bethysmalls

So back to the BlogHer story.

Day 2(but really day 1) of BlogHer10 started out well. I headed to Manhattan via subway and I went to breakfast, then a session moderated by ElisaC and then lunch. After I left the ballroom, I spotted Karen Walrond from chookooloonks.com and Laura Mayes from thequeso.com. They were just standing there talking to each other and I decided that if I can interrupt Joe Sestak’s conversation to say hello, these ladies were ripe for the interruptin’. I walked up to them and they looked at me and I put my hand out, “@chookooloonks, @lmayes, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” I said to them and I made some ridiculous comment about meeting them IRL and they both seemed to get a kick out of that. We exchanged business cards, Karen told me I was beautiful(holy shit!) and spent the next 30 seconds fawning over my choice of colors. I was in such a state of shock that I can’t remember what I said only I’m sure I definitely did not pay her a compliment in return and I am still kicking myself over it, because, duh she’s gorgeous and has the best hair ever. No joke.

So after that (what?!) I did another session. This one was with 4 bloggers I’d never read before, Aunt Becky from Mommy Wants Vodka and 3 ladies from The Mouthy Housewives. It was a session on writing an advice blog. The woman who stood out the most to me was Marinka who writes at Motherhood in NYC and she is hilarious, y’all. If I go back next year, I am TOTALLY going to interrupt whatever conversation she’s having to say hello. So, ya know. Look out, Marinka! At that session I spotted Lisa from Smacksy in the front row and after when everyone else was running up to chit chat with the panelists, I ran up to her and told her how great I think her blog is and how my friend Jon Solomon introduced me to it. It was shaping up to be a pretty awesome day.

After that session was the session sponsored by Eden Fantasies and Sexis Magazine about bringing sex out of the closet. It was very interesting and I’m glad I went to it but… There is just no way I can bring myself to have sex discussions on my blog. Both my parents and my mother-in-law read this blog… occasionally… I think. And plus I don’t even talk about it in real life. It turns out I’m pretty much a prude.

After THAT session I hit the ladies room and while waiting in line, Alice Bradley from finslippy.com was washing her hands right in front of me! So I said, “Alice Bradley! I’m bethysmalls!” and she actually said, “I know you.” Which, c’mon, but SO sweet, right? I told her I was staying in Brooklyn and was thinking of tweeting her to see if she wanted to ride the subway together and she asked me where I was staying. We like, conversed! And as she left I realized that her writing partner from Let’s Panic About Babies!, Eden Kennedy, was with her. I would have run after them to say hello to her, too, but I really had to pee.

So the last thing for the 1st official day of BlogHer10 was the keynote address and gala. I watched my new friend Karen read her incredibly touching piece from the Life category. My new BlogHer crush, Marinka, read her piece for the Humor category and Lissa Rankin from Owning Pink read What? We Can’t Say Vagina? from the OP-ED category. Both hilarious.

After that, I met a woman whose name I can’t remember but she was very sweet and friendly and she and I talked about Bruno and how awesome he is. We talked about her and how she wanted to start a blog but was nervous about doing everything right and I told her to just go for it or she’d never start. There is a lot to figure out.

We were both waiting for the gala to start and after a while she excused herself and I looked at the time and realized I should call home. Bruno sang part of the ABC’s to me. For the first time. I lost my cool, I did. I spent the next few minutes in the bathroom crying. Then I went up to the Serenity Suite where some ladies were talking. One was a blogger who writes at The Elmo Wallpaper and sitting with her was Lisa Belkin from The Motherlode! I sat and listened to them talk for a bit and then eventually butted into the conversation, like I do, and sobbed my sob story to them. Lisa Belkin of the New York Times gave me a pep talk. I realized that I had had enough awesome for one day and so I skipped the gala and headed back to Brooklyn. The day was just a little too non-stop and I was in no fit state to gala-vant.

All in all a really good day. Too much for me to handle as it turned out but still. Good.

Somewhere in this crazy day, I introduced myself to @herbadmother as well. I almost made us both cry. In a touching way. I think. She’s something special, that one.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at 9:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.