Seven Things I Love
Obi’s Sister has tagged me for a meme. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and I will have to say that not only do I learn things about my friends that I honestly didn’t know before; I learn things about myself that I probably knew but had filed away somewhere and forgotten about. Here’s how Obi’s Sister set this up:
I was ambushed overnight by Maggie’s Notebook. You find out the most interesting things about folks by playing along with these things. So now I have to share 7 things I love. Like Maggie,
I’m going to play this a bit differently because all of us will probably say we love our God, we love our family, we love our country, we love our friends, or some variation of this, and we all love to blog, so I’ll say those are my first loves, and here are the next 7:
Sounds like a plan to me, too. Here goes:
1. I love to go to writing conferences. All kinds, in all sorts of places. I have never NOT learned something really important and helpful at a conference. I am one of those odd people who go to a conference to go to the conference. I am seldom tempted to cut out early or skip a session to go shopping. In fact, I think the only time I EVER did anything like that was at BlogHer 08, when Shannon, Kim* and I cut a keynote and skipped over to Chinatown, and then met Fausta at a sushi bar. But then, any of you would do the same if it meant you could hang out with Shannon, Kim, and Fausta. Sigh.
2. I love WordPress. I know, I’m a geek. But I really do love WordPress. Thank you, Matt Mullenweg.
3. I love nuts, berries, and fresh fruit. I channel Yogi Bear daily. I also love fresh lemons, and I do not put sugar on them. I adore tart things. Sour things. Explains a lot, huh.
4. I love to bake homemade breads of all kinds, and pies. However, I do not eat bread or pies. In fact, I do not care for most breads or sweets. Once in a while I’ll have a hot roll – go nuts, Google – or a Snickers bar, but diabetes is a hard master and will not usually let me indulge. Fortunately, I seldom want to. I just love to create them.
5. I love books and music. They are so entwined around my heart and soul and so blended with the blood in my veins, that I can not even imagine a life without them. People who do not read or listen to music are missing out; they’re lacking. There is no adequate substitute for books and music. Those who choose a life without either or both have chosen to live a life of “lacking.” It is beyond my comprehension. Also, such people are boring and insipid. I think this is because they have chosen not to enhance themselves with other people, other places, other times, and other dimensions. Real life can take us only just so far; we need books and music to take us farther.
6. I love a good turn of phrase. I can be swept off my feet by it. I can be swayed and influenced and converted and my vote can be purchased and my virginity can be compromised. . . .um, pretend you didn’t read that part. . . . Language is power, and a pen is more powerful than any Ollivander wand. I love wit and whimsy and sarcasm. I love a quotation that knocks my socks off. I love WORDS. I love their meanings and their origins. I love all the things that can be done with them. I love making them into adjectives and adverbs and nouns. I love the “kick” of a strategically placed interjection. I love how the choice of a tiny preposition can change the focus of an entire book. I love how a comma can turn a legal contract into the opposite of what a non-careful reader believes it to be. I love dictionaries. I love to play with a thesaurus. I love the preciseness of grammar. Even more, I love how someone who KNOWS HOW can take that preciseness and twist it, toss it, and tie it into a knot. Um, I teach writing.
7. I love cats. They are purry, furry, quirky, loving little people. They only thing I don’t love about cats is scooping clumps out of the litter box.
There ya go. If anybody else wants to do this, please let me know so I can find out all about you. I promise to use this knowledge only for good.
* Please go to Kim’s blog and tell her Happy Birthday. I love her and so will you. She is absolutely beautiful, inside and out.
BlogHer Is Officially Over, Except That It's Never Really Over
Mamacita says: The day after Christmas BlogHer is always hard for me. A full year of intense anticipation, building up to an amazing flash of fun, love, learning, friends, and hearty partying educational experiences of many descriptions, and then BLAH, home again. I mean, I love to be home, but comparatively speaking, a fancy hotel and a humongous slumber party of friends and unbelievable PILES of swag and tiaras and hot pink boas and CHEESEBURGERZ and being sort of pawed pulled into shape by celebrities whose shows I have never seen, is kind of a hard act to follow.
Hey, Tumorless Sister, two words: Project Runway. Honest.
It’s almost 4 a.m. and I just got home. Amtrak, you rock! And, you’re cheap! It was a winning combination I’ve never been able to resist.
Already I miss Fausta and Shannon; heck, I miss KARL! Lindsey, I’m so glad I was able to deliver Hoss’s message; he made me promise, although I would have told you anyway because it – and he – were just so blazingly sweet, as are you. Yvonne, you really ARE as beautiful as all the men in my family tell me constantly. Sigh.
Adrienne, two words about our game of pool: NEENER NEENER! (Thanks, I LOVED IT! )
Busymom, this has got to stop. Why don’t you just come to visit me in Indiana? We’ve got years of hugs and conversation to catch up on.
Table For Five, I love you. Period.
It was wonderful beyond description to see my Spangler Science peeps at BlogHer this year. When you call to order stuff, please tell Julie, Alyssa, and Susan to come again next time! And to get tiaras! They have to have tiaras. We all need a tiara in our lives.
Em, I understand now why Fausta loves you! I do, too.
I met and talked with the BlogHer scholarship winners, and they are all fantastic!
Oh, and Grace. . . my darling, wonderful Grace. How can I tell you what you mean to me? I can’t. There are no words good enough for you.
Not to go into detail or anything, but it had been a long time since I was at a party cool enough to be busted by security.
Question: Do I sound enough like an 8th grader? No? I shall try harder then.
Next year, BlogHer will be in. . . . .drum roll. . . . .NEW YORK! I’ve never been to New York, but after next year’s BlogHer I will never be able to say that again.
As for the bunch I sort of let my hair down with. . . . um, what happens at BlogHer stays at BlogHer, right? RIGHT? Oh, please say I’m right. Besides, I took a few notes about y’all, too. And wasn’t it FUN!!!!!!! I’d wanted to meet you for soooo long, and it was worth the wait because you all rocked. As for men with shaved backs, I like them. Shaved, not waxed. But I digress, for nobody wants to hear about that conversation, for it was just too dirty personal. Right, Leslie? Miss Nancy? Fausta? I’ve been boring all my life.
I go to BlogHer every chance I get for several reasons, and they are all good reasons: BlogHer helps me hone my skills, and not just technically. BlogHer unites – and reunites – me with friends I read regularly and love dearly and see at no other time or place. BlogHer introduces me to new friends and new blogs to read. BlogHer allows me to travel to new places. BlogHer expands my heart and soul and mind in too many ways to mention. BlogHer helps me remember that women can do anything men can do. As my wonderful tango-ing friend Fausta can attest, women can do that backwards and in high heels, like Ginger Rogers! Heck, we can even pee standing up if we want to, and if the toilet is nasty, we want to. And, BlogHer tells me which big businesses are listening to me.
BlogHer gives businesses the chance to woo and win me with PROOF THAT THEY CARE ABOUT WOMEN. A business that understands social media is a savvy business that will build a solid community of loyal customers. Remember, the best advertisement is word of mouth, and a business that understands that the Blogosphere is the absolute BIGGEST word-of-mouth advertisement for its products/services will reap the benefits of such intelligent discovery. Awesome samples never hurt, either. I’m far more inclined to purchase something if I’ve been given a viable sample first. Woo hoo, samples! SWAG! Oh, and there was all that free food everywhere. Cute waiters with trays of skewered chicken and h’orderves, and people constantly asking me if I would like a glass of wine – duh – and bowls of nuts and m&m’s. . . and I think my months and months of dieting were put to the test and I failed it. But it was all out of town so nothing counts, right? Well, that’s how I rationalize it anyway.
I had my picture taken with the Michelin man for comparison purposes.
How much swag this year? I couldn’t pack it and carry it, even on a train. I had to box it up and let FedEx – which set up a kiosk at the conference because it KNOWS how to get our business – take care of it for me.
How many boxes of swag?
Four. Four boxes of scintillating loot that I can’t wait to paw through.
Thank you, BlogHer. I love you, and not just because you’re all purty.
P.S. Shannon, I love you so much it makes my heart vibrate. You know, like my phone in that special pocket. Heh.
P.P.S. I’m a nice lady with a dainty, lacy, moral turn of mind, but, dear ME, did you ever see a weiner that looked more like a WEINER in your LIFE? I swear, I was laughing so hard during lunch on Sunday I could hardly, um, swallow.
Plus, it was almost a foot long. But then, aren’t they all?
Elisa, Jory, and Lisa: You did a breathtakingly fantastic job once again. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
(The crappy WiFi in the hotel was NOT your fault.)
Next stop: BlogIndiana. (You don’t have to live in Indiana to go!) After that, the big one: Blog World Expo! Come on, BlogHers, sign up!
I Love You BlogHer, Oh Yes I Dooooooooo. . . .
Mamacita says: I’m going to BlogHer this weekend and honestly, I really can’t be arsed to think about anything else! (Sorry, students. Good luck on your final, etc. etc.)
This will be my third BlogHer, and I feel as excited about it and possessive of it as if I actually had something to do with it!
I know I’ll be meeting a lot of new people and I’ll adore them. I know I’ll be seeing a lot of people I already know, and I already adore them. I suppose that in a group this ginormous, composed mostly – yes, men go to BlogHer! (Hi, Karl) – of women, there are bound to be a few bitches unfriendly ones, but I haven’t encountered any of THOSE yet. So far, everybody connected with or going to BlogHer has been fantastic, and I’m not exaggerating in the least.
Some women are wasting a lot of time obsessing worrying about what to wear to BlogHer. They’re worrying about shoes, and hair, and they’re running around spending a lot of money buying new clothes. Do they really think we’re a bunch of judgmental Runway people at BlogHer? Oh, sure, there are a lot of young things with fashion on their minds, but really, BlogHer is for women who blog, and women who blog come in a LOT of different shapes, sizes, personalities, and inclinations. They’re ALL equally cool, so plan to venture out from the herd and meet all kinds of people! Wear comfy shoes and your jeans. And a shirt, duh. Bring a sweater; those conference venues are always cold.
Me, personally. . . my inclination is to go to BlogHer and have fun, learn things, hug a lot of people, participate in everything, see people I don’t see anywhere else, run around the sessions with a microphone and look important, laugh a lot, let my hair down, and get drunk, say dreadful things that will frighten and enlighten the masses, and be the ME that stays hidden all the rest of the year take a lot of pictures. A LOT of pictures!!!!!!
Is “hilariate” a word? No? Well, it is now. I want to hilariate people at BlogHer.
Hilariate: to make people smile. Laugh, even. To be funny enough to be remembered afterwards, and not in a condescending way.
Yes, that’s it. I want to hilariate people at BlogHer.
Seriously, though, BlogHers: find me. Let’s trade cards. I’m nice, really I am, in spite of my inability to suffer fools gladly. There won’t be any fools at BlogHer. Just blogging women, and blogging women are a force to be taken seriously.
See y’all in a couple of days. It’ll be better than Christmas, really it will. Santa never brought you the ginormous stack of swag you’ll be getting, and your holiday reunion never had so many awesomely great people attending.
You’ll find out. Sunday night, you’ll all be telling the world you never had such a grand time in your entire life. Yes, counting THOSE times.
P.S. I’m taking the train. The plane was three hundred bucks and Amtrak was 24 dollars. I was never a pro coupon shopper or anything, but I think that’s a bit of a difference.
