Sitting in the portland airport. Portland airport? I love your free wireless.
I'm really tired. Partly from staying up too late and partly from complete overstimulation. I've never been to a conference before. The prominent feel of being in a place with 700 other people who do the same thing is one of a false reality. A false sense of importance and celebrity. It's going to take me awhile to process it all. I also have to apologize for my poor spelling and grammar, the laptop i have been using is a little deficient.
After the mommyblogging panel yesterday i went to the panel "Is Your Blog a Canvas" with Mrs Kennedy, Elizabeth Perry and Ms Jen. It was the most inspiring panel i went to. I really felt motivated to try new things and take better care with what i am already doing.
Mrs Kennedy is an amazing woman. She's kind, endearing and smart. She really led the panel in a way that made it informative and interesting.
I met so many wonderful women it's hard to remember them all. I have a ton of business cards to go through and am eager to read some new blogs. I spoke with Alice a little last night and she was really sweet, but what i really took away from my conversation with her is that all of this is very important to her. She really cares about the things she says, the lessons people take from her and that people are treated fairly and with respect.
MaryBeth slept in this morning and raced out of the room so i didn't really get to say goodbye. I miss her already. I can't describe how truly sweet she is. I loved hearing her introduce herself with her cute little accent "Hello, I'm MaryBeth from Supafine."
I hung out with Jen from notcalm last night and i love her. Really, i do and not just because we both have four kids. We shared a beer and some stolen food and generally enjoyed finally meeting each other. I can hardly wait to see her again.
This morning at the airport i was bleary eyed tired and some woman stood behind me in line. And she talked and talked. I was feeling all rude because i was so tired and depleted of dialogue i could barely keep up the conversation. But then! She gave me her card and it was daring young mom! I had really wanted to meet her, but hadn't, so it felt kind of karmic that we met at the last minute like that.
Oh yes, I also went to the "Autonomy" panel with heather armstrong. She is famous for so many more reasons than just her fabulous writing. She is an amazing speaker. So poised and beautiful. She deserves every little good thing that comes her way.
I will now return, well after two more flights, to my regularly scheduled blogging. Well, i will probably let you in on a few new blogs over the next few weeks.
It was a sweltering hut of estrogen that mommyblogger room. sweetney, alice, and mir
were funny, charming and engaging. Marrit
, who led the panel (my href's aren't working i'll fix that later), was amazing. Really smart and practical.
The panel was largely, actually completely, unstructured which i found a little disappointing. I travelled all this was and this panel was the one most pertinent to me. Essentially, all the women lined up and asked a bunch of questions.
I sat beside an ad guy and he spent the whole time writing down the url's of everybody that spoke and writing little notes about them like "snarky" or "cute and funny" and his favourite "must check out!" Then him, and another ad guy in front of him, had a little freak out because ad's weren't showing up on Dooce's page properly.
I guess my biggest concern with the whole mommyblogging thing is that a precedent has been set by the "popular" bloggers that mom's are funny, full of quip. While i enjoy the funny writers, i also seek out the mothers who are honest and not always funny. They are real. I feel like the push for traffic, ads and comments is causing women to write in voices that are not necessarily their own. Nobody is funny all the time. Look at Dooce or Finslippy. The writing is so engaging because they have a balance between the snark, the mundane and the difficult.
I don't think ads or traffic are worth the loss of voice.
Sweet, wee little MB
. She is so sweet. We make a dandy couple wandering out to the pool, the two shyest girls in the place. We enjoyed ourselves at the cocktail party, MB left earlier than me because i wanted to hang out with Jen
and gwendomomma
a while longer. When i got back to our room MB was sleeping belly down, fully clothed with her head hanging over the side of the bed and drooling on her computer.
Today is the big conference day; more people, more intimate discussions. Doing the blogher ad network thing now and mommyblogger panel next.
My god, what did they put in those lemon drops? I've had about 6 bottles of the free water they're handing out, plus a tylenol 3 and pop. Still, eyes watering, head pounding.
I am having a fun time in spite of myself. I went to two more sessions today; the first on photography led by heather champ and the second on advertising. Both were great and informative.
I then spent a lovely hour hanging out with jenB
in my room. We talked kids, organics, fussy eaters and clothes and make-up. It's been so long since i've had a friend to talk to, i forgot how nice it can be. Jen is awesome, has great style and a superb heart. I hope we can hang out again.
The other person i've talked to quite a bit is amy. She is so cute. She's charming, down-to-earth and endearing. I'm so glad she thought i was Angela.
MB's
back from her day of shopping and what-nots and looking fab in a little black dress. We are off to the cocktail party by the pool. No lemon drops. Promise.
Okay, i'll admit it i didn't make a very good first impression this morning. I'll also tell you now just to get it out of the way that shane was wrong, i drank too much by the pool last night and it did help. Really.
It did not, however, help with the red-eyed, bad complexion, first impression this morning. MB and i hung out all morning and then had some brunch because i seriously thought i was going to die.
I'm sitting in this room with hundreds of women all eating chilli and baked potatoes. The Flcikr folks are speaking and hundreds of laptop computers are flickr'ing.