The Best of Times

Oh my goodness me!! I'm as excited as I've ever been... Even more than when I FINALLY got a certain son, (no names J), potty trained. Even more than when Chris de Burgh sat on my knee while he crooned 'Lady in Red' in my ear. This is big - really BIG!!
Turning on my bashed up iPhone on this morning, I had a 'Congratulations' tweet from a fellow blogger - the fab Sarah -and to cut a very long story short, after a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, and checking and rechecking....and rechecking again, I found out that I've been nominated in two categories for the MAD Blog Awards!
Peeps, this is like the Oscars for blogs, so you can just call me frickin' Angelina Jolie. (Just today, humour me!) I couldnt believe it!  Still can't actually, and I'm almost afraid to even look at all the other finalists because I KNOW they'll be tote amaze but, you know what? Right now, I don't even care!
 One of the very first things that I did do was to phone my mum. Now, just to put you in the picture, she and the whole Interweb thing don't really see eye to eye- she once did a 10 week course on basic computer skills and announced, at the end, that all she now knew was how to use the mouse. End of. So to say that she's a bit baffled by the whole 'blogging' concept is an understatement. I mean, she still hasn't actually managed to access my blog, ('Is that all one big long word? What do you mean 'a slash?'), so, a while back I printed off a couple of my posts and to date, that's all she's ever read. But that didn't stop her making multiple copies, and then passing them out to friends, relations, neighbours, complete strangers..anyone actually.
Anyway, I rang her this morning and she answered the phone with a terse ' Is that you Emma?', which of course it was and SHE knew it was too, because it said so on her phone.
'Yes mummy, is everything OK? You sound a bit funny.'
She actually sounded like she was doing some kind of surveillance work, possibly undercover, but as it turned out, she was merely in the dentist's waiting room, which was apparently jampacked with eariwiggers, hence the loud whispering.  When I explained to her why I was phoning, she was (quietly) thrilled and I suspect still slightly baffled, but she totally got the whole trip to London thing. Then gathering herself, and in typical 'mammy' fashion, she put me over it all again.
'Okay, I'm writing this down now- tell me again, how many were nominated? And how many are finalists? And you're doing what exactly? I'm meeting your auntie M later, and I want all the facts in front of me'. Then, with a cheery ' I always said you should have done English A level!', off she went, to get her filling replaced.
I've been on a high all day myself- it doesn't matter that it's pissing down outside, or that in my excitement,  I broke two eggs and spilt fabric softener all over the floor, because I'm a FINALIST- Moi!  I even caught myself humming the stirring 'One Moment in Time' and I HATE that song!
I DID have a mini panic for about five minutes when I thought,  'FTLOG,  what if they actually MEANT it for 'AdventuresofasuperfitmotherIjustmadeitup' and I'll get a tweet saying 'Sorry, we're taking it back but here's a balloon instead.' But then I thought, 'Feck it, they'll have to (virtually) prise it from my cold dead fingers first!'
The truth is though, in this rambling, overexcited, roundabout way, what I'm actually trying to say is thank you very very very much,  because if YOU hadn't bothered your arse nominating me all those weeks ago, I wouldn't be reclining on this very cloud right now. I certainly wouldn't be dreaming of a Finalist badge glittering to your right hand side, or of a September trip to London, and now there's even the teensiest possibility of *whispering now* winning!  And yes, at a later stage, I'll probably beg, plead, cajole and even bribe you into voting again.... and I hope you will....but honestly, right here and now, is more than I ever dreamt of anyway, and I'm so very grateful to you for it. Oh dear...I think I feel another song coming on......