Volkman Gets Academy Award Nom

Well okay, it’s not an Academy Award nomination. I may have exaggerated. But it might as well be. It does involve a movie (or maybe a video on YouTube).

I’ve been nominated for Military Spouse of the Year.

It’s a national award, a really influential and important platform, and I’m honored to be in the company of some pretty awesome spouses. That’s just the kind of thing I mean to say here: it’s an honor just to be nominated. My husband thinks it’s really hilarious because I write stories about how hard deployment and reintegration is on a marriage and I advocate for military spouse careers since the military messes with those, too. He doesn’t think I’m the model military spouse that way. But I think it’s fitting. I think I’m prevailing in those areas because of the networks and the support that the military has allowed me to be a part of, not in spite of it.

Voting is open for one day: TUESDAY JANUARY 22, 2013. Today, friends. You can vote for me from each email you own here: Military Spouse of the Year 2013: Lori Volkman

Results will be announced Friday and if I win the base competition I’ll be eligible for Navy Spouse of the Year. And by the way, a Navy spouse has never won! Go Navy!

New York to Lori: You’re a Writer.

I spent my Thanksgiving weekend writing an article about Kari Bales, but this time it wasn’t for my blog; it was for the New York Times. As in, The New York Times.

Surprisingly, the best part of the whole experience wasn’t the moment I got the “it’s live” email from the editor and clicked as fast as my fingers could carry me to see the byline with my name staring back at me, the internationally recognized newspaper’s logo resting gently above it. The moment that still has me gobsmacked happened in my basement at my makeshift game-cabinet-turned-writing desk on a cold Sunday morning. I sat hunched forward, leaning into my screen, excising each word with bleeding precision. My legs were losing circulation and I was hungry and my eyes burned. I was still in my hideous bathrobe and I was stinky and I was freezing, sipping cold coffee. And I loved it. It was in that moment that I realized: I’m a writer.

I almost cried. It was as if I knew I would never again be a lawyer, a wife, a mother, a military spouse, a daughter, a friend, a blogger or even a woman. It was the moment I realized that, despite my best efforts to be something else, I have always been a writer first. I’ve always narrated life in my head, always embellished events as pieces of a continuing story rather than simply allowing them to occur in moments, always struggled to assign meaning and connection to the most trivial. Everything foreshadows something, leading to a climactic discovery that leaves me better off than wherever the story began, or tragically arcs into the next chapter of my life, looking for resolution. I’m a writer.

I was interviewed recently by freelance journalist Laura Goode for a piece in New York Magazine about beauty pageants. I spun my tale of woe about the terrible price of being perceived the dumb blonde and how I fought back with myself, winning a state debate tournament in high school, going to law school, becoming a prosecutor, steeling myself as the independent military spouse during my husband’s year-long deployment. The material wasn’t used in her story, but it gave me a moment to tell myself the truth: what I always loved about those things in which I excelled was the writing. Heck, I even won the essay contest in the pageant. I wasn’t overcoming the presumed stupidity of pageantism all those years; I was fighting the notion that I was a writer. Why?

Don’t Blink

Blink and you might miss it.

Our family will be on the CBS Evening News tonight for about two minutes. We were interviewed about the post-homecoming challenges faced by military families. It’s on at 6 or 6:30 in most areas, so check your local listings.

I hope you’re preparing a celebration this weekend that includes a remembrance of the men and women who gave their lives protecting this nation, and that you are cherishing the time you have with your own friends and family.

Here’s a link to the WLS post that went viral last year thanks to WordPress and their “Freshly Pressed” page: Memorial Day is Different This Year.

Update: here’s the link to the piece as it aired on the CBS Evening News.

So Fly Like a G-8

Sorry for all those who tuned in to CBS News tonight expecting to see yours truly. We were preempted by news about the G-8. Rumor has it we will be on next Sunday, and I’ll give you the thumbs up when it’s confirmed.

Milbloggie Voting 2012 is Now Open!

Voting is open for Military Blogger of the Year. Witty Little Secret is a finalist and I would be honored by your vote. Voting does not require a sign-up or login. Just clickiness. Just two little clicks!

Step One. Go to the VOTING PAGE and click on SEE NOMINEES for BEST U.S. MILITARY SPOUSE BLOG. There it is. In blue. But wait. There’s more …

Step Two. Find WITTY LITTLE SECRET and click! Right inside the pretty round circle. Now find another computer and do it again. Heh.

Step Three. Share Witty Little Secret on your Facebook page by going to your status update, typing ”vote for Witty Little Secret!” and entering my website address (wittylittlesecret.com). Facebook will automatically direct people to this page.

NOW GO DO IT!

Thanks so much, everyone! Voting is open through Friday April 20th and the winners will be announced in Washington DC on May 11th. You can vote once from every computer you have access to!

Cheers!

New Friends

I’m on the road again today, and this time I’m on my way to 29 Palms, California. No gray capitol buildings for this girl today! Tomorrow I’ll  be part of a panel talking to military wives about the time I peed on my surfboard (in a self-deprecating but relevant sort of way).

So if any of you new followers are in that neck of the woods, come join me! I’d love to meet you in person. Maybe we can send Kari a picture.