Pick Your Friends Well – Part One

The time has come that the blogosphere is going to be covered with posts regarding Blogher.  I’ve never been but I’ve always been jealous of those that were hooping it up and learning at the same time.

Last year when the blog world was abuzz with tales of good times all in the name of Blogher, I wrote this post.  It was pretty simple and straight forward, I was green with envy.  I called people out, I named names and a amazing lesson was learned. 

You see, I thought blogher was all about the popular bloggers but now that I am one of those preparing to attend the conferences, I give a big belly laugh at the thought of someone thinking I am a popular blogher.  Honestly, I do a few odds and ends and yes I make a few pennies and get a few products but popular?  Whatever.

And, when the comments started to roll in explaining that very thought process to me, I thought…..wow, those bloggers are being really nice to be considering what I wrote and wow, those bloggers are being REALLY nice even though what I said wasn’t near as pleasant. 

Since that time, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet many of these great ladies and each and everyone of them have embraced me.  I’ve chatted with, tweeted with and emailing with some of the following ladies that I once thought to be snobby bloggers.

UpperCase Woman – Cecily has been a major rock-hard friend and we really blended at a conference earlier this year

The Bloggess Holy Cow, this woman is amazing.  She not only writes great stuff, she chats with me through email and twitter and didn’t shoot me when I embarrassed her by yelling her name across the bar when I recognized her. 

Suburban Turmoil Sweetness is all I can say…and beautiful too.

Joy Unexpected Another blogger that I have admired for a long long time.  And another blogger that I embarrassed a little when she got on the elevator with me and I yelled in my loudest voice “Oh My God It’s YOU, Y” and she acted like she recognized me but she night have just read my badge.  Either way, she broke out i that beautiful grin and hugged me.  Y, she hugged me, it was so freakin’ cool.

Mrs. Flinger I met Mrs. Flinger for a brief fleeting moment at a conference but the fact that there were about 15 people piled up in her room made it difficult to chat with her.  But, by all accords, she is definitely the go-to girl for partying hard.

I said women earlier, and well…this isn’t a woman but he fits in this blogher picture…

Backpacking Dad I haven’t met him yet, but he has embraced me, partaking in chit chat on twitter and through blog comments.

The Redneck Mommy Not that I want to hurt anyone’s feelings but of the folks I’ve mentioned thus far, Tanis was more than nice to me.  She talked me down off of an anxiety attack and then sent me reeling into another when she told me that Blogher would be 10 times more intense than the one were attending at that time.  She has already welcomed me to travel on her coattail at Blogher.  We shared “I am more redneck than you" stories, and I think she might have me beat.

Miss-Britt I haven’t met Britt yet but we had enough written exchanges that I ordered a really cool t-hirt from her. 

Chookooloonks – I was able to chat with Karen briefly and she was extremely nice and embraced me just as the others did.

Moosh in indy One of the most amazing women bloggers I have ever met.  She and I chatted for a long time the last night of the conference and she was more adorable than I could imagine.

Her Bad Mother Catherine as simply as awesome in person as she is on her blog.  Adorable.

Motherhood Uncensored I met Kristen at one of the conferences and she was extremely nice, engaging in small talk and sharing her little baby’s laughs with me.

This is the comment that touched me the most, from Tanis of The Redneck Mommy

I started writing my blog four months after my almost five year old son died in my arms.

I was isolated, lonely and in the greatest depths of despair a human being can ever face.

Initially, I wanted to reach out and connect with someone…anyone. I wanted to document my journey so my children would understand how deeply I loved them and their brother and how damn hard it was to carry on and put one foot in front of the other.

I was, and still am pleasantly surprised when people take the time to read and comment on my site. I’m just a woman with access to a computer who likes to exercise her writing muscles and finds joy in reading her words and the other words of other great writers using this medium.

I blog not only for myself, but to be able to continue to reach out to other parents who find themselves raising a handicapped child and feel overwhelmed, or worse yet, have had to face that same sea of grief I find myself swimming in every day.

I blog to help remember there is joy out there, no matter what the circumstances life has thrown at them. And I love being able to share that joy with who ever stumbles across my blog.

I wouldn’t consider myself famous, nor would anyone else who knows me in real life. And I’m certainly not an A-lister if Dooce is the standard with which that is being set.

I am, however, filled with gratitude and joy for the out-pouring of friendship and love I have found online and in real life. Swallowing my fear and attending my first BlogHer conference was a life changing event for me, and I will be forever grateful for that.

As for making enough money to support myself or my family, I’m still waiting for that to happen.

And for the record, any and all (small … oh so small) profits I earn off the ads I run on my site go straight to the local children’s hospital as a donation in my son’s name.

I really wish you would have come to BlogHer. I would have loved to have met you.

i think Backpacking Dad made the following comment and it rings more true to me every day:

Perspective is always skewed.

And then, there’s Alli of Fussypants who wassn’t listed but many of her friends were left the following comment:

I don’t think it is nice to call people out on your blog

When I finally met Alli, she knew me by my twitter name, jareason, but had not connected that jareason = Mom~E~Centric.  We spent two days saying our hello’s as we passed in the hall or on the elevator and then finally, near the conference end, I asked her if she knew who I was.  When I told her that I was indeed the person who had written that train wreck post, she was all giggly and hugged me.  This is one class act…just so you know.

Tomorrow….I tell you how I felt more loved than ever before…..