Oh yes! LadyG be looking at the analytics, and I have to say thank you to the following countries for rocking so hard with Seek The Best Blog for the past year!
Some of you have been with me since the blog started in 2016–and that means the world to me.
And so…
Here your are, the TOP 10, ranked by views in the past year:
I love you guys and I thank you so much! Feel free to drop by and say hello! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you! Keep rocking with us!
My friend Lisa A. over at Life of an El Paso Woman tagged me with the Superpower Challenge. Lisa is an awesome blogger! Some of you have, no doubt, met her at a “My Jams” afterparty. That said, she’s a regular around these parts and I enjoy bantering back and forth with her in comments.
If you haven’t had a chance to meet Lisa, you should! Start by checking her out at Life of an El Paso Woman. She’s always got something fun and interesting going on over there.
Friends, for this challenge, I decided to really, really, really think about the superpower that I’d want to have most. I mean I gave it some serious thought!
And so…
I finally settled on being about to teleport!
For those of you who love defining terms, here’s a definition:
Anyway, I decided that if I am going to be transported across space and distance instantly, I’ll need some DEEP, DEEP, DEEP POCKETS!
Mucho Dinero!
Somebody, somewhere is saying, “Hey…wait Gwin, doesn’t LOVE make the world go ’round?”
Well in the words of my wise Aunt Bobbie Sue, “Love might make the world go ’round but money greases the wheel!”
🙂
So, to sum it up, I’d like to be able to have 10 tons of money and be able to appear anywhere-instantaneously ! By the way, I retain the right to be able to teleport anybody else along with me!
Yeah….that’s it!
I’m doing this my way!
Alright Gwin, how does that look?
It looks a little something like this:
I would visit family, friends and blogging buddies who live in different cities and we would:
Cook, talk, laugh and eat together
Go to our favorite restaurants (Are you seeing a pattern here? LOL!)
Have cocktails! A must for me!
Since Mr. Rogers is my spirit guide, I would offer comfort and support where there is illness, injury, hurt, suffering or loss.
I would continue my love of learning by:
Going to libraries at major Universities all over the world
Attending events, lectures, talks, and conferences on the Arts and Sciences
Observing various artisans practice and hone their crafts (sculptors, luthiers/archetiers and other makers of beautiful musical instruments and wonderful things).
Learning to prepare gourmet meals from world renowned chefs and food artisans! Food glorious food!
Sitting with and listening to spiritual teachers and practitioners of major world religions and magic 😉
Seeking advice and guidance from my elders
Teaching those who are interested in learning anything that I already know. You can learn a great deal by teaching!
Going to museums worldwide
Talking to inventors, astronomers, nautical experts and keepers of information on space and time.
I would seek inspiration and delight by teleporting to
Musical festivals, concerts, and shows all over the world
A Mountain in Northern California
A sunset sailboat ride on a lake in Canada
A winding road lined with brown, gold and auburn autumn leaves in Vermont.
A crab festival on the East Coast
The Mediterranean Sea
A hiking trail near an Alpine village
An African Savanna
A South African beach
A picnic in New Orleans
A winery near The Eiffel Towel
A biergarten in Germany during Oktoberfest
A boat ride in the Carribbean
A Sunday dinner in Florence, Italy and shopping in Milan
High tea in an English home
A starry Spanish night
A soothing garden meditation
I could go on but I think I’d better quit now before I lose you!
Now that I think about it, maybe all I really need is some time, a whole bunch of money, friends on every continent, a chauffeur service and a freakin’ jet aeroplane!
By the way, thanks to blogging, I can happily report that I’ve met the aforementioned friendship goal 🙂
I’m still working on the others! LOL!
Anyway…
Friends, why don’t you try this? Create a post that tells us about your dream powers!
The other day, I was scrolling through my notifications when I happened upon the badge displayed above.
After I read it, I was totally over the moon!
That said, I just want to thank all of the followers and readers who have shown SO MUCH LOVE to me, my cousin Ron and Dad!
Your “likes” and comments have made this project such a wonderful experience!
By the way…
What in fresh hell is the significance of 1337?
Well after doing a brief, and I do mean brief, Google search, I learned that it might be connected to the gaming community; there’s also a link to the word “elite.”
I’ll take it!!!!
Now if you want to know anything more than that, you’ll have to get to Googling on your own.
Let me know what you find 😉
Either way, it’s a DAMN good thing and, again, I want to thank each one of you from the bottom of my heart!
It looks like my dream of creating a space for folks to come chill, chat and enjoy each other’s company is coming true!
BTW, because of you, our most recent total “like” count is 1,751+ 😉
Celebration time! Here’s to many more!
And so…
You know me, what’s a party without some music!
YAAAASSSSSS!
Remember to visit Ron at The Time Tunnel. You can also find him here on Fridays at Ron’s Time Tunnel.
Hey, you never know, you might find Lady G posting a little something over there from time to time 🙂
Just so you know, The Time Tunnel is Seekthebestblog’s Firstcousin baybee so YOU ALREADY KNOW!
Tikeetha Thomas over at A Thomas Point of View hit Lady G with a happiness tag! If you are not familiar with Tikeetha T., you might want to step over to her blog.
Baby, my Sista is the business! I enjoy reading her posts on motherhood, relationships and other real life issues.
Do yourself a favor and go check it out!
By the way, did I mention that she is a storyteller extraordinaire? YAAASSSS!
And so…
In order to fulfill my ‘Happy tag’ requirements, I am going to list five things that make me happy.
Let me preface this by saying that most of this is old hat for my core followers; and I’ll admit that it is possible that I might havecopy pasted some this from my last happiness tag 😜
FYI, did you know that it is still considered plagiarism if you copy your own work and present it as something new?
Um huh…. consider that a STBB Public Service Announcement to all the students out there 😉
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yeah, I was about to say that my new followers might enjoy getting a glimpse into the mind of Lady G.
So here goes:
Five things that make me happy:
Sitcoms from the 1960’s and 70’s:
When I was a little tyke, I absolutely loved ‘Geraldine Jones’ from ‘The Flip Wilson Show.’ It’s pretty safe to say that my spicy side comes, in part, from watching Ms. Geraldine. Now, if you are unfamiliar with the show, the character, ‘Geraldine,’ is really Flip Wilson dressed in drag.
Who knew?
Anyway, Geraldine was flirty, feisty and she pulled no punches. From time to time, she would refer to her boyfriend, ‘Killer.’
Although ‘Killer’ was never seen, he maintained a very ‘real’ presence on the show. In fact, there was a scene where a character asked, “Who is Killer?” To which Geraldine responded, “The question is not ‘Who is Killer?’ The question is ‘Whereis Killer?’
And with that, Geraldine shut it down! Clearly, Killer didn’t play!
Some of my other favorite sitcoms include Sanford and Son, Bewitched and The Odd Couple, I also like The New Odd Couple-with Ron Glass and Demond Wilson-albeit from the ’80’s.
I could go on naming more sitcoms but we ain’t got that kind of time.
Other things that make me happy include:
Sky gazing
Give me a crisp starry autumn evening and I’m GOOOOOOD!
Taking pictures
Quite a few of the pictures on this blog were taken with my iPhone. It should come as no surprise that I am rarely pictured in family photos because I am always the photographer.
Instruments of time, space, weather, travel
Ok, I’ll go ahead and admit that I am a bonafide geek and I am coming out of the closet!
Geeks of the world UNITE!
That said, YAASSSS!!! Here I am, I am out! Lady G is a geek!
I am that kid that made an aneroid barometer for an elementary school project. Oh stop! It was easy, all I needed was a glass bottle, a balloon and….hell you can go google the rest!
Anyway, instruments of time measurement and such fascinate the hell out of me! One day I hope to go to Greenwich England; if you are a ‘time geek’ then you already know why.
I’ll do a post about it when I get back 😉
Food and Cocktails
Give me some good food, some good drink and some good company and your girl is set!
Five songs that make me Happy (They are in no particular order)
Ok, so let me get this straight, as a huge lover of music of all types, these are five songs that make me happy but there are 10 zillion more that make me just as happy as the five listed below–I’m just sayin.’
‘Here comes the Sun’ written by My Favorite Beatle, George Harrison
‘Sun Goddess’ by Ramsey Lewis/Earth Wind and Fire
‘Hot Fun in the Summertime’ by Sly and the Family Stone
‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ by Chic
‘Every Little thing she does is Magic’ by The Police
Friends, I cannot sufficiently explain how much music means to me in this post. Now, if you want more details, start by reading this or that.
Anyway, I am going to tag the following two (NOT FIVE) new followers to my blog. Flat out, I enjoy reading these blogs because they both give me happy feelings.
Did I just bite Frankie Beverly?
Oh well!
Tessa This chick can spin a deliciously erotic little yarn! She’s my homegirl!
Zwanjay An intelligent brother out there educating our babies!
My homegirl, Lennon Carlyle, just nominated me for The Unique Blogger Award!
Baby, if you haven’t already, you need to get some Lennon in your life. That sister’s always up to something good over at Fabulous with Glitches.
I love her “Hump Day Shenanigans Series,” and her musings on “erratic text messages.” LOL!!!
Thank you for nominating me Lennon!
You my gurl!
Oh and did I mention that she’s a tall and gorgeous blond?
Supposedly, they have more fun right?
Why don’t you pop on over to her blog and see if that’s true.
Anywhats, all blog awards have rules and this one provides no exception for that tradition. That said:
The rules for this award are:
Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their blog. (Done)
Include one meme and one quote you really like.
Nominate 8-13 bloggers to receive this award.
Ask your nominees 3 UNIQUE questions.
Add a link to the awards creator. (I didn’t catch that part.)
Favorite Meme (At this moment):
Quote I like:
“Go sit your ass down somewhere!”–Mama
No, seriously, everybody ought to take time to chill for a minute–every single day. If you do this, you’ll find that you are much more focused and, shall I say, “unbothered.”
Clearly, Mama was on to something 😉
Answers to Questions:
Use three words to describe you? Effervescent, Funny, Smart. No shade, I’m just telling you what the peoples have told me. I would have included Gorgeous, Sexy and Seductive but I was told that I could ONLY pick three! ROTFLMAO 🙂
If there was one job you could do for the rest of your life – what would it be? I’d be a AAA Secret Shopper for 5-Diamond Hotels in Europe! YAAASSSS!
You’re going to be dumped on a desert island for a year and can take three things with you…Chile who you kidding? Black women don’t be getting lost on no deserted islands!
Blogs I’d like to nominate:
I’m always apprehensive about nominating bloggers because there are a lot of award free blogs out there. That being the case, I’m just selecting a few of my favorites –I hope they don’t mind.
The MakeItUltra™ Blogger Award was created at the MakeItUltra blog and I feel so blessed that Lisa and Lennon, both of whom are established bloggers, were kind enough to remember me for this wonderful honor . If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to check them out. Both of these chicks are real firecrackers! So if you like me, you’ll love them 🙂
ABOUT THE AWARD:
The MakeItUltra™ Blogger Award is an award given to bloggers by bloggers for quality content, originality and presentation. The intention of this award is to encourage connectivity and support in the blogging community and to increase exposure for individual bloggers.
THE RULES:
If you have been nominated for the MakeItUltra™ Blogger Award and choose to accept, write a blog post about the MakeItUltra™ Blogger Award in which you:
Thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their blog on your blog. Take a moment to positively promote the person who nominated you.
Display the award on your blog by adding it to your post and/or displaying it using a widget on your page (Save the image to your computer and upload it to your blog post). Don’t forget to use the tag #MyUltraAward when you make your post!
Answer the following MakeItUltra™ Blogger Award questions.
And so….
What is your name? Gwin, aka ‘Lady G’
Where are you from? Augusta, Georgia- Good Gawd YAAASSS! Home of The Godfather of Soul, James Brown y’all!
By the way, golfers know Augusta as the home of The Masters.
How long have you been blogging and why did you start? I’ve been seriously blogging for about 7 months. I tried it in 2008 but failed miserably. I decided to start because I’m getting older and I don’t want to leave this realm without sharing my stories; I’m hoping to leave something of myself for my children and their children and so on and so forth….
What are you most proud of? My son and daughter.
What are your blogging goals? To create a welcoming environment for folks to come, sit back, pontificate, shoot the breeze, kick a little game, learn a little something, teach a little something, share a little something, party a little bit and just vibe.
How do you spend your free time? I like to daydream.
Nominate 1-8 blogs that you feel deserve the award and provide links.
I’ve learned that a lot of bloggers shy away from awards so, like my dear T. Wayne, I will pass on this one. If you wish to participate, just help yourself. Make sure you follow the rules though!
Did I just commit plagiarism with that last sentence? HA!
Provide 5 random facts about yourself (optional):
I once dated Ernie from Sesame Street; you can read all about that and more here
I used to do some modeling.
In my Senior year of college, I won the Tom Herndon Award for Excellence in Political Science.
I was narrator of “Little Red Riding Hood” in the 3rd grade Spring Play. Afterwards, I had an old dude walk up to me and say, “Lil gul you sounded jus’ like one of them folks on the radio.” HA!
I am the daughter of a former dancer on a local teen dance show. Now you know why I love music so much 😉 YAAASSS, Ms. Eva was the Queen of Swing! Rest in peace Ma! I love you ❤
Thanks again Lisa and Lennon!
And thanks to you for reading and/or participating.
Yaaaay!!! I’ve been nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award by my good friend and ‘cuz,’ Tony Vega.
Tony is an awesome blogger who shares his personal experiences relative to the establishment and maintenance of a sober lifestyle. Seriously, when you get a moment please go check him out! You’ll love his unique sense of humor and swag.
Thank you so much Tony!
As with any award, there are a couple of requirements and they are as follows:
Explain why/how you started blogging.
Offer advice to new bloggers.
Nominate other bloggers for the award.
And away we go:
Back in 2008, I decided to try my hand at blogging using the Blogger platform. I wrote and published one post. Period. The End.
~Fin
Frankly, at that time, I didn’t like Blogger; it wasn’t intuitive. The whole thing seemed disjointed; there was just no connection.
Granted, this probably had more to do with the user than the platform 😉
Either way, in my mind, it felt as if I simply wrote an essay and uploaded it to Heaven-right on up to the Lordt 🙂
Sadly, as far as I know, the only person who read it was my play-play little brother, Miguel. What? You never heard of a play-play little brother? Don’t worry, I’ll explain that in a different post.
It should be noted that my blood brother, Tack, however, did NOT read it. LOL!
Back to my point. After I published that one post, I never went back. Sometimes, I think about searching for it and reposting it here. It was a tribute to my Granddaddy.
Anyway, earlier this year, I got the blog bug again. And as fate would have it, I kept seeing all of these sites with “wordpress” in the URL. Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to google it and the rest is history!
Google is a helluva drug! I’m a stone cold addict baby 😉
Fast forward to today! Here I am with you and I’m so glad because we might not have met otherwise!
Suffice it to say, I love blogging and I enjoy the many relationships that it has allowed me to develop.
Now that I got that part out of the way, here’s my advice to new bloggers.
It is your blog so say whatever you want to say; just make sure you’re happy with it.
Establish a writing and posting schedule that works for you, otherwise you could burn out.
Try not to let too much time lapse between posts, if you do people will lose interest and stop visiting your blog.
Read and respond to comments–it shows the reader that you are interested in his or her thoughts. Frankly, if you don’t plan to respond, you should probably turn that functionality off.
Let me admit right now that I feel funny offering advice to new bloggers since, in comparison to most of my blogger friends, my blog is a baby.
Moving on…
Nominating bloggers for awards is always a sticky wicket! Most of you already know some of my favorites:
T. Wayne at A Joyful Process Blog
GeoGee at The GeoGee Experience
Ron Brown at Seek the best blog and Time Tunnel
Chevvy at Chevvy’s Studio
Woebegonebuthopeful at Heroically Bad Writer
Lennon Carlyle at Fabulous with Glitches
Lisa A at Life of an El Paso Woman
Nazmin at Naz-tastic
Brother Askari
Tikeetha Thomas at A Thomas Point of View
Having said that, these guys are always free to accept and participate or decline, but I’d also like to nominate a few additional blogs:
I don’t know if I went over the limit, but I wanted to make sure to show my appreciation for some of the many blogs that I read and enjoy. By the way, there are plenty of others that I follow and like; those bloggers are free to accept this nomination as well.
Lady G is downright ecstatic because Queen Bee over at I Sing The Body Electric hit me with a happy tag! If you are not familiar with Ms. Queen Bee, you might want to step over to her blog. I think you’ll enjoy this little badass jewel from the UK.
Thanks for the tag my Queenie Bee!
In order to fulfill my ‘Happy tag’ requirements, I am going to list five things that make me happy. After that, I will share five songs and bloggers that make me happy. Don’t worry bloggers, you don’t have to do anything 😉
And so…
Here goes:
Five things that make me happy:
Sitcoms from the 1960’s and 70’s:
When I was a little tyke, I absolutely loved ‘Geraldine Jones’ from ‘The Flip Wilson Show.’ It’s pretty safe to say that my spicy side comes, in part, from watching Ms. Geraldine. Now, if you are unfamiliar with the show, the character, ‘Geraldine,’ is really Flip Wilson dressed in drag. Who knew?
Anyway, Geraldine was flirty, feisty and she pulled no punches. From time to time, she would refer to her boyfriend, ‘Killer.’
Although ‘Killer’ was never seen, he maintained a very ‘real’ presence on the show. In fact, there was a scene where a character asked, “Who is Killer?” To which Geraldine responded, “The question is not ‘Who is Killer?’ The question is ‘Whereis Killer?’
And with that, Geraldine shut it down! Clearly, Killer didn’t play!
Watch Ms. Jones in action (the video is old and of poor quality but you WILL get the ‘picture.’)
Ouch!!!! You, sir, have been checked!
Some of my other favorite sitcoms include Sanford and Son, Bewitched and The Odd Couple, I also like The New Odd Couple-with Ron Glass and Demond Wilson-albeit from the ’80’s.
I could go on naming more sitcoms but we ain’t got that kind of time 😉
Quite a few of the pictures on this blog were taken with my iPhone. It should come as no surprise that I am rarely pictured in family photos because I am always the photographer.
Instruments of time, space, weather, travel
I recently admitted to another blogger, M.J. Moye, that I am a bonafide geek. I also told him that one day I would come out of the closet as such.
That said, YAASSSS!!! Today is the day! Here I am, I am out! Lady G is a geek! I am that kid that made an aneroid barometer for an elementary school project. Oh stop! It was easy, all I needed was a glass bottle, a balloon and….hell you can go google the rest!
By the way, at some point, my equally geeky cousin Ron and I are going to Greenwich, England. If you possess any amount of geekiness you will understand why.
Yeah Ron, you have been outted!
I might do a post about all of this– but not today 😉
Food and Cocktails
Give me some good food, some good drink and some good company and your girl is set!
Five songs that make me Happy (They are in no particular order)
Ok, so let me get this straight, as a huge lover of music of all types, these are five songs that make me happy but there are 10 zillion more that make me just as happy as the five listed below–I’m just sayin.
‘Beginnings’ by Chicago
‘I Wanna be Where You Are’ by Michael Jackson –Smile T. Wayne 🙂
‘Hot Fun in the Summertime’ by Sly and the Family Stone
‘I Need your Lovin” by Teena Marie
‘Spirits in the Material World’ by The Police
Friends, I cannot sufficiently explain how much music means to me in this post. Now, if you want more details, start by reading this or that.
Five Bloggers that Make me Happy
There are quite a few bloggers that make me happy but these bloggers are always on my ‘happy’ go to list:
A Joyful Process Blog- T. Wayne: Where I go to get my groove on!
The GeoGee Experience- G.: Where I go to get my fun on!
STBB/The Time Tunnel- Ronbrownx: Where I go to get my nostalgia on!
Chevvy’s Studio- Chevvy: Where I go to get my creative writing on!
Heroically Bad Writer -Woebegone but Hopeful: Where I go to get my UK humor and wit on!
I opted not to do links or ping backs because I don’t want these guys to feel obligated to do anything. If you like me, you’ll love them! Go look ’em up!
Alas! My time is up!
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
I am so happy to announce that seekthebestblog has been nominated for a Liebster Award for new bloggers! Yaaay!!!!
Friends, I cannot tell you how happy this makes us! With that said, let me thank my ‘Cuz’ Tony Tone Vega for nominating us!
Now, I know that you noticed that I used the word ‘Cuz.’ Well let me clarify, I started calling Tony ‘cuz’ after reading his blog. Why? Because, quite frankly, his ‘conversation’ sounds a lot like things that some of my own cousins would say. So while we are not blood; we are still ‘cousins!’
So thanks again cuz! Y’all please go check him out! He is one funny dude!
Now let’s talk about my road dog! My blood cousin, Ron! What can I say? If you have been here before then you, no doubt, have read his work. That said, he is the truth and we share this award.
To that end, we decided that he would do a separate post to address all of the same questions that I am about to address in just about two seconds! I already did the hard part by selecting and linking to the nominees! Ron will thank me for that I’m sure!
So here goes!
Liebster Award Rules
1) Thank the blog who nominated you and link back to them.
2) Make a blog post telling 11 facts about you,
3) Answer the 11 questions from the blog who nominated you, and
4) Prepare 11 questions for those you will nominate.
5) Nominate 11 new bloggers (those who have less than 200 followers) by commenting in one of their blog posts.
Eleven Facts About Me
I am young at heart and quite family-oriented.
Although, I am a Black girl who was raised in the South, I see myself as a global citizen. When I was young, an older woman said that I was an indigo child—I know, go google it!
I am a mother and I love and adore my children.
I am an avid reader and I am a huge advocate for innovative children’s educational programs and efforts.
I love music; I cannot sufficiently express how much!
I love good food and drink.
I like to cook and share my dishes with others.
I love to laugh and I mean long, loud and often!
I am a seeker of the best that life has to offer.
I’ve always been spiritually aware and connected to God.
I always want people to feel better about things after spending time with me.
Eleven Questions Asked of Me
Who are you? (in one sentence?)
I am that slightly off-beat girl that distracted the hell out of you in math class!
What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I am an extroverted introvert!
If given a chance to be invisible, what would you do?
I need clarification, would I be able to walk through walls too?
What is happiness to you?
I am always perfectly content alone but I am most happy when I am spending time with family and friends. Nothing in the material world can touch those experiences.
Your inspiration, and why so?
I am inspired by the seen as well as the unseen.
What is your biggest achievement in life so far?
My two beautiful children!
If you could start over, what would you change?
Not a damn thang.
If given a chance to go on a date with a celebrity, who would that be?
Oprah, I’m just sayin’!
Are you happy with your life till now?
Yes, because I know that it is unfolding exactly as it should.
Your favorite song?
What? I wouldn’t know where to start? I blog quite a bit about music so my favorite songs are EVER-Y-WHERE in my posts!
What comes first, the egg or the chicken? Explain the reason.
Which came first? I would venture to say a hen AND a rooster came first! Don’t question the LORD! His ways are not our ways 🙂
Ok, so here are my nominees for this award. Bare in mind that the rules require that the blog has less than 200 followers. Well, I am not about to get into the number of followers that a blog has but I am selecting blogs I follow that I think are young like we are. God knows they might not accept but I am nominating them anyway.
Seek The Best Blog 