Lost In Linky Land

Have you ever had that sensation where you're not sure if what you're going through is real life or just some silly dream?  This past month, I've felt a little like the latter. I'm stuck in the role of Dorothy on this world tour of the new musical The Wizard of Blogs, trying to find whatever it is that I need to get back home.  Though technically I haven't left my computer room, I'm a foreigner traveling through this digital dream. It's not like I'm a stranger to blogging. I've been following Books That Heal Kids, School Counselor Blog, Look At My Happy Rainbow, and The Teacher's Lounge for almost a year now. I'm even a regular contributor for the Character Educator blog. But this summer storm was something else.
   It started when Really Good Stuff posted its nominees for our favorite blogs.  So many to choose from; where would I start.  So I started clicking and, before I knew it, I wasn't in Texas anymore. I met Tara and Tamara and Jodi (oh my), Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Saoud, Mrs. Kinkaid (oh my)! And there were more, so many more, each one more brilliant and colorful than the next. Warm, welcoming, inviting even, complete with hearts, brains, courage, and creativity!  I spent countless hours days gathering cool ideas and learning from these crazy passionate educators whom I secretly wanted to hire to come to Texas to spread that sunshine, passion and ambition around. With their help, I managed to figure out how to download fun fonts and what a TpT (Teachers pay Teachers) store is. I was navigating pretty well down Bloggerville Road and even started a blog of my own.
   Then I happened on my first invitation to a Linky Party. Though I had NO idea what the heck that even was, I thought I'd give it a try since that particular party was calling for new bloggers (like me!) to link up. I figured it'd be a fun way to collaborate and share some stuff online so I did it. That was cool, but my blog was SO different from all of theirs since I seem to be the token counselor in this group of terrific teachers. Then I saw Mrs. Parker's Fall Read Alouds Linky Party, and I couldn't resist.  I *heart-squish* LOVE illustrated picture books and keep an up-to-date Books That Teach list of all of our favorites on my school's website, so I linked up again. I wanted to be able to "give back" to these amazingly generous teachers who had obviously spent hours and hours sharing their promising practices in Linky Land. 
   I must have been sleeping during the Linky Party etiquette orientation because I totally missed the part where you should give a shout-out to the hostess of the party AND link back to her site. Yikes, an unintentional but obvious faux pax in Linky Land. Ignorance is no excuse, but it's all I've got. Somehow I got lost in their really cool cyber-space community and now I just want to click the heels on my ruby red slippers together and get back to Texas. I'm sorry, really I am. I didn't mean to break any rules, I just didn't know. There's no place like home.
   Actually, it's time to wake up now from the dream we call summer vacation. The Wizard of Blogs world tour I've been on is about to close, but in a tornado-like twist, I've just been invited to write a counselor-ish column for The Teacher's Lounge blog. They're posting my first entry this Wednesday. Yay! It's always so disorienting to be lost, but what I've found on the other side of this dream is better than a pot of gold.