People Who Meet People Are the Luckiest People

This is part of a week-long series as I recover from BlogHer 12. Do not worry. These are not recap posts, but they’re all somehow connected to my experience. Today I’m going to highlight some of the people I met.

The biggest complaint I have about BlogHer: I didn’t meet enough people.

The best thing about BlogHer: I met amazing people.

Blogging has been my main way of making friends for the past year or two. There are lovely people in the blogging world. And you get to meet people who are important to you who may have no idea that you worship the ground they walk on. Sometimes I worry a little bit that I get a bit smothering when I decide I am in love with another blogger. It’s very possible the people in this post will see their names and think, “Oh no. It’s that creepy girl who attached herself to me and wouldn’t leave me alone.”

I want to highlight just a few as I’m not sure you read them and I have been a total jerk about keeping my blogroll up to date.

First, attention must be paid to Laura from Laura’s Rules. As far as our blogs go we have some things in common but some pretty big differences. She focuses a lot on green living issues, a subject I don’t think I’ve ever covered. But we spent Friday evening together talking. And it was one of those instant connections that makes me happy to be alive.

What did Laura do for me? Well, you may remember that I am/was/whatever a lawyer. Maybe you noticed that I don’t have “mom” or any variation in my blog name or my twitter handle, but I do have “esquire” in there. I’m proud of my lawyer-ness. But I also have this underlying embarrassment about how far off the normal career track I went and I feel defensive and unworthy and all this stupid stuff that I shouldn’t feel. Laura kicked my butt and has me motivated to start writing about the law like I’ve been toying with. My Supreme Court Decision on Healthcare post was one of my most successful and I want to venture out to freelance a bit with similar types of articles. Until this week it was all talk. Thanks, Laura, for telling me what I needed to hear.

During my brief time at a BlogHer party, I met Lisa from The Spaghetti Westerner. There was not a strong Western contingent at BlogHer this year, since it was on the East Coast. So I might have been the first person who has actually been to her hometown in Nevada. We had a ridiculously lovely chat and had we not been having such a good time at the bass-pumping party, I might’ve kidnapped her and taken her somewhere quiet so we could be alone.

On the ride home I got to spend some serious quality time with my girl JD at Honest Mom. I’ve loved knowing JD and lately I’ve felt like I’m phoning in my writing a bit with all the craziness at home. JD writes the way I want to write more often and has the openness I built this blog around. I hope to guest post for her soon. We need more bloggers like her in the world.

I had my biggest fangirl moment when I was behind Monica in the breakfast line. I’ve been reading her for a long time. I have sent her oversharing emails where I confided deep emotional scars. I have considered moving to rural Pennsylvania so we can be neighbors. And she was totally warm and sweet and not at all scared by my confessed stalker-ish tendencies. So this means I can just show up on her doorstep one of these days, right?

Lately I’ve been getting more connected with the Autism community. When Graham was first diagnosed I immersed myself, then as life went on I pulled back a little more. It was too hard talking to people with older kids, which is kind of terrible but just where I was at the time. Now I’m back in and they are just the best people in the world and I want us to form our own small country where we make all the crazy rules. I got to see Try Defying Gravity a whole bunch of times and I’m so thrilled that she lives near me. I watched Varda do an amazing job reading at Voices of the Year. I did a girly scream-filled hello with Stimey. The Autism crew is a kind and loving community of spitfires and crazy people. I adore them.

I got to see loads of my Boston friends. I had late-night gab fests with Annie. I stalked Cindy. I obviously didn’t sit close enough to Kim to let her luck rub off on me. BlogHer was a friendlier place with so many familiar faces. I hope to see all of you again very soon.

So the short lesson here: if you want to be friends with me, get a blog.

You May Also Like:

1. BlogHer: Who Wants to Party?
2. Hey, Blissdom!
3. Getting Unwound