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#Blogher11 Swagapalooza Giveaway

by Jill
written by Jill

It’s been 4 weeks since Blogher. I still haven’t unpacked.

This comes as no surprise to my husband. It’s a running joke around here that I will leave a bag packed until it just naturally unpacks itself over time, or until he gets so annoyed with it that he does the job himself. I think it was one of those unspoken wedding vows. “Love, honor, cherish (and live with her packed luggage).”

Seeing as how our 5 year wedding anniversary is coming up next month (OMG, I know!), I’m trying to do little things around the house that show just how much I care. Okay, so maybe I still haven’t fully unpacked the luggage, but I’m getting there. And one of the things I must do first is get rid of some of the swag I came home with.

It’s not that this stuff is bad or useless, it’s just that I either have something like it already, or I don’t think I’ll  get around to using it anytime soon. So I’m going to give it to one of you. Here’s a sort of detailed list of what’s included:

Pink sunglasses I wore to the Clever Girls party
An iPhone 4 case
Perfume
Office supplies
Wipes (they say they’re for sex toys, but I double-dog-dare you to put them in your diaper bag and use them at the mall)
A couple books
A sponge
A $25 Lowes gift card
A $20 McCormick & Schmick gift card
and more

I won the Lowes gift card specifically to give away to a reader when my team won the Lowes Challenge. You can read more about it over at my teammate’s blog, Jenny On The Spot.

The McCormick & Schmick gift card may or may not be usable. It says for use in their dining room, then has the address of their San Diego location. Soooo… you can try to see if your location will honor it. Or, I don’t know, send it to someone in SD.

I would guess the total value of all the stuff is $100+ ish.

The only way to enter to win this bag-o-swag is to sign up for my weekly newsletter. It’s called the Monday Morning Procrastination Club Newsletter, and it goes out, as you may have already guessed, early Monday mornings. It’s a digest of my posts from the last week, plus some other things from around the web that I think are read/watch/time suck worthy. If you like to put stuff off, and like to have things to occupy you before you start your real work Monday mornings, this is for you.

So just go here, sign up, leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you’re one of the 210 people who already have, just let me know. That’s it! I’ll draw a winner with random.org next Friday, September 9th. Open to US residents only. Sorry Canadians. I still love you and you can still sign up for my newsletter!

Entries closed. Congrats to Heather, comment #12, as chosen by Random.org.

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Notes for Blogher12

by Jill
written by Jill

Notes For Blogher12

1. Friends are worth more than swag. I should spend more time with friends and less time with people trying to give me free stuff. People send free stuff to my door every week. Nobody ever puts any of these ladies in my mailbox. My heart hurts over how little time I spent with each of them (and others not pictured).

2. I’m not sure the full conference pass is worth the money for me anymore. I went to 2 sessions, one Friday and one Saturday. They were both lovely, but I’m not sure I learned anything I couldn’t have taken away from the live blogs posted after the conference. (Oh yeah, did you know those exist? ) I might do the Party/Expo pass next year, but still go to Pathfinder Day. THAT day was extremely valuable to me.

3. No more new shoes. Those glitter heels I HAD to have? Wore them all of 45 minutes before Miranda found me and gave me some AfterFlats. Die, glitter shoes, die. Related: Pack Bandaids.

4. Do not even bother with bringing the DSLR next year. I didn’t even have time to take pictures with my point & shoot, and barely with my iPhone. My Canon was just a burden the whole time.

5. The iPad, bluetooth Zagg keyboard combo was a total win. I’m so glad I didn’t lug my laptop there with me.

6. Pack protein bars… and a steak… or 2 (because BethAnne will love me forever if I share with her).

7. Bring a water bottle because, apparently, it’s not a sure thing that you’ll receive 3 of them upon checkin, unless next year is the year of the water bottle again…. since it’s in NYC, again.

8. Bring major zit fighting cream. Not because I broke out this year (San Diego was nice to me like that), but because I had a zit that was trying to see the Statue of Liberty from my chin all last year (in NYC, it was mean to me like that).

9. Smile, breathe, smile, be nice, breathe, smile.

10. Print blog logo alongside Twitter avatar to stick on my name badge so people aren’t all, “Baby Raaaaaabies??? That sounds…. familiar.” (I think people would recognize others and be recognized much more if everyone walked around with pictures of their Twitter avatars over their faces.)

That’s it. I’m done. Now I’ll shut up about Blogher.

Until next year.

Wait, one more thing. Don’t forget to enter the $500 prize pack giveaway from BornFree, my Blogher conference sponsor. It’s open to US and Canada residents, doesn’t matter if you went to Blogher or not, they’re drawing a winner August 22nd. 

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Best Blogher11 Memories

by Jill
written by Jill

1. Wine from wine bottles, poured straight into mouths and plastic bottles and never wine glasses, with too many ladies to count, packed in a sun filled, love filled, laughter and hug filled room. What the room did not have was an easy to use corkscrew, so it took 50(?) of us to get it open. There is a video. You may not laugh at it as much as we did. It may be one of those “you had to be there moments.” But there is a video.

Mae is very classy. She is also resourceful, like a Girl Scout… with wine.

2. Sitting on a beach (at the MOST chill, awesome #NintendoEnthused party), gathered around a fire pit, listening to some guy play and sing James Taylor songs on a guitar, discovering that the woman (a very notable one) to my left not only was familiar with the super small town I grew up in in Texas (3k people in the whole wide town,y’all), but her father graduated high school there in the 60s. The world, it is small.

3. Dance off at the Clever Girls party, Wii style. There were Smurfs involved. There was also alcohol and a little social anxiety masked as extreme excitement involved. The picture says it all. My teammates Mae, BethAnne and Suzanne were all very dancy and smurfy. Fun was had by all. I won a plush Papa Smurf for my awesome score. I knew those cheerleading dance skills would pay off someday.

Chihuahua on Redbull: The most accurate description of me at conferences.

4. Flopping into an outdoor chair after a long last day of sessions, sucking down a massive margarita, then calling Andy from the How To Be A Dad duo an asshole for taking the seat next to one of my internet besties who I hadn’t seen, like, the entire f-ing conference. Who cares that it was his seat all day? I don’t think he got my joke. It’s possible my sense of humor didn’t carry through my tone at that point since I was all tired and cranky and lacking REAL (not expo hall) food in my belly and my feet were covered in blisters. I explained to him that I’m not really a bitch. I’m not sure he believed me.

5. Hearing a woman mention “I’m a faculty member at the University of Missouri and work at KOMU…” I believe I spun around and the eloquent words that flew out of my mouth were, “SHUT. UP.” We bonded right then and there over the j-school and social media and OMG-journalism-and-social-media. And then? She asked me to come back and speak to j-school students at homecoming about what “other” things one can do with a journalism degree.

(Soo…. I can tell them you can start a blog and have really poor grammar and write in run-on sentences… and people will read you! And you can also drink wine and divulge way too much information about really personal things, and you can whine about how HORRIBLE potty training is… and people will read you! But, you won’t really get paid in cash monies. I’m sure it will all sound super appealing to them.)

6. Closing keynote, Ricki Lake, listening to her talk about producing The Business of Being Born and how it was the most important, fulfilling work she’s ever done, how she never even broke even, how it started a birthing revolution (that I like to think I’m a part of).

7. That moment at lunch on Pathfinder Day when I listened to Jess Weiner speak about women and empowerment and change and all the things you might expect to hear a motivational speaker talk about at a thing called Blogher, and I suddenly caught my breath, and I teared up just a bit, and I soaked in the moment… and I was grateful. I was grateful to be a part of all of this, this movement, this time when women DO have so. much. power.

8. Winning the Lowes competition after my team (consisting of Jen, Jenny, Linz and a couple more who I would link to, but it might take a week to locate their business cards in my luggage) created a back-to-school organization center out of a bunch of random supplies handed to us. Jen noted that I have good team management skills and that she was, strangely, okay with me bossing her around.

(Here’s the secret, y’all: Address people as “y’all,” and boss them in a southern accent. It gives me the advantage every time. You should try it… unless you’re from Brooklyn… but that might be funny.)

We each won $100 gift cards, which means that hideous ceiling fan in our living room is about to meet it’s demise.

9. The Romy Raves wine party at McCormick & Schmicks. It was so nice and intimate. I got to hang with Linz and Morgan, and I finally got to meet Jean! The wine was delicious (it was all from Cameron Hughes and affordable), and the little appetizers were the best thing I ate all week. The swag bag was out of this world, too. I got one of these Soiree things and it made my $8 bottle of wine taste… well, like more than $8 last night.

10. Waking twice in one night, rolling out of bed, my feet hitting the floor before I realized that baby that’s crying in the next room that I was going to go feed was not mine.

11. Dropping off over 70 bags of donated breastmilk to a very grateful mother from several of us who pumped at the conference. Yay breastmilk donation! Makes me warm and fuzzy every time. Kim and Jen were awesome for organizing that.

There were many more memories and many more pictures, but I will keep those close to my heart for now. Tomorrow I share my tips for Blogher12, which, in case you haven’t heard, will be back in NYC. Hope to meet more of you there! (And if you didn’t see, I shared some of the things I learned at the conference sessions yesterday.)

Don’t forget to enter to win a $500+ prize package from my Blogher sponsor BornFree. Open to US and Canada residents, even those of you who didn’t go to Blogher. Click here to fill out a quick form. They’re drawing a winner August 22nd.

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6 Things I Learned from Blogher11 Sessions

by Jill
written by Jill

I’ve reduced my Blogher experience to lists because that’s the only way I can process it right now, and to save you all from something like the 3 part series of epically boring proportions I wrote last year. This, again, is a 3 part series, BUT in list form, which helps… I hope?

Note: These  lists are in no particular order. That’s way too much for my brain to take on right now.

Top 5 6, No Wait, Make That 7 Things I Learned From Blogher Sessions

1. “Everyone here wants to be noticed, and YOU have the power to notice them.” One of the panelists (can’t remember which one, probably Liz Strauss) in the Peer Networking session said this, and I loved it. It’s not only true for the conference, but life in general. I quit worrying about who would and wouldn’t recognize me, and focused on recognizing, acknowledging, and just plain ol’ noticing others. It brought a lot of awesome new connections my way.

2. “The quickest way to make a connection is to ask a question.” That was Liz Strauss (I am now stalking her) at the same Peer Networking session. Really want to get to know someone? Don’t wait and wish for them to reach out to you. Engage them!

3. Find out what makes you standout from the crowd (ask others!), accept that & enhance it, focus it to your audience, then redefine and refresh yourself and/or your blog every 2-3 years. (Pathfinder Day Breakfast with personal brand expert Sandra Miley)

3. Come up with a mission statement or an elevator pitch about who you are and what you’re about. As opportunities come to you, see if they match your mission statement. Say no to things that don’t.- Implementing this now! I spread myself too thin all the time. (Also from Sandra Miley)

4. Melissa Ford from Stirrup-Queens.com was one of the Pathfinder Day: My Blog as Book Proposal panelists. I took away so much from this session, but I’m not sure much of it is of interest to the majority of you. That said, if you’re interested in how to get a book published, she has a How To Get A Book Published series of posts, linked in her right sidebar.

5. Blog regularly! (So, so, so guilty of this. You all know that.) In the Your Blog Can Make You A Social Media Marketer session, Melissa Lion made a great point that blogging every day shows a prospective employer that you can and do meet deadlines. Ree Drummond (you may have heard of her little blog The Pioneer Woman) spoke in the My Blog As Media Company Pathfinder session about how important it is to tend to your blog like a garden, to nourish and water it regularly. She also has some other amazing tips in this post here.

6. You are the boss of your blog. This was a note that several touched on. Do what you want! Don’t like an old post? Delete it. Want to blog about different topics? Go for it. I think you want to try to go about these things with a little thought so you don’t leave people confused, unless you want to confuse people. Then confuse them because it’s your blog and you can do what you want. You are the boss of it.

I’ll post my other 2 lists (memories, and notes for next year) tomorrow and Friday. (I was going to post them all here, today, in this one post, and then I remembered the whole “trying to keep things from being epically long and boring” goal. Lookie there! I’m learning.)

BUT WAIT! Don’t forget that BornFree (my awesome Blogher Sponsor) is giving away over $500 of super cool baby gear to ANYONE who enters (from the US or Canada), not just those who went to Blogher. There’s still time to enter if you haven’t yet. Just click here and fill out the info. They draw a winner August 22nd. 

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How Not To Ask A Question At A Conference #Blogher11

by Jill
written by Jill

I’m halfway home from Blogher, stuck in a frigid airport in El Paso. I attempted to curl up in a corner and pass out, but my teeth were chattering, so I’m forced to stay warm by paying to surf the internet.

(The way to a blogger’s heart is through free wifi. Between having to pay for it and the torture of being stuck inside a f-ing walk-in freezer disguised as an airport, complete with no accessible exits to the sunny and clearly very warm atmosphere outside taunting me through these giant windows in front of uncomfortable seats that are impossible to fall asleep in, El Paso and I are barely on speaking terms.)

Since I’ve got the child-free time, and I’m forced to keep typing to encourage circulation to my frostbitten fingers, I thought I’d take a minute to jot a note down about how one should ask a question at a conference.

Or… maybe just how NOT to ask a question. Yes, let’s go with that.

Here’s how NOT to ask a question at a conference:

“Hi everyone! My name is (name) and I blog at (blog). Uhhhhmmmmm….. so…… when I was 5, I always dreamed of becoming a writer. And so I wrote and wrote and wrote in my diary. And one year I took my diary to camp and I fell in love with the boy I thought I was going to marry, EXCEPT we never did, but he was really cute. And I like to write about cute guys now. I got married to someone else and we have 3 kids. My youngest is starting Kindergarten this fall! Isn’t it crazy how fast they grow? I volunteer for the PTA now and we just started a blog. You should follow us. I just posted my best rice krispy treat recipe on it. So, anyway…. hum… my question is… hahahah… I think I forgot. Hold on… my question is…. oh! Yes. My question is (insert actual question here.)”

1. If you start out your question by taking us back in time 25 years, you are doing it wrong.
2. If you begin to list the ages of all your children when your actual question has nothing to do with your children or their ages, you are doing it wrong.
3. If your question would not fit in one tweet, you’re (probably) doing it wrong.

Listen, I get it. It’s nerve wracking to stand up and ask a question sometimes, especially if it’s your bloggy idol on the panel who’s listening to you. I’m a rambler. I go on and on and on when I get nervous. Silence makes me uncomfortable. So before I rise to ask a question (after working hard to get the attention of the mic wrangler and panelists with my half-raised-don’t-want-to-look-over-eager-but-please-please-pick-me hand) I formulate the question in my head. Then? I edit it and delete all references to that one time at band camp.

I encourage you all to do the same next time, too. Time is short and questions are a plenty at things like this. Let your fellow conference attendees have a chance to ask theirs by keeping yours brief. Besides, there is plenty of time to corner your idol at one of the parties (or even better, the elevator!) and tell them that really funny story you know they’ll just love.

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Blogher Away Message

by Jill
written by Jill

Hello, I’m unable to come to my blog today because I’m busy doing one of the following:

1. “Packing” (stuffing and throwing myself onto the tops while begging others to zip) my bags
2. Embracing my geekiness
3. Covering myself in glitter
4. Pumping
5. Having conversations with adults while wearing not a drop of baby puke

If you are here to find out more about me, click here.
If you are here to read about how I almost birthed my 2nd baby in a toilet full of poop, click here.
If you are here to check out my crafty tutorial for making a pillowcase dress, click here.
If you are here to figure out what the hell Baby Rabies even means, click here (my very first post ever).
If you are here to read a couple of my most popular recent posts, click here and here. 

Would you like to learn more about my super awesome conference sponsor BornFree and enter to win the Newborn Prize Pack, valued at $515, that they are giving away to one lucky entrant? Then click here. They are drawing the winner on the 22nd.

I will return late Sunday evening, and then I will sleep as long as the children let me before I wake up on Monday, throw some food at them, turn on the TV, and again try to sleep some more. All non-urgent comments and emails may be answered by mid next week. Maybe.

If you would like to speak with the operator (okay, me, so keep in mind the timeframe and the frazzled-chaotic-panicky state of mind I’m in), please leave a comment after the beep.

BEEP

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BornFree Sends me to #Blogher11, A Giveaway, And GLITTER!

by Jill
written by Jill

It’s that time of year again, when I get to abandon my children with my husband and escape to a place where other women (thousands of them) all come together in the name of blogging and overall geekiness, dressed up with fancy parties and glitter.

It’s Blogher time.

(I can hear the collective “Ughs” now.)

Okay, I’ll try not to innundate you with all the details this year, as I get that most of my readers don’t really care. BUT, I will be forced to share with you all anything super awesome and hilarious that happens, like that time I sprayed my boobs pink last year and cried to my roomies to “GET IT OFF!”

Also, I think you’re ALL going to want to know how to win this sweet giveaway from my sponsor (for the 2nd year in a row) BornFree!

In honor of us teaming up for the conference again, they’re giving away one prize pack, valued at over $500, that includes:

1 Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor
1 Summer Infant Prodigy Infant Car Seat (new to the market, not available until September)
1 BornFree gift set 

Here’s the coolest part: ANYONE can win this Blogher swag, even those of you at home. Even those of you without a blog! I’ll have more details on how to enter to win next Thursday, August 4th, so stay tuned. I think we’ll also try to do some more #homeher giveaways this year for those of you on Twitter who can’t make it to Blogher.

How awesome that I get to represent them again?! We use and love their safe feeding products (and pacifiers!) more this year than ever before. BornFree bottles + momma’s breastmilk freezer stash + a daddy who can rock the single parenting thing for 5 days = a mommy who gets a much needed escape!

I leave next Wednesday and have a panic-inducing list of things to get done before then, including the following:

Get hair cut and colored for the first time since last October
Mani/pedi so I don’t cut anyone with my rough and gnarly nails
Purchase shoes coated in glitter for 2 very glitter worthy parties

In other words, Blogher has turned into an awesome excuse to finally stop looking like a troll post-baby, and possibly an excuse to dress in clothes covered in craft herpes (if you don’t get it, I promise that link is worth clicking on).

Also going down this weekend????

NEW BLOG DESIGN. Finally, finally, FINALLY. It’s been a year in the making!

It’s going to be a pretty epic couple of weeks around here, so if I’m slow to respond to an email, tweet, or comment, please forgive!

And with that, I’m off! I think I shall make it my mission to find my glitter shoes tonight. Oh yes, these will be mine. ::crosses fingers Kohls still has them in stock::

 

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Some Notes For Next Year- my FINAL #blogher10 post

by Jill
written by Jill

I promise.

I just want to get some things down before I forget them next year, mainly for myself, but also for those of you thinking about making Blogher 2011 your first blogging conference. (It will be in San Diego!)

1. Build in time to do sight seeing in addition to the days you’re spending at the conference. I’ve been to NYC several times and didn’t feel pressured to see anything beyond the hotel, which was good because I wouldn’t have had any time (or energy) for sightseeing the Thursday evening through Sunday morning I was there. However, I would very much like to see San Diego, so I’m thinking we’re going to have to build in at least one extra day into the trip next year (and I’m hoping to drag my husband along with me to play baby wrangler to our then 8ish month old baby girl who will most likely still be breastfeeding). I’m sort of with Maria Melee on this. “I kind of wish these conferences were in really boring places so I’d stay in the hotel.”

2. Remain comfortable while striving to not look like a slouch. I packed 6 pairs of shoes, about 3 too many. I wound up wearing a very comfy, practical, yet stylish pair of patent leather flats during the day because my feet just couldn’t take even the tiniest of kitten heels I planned to wear. I saved the tortuous heels for evening events. I was happy with my wardrobe choices, which included stylish, but comfy (maternity) jeans and dressy tops for day and forgiving, breathable and comfortable dresses for night (that I spiced up with lots of fun accessories). Originally, I hated that so much of my wardrobe was black, but it was super easy to dress up or dress down, and I felt great in all of it. And despite all the hype and fashion buzz leading up to the event, it actually wasn’t an intimidating fashion show. Everyone seemed very down to earth and looked lovely. Don’t feel like you have to stock up on couture to fit in.

3. Bring a great, big, lightweight bag. I originally planned to bring my Coach diaper bag turned laptop bag until Ju-Ju-Be offered to hook me up with a Mighty Be to use at the conference and bring home with me. I’m so GLAD I took them up on the super sweet offer. That bag was a lifesaver (and a shoulder saver). It had plenty of pockets for everything I had to carry with me (laptop, camera, sunglasses, cards, Tums, Tylenol, gloss, etc. etc. etc.), AND it was super light and expanded to hold all the extra stuff I seemed to accumulate throughout the day (like swag from the Expo). I have a feeling this bag just earned heavy rotation in my growing collection. Whatever bag you choose to bring, make sure it’s got plenty of room, is easy to get in and out of, and is comfortable to carry.

4. Business cards are a must, but you don’t have to have a million of them… or even 250 (in my case). For some reason I thought I’d be swapping cards with every person I made eye contact with, but that really wasn’t the case. I’d say I came home with and gave out about 50 cards to people I made connections with, and I put about 20 of them in various fish bowls for giveaways (cue mass amounts of spam in my inbox now). Of course, this probably varies greatly for everyone. There were many, many more giveaways that I didn’t drop my business card for, and I’m sure I could have worked harder to network with more people. That said, I really don’t know how one would go through more than 250. So when you have them printed up, try to keep them non-Blogher specific so that you can use them at other conferences and while networking other ways.

5. Make connections PRIOR to the conference. The thing is, there ARE cliques, there WILL be groups of women who appear to be having the time of their life with each other and it’s HUGELY intimidating to approach them. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all. It’s natural. People who “know” each other already are going to gravitate to each other, share inside jokes, travel in herds. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to make new friends. My suggestion is to reach out to people prior to the conference, be proactive, set “dates” to hang out, and most importantly- GET PHONE NUMBERS. The people I successfully managed to meet up with were the people I was able to text and/or call. There were several others I would have *loved* to get together with that I missed because I figured I could just tweet or email them. That never worked. Twitter and email aren’t nearly as effective as texting to get in touch immediately with someone. And with the very limited amount of free time (and the massive waits for the elevators), timing is everything. Waiting for 5 minutes for a reply to a tweet isn’t an option.

6. Expounding on that last point a bit more, MAKE CONNECTIONS PRIOR TO THE CONFERENCE. Sure, Blogher is for anybody. You don’t have to be a “big bloggger.” Nobody is going to ask your stats or your feed count. However, I really encourage you to reach out and make real friendships before going, even if that’s just over Twitter (if you are not on Twitter yet, GO THERE NOW). You know that saying about being lonely in a big crowd, or something like that? That’s exactly what I imagine it’s like for someone who just shows up at Blogher without really “knowing” anyone. Like I said before, it’s not that people don’t want to make friends, but most will already have a group, or one or two people there that they will naturally gravitate to at lunch, between sessions, at parties. Try to have your own little circle in place before you go so when you get overwhelmed or need a wing man to approach that one blogger who you just adore but can’t get the nerve up to say hi, they’re there for you.

7. Have more than one circle. You know how certain bloggers tend to run in the same circles? Maybe you feel like you belong to more than one. Make it a point to hang out with bloggers from different circles. If everyone you meet up with already knows each other, you won’t be presented with the chance to get to know that many new people organically (casual introductions vs. the networking equivalent of cold calling).

8. Go to sessions. Duh, right? But seriously, there are a lot of distractions (the Expo, parties, your bed). I mean, if it’s your 7th Blogher and you’ve heard all there is to hear about blogging, I can understand wanting to go just to see friends and nom on cheeseburgers, but if it’s your 1st? Go to sessions. This is why you’re here. And while the Expo can be fun (and the sponsors in it help make Blogher possible, so it’s nice to show your support), it’s easy to get sucked in for hours. My opinion? You’re not there to collect freebies, you’re there to make connections and to learn about, well, blogging. Granted, some great connections can be made on the Expo floor, and I’m not meaning to diss it. I spent 45 minutes in it and wish I could have spent more, but my options were skip a session, skip lunch or skimp on the Expo. I would actually really love if Expo hours were extended next year so we’re not faced with this choice. And you’re going to have to sacrifice sleep. Know that going into this.

9. Start saving. You’ve got 12 months to save up for Blogher 2011. I will be completely honest with you all. My total trip cost right at $1,000, including plane ticket (RT from DFW to LGA), conference pass (early bird), hotel (with 3 roommates for 3 nights), transportation, food (which I didn’t spend much on because I didn’t have time to eat), and coffee. Now, this total doesn’t include the mini-shopping spree I went on for new outfits, but I’m classifying that under “maternity expenses.” Divided out, that’s roughly $84 a month, and can be done much cheaper if you are in driving distance to the conference location. If you really want to go, start saving now. Put birthday money aside, ask for Blogher money in lieu of a Christmas present from your significant other. Sure you can try to get a sponsor (something I was lucky enough to swing, thanks to the awesome sponsorship BornFree gave me), but save as if you won’t have one.

10. Just GO. I’m talking to you… yeah, YOU. The blogger who’s sitting there saying to herself/himself, “I’m not big enough. I don’t know anyone. I can’t afford it.” When I first signed up for Twitter at the beginning of 2009 was the first time I started to hear about Blogher. I figured I wasn’t big enough, didn’t know anyone, couldn’t afford it. I didn’t go last year, and I sat home reading all the #blogher09 tweets with regret. I should have been there. I should have made it happen. I vowed I would do everything I could to make it this year. When some of my friends started to express the same concerns at the beginning of this year I told them to knock it off. I told them what I wish someone would have told me last year. And I hung out (and even roomed) with them this year. So if you think you want to go, just GO.

I *think* (hope?) that wraps up all I have to say about Blogher this year. For those of you who don’t give a damn, I’m sorry and I promise to get back to regular blogging now. I just felt like it was like childbirth in the sense that I had to get that all out as quickly as possible before my brain started purging memory files to make room for things like the new dates for Kendall’s Mother’s Day Out program and the words to the new Fresh Beat Band song.

If you missed my other two re-caps and feel like reading a novel, you can check here and here.

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