And sometimes, living right just isn't enough

You may have noticed that the orange square with a picture of a lovely lady in it has disappeared from my sidebar.

That was Melanie in Orygon, who was trying to win the "Blog for a Year" contest. I voted for her religiously as did a lot of other people. Then out of nowhere comes this other blogger who sweeps past Mel and stays ahead.

But these two blogging ladies had by far the most votes of anyone in that contest. Apparently some disgruntled contestant decided to level cheating charges at them both. After investigation, the folks who run the contest decided that there was NO cheating going on - that all the votes that were earned by Melanie and Absolutely True were legitimate.

But the fun and the heart of it went out for Melanie. She is voluntarily withdrawing from the contest. According to her, winning wouldn't feel as satisfying as it would have had none of these accusations been leveled.

And it's a shame. Melanie is a good writer. Her posts regularly make me laugh and sometimes cry. I can sympathize with where she is in life right now because I've been there. Who hasn't? But she writes about things so eloquently that you can almost feel like you're peeking into her brain. I had really hoped that you would win this contest. That it would ease some of your financial hardships and allow you to explore other avenues for your working life. That you would be able to give your kids some of the things you want to, and be able to relax for a while and not worry quite so much about everything.

It is not to be - at least by that venue. I'm sorry, Mel. Life isn't fair sometimes. That was one of those times.