Kickin' It Old School and Sweating It at BlogHer '10
10:14 AM Posted by Mommy Is Green
As some of you know, I attended BlogHer '10. Many of the bloggers attended parties on Thursday night before the start of the conference on Friday. The party RSVP lists filled up fast so I wasn't able to attend any of the parties. When I arrived on Thursday I saw everyone joining groups and making friends already. Since I hadn't made one friend in person by Friday morning I was feeling pretty nervous and out of the loop.
I was supposed to meet up with Xenia from Thanks Mail Carrier at the Newbie Breakfast Friday morning. We planned this online but ended up missing each other at the breakfast and didn't find each other until 4:00 pm. I was feeling pretty shy and nervous most of the day. I'm not exactly sure why because I'm usually a very outgoing person. I've never had trouble making friends but I felt outside of my element. I think it's because the blogosphere is so huge and I'm just a tiny part of it. Everyone I met was very nice though. Even when I sat somewhere by myself people would come sit and chat. So I know I was being completely silly about being shy.
Another reason I felt out of my element was because I must have been the only blogger there without a Blackberry or an iPhone. I was totally unconnected when I wasn't in my hotel room. I didn't want to lug around my laptop and so far I don't have Internet on my cell phone. I had to kick it old school with my pen made from recycled paper and a note pad to take notes during sessions. As I usually don't feel the need to be that connected when I'm not at home, I wish I had a cool cell phone with easy Internet access for the conference. The capability to take easy notes with it would have been helpful as well.
If that wasn't enough to make me feel different, I had sweat creating puddles under my arms. I made the transition to natural deodorant 9 months ago. The detox stage is long over with and I shouldn't be sweating this much. In fact, I've never sweat this much during any time using natural deodorant. That says to me that I need to switch to a new natural deodorant. Even when I used traditional deodorant it eventually came time that it stopped working well until I chose something new to use. So if you saw someone dressed nicely on Friday but still had sweaty armpits, that was me! Lol! If you didn't meet me but saw me, or you have my card and don't remember what I look like...surely you can identify me by my sweaty pits.
Regardless of my insecurities, shyness, and nervousness I still had a good time at BlogHer '10. I loved meeting everyone, learning new things, and playing at the Expo. I can't wait to start visiting new blogs from cards that I collected at the conference as well as catching up with bloggers that weren't able to attend. I have a very busy week ahead of me!
August 8, 2010 2:28 PM
I´m so gald you had a good time.. and I totally understand you ´cause back in May I attended an event and I wasn´t able to meet all the people I planned to and I think I only approach one or two bloggers that I recognized, I think I didn´t want to make a fool of myself..
August 9, 2010 3:02 AM
So glad you had a good time! I would've been shy at first too (and probably sweaty because I do that when I'm nervous). I have internet on my phone but I don't use it or wouldn't use it to take notes, etc. so I would've kicked it old school too with paper and pen. hee hee! Thanks for the recap. Glad it was a good time!
August 9, 2010 5:53 PM
I definitely wish we could have met up sooner, it was crazy how much was going on everywhere that I felt like I was running left and right for almost 3 days straight.
Except for the few veterans that have done blogging conferences a million times, I think I can pretty safely say that we all felt the same way you did, Victoria - even if other people managed to hide it better.
By the way, I didn't think you seemed sweaty one bit! I thought you were adorable! :)