A Post From BlogHer

Being at BlogHer has been wonderful, if a little overwhelming. Repeatedly I look at faces, hoping to recognize my favorite bloggers, whom I read on a daily basis. Each time I try to search out their blog's name, I realize how futile an endeavor that really is. Of those that do post their photos, I can't connect their name to their blog's name. That's just too much for me to take in and retain in the part of my brain reserved for memory with is tiny and fly-sized. I find myself staring, in a way that I like to think of as covertly but turns out to be not so much so, at the nametags hanging at about bellybutton level to try and interpret their identity and their blog.

Today, I met Jessica of Very Mom, when I told her how much a post she had written many months ago and with such honesty meant a lot for me. It was about how she had a hard time revealing herself because of being afraid of confrontations or of offending someone, and about finding courage to talk about what may be controversial subjects. She wrote about this at a time when I was experiencing a shift in my life related to how I interact with people. I wanted to move away from being afraid to the point of not saying anything sometimes, for fear of causing offense, to being more honest and true to myself and then letting the chips fall where they may. Adopting this attitude and then successfully implementing it into one's life also means accepting the consequences from doing such, if any, which further scared me. I mean, what if someone got MAD at me, which was the worst thing in the world, then my head blew up and killed three people??? This was a real fear I had.

Jessica possesses, in addition to an honest nature, long arms which come in handy when blogger-fan wants to take a picture but can't quite manage a good one with her own puny arms. Thank you!



I met a drunken Amalah, who is hilarious, just like I thought she would be. I spent a lot of time talking to her and also her babysitter, who also has a blog and who I mistook for another blogger. She's a sweet girl who definitely has the goods on Amy.



I talked with Mindy for quite a while, which I was so excited to do because she and I have some rather startling similarities to do with life experiences that were coincidental down to the same date, same year. Which, freaky. She's sweet and funny, and very open. I also talked with Phil for a bit about hotel room service and also the spirit of the blogosphere and how there's room for everybody but some people don't seem to think so when they leave nasty comments. He was very friendly, and went with the flow of rapidly changing topics spanning mere minutes of conversation.

(Picture with Mindy is not here because the camera flash rendered her black dress to be less than opaque, so I'm not going to publish it until I can do some work in Photoshop to it.)

There are some amazing women here who can write like all get out, with passion and heartfelt, articulate expression. I wanted to meet them and add their blogs to my bookmarks, and see who I might have a connection with.

I don't know what will end up coming from all of this, but I am glad for what I have right now: the experience of meeting many wonderful writers, a long list of new blogs to read, and cocktail hour which is upon me.

Ta ta.