BlogHer '10 was an amazing experience. I was able to spend time with my best friend and sister by choice, Kristin from Dragondreamer's Lair. We haven't seen each other in a few years, and it was wonderful to hang out on our schedule, instead of our kids'! The fabulous women we met along the way were amazing. Creativity, possibility and writing are exciting, and to witness so much of it under one roof in so many facets was just thrilling.
The sessions were very interesting. I attended Dear Abby 2.o -Advice on the internet hosted by Becky Sherrick Harks and the ladies from The Mouthy Housewives. They were hysterical!
I also attended "Grief, Loss, Tragedy and Community on the Internet" hosted by Cecily Kellogg, Loralee Choate, Kim Trimble and Anissa and Peter Mayhew. A very touching and eye opening discussion. Cecily was a fantastic moderator and the tears welled in my eyes several times. Anissa stated "Those who think blogging isn't important can kiss my ass." I couldn't agree more.
The parties were a blast. On Thursday we went to The People's Party, which was quite lively and met lots of great people. We were honored to make tutus for the 5K race Tutus for Tanner. Later was Queerosphere, which had a quiet, intimate atmosphere. Given it has been such a busy day, it was the perfect ending. Sparklecorn was brilliant! By far the best t-shirts of the conference that read "Judy Blume never prepared me for this." We made glo-stick jewelry, took pictures next to fun standees, and ate white cake with peanut butter and jelly filling...until CheeseBurgHer! I'm still hopeful I won the hat contest...
There was a LOT of swag. Now admittedly I love free stuff. I'm glad I brought the enormous bag with the expandable zipper, because I barely got it closed. My kids loved it, and the flash drives and little mice (for laptops) are very useful. It brought the conference home to my family to a degree.
The most touching was the Keynote of the International Activist Scholarship Winners for this year. These are women who risk much just to express their voice and bring it to the public. Imagine being silenced, or someone constantly trying to silence you. They have immense courage to stand up in their societies. Please check out Humanity Ashore, Mideast Youth, Mujeres Libres and The Afghan Women's Writing Project.
On a personal note, BlogHer was the first time I allowed my picture to be taken in public. This may sound trivial to you, but having my picture taken makes me extremely uncomfortable. Inter-personally I'm pretty outgoing, but break out a camera and I'm out of there. I'm still not brave enough to go in front of a video camera, but just getting in front of the camera is progress.
2 comments:
Your pictures are beautiful and I had so much fun with you!
You looked like you had a fantastic time :)
Post a Comment