BlogHer Take Away

Aug 06

Everyone,

If you look back in my archives, you’ll see that I haven’t written much this past year. It’s not because I haven’t had much to say. I’ve had a lot of things to say actually. But none of those things I wanted to publish. None of them I’ve wanted to put out on the internet.

When I opened my blog with every intention of writing, everything I put down seemed hollow. Shallow. Not worth even posting. Looking back at the things I tried to write, they WERE worth posting. I should have posted. But I just couldn’t bring myself to put such trivial stuff on my blog when so much BIG stuff was happening. So I didn’t put anything up. And then, I didn’t even put the big happy stuff up. Like birthdays and milestones and Christmas. I felt like I couldn’t post at all. I was blocked.

Lolli convinced me to go with her to BlogHer this year in New York City. It didn’t take long to convince me. We went together in 2010 and had a great time. I was looking forward to spending time with her (we don’t get to see each other much these days it seems) and spending some time away from my family just being a person. Then Lolli won an amazing prize and got to share it with me. So BlogHer went from being a fun trip away to an amazing FREE trip away.

So we planned. And smiled. I felt happy. Excited. I finally felt like blogging a bit again. The big things were still there, but not so…looming. So we went. We had an amazing time.

I went to ONE session the whole time. It was all about blogging because you love it. Here’s the class description taken from the BlogHer website:

The Personal

Some of the loudest voices on the internet tell you that you need to monetize, grow, get PR contacts, and have a stronger media presence. Other loud voices are on either side of a partisan line, engaged in political gamesmanship and one-upmanship. But there are quieter voices in the blogosphere who have been raising their hand lately and reminding us all that they are here, and that their passion and devotion to personal expression is what the blogosphere has thrived on for over a decade: meet the bloggers who blog for the love of it. Blogging provides immeasurable gifts that may never result in quantifiable “success metrics.” Success can mean living a higher quality of life because your blog simply means something to you and others. It makes you and your readers happy, makes you think, makes you feel.

I was late to the class but I enjoyed the time I spent there. They talked about blogging because you love it. Not because you want followers (I do). Or because you love the followers (I do that too!) But blog because YOU love it.

And when you blog, be truthful. I sat there listening to the questions being asked and I thought about my blog. I am not being truthful on here. I want things to be rosy. I want to make the picture of our life to be good. Because it is good 90% of the time. And when I (eventually) print this blog into a family book, I want it to reflect what we are.

But if I leave out the bad, then it’s not REALLY who we are is it? When I couldn’t paint the picture of us as we were, I didn’t want to “paint” at all.

I am going to try my hardest to get back to sharing. Because I really do love to blog. It’s just hard to open up when things are bad. But that class reminded me that if I am truthful, I will come to know myself even better.

That is my ONE takeaway from the entire trip. There was lots more. Lots more fun and exciting things that happened! But I want this to be more than the swag I brought home from the trip. I want this to be something I can talk about with you instead of just showing you.

So in an effort to know myself better, here is one truth about me. (Baby steps, I don’t think I can handle more than one thing each right now.)

Truth about me: I am feeling second best to everything and everyone right now.

Anyone want to share their one truth?

Safire

SafireBlogHer 12

My Summer Fun

Aug 03

Everyone,

This year has been the first year since I’ve had kids that I have been working. So between my job and the kids, I haven’t felt like I’ve had much of a break at all. So when my friend Lolli invited me to come to BlogHer in New York City with her this year, I jumped at the chance!

We’ve been here 3 days now, and it’s been a whirlwind of people and places and things. We rode the train into NYC (hello Acela express and 2 hour trips!) and started off by checking out our hotel room. We did a little shopping:

We got all dressed up and went to see Newsies on Broadway. Amazing. Like goose bump amazing. I loved all the songs, the actor who played Jack Kelly (the main charceter) was super cute and our seats were great.

After the show we did some more shopping:

Did you know that the Disney Store at Time’s Square is open until 1am?! That was an awesome store.

Thursday we were invited to an event called Blographer. It was hosted by Adorama and that was very interesting. I saw some cool camera stuff, listened to some awesome presenters, but didn’t win anything. (I think I was one of the few that didn’t…too bad.)

I went and wandered the Expo hall after Blographer and met some cool sponsors. Hopefully me meeting some cool people will translate into cool things for my readers. (All 5 of you, love you guys!)

We also did 2 parties that night. Both were official parties of BlogHer and both were totally different. The People’s Party had a whole bowling lane set up in the party. They even had shoes for you to borrow. It was a little surreal to be on the dance floor with the music blaring and have random bowling pin noises behind you. Then the other party, Queerosphere, was in the old hotel ballroom and had a live jazz band. Amazing deserts too!

This morning dawned bright and early. Like 6am early. And what could be so interesting to get me out of bed at that time? Dance with the Rockettes, of course! We were able to go into one of their practice studios and be taught part of their routine that they do for the Christmas show. That was very cool to be inside Radio City Music Hall and see places that the public typically doesn’t see. We were also able to have a Q&A session with them. Both of our instructors have been Rockettes for over 6 years. Did you know that each year they have to audition every time? And they do 17 shows a week in the Christmas season, 7 days a week. Wow.

There were no “eye high” kicks for me. (Have you seen how high my eyes are?! Oh, and I’m too tall to ever be an official Rockette.) But I can toe the line with the best of them.

The rest of today has been sessions, expo hall, meeting Martha Stewart, and some awesome New York Pizza. My feet hurt, I’m tired, but happy.

I love this recharge time I’m having. The kids are in good hands at home. They say they miss me. And I miss them. And I miss Juice. But I am LOVING having time to myself. More tomorrow too.

Safire

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