It is that wonderful time again when a small but fierce group of bloggers attempts to take over the blogsphere for a day with Bloggerstock!  Well, I like to think so anyway.  This moth happens to be the one-year anniversary of Bloggerstock, which is pretty exciting.  This month I have the pleasure of hosting the founder of the Karaoke Blog Ring of Death, and the blogger behind Sara Swears A Lot.  She is always entertaining and often her writing does the title of her blog justice.

I won’t dwell on the theme for this month, basically the idea was to dig through your old journals and pull out something fun and share it.  I will let Sara share her take on the topic.  So, without further ado, here is what you have been waiting for:

The theme for Bloggerstock this month was “before there were blogs” AKA in the old, dark age that sucked. I was lucky enough to find an old notebook from when I was in 4th grade. Most of it was boring as shit, because apparently I was the lamest 4th grader in the history of ever. But one entry made me realize that I’m the exact same girl today that I was ten years ago.

“My friend Josie and I got into this big argument and aren’t speaking. I’m mad at her. But then I thought two things. Who am I going to play with? WWJD? I talked to her today. We both said we were sorry at the bus stop. Besides, who’s pool would I use (J.J.) Just joking. I like her because she’s just fun to play with. She’s a very good friend.”

Riiiiiight, 4th grade Sara. That’s super believable. If that J.J. hadn’t been there, I might have thought you were being a selfish brat, but nevermind!

I also like how your first thought is that you’ll have no one to play with, and your second thought is pondering what Jesus would do in your situation? I’m not sure how often Jesus got in fights with friends who had pools in their backyard, but let’s be real for a second, 4th grade Sara. Everyone loves a pool. And I’m pretty sure Jesus would have done the same exact thing in your situation.

If you’d like to read what K. Syrah (www.shoesneverworn.com) has to say for Bloggerstock this month, check her out on my page! And a big thanks to Alex for putting so much work into this blog ring. I know it’s way more stressful than it looks!

With any luck, if you are looking for my post on this month’s topic, you can find it over on Bobby’s blog.  If you enjoy bloggerstock and would like to learn more about it or get involved, you can just pop over to our site Bloggerstock.net.  Any information you could want is there.

With that, happy blogging!

Well, it is that time again, time for Bloggerstock.  Unfortunately the bloggerstock website is down and my site, once again was down for a bit.  This post was posted and then lost into the ether.  So, here it is again.  Hopefully I will be able to get the bloggerstock site back up in the near future, but dealing with the support department of my old web host is like pulling teeth.  So we shall see.  I will put a page on my blog here that has information about next month’s bloggerstock for the time being so check back for a link.

With that business out of the way lets get to the real heart of today’s post.  The post you are about to read was written by a good blogging friend of mine and a bloggerstock founder, Kris from Because or Why Not.  She is a great writer and I am excited to host her here.  If you are looking for my post, you can find it over on Nyx’s blog.

The theme for this moth is photo inspired.  The photo is actually one of mine, but if you want to read the real story behind it, you will have to read my post on Nyx’s blog.

This is the inspiration for this month's bloggerstock topic

Other little girls like playing house and tea parties.  Their favourite things were brushing their doll’s hair or dress-up in the courtyard.  And Alice, well, Alice was one of them.  At least she was supposed to be.  Her Mother would buy her gingham dresses and pink hats.  She had play dates with these other girls.  Ones where they would beg to play with her blonde curls and the porcelain doll she brought from home.

Alice was mostly alright with this.  She didn’t mind Maddie or Candace or Sally.  She’d talk them into playing tag or pretending to climb mountains instead of going shopping.  Although, it only worked sometimes.  The rest of the time she role-played the oldest daughter of a Mother and Father and did things like  got ready for school.

Oh, yes, school.  She liked school.  She liked climbing on the big yellow school bus and beating the boys to the best seats.  She liked making a circle with a stick attached as carefully she could.  She liked when her teacher, with her red lips, told her she was “very bright” for knowing those shapes said “aaaah.”

But this was the weekend.  Those days when her Mother promised her there was no school.  Days when she went out to the courtyard to play with the other girls.  It was alright, for the most part.  But today the oldest daughter forgets that she’s supposed to be going to dance class.  She wanders away.  Past the edge of the grass, across the cobblestones to that break in the wall.  The one where she can see a little bit of the river and the laundry hung on a balcony.  Today it’s brights, all orange and yellow and red.

She likes to look far away, Alice does.  She likes dreaming of the river bank and what might be beyond.  A bad habit.  A hard habit.  And one she’ll never break.  She just doesn’t know it yet.

Once again it is time for that fantastic blog event: Bloggerstock.  This month I am hosting Dom from Lije’s Mindstate.  I won’t dawdle on introductions and just let you get to the meat of the matter, so, without further ado, bloggerstock!

Hello followers of Ice Wolf’s Ramblings, and a good whatever moment in time you’re reading this. I’d like to thank Alex for letting me guest post. I’d go through the trouble of the formalities but I assume Alex has taken care of that for me…but if he hasn’t, you can just got over to my page and get more acquainted … (if you so happen to be an eye catching female, feel free to leave your contact when you get there;)…)…I kid, I kid but don’t let that stop you though

My guest blogger for this month’s Bloggerstock is a good friend of mine, Andres Rio of Good Music, Bad Math. The theme is “Stop the World and Let Me Off”.  So head on over and check it out. I guess that’s it for the intros, let’s get started shall we.

Stop the World and Let Me Off

It’s no secret that we all feel this way from time to time. I bet some of you are in this state of mind right now, things are hectic, life is getting harder to balance, and your head is about to implode from the pressure of it all. Your brain starts to slowly percolate from your ears; the room starts to spin, and your tolerance level for life drops to -1,000,000,000,000.You slip into a murky pool of depression- Wait…that’s not what happens to you? Oh…I guess it’s just me then. Allow me to share that experience with you.

It was last year around this same exact time, my brother had just died, bills were past due, and I felt completely helpless, because I was out of work and there was literally no one that me and my family could turn to for aid. I became very despondent but I hid it from everyone. Over the years I’ve learned to mask my emotions to the naked eye, although behind that mask I was this torn individual, jaded and dim. It was hell watching my mother go through what she did, the loss of her first born, she hadn’t seen him in 2 years; although they would always communicate every day. So with no job and no one I could really turn to for help you can imagine how I must have felt. On top of everything though, what really hurt the most was that, I couldn’t even conjure up any words of comfort to her. I was completely blank.

It had all happen so fast. I remember coming home from a friend’s house late that night and just as I entered the door the phone rang and I answered. The sound voice on the other end was lifeless and I could tell it wasn’t anything good about to be said. They had asked to speak with my mom and I gave her the phone. A few seconds after handing her the phone she dropped it as if it were a piece of hot metal, falling to the floor just as fast as the phone. I picked it up and heard the disturbing news. My body went stiff as his; all verbal skills were lost for a moment. I was in disbelief after that. Up to this day it still hasn’t really sunk in.

I hated the days because it meant I would be awake and have to inure another day of helplessness. I tried not to stay home, so every chance I got I would go out somewhere and stay as long as I could. When I returned I’d go to my room and shut the world out. I would have these thoughts of “why is this happening to me right now?” and “I wish there was a pause button I can use to escape this even for just 30 seconds”. The latter was farfetched I know but I couldn’t bear it all.

At that point I felt I didn’t just lose my eldest brother I lost a father figure. I couldn’t grasp the idea of it all. It was an enigma. I wanted it all to be over with. I kept blaming myself for it. I thought if I had been in a position, to be a support beam for everyone, none of this would happen. That maybe, just maybe I could’ve prevented all of this. Silly notion right? But the reality of it all was that it had happened and there was nothing I could do at that point. I still brood from time to time, but I remind myself that life goes on you know.

What got me through all of it was a saying I always heard the older folks say;

With that thought in mind I slowly began to get it together, which was good because I had other things that I had going on and I needed a clear head to manage it all. I still stop and get off every now and again but I get through it. I developed as saying of my own, it goes:

Ironic isn’t it lol….

So, if you enjoyed reading this post then you should make sure to check out more of Dom’s writing on his blog.  If you are looking for my post, you can fid it hosted over on Jes’ Blog, Jes Getting Started.  You should also consider signing up for future bloggerstock events, so for details go to the bloggerstock site.

I’m Leanna and I’m taking over Alex’s blog as part of this month’s edition of Bloggerstock!  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Bloggerstock is a new and innovative type of blog swap.  Instead of two bloggers swapping posts for a day, Bloggerstock forms a chain of blog posts.  Keep clicking through all the posts to read them all!  Head on over to my blog OMG I moved to NYC to read Emily’s thoughts on the topic or to Pearl Tigress to read Alex’s.

This month’s theme is “What Inspires You”.  When I read this topic only one thing came to mind, my college professor Michele Clark.

I’ve always looked up at Michele for her efforts to combat Human Trafficking, her work at the OSCE, and her commitment to her students.  She always encouraged us to explore our academic interests and provided excellent advice for our papers, internships, or our crazy stressful college lives.  Most importantly, she supported whatever we wanted to do.  When Gaby and I took over the leadership of our campus’s anti-human trafficking group she was behind us 100% and connected us with a lot of great anti-trafficking organizations in DC and provided us with guest speakers for our events.  When I had the crazy idea of moving to NYC to work at an international exchange focused non-profit, she told me to go for it.  I only knew 2-3 people in the whole city, didn’t have a place to live, and had never spent longer than 3 days in the NYC before…I was terrified but I wanted to be here.  Michele helped calm my fears and while other people thought I was crazy told me to do what would make me happy.  So thank you Michele for inspiring me to take the leap and move to this amazing city!