Official Exhausted BlogHer ’09 Post.
This one isn’t going to be about the sessions I attended or about the sights I saw or the level of social anxiety I experienced this weekend. No, that will come later this week.
This one will be about the people I met this weekend. Some I’ve “known” for four years, others I only heard of this weekend, and still others fell somewhere in between.
Kerri, Julia, and Lee Ann. My d-blogger crew. Kerri and Julia were two of the first diabetes bloggers I found when I went seeking information and support following my husband’s hypoglycemic seizure and my type 2 diagnosis in 2005. Lee Ann came onto the scene about a year ago. But as is the case with each of these individuals, there’s so much more than diabetes involved in our friendships. More on that later this week, too. (Man, I’m really committing myself to blogging this week!)
Jenni Prokopy, who runs ChronicBabe. Wow. Meeting her was an honor. I discovered ChronicBabe through Kerri back in early 2006 when I needed a lift on dealing with the chronic conditions that had been thrown at me a year earlier. I later found that her attitude towards chronic conditions assisted in my coping with long existing mental health issues as well as the newly discovered physical ones.
Through Jenni, I met Cinnamon, who makes absolutely fabulous bags and purses, and Veronica, who tries to “navigate and understand the intersection between being a feminist, a mom, and a Latina”.
Kim over at Emergiblog. I began reading Kim’s blog about four years ago, too. At the time I was convinced that I would attend nursing school and was taking all the pre-requisites necessary to do so. In the end, I decided that maybe it wasn’t in the cards after all, but I continued to read Kim’s stories from the emergency room and the world of nursing. She has been supportive of my journey with type 2 diabetes, as her husband has faced a similar one in recent years. Oh, and we both love watching college football. (Yeah, I love ALL football.)
It was great to room with Lynn at human being blog and to see other Denver/Boulder bloggers such as Bantering Blonde, Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck, and Crunchy Domestic Goddess. Holly promoted The Blog Frog, while Tara was doing her thing for Lijit. All of these women I had a pleasure of meeting last month at a local BlogHer meetup.
Those who left an impression with me during sessions, both speakers and audience members include Ree, Loolwa, Mr. Lady, Moosh in Indy, Katrina, Sarah Beckley, and Barbara. OH, and I was beyond delighted to sit next to Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes and to see that she found an old high school friend by complete surprise, sitting right there in the same session.
Those who left a lasting impression at meals or parties (hardy har har) include Suebob (and her red stapler!), Shauna Glenn, Kim Swartz, and Marianne Thomas.
A huge thank you goes out to Poppy Buxom. Because of her, I ended up with a great view of Venetian Night and the best city in the world for a couple hours Saturday night.
I’m sure I have forgotten someone somewhere, but you get the idea – BlogHer offered the opportunity to meet women from all walks of life. Even after my hemming and hawing, I’m glad I went.
Posted on July 26, 2009, in BlogHer '09. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
Oh so very awesome!! I’ve been clicking away on the links. Thank you for posting this Rachel. So glad you went. So glad you had a great time.
Looking forward to the posts to come.
I wish I had been in Indy to meet you!! Ah well, hopefully our paths will cross soon enough.
Thank you, Rachel. It was great to meet you, too. And I’m beyond flattered that you would mention me in your wrap-up. You’ve got a delightfully sly sense of humor and I’m thrilled that I got to see it.
And I’m also glad to read you got to meet Veronica. She’s an amazing woman as well. And Jenni has really helped a lot of people overcome huge issues in their lives, including mine.
Big post-conference hugs!
Hugs!!
It was so great to finally meet you in person after all these years! I feel you on the exhaustion bit, but it was worth it to travel to get to meet everyone. :D
SQUEEEEE
I wish our paths had crossed more while we were there, but I’m so thrilled we stumbled upon each other in the ‘Blogging Outside the Lines’ session, and we got to sit next to each other at the ‘Patient Blogger’ session. Hopefully, we’ll get to see each other again at some future D-meet-up or another BlogHer conference – and next time, I’ll make an appointment to hang out with you so we can really talk :)
And I’m so with you on the social anxiety. I’ll be happy to stay in my house for a while because that just frayed my nerves every which way…
That chance might be sooner than you think… I’ll drop you an e-mail in the next couple days and you’ll see what I mean.
Yeah, I didn’t even like being at work yesterday. I wanted to be left ALONE.
Hi Rachel! Thanks so much for the link – every little bit helps! I laughed out loud when you mentioned “the level of social anxiety I experienced this weekend.” Really, I thought I was the only one – everyone else was bubbling around like they were old hands at the conference and I was a crazy lady trying to figure it all out. Just added you to my feed reader and I’ll definitely come back to read more.
it was quite the adventure, wasn’t it? :)
I was so super happy to sit down at your table randomly on Saturday morning! I’m really glad I decided to brave the stranger-breakfast plan. :) I can’t wait to go back and check out your blog and see what’s up here. Thank you so much for being friendly.
I wish I’d done the stranger-breakfast plan, but at least there were plenty of others who did and joined my group for the meal. :)
Thanks for coming to my party! It was the first blogging party I’ve ever thrown, but definitely not the last. Bloggers are FUN–and there never seems to be a dearth of conversation! If you know what I mean.
yeah… wink wink nudge nudge