...Aaand that's enough of the cutesy wordplay from me. Plus, it's not even entirely accurate. While I'm no longer at BlogHer, I'm not really home yet, either. As we speak, I'm sitting in Luke's parents' kitchen in northwest Indiana, having just finished my remaining two Parents posts for the week and contemplating going to bed, seeing as I can count on one hand how many hours of sleep I got last night, thanks to Luke and I abandoning our hotel room in order to sleep on a futon in the basement of my sister's house alongside both of our children. (Thanks for that, kids!) But as worn out as I am, I can't turn off my brain and all my thoughts about this year's conference.
First, the highlights. I'm glad I found the courage to introduce myself to some of the higher-profile bloggers I've been reading for years: Mom-101, Motherhood Uncensored, Uppercase Woman, and of course Amalah, my Internet idol, whose site I've been following since I first stumbled onto the blogging scene in 2004. (And who totally recognized me before I even said my name. I don't care how much of a fangirl this makes me, that alone was worth the entire conference.) It's easy to get star-struck among all of the A-listers you know and love and to let that keep you from saying hello, especially since they're almost always surrounded by friends and admirers, but then a few of you were gracious enough to seek me out and say nice things about my writing and my kids, and I thought about how good that made me feel. In my opinion, I owed it to those bloggers to let them experience the same warm-and-fuzzies I did by telling them how much I enjoy their writing. In those instances, it wasn't about distributing my business card or pimping out my URL, I just wanted to pay them the compliment I felt they were due and go on my merry way. Though my meeting with Amalah led to a reaquaintance with Cheeky Lotus which in turn led to a face-to-face with Alpha Mom's Isabel Kallman, and when she asked for my card HELL YES I whipped that bad boy out faster than a New York minute. "If you're ever looking for contributors, let me know," I said casually. Like, maybe I could be swayed to provide content every now and then for your kick-ass-popular Web site. You know, when I'm not reciting Frog and Toad from memory or fishing toddler-sized poop turds from the bathtub.
I also appreciated the addition of the Geek Lab sessions. I sat in on two of them, both related to Twitter, and they were immensely helpful. In fact, my only complaint in that regard is that they didn't offer a comprehensive full-length session on all the tips and tricks there are for managing your account. Maybe next year.
There's definitely more on the plus side of BlogHer than just these two things, as well as a few aspects I could have done without, but it's time for me to hit the hay, so future musings are on hold until next time. Normally I save unfinished entries in draft form, waiting to hit "Publish" until I can thoroughly flush out all the points I want to address, but what happens is that I get so caught up in my day-to-day that suddenly three days have passed and I can't remember where I was going so I scrap the post entirely while my blog sits dormant all the while. No more, I say! From here on out, I'm giving myself permission to post shorter, less developed entries and expand on them in future posts as I find the time. Aren't you lucky!
How cool that you got to meet Amalah! I would have had to seek her out if I'd been there, mostly to kiss baby Ezra. I'm going to DC next week and I have seriously considered emailing her to ask if I can wave at her from across a street or something. :) Alpha Mom would be super-lucky to have you write for them.
Sorry your date night with Luke didn't turn out like you'd hoped. Hopefully you two can have another date night soon. Marcus and I have recently resigned ourselves to the fact that our date nights revolve around sitting on our couch watching HGTV. And you know? That's ok. Most of the time.
Posted by: Jen L. | July 26, 2009 at 08:23 AM
Good job in networking with the other people. It was a real person to person interaction. Mixing it up with the top people is a great experience.
Posted by: daddyd | July 26, 2009 at 06:23 PM
Glad you had a good time. It is definately on my list of things to do. Just not sure when.
Posted by: Cookie | July 27, 2009 at 08:50 AM
It was so nice to meet you too and so glad you got to meet so many people whose blogs you like to read. It's always awesome putting the faces (and generally surprisingly short stature) to the writing, isn't it?
Posted by: Mom101 | July 27, 2009 at 06:02 PM
It sounds like going to the conference has given you a bit of freedom! It's kind of liberating to know that you can post whatever's on your mind, without it being perfection, if it just keeps the discipline of writing regularly alive.
Posted by: Parsing Nonsense | July 27, 2009 at 06:39 PM
Amalah may be the Queen of blogging, but I tell everyone that you are the Crown Princess.
Posted by: Molly | July 27, 2009 at 10:45 PM