So, I am home from BlogHer. I hopped into a cab and got on an earlier flight (for freeee!) yesterday morning because I was really missing my little ones and I’m so thankful I did because even though TSA stole my Trader Joe’s cookie butter, I a) got to stand in the long-ass line with an entire adorable men’s lacrosse team and b) didn’t have to spend the day and night at LGA unlike the 4,999 other BlogHer12 attendees. I came home, ate sweet and salty popcorn, had copious amounts of coffee, took a disco nap, jumped on the trampoline, and made the best homemade chewy chocolate chip cookies with my girls. So, you know, pretty much a piece of perfection.
I really want to tell you about my trip, but I kind of feel hung over, even though I really didn’t drink very much—half of a vodka gimlet until it got stolen and a few sips of champagne (take that, Leisel Von Trapp, I *did* get to taste my first champagne, in her honor).
This year, BlogHer was…interesting. I took, maybe, 12 photos, and I ate Cuban food, which really tells you one very important thing:
I have absolutely no idea who I am right now.Â
I did get to spend some quality, quality time with some of my very best friends in the world—people who make me laugh until I cry or pee my pants, or, you know, until she cries real tears outside of the McDonald’s in Times Square. (THIS MONEY…is wet.) I am so thankful for this.
I most definitely had a great, great time.
More than great, even. And not just because there were cupcakes and Christmas decorations involved.
(Also, it didn’t help that I didn’t have a working phone or computer—thanks to my crappy US phone and my ability to forget necessities. Facebook? Nuh-huh. Twitter? What’s that? Texting? Nope. Email? Not happening. I was essentially unplugged at a SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE. I’m smart, you guys. Really smart.)
But then. THEN!
I am beginning to think that this conference has grown too big for my little britches. Back in San Francisco, or Chicago, or New York the first-time around, I was able to see and catch up with so many people. I was able to stand around in the lobby of the various hotels and run into everyone I wanted to see. I was able to attend sessions that were able to teach me new things, to teach me to be a better blogger, to teach me to be a better editor. The conference has gone HUGE, which is wonderful for BlogHer and for this little thing we call blogging—you know, that thing that my friends still mock me about and think is not actually a real thing (“are you going to put this on your BLAAAAAWG?”), but I think that maybe it’s just not FOR ME anymore. I think it’s wonderful for people who like free shampoo samples, people who know the business of blogging and who—unlike me—don’t consider the idea of monetization to be so much overwhelming work, for people who like to fight to get into a private party that sells out in 14 seconds. And if that’s for you, I don’t begrudge you AT ALL. If that sounds like you, that’s great. It’s just not…me.
I don’t know if the conference is just too massive now, if the parties were just too dark and loud, if the sessions are just no longer relevant enough for me, if there are too many exclusive private parties that are all at the same time off-site…but I didn’t get to see and hug and chat with so many people. It wasn’t enough, conference-wise. There was not enough face time with friends—there are people I didn’t even see a single time, and people who I saw for exactly eight seconds in passing while on my way to the bathroom. There was not enough learning.
Just not enough.Â
Not enough hugs.
Not even a little bit.
But if you need me, here’s where I’ll be today.
Getting enough.
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