My last post notwithstanding I had a truly magnificent time at BlogHer '08. I expected to meet a lot of people, which I did. I expected to make a fool out of myself, which I did. But here are some things that I didn't expect (along with all of the shameless name-dropping that I totally feel entitled to do now):
1. To have Loralee actually squeal when she saw me at the Newbie Mixer on Thursday night.
2. To be standing in a triangle with Graham and Mike at the People's Party, getting our Bay Area Dad Bloggerness on in the middle of a sea of women.
3. To have my bullshit seen through by Oh the Joys and then to get teased by her all weekend about it.
4. To be given one of Carmen's "four mile hike" muffins.
5. To be recognized by Lisa Stone and thanked for participating on the BlogHer website, with references to actual participations!
6. To see, on the great big screens at the front of the ballroom during the opening breakfast, a screenshot of my blog and some lame quote. Several times. Thanks "Blogher-big-screen-slideshow" Committee. You both mortified me and made me feel awesomely welcome and involved.
7. To be practically adopted by Tanis, who was awesome and acerbic and who forced me way out of my comfort zone to meet people.
8. To fall in love more than a little bit. With Catherine's infant son.
9. To be told by Ali how cute I am in person.
10. To hear variations on "Oh my god! Backpacking Dad!" enough times to feel like a huge, monster, Rock Star. I can only hope that I gushed similarly often enough to ease the karmic burden of all of that appreciation. My ego has been swollen to such an inappropriate size that I will be sentencing myself to the Python Abuse Room for a good week and a half to come back down to earth.
11. To discover how much I like mojitos. Even $11 mojitos.
Bah, there are a thousand of these I could write.
I was really touched, ladies. If every guy could go to BlogHer and have the same experience you'd be beating us away with great big sticks. It was an amazing experience that I'm never going to forget.
46 comments:
There was a lot of squealing and OMG!ing but hey, know you kmow what it's like to be treated like a rockstar. So great to meet you.
And also, I can't spell this early in the morning.
Glad you had a good time.
And also glad you didn't write 1,000 things you enjoyed about BlogHer.
That might have been a tad excessive.
backpacking dad!!!!!!!!!!! dude, you are in TONS of my pics! well, fo ra guy. LOL
I keep reading all these awesome accounts of Blogher and all the fun--more than a little jealous over here! It must be great to meet so many bloggy friends. Glad you had a great time!
You cracked me up and said exactly what I needed to hear at the time. You. rock.
I did not adopt you. I only adopt sweet, darling disabled children.
You didn't match any of the criteria.
I do, however, recall, having this tall hairy man stalk me where ever I went.
But there really is some magic around a mojito, isn't there?
Must be the crushed mint.
You are so full of shit.
i second the mojito appeal.
i told you i'd come find you.
Backpacking Dad! OMG! Squeeeeeee!
Seriously, it was AWESOME to meet with you and I'm so delighted that you had a great time.
I hope I wasn't the annoying blogger in the previous post.
Ugh, you see what I have to miss? Damn kids. Always needing their mother around... blah blah blah...
To think I could have been fawning all over backpacking dad instead of changing dirty diapers.
By the way, I tried posting two comments before this, but have no clue where they went. Maybe to San Francisco without me?
I have got to stop believing everything I read.
Or at least stop commenting until I realize you are full of shit.
oy.
Sitting behind you as you murmured to Jasper and then tenderly kissed his crown while his mom relaxed in her chair was a high point for me. Of course it was then shattered by the soul-rocking feedback.
look at you getting all the love...;)
Would you send me your autograph? Before the Internet burns up with love for you?
Also, whatcha think the chances of BlogHer ever taking place in Iowa are?
I'm so sad. I wish I could have been there. it sounds like it was a blast.
*ahem*
Great to meet you Backpacking Dad. You are truly a brave man and a great American to endure BlogHer, particularly the part in the handbag department at Macy's. You must have cojones of steel, my friend, because that was scary to me, and I'm a woman who loves handbags.
Very glad you made it Shawn - and it was good to meet you.
The Aunt Becky introduction was also a hit! ;)
Sell out.
BPD, I'm coming to believe that you may very well be Captain Hammer.
If that makes me Dr. Horrible, then so be it.
Of COURSE I squealed! You're BACKPACKING DAD, DUH!
P.S.
STOP PINCHING MY ARM FAT, DAMMIT!
Oh how fun! I'm so glad you went! And I'm so jealous!
I love you.
That is all.
there you go, making everyone crazy - but I can't blame them. it was really good to meet you dude and maybe next time I'll make some sense.
Oh, Backpacking Dad...see? I knew you didn't need that pink Bic.
:-D
It was totally nice to meet you too! I think we need more dudes and BlogHer.
Damn... I knew I left something in San Francisco... your damn autograph.
Ok, I sat next to you in one of the sessions, but didn't do more than nod because I had already learned to self-censor my first instinct, which is to look at someone's nametag and over-enthusiastically say something pithy and elegant like, "Oh! I've read you!"
I didn't pick up on the socially awkward thing, I just thought you were going for a James Dean-ish 'I am soulful and way too cool to actually engage' vibe. And since I had just tapped into a previously undiscovered wellspring of awkwardness myself, I didn't push through and say "Oh! I've read you!" to you.
Must say though-- your baby-whispering skillz were impressive. As were your massive biceps as you effortlessly swung that baby seat for like, 20 minutes. Kid went out like a light.
I really hope that someone publishes BlogHer for morons so that I can feel prepared for next year.
I was too nauseated and emo to say hi to any men folk there, so I didn't say hi to you....
or many cool folks...was tooooo shy...but maybe next year.
Dude. Catherine's infant son's mother fell in love with you, too, in a totally non-creepy internetty geek-freak kinda way.
And we didn't even get a chance to talk philosophy. Prolly for the best, though. That might have pushed me over the edge, love-wise, and we can't have that. I'm already a whole lot of degrees less cool from all of the blubbering.
Aaah more BlogHer stories...it's hard to keep the jealousy at bay.
Glad you enjoyed yourself!
Must be nice to have a tool in a room full of vajayjays.
How did I miss you? It's not like it would have been difficult to find you. You boys stuck out. Maybe next year.
It was nice having a couple BlogHims there.
You were the Rawk Star!
\m/
Glad to have met you =)
missy: I have a picture of us! Missy from Australia! You had all the guts I wish I'd had, plopping yourself down at that table and just saying "Hi, I'm Missy, deal with that, punk."
badass geek: definitely. I think I'm done now :}
jennster: liar! I haven't seen any!
christy: great, yes, but did you read my last post?
jenny the bloggess: thanks jenny. or, you're welcome. Or whatever. Your dress was pretty and green.
redeck mommy: puh-lease. You totally adopted me, and then you abandoned me to have lunch all alone on Saturday and I was all "I can't introduce myself to anybody so I'm going to go sit by myself!"
oh, the joys: our dialogue has really deteriorated :}
jen: Stalker! Stalker from Sunnyvale! How are ya? :}
carmen: definitely not you :} you were darling, and you looked amazing.
michelle: ah, to think I could have been fawned all over by you instead of sitting by myself at lunch. Where the hell were you?
danielle: so not full of shit. don't listen to Oh The Joys.
amanda: seriously. what unpleasant timing.
ali: these people? oh, I paid them.
FADKOG: ha! You don't need my autograph. You have my comment cherry.
chic shopper chick: it had it's moments :}
mr lady: uh. Can I help...? Do I know...? Do you have a cheeseburger?
glennia: it was great to meet you too, glennia. "Great American" is my new favourite compliment (he says as he spells "favourite" with the Canadian "u".)
geekmommy: great to meet you too. Aunt Becky loves all the love she got.
whit: Totally. Worth. It.
attiton: I'm going to steal your girlfriend. Er. Stop your nefarious plan? Wait, in what way am I Captain Hammer? The cheese-factor? :}
loralee: I don't know what you're talking about.
merecat: go next time :}
don mills diva: aw. mwah.
motherbumper: you made total sense, even during those periods when you would talk about how little sense you were making :}
jozet at halushki: no, it was a barf bag I needed. But not the entire time, thankfully.
kim: I couldn't disagree more :} Why would I want to dilute this? It was great meeting you, and hanging out on the couch. You are stunning.
mandy: I left your autography in SF. What's the deal, oldest of blogging buddies? Did you even give me a card? (Not that I had any cards myself)
babybloomr: that was certainly not effortless :} And who knew I had biceps? I remember you in that session though, stealing glances over every now and then and I kept thinking "I should probably know her and try to read her nametag and introduce myself but there's no way in hell I'm going to do that. Too shy." Not James Dean at all :}
marinka: I could have used that, for sure.
crunchycarpets: I understand. I saw you though :}
her bad mother: You will be forever cool, and forever the woman cool enough to let some strange dude play with her baby. That was one of the highlights of the weekend, really.
worker mommy: what's BlogHer? I went to the beach this weekend.
carolyn...online: Whoa! :} It was nice to be a guy, sometimes. Sometimes it was weird, as though by being there I was automatically a perv and had to defend myself.
kristen: I was hiding. I would only come out when everyone was looking somewhere else.
nancy: me too :}
See...I did a lot of the gushing and I always felt like a total dork, so I stopped with the gushing. I did think, "Oh my god, it's Backpacking Dad!" when I saw you, though. ha
I thought it was super-awesome when I saw your screenshot up there, too.
Shawn, yeah, you're kinda a little full of crap. Glad you had fun. There is probably a picture on flickr of you with every woman there. It's like that.
Next year you need to bring the wife. We'll get to meet her, and she'll have the added bonus of keeping your ass outta trouble.
It was great to meet you, and Aunt Becky, too.
I want a copy of the picture you took.
T.
Yo, Backpacking Dad, accept your Rockstar Status. We think are are, in my teen daughter's words, the bomb.
Great to meet you and sorry to squeal.
Oh yeah, O the Joys don't take no shit, and Tanis will drag you right into it every time. Exactly. Now I'm regretting that I couldn't go...
From the way I read it, you are the BlogHer hero, which is kinda cool.
Assertagirl: Not awesome! Mortifying :} I totally thought "Assertagirl!!" when I saw you.
tlc: I got into no trouble, but even so I'll send you a copy of the picture.
michelle lamar: you were so awesome :}
kittenpie: me too. I would have loved to hang out with you there.
isaas crazy world: bah. I was just easy to pick out in a crowd. And I was a dork and had my url instead of my name on my badge.
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