s something even less relevant than that; it’s a contest of whose friends are most into winning and the only thing worse than competing against friends is competing FOR friends to compete against friends.
I have no delusions. I write a nice blog here and all but there are many many fabulous adoption blogs and none of my favorites are on the nomination sheet. This isn’t any grand conspiracy either — it’s just that only four adoption blogs got nominated. The press release says, “TheBump.com will showcase up to 10 of the most noteworthy finalists for each of the 15 blog categories”, which means there were six empty spaces that by rights should have been filled in by some folks on my blogroll.
I shoulda paid attention when Jenna announced she’d nominated me because then I would have nominated HER because she’s one of my favorites (obviously) but also because we’ll know the times they are a-changing when a first parent wins an adoption category in a mommy blog contest.
(The thing about Jenna is that she’s like a Trojan horse of a blog when it comes to adoption reform. This is why she pisses so many people off on either side — she’s someone who resolutely walks the tightrope because she has a “good” open adoption but she doesn’t think that lets anyone off the hook. I mean, what she writes? It’s really transgressive because you can’t label her with a free and easy label. Think about it — she got birth motherhood into REDBOOK for crying out loud! And not happy-dappy birth motherhood either. That’s some powerful activism right there.)
This is also why I won’t keep the prize if I win. If I win the first round, the gift certificate will go to Pennie. If I win the second, it’ll go to Ethica. Because this isn’t a contest I’d feel like I EARNED and I’m a whole lot more comfortable going out and begging for votes if it’s not about ME. You know? I also like the counterpoint of specifically giving the prizes to the people who are missing from the contest (i.e., a first mom and an agency working for the rights of adoptees and first parents).
Anyway, vote for me zillions of times between now and 11:59pm EST Monday (I wrote to the folks running the contest and they said it’s kosher to hit refresh and vote a bunch of times if you want). And now I’m going to go lie face down in my bed because I am sick sick sick with a sore throat and fever.
