Like everyone else, I was sad when I read Crunchy Chicken announcing that she would be taking a blogging break. To be honest, I was surprised that she hadn’t done so earlier. I mean this lady was a mom to two kids, she appeared to have a full time day job, she blogged frequently and had to pull it together while dealing with bad news. And god only knows how long she spends designing the cutest little banners for the challenges she hosts. Edit: The truth behind Crunchy Chicken. I am not familiar with the antics of Wonder Woman (except that she wears no pants), but Crunchy Chicken was a wonder woman. I on the other hand, have nervous breakdowns at the thought of driving a car. So you can see why I found Crunchy Chicken inspirational.

I came across Crunchy Chicken’s blog sometime last summer shortly after I joined the riot4austerity mailing list. And while I love reading my funnies, for some reason it didn’t dawn on me initially that Crunchy Chicken had a really excellent sense of humor. Who needs Dave Barry when you have Crunchy Chicken? Especially now with the impending apocalypse one needs advice in addition to the laughs.

I didn’t really begin to read Crunchy Chicken’s blog on a regular basis until she launched the freezer yer buns challenge last fall. It was the challenge that really spoke to me! I happen to think that austerity is fun. Additionally, the banner she designed had the cutest looking baby seal. Her previous challenges weren’t challenging enough for me. For example, I was not that interested in her previous challenges like the diva cup challenge or in the cloth wipe challenge, but I did find it fascinating that all these people (mainly women) were actually thinking about their toilet habits. I loved the fact that her challenges got her readers to think a bit outside the box.

During the freeze yer buns challenge…when I was sitting at my desk being cold, I would wonder about the other participants and how they were coping with the cold. And since Crunchy had a handy-dandy list of all her participants and their commitments on her sidebar, I began to read the blogs written by those who had also made the same promise as me: to be heat free for the entire winter season. This is how I found arduous’ blog because she was one of the few crazies like myself who had decided to go heat free. Later I learned that arduous lived in L.A. where bad weather of any sort is an anomaly, but by that point I was a regular reader. By following links from Crunchy Chicken’s blog I also found Green Bean’s blog, and Chile’s blog and others I cannot remember.  In short, I found this huge group of people who cared enough to do something besides changing lightbulbs and emitting alot of hot air thereby causing even more global warming.

After the sad announcement that Crunchy would be taking a break, her readers soon found out that she was actually addicted to blogging and thus her absence was not a long one. But the distress that was caused by her announcment to take the break did result in some of us thinking about how we could adaquately thank Crunchy Chicken for inspiring us so much. So now seemed as good of a moment as any to pay tribute to that wonderful bloggeress who has not only inspired me but has restored some of my faith in humanity. She has taught by example that instead of sitting around being grumpy about whatever pisses us off, we can do something about it. If you’re upset that tampax is marketing their wares to South African school girls, you can do something about it like Crunchy did. Be proactive not reactive (sorry…just chanelling some productivity gurus)!

So thanks Crunchy Chicken…for being as inspiring and as imaginative as you are.