playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren

I’ve been working and rewriting and backspacing on this post for two days, trying to come up with something truly eloquent to say about my experience at BlogHer.   Having handed out (not as many as I expected) cards and met so many inspiring, hilarious, [insert flattering adjective here] women, I feel this odd pressure to write something that gives the experience justice.

To make this easier, I’ll just revert to my typical way of expressing excitement and joy.

BLOGHER WAS SO AWESOME!  I HAD THE GREATEST TIME EVER!!!!!!  If you ever get a chance to go, DON’T hesitate!  GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  I’m DEFINITELY going next year!!!!!!!

Phew!  It feels better to get that out there, though not in the prose form I was hoping for.   I wish there was a way to capture in text the women, the conversations, the laughs, the listening, and the learning.   Being there, I felt like I was in a group to which I truly belonged.  (mostly)  I felt like the people I met, were my friends, like REAL, LIVE EVERYDAY friends.  (mostly)  You know those women you read everyday and think are so funny and fantastic?  Well they are more funny and fantastic in person.  (completely)

(Mostly) everything about the weekend I could say with pink, puffy hearts surrounding my words.  But of course, there were a few awkward moments, like when you’d meet someone new, without too much hoopla, but then someone you’d been dying to meet would walk up and there was lots of squeeing and jumping and hugging.  I felt bad for not having that reaction with everyone.

There were awkward moments when people I’d meet didn’t know my blog and I didn’t know theirs and the conversation would fizzle quickly.

It was awkward and overwhelming to walk alone into a room filled with people that all seemed to know one another.  More than once I had to either, leave the room and find a familiar face, or muster up every bit of courage I possessed and walk up to people and introduce myself. 

The point of telling you about the awkward moments isn’t to scare you or to make it seem like BlogHer was somehow not all it’s cracked up to be.  I’m telling you those things because I want to make the point that if you’ve been afraid of going to BlogHer for fear of awkwardness or not knowing anyone, (mostly) everyone probably felt the same awkwardness and nervousness at some point during the weekend. 

BlogHer really IS all it’s cracked up to be.  Cross my heart.  So I’ll be seeing you there next year, right?!

***

PS.  I broke one of my own cardinal blogging rules by not answering your specific questions about my last post…so I’ll answer here.

1.  Yes I had fun at BlogHer.  Please read the above post.
2.  No, TSA kept the knife.
3.  No, I don’t know how it got in there.  Neither does my husband.  Maybe it was Carson’s knife?  (kidding.)