In Summary, A New Beginning

This past weekend I was at the BlogHer conference in San Diego. It was an amazing experience.

I went for the conference but in reality the main reason was to see my friends. Friends I have made through blogging. Friends that even though we had not yet met in person it felt like we had. And new friends met at the conference(like her, her, her, her, her, her and her).

Some of my best memories were outside of the conference space itself, hanging out with these women. We talked about life. We talked about silly stuff. We talked about our passions and interests. We talked about writing.

When I said I want to freelance and I want to write a book, no one laughed. No one said, good luck with that. They understood. They had those dreams too. We shared ideas. "This is what I am doing." "Did you ever think about this?" "How about . . ."

Being at the conference and in the company of these amazing women, it made me realize that I have a lot to say. It made me realize that I can do this, I can take this further. It filled me with hope. It made me say I am a writer.

Comfort

As I rode the train to the BlogHer conference, I was scared. I was so nervous I thought I was going to be sick. I was going to something that was so beyond my comfort zone and I was going alone.

I knew no one.

Well I "knew" some people, but I had never met them. My two worlds, the world inside my computer and the world outside of it were going to connect. And I wasn't really sure what was going to happen. Would they like me? Would I like them? Would I be able to unfreeze my tongue and actually speak to them? Would I hide in the back of the room? Or would I hide out in my room, only venturing out for panels and food?

And then it hit me, I didn't have a room for Thursday night. I had no place to hide. I would be forced to mix and mingle. Because, in a totally uncharacteristic move, I asked someone I didn't know (in real life) if I could crash in their room. I couldn't very well be anti-social since they were being so nice to me. So I opened my mouth and words actually came out.

The more I spoke and the more I was spoken too, the more I relaxed. Maybe I could do this, maybe I would actually have fun. So I went with it, speaking to everyone I met and having fun along the way.

When I finally did retreat to my room for the night to rest my aching head and tired feet, I found no comfort. There was only the choice between chairs and the floor. I tried scrunching my 5'10" frame into the arm chair and resting my feet on the desk chair. The floor was an option, but not an appealing one. I moved from chair to floor and back again, trying to find a place to rest. I looked enviously at the beds. Their occupants were deep in sleep, oblivious to the world around them. I wanted that, I needed that.

At 2 am, I was sitting on the floor, alone again. I realized that I had not quite overcome my discomfort. I could have asked someone else, someone with only one roommate, if I could have shared their room for the night instead of being the awkward fifth in a room of four. The women I met were kind and would not have turned me away. But I could not ask. I did not ask.

I woke up in the morning, feeling much older than my almost 40 years. My body hurt. My head ached. My nerves were raw. I was not looking forward to the day. I was looking forward to 3pm when I could check into my room and have a bed to myself. Bleary eyed and tired, I imagined that I would, in fact, retreat to my room.

But again, greetings were extended to me, arms waved me over, seats were saved for me. I was welcomed wholeheartedly into the community. Laughing and hugging and sharing stories soothed my aches and pains and rubbed away the jagged edges of my nerves. When it was time to check into my room and finally had my own bed, the wonderfully soft and comfy bed with its own gravitational pull, I did not want to stay there. I wanted to be out amongst the friends that I had made. I wanted to meet more people.

The last night of the conference, late at night, I sat on a bed. I was not alone. I was surrounded by people, real live people, my friends. We talked and laughed. We took pictures in an attempt to capture the moment. We talked some more. We laughed at things that are flappy. We created lasting memories.

I had finally found my comfort.

Whirlwind

My life is typically boring. I have a routine that gets me through the week. The weekends are usually spent with family time. We rarely have any engagements or special events. Even in the summertime when weddings, barbeques and vacations usually clutter the calendar, ours is relatively clear.

But for some reason, we are busy this summer. And everything we have to do is crammed into the month of July. A family reunion was followed immediately by a trip to a circus carnival, followed by a barbeque.

We will then add parties and concerts to the mix. Saturday will bring us to the triple bill of Poison, Def Lepard and Cheap Trick (admit it you are so jealous). Sunday a garden party at the Zoo for my husband's company's annual meeting. Then a concert on Tuesday with the annual meeting featuring ... Kool and the Gang and ... Danny Gokey (and now you are even more jealous of me).

Then I'm off to BlogHer and LobbyCon on Thursday for a fun filled weekend of meeting and greeting a bunch of really cool bloggers. There will be all sorts of cool parties and events to go to. I am really excited.

To finish off July and usher in August, we all jet off to New York City to visit our very best friends.

And then we come home and pass out.

Carded

I have a dilemma. Since I am going to Lobby Con at BlogHer this year, I need to have some spiffy business cards to promote my blogs.

It makes perfect sense, cards help people remember who you are. But I have three business that I would like to promote - this blog, Juniper and Coffee and my Etsy store. And three business cards seems like an awful lot to hand out.

And there is also the added problem that every time I've ordered business cards in my professional life, I've quit that job within six month. I don't want to quit blogging or making jewlery so should I even risk ordering cards?

So that is my little dilemma. I would appreciate hearing what you are doing and what you think I should do.

Because I Am A Total Dork

I am excited to announce that I will be attending Lobby Con at this year's BlogHer conference.

As you may well remember I forgot to register for the conference in Chicago. I decided to go anyway just to meet face to face all the cool people I've met on-line. I was still looking (praying) for tickets to fall into my lap but I was happy just to go.

And then the wonderful people at BlogHer found out about all the people like me who were planning on lurking in the hallways trying to get a taste of the conference. So they created Lobby Con. We get access to the expo floor (and swag, gotta love the swag), they will be streaming the main sessions for us in a bar (yummy) and we also get access to the parties (hooray for the parties!). Really its the next best thing to having a ticket.

I am so looking forward to meeting her, her, her, her and her. Aw heck, I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.