ICYMI

In case you missed it, I'm the subject of today's inaugural "Featured Reader" column on the Quo Vadis blog.

Just another stop on the way to finding a niche in the wonderful world of pens and paper!

Thanks, Quo Vadis!

I Remember…

Last year, December 14 was Shabbat at the URJ Biennial in San Diego.

I was up early, eager to fulfill my Biennial responsibility as a Torah guardian.  In this role, I was responsible for carrying one of the many scrolls that would be used in the service from the storage room to the site of the service, keeping an eye on it throughout, and, afterward, returning it safely to the room where it would remain with the others under lock and key until it was returned to the local congregation from which it had been borrowed.

Where's JanetheWriter?

This week, it seems, she's everywhere...

A post I wrote following my recent colonoscopy (if you're a regular visitor to this blog, you've probably already seen it), was posted yesterday on Penn Medicine's Focus on Cancer blog.  No worries, though...I've spared you the gory details

And then, late this afternoon, I received word that a short piece I'd submitted to the blog at Rhodia Drive was live and I was today's guest blogger.

Over the weekend, look for my dad and me in greater Baltimore and Washington, DC for an unveiling.  Hard to believe it's been a year since this post. 

Shabbat shalom, everyone.

Blogging Love

While attending a family bat mitzvah in Sylvania, OH, this past weekend, I received an email message that I'd been mentioned in a tweet:

I nominate for #SunshineAward (jewishspecialneeds.blogspot.com/2013/11/presen…) @mom2mikey @bgiourme @rabbiisa @JanetheWriter @BarbMitzvah @CoffeeShopRabbi @ollibean

Many thanks to Lisa Friedman, who not only mentioned me in her tweet, but also nominated me for a #SunshineAward.  I'm honored that Lisa has provided an opportunity for her readers to learn more about me, and that she believes my writing makes a significant contribution to the blogging community.

As Lisa has already done, I am about to pay it forward by nominating other bloggers for a #Sunshine Award  based on the "rules" detailed in Lisa's post: 

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger (Thanks again, Lisa).
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers. They should be bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

Ready?  Here we go with 11 random facts about me:

1. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a writer.  As part of a second grade book binding project, I insisted that the last page of my book be entitled "About the Author," which was a short (I was, after all, only seven) bio about me.
2. Likewise, in The Homecoming, the movie that launched The Waltons television series, I was insanely envious of John-Boy, who received a stack of yellow writing pads as a Christmas gift from his Daddy near the end of the movie.
3. I have two of the same tattoo, a fact that comes as no surprise to regular readers of this blog.
4. In high school, I took a career assessment test.  The results suggested I'd be a good nun.  Hmmm...
5. I studied Russian and Latin in high school.
6. I'm a big fan of Jewish music and listen to it often.
7. I'm not a big fan of television and have never seen a full episode of either Friends or Seinfeld.
8. I'm incredibly out of touch with pop culture and couldn't identify Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe or Natalie Portman if my life depended on it.
9. I could live on carbs--french fries, mac and cheese, and pasta (any shape or size) are my all-time favorites.
10. I've visited Barrow, AK, but never Chicago, IL, except to change planes at O'Hare.
11. I'm still in regular contact with Mrs. Chromczak, my fourth grade teacher

 Here are my answers to Lisa's 11 questions:

1. If you could cast yourself in any reality TV show, which would it be and why? I have no idea...see #7 above!
2. Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?  Crunchy
3. Favorite place to vacation? Someplace I've never been before...perhaps Chicago.  See #10 above!
4. What animal most describes your personality? A canine mutt...happy to go out to explore and play during the day, but also wants to be snug and cozy at home each night.
5. Favorite ice cream flavor?  Rocky road
6. Cookie or cake?  Cookie, but only when it's a black and white, which, when it's done right, has the consistency of a moist cake.
7. Describe your ideal day.  Sleeping in, breakfast out, writing in a cafe and then back home to read, relax and nap.
8. What is your favorite season? Winter
9. What is your favorite thing about blogging?  Love the writing...and the feedback!
10. How do you relax? If I was better at it, maybe I wouldn't have high blood pressure?
11. What did you have for breakfast? Yoplait Greek yogurt (vanilla flavor) over a cubed Ginger Gold apple.

Here are six blogs that I'm nominating for a #Sunshine Award. Although I wish it was 11, with limited time and energy, these are the blogs I read with the greatest frequency: 

1. Ima on (and off) the Bima
2. Superman Sam
3. This Messy Life
4. Greatest Escapist
5. Stumbling towards meaning  
6. Elevated Risk

The first five, like my own, are slice-of-life blogs while number six focuses on one woman's journey as a BRCA gene mutation carrier.  I hope you'll check out the works of these bloggers and that their words and experiences will move you as they so often move me.  Most of all, I hope you'll give these writers the blogging love that they so richly deserve for regularly and with tremendous grace and generosity putting themselves and their families "out there" in the blogosphere.

Finally, for the bloggers I've just nominated for a #Sunshine Award, here are my 11 random questions for you:

1. What's your favorite book from childhood?
2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
3. Coffee or tea?
4. Favorite food?
5. What was the make and model of the first car you owned?
6.  Do you have a library card for the town in which you live?  
7. When was the last time you used that library card?
8. What's the most exotic or offbeat place to which you've traveled?
9. Are you hosting Thanksgiving or being hosted?
10. Did you pass your drivers test the first time you took it?
11. What mode of transportation do you use most often to get to work?

May this nomination widen your readership and help your readers learn a bit more about you and what makes you tick.

Happy blogging!

Where in the World is JanetheWriter?

This week, I did a bit of "blog-trotting."

On Tuesday, I was over at "Focus on Cancer," the blog of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine as part of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) Week.

Today, my Ten Minutes of Torah essay about Torah study was on the blog at ReformJudaism.org, the URJ's site that's all about Jewish Life in Your Life.

Stay tuned...you never know where I might turn up next!

Where's JanetheWriter?

Thanks, Rabbi Phyllis, for this graphic!

I'm exactly where I should be, and so is my #blogelul post.  Today, it's over here.  Check it out...and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Blogging Elul

Photo:  midrash.org

Today is the first of Elul, the beginning of the month that precedes the High Holy Days.  Traditionally it is a time of introspection, reflection, preparation, and, for some, a prompt to blog daily or nearly so.

You can check out some of these daily blogs here and here.   And, don’t forget The Jewels of Elul, which isn’t a blog, but does provide lots of food for thought during this special time of year.

Me?  No, I’ve got quite enough on my plate at the moment, thanks.  If I were to blog Elul, though, I’d definitely rerun this post from 2008 whose lesson is as timely today as it was back then.

Good luck to the Elul bloggers out there and happy reading to the rest of us!