Post-TypeA Wrap Up

The post-con hangover is a real doozy, y’all.

This happened to me last year after going to Type A Conference. My brain gets filled with so much awesomeness that I freaking FREEZE and can’t write a thing.

Didn’t help that I got home to a half-sick kiddo, a niece coming to hang out for a few days and, oh yeah, work. I haven’t had time to think and process and get stuff out of my head, but right now (It’s Saturday when I’m writing this) I’m sitting at the lake with no internet access, no need to go outside because it’s 105, and quiet. So I can think.

The highlight of my trip had to be picking Crystal up at the airport. Crystal and I have been “in the computer” friends for probably 2 years now. We both work on Band Back Together and have since the beginning pretty much. She flew into Atlanta and I picked her up.

You know how when you haven’t seen your best friend or roommate from college in a really long time, how that big giant hug feels? THAT is how it felt picking her up. But the only difference was that we’d never met before.

It was like seeing an old friend for the first time ever. It WAS seeing an old friend for the first time ever.

Our first stop, to get my California Girl a fairly Southern experience, was Chick-fil-A. And she liked it! I mean, who doesn’t? She even ordered sweet tea and I’ve gotta say, I was so very proud of her for that!

This is also the part where we went to the liquor store and I exclaimed, “I love liquor stores with buggies.” She obviously looked at me like I had three heads. Apparently everybody doesn’t call shopping carts, buggies!

We got into Charlotte around 10 and were beat. But that didn’t keep us from going downstairs for a quick drink at the bar. We ran into a few bloggers in for the conference and caught up for a few minutes.

I won’t bore you with details about all the sessions and stuff, but I do want to point out some high points.

Reconnecting With Friends I’d Met Already

I know I’ll leave some out, but being able to hook back up with Robin, Julia, Anissa, Katherine, Cecily, Fadra, Shell, Andrea, Frelle, Lynn (the conference crasher) and many others, was great.

Meeting New People I “Know” But Had Never Met

The one thing I got from my mom is the ability to talk to pretty much anybody. It serves me well at conferences because, well, I’ll just talk to anybody!

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Tanis, Dresden, Nicole, Tracy, Molly, Charlie, and a bazillion other amazing people.

The Closing Panel

This year, there was a closing panel that included Cecily Kellogg, Katherine Stone and Tanis Miller. It was called “We Still Blog” and was by far the part of the conference, for me, that was worth all the money I had spent getting there.

Unless you were there, or somebody caught it on video and it’s on YouTube or something, I can’t really explain the awesomeness, but I CAN share the 4 amazing tidbits I wrote down.

For Tanis, blogging made her remember how to feel after the death of her son. She remembered how to feel happiness, sadness, pain, love… so she shares bites of life, little moments that remind her that she can still feel.

She acknowledged that she is in a group that is quite influential in the blogosphere. The main influence she wants, though, is for her friend (online and in real life) to know that she’s honest and authentic.

Cecily talked about the FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out. It’s why we’re all so immersed in the community of our blogs, social media and the “exciting stuff” at conferences. It’s really interesting for me to think about and makes me realize that all my life I’ve had a FOMO.

Katherine said three words that stood out to me. Remember your purpose. I don’t think I have to explain.

Brainstorming

Angela England had an amazing and fascinating session on brainstorming. I don’t write like this. I wake up and think of something, write it and hit publish. But this session was eye-opening to me.

She gave us an outline of how to brainstorm and WOW! In the 5 minutes we brainstormed in the session, I have a bazillion ideas for posts! Now to find time to write them and figure out how to NOT make my blog depressing with all sad posts.

The Ride Home

Of course, another highlight was the ride home. Crystal and I drove back to Atlanta so I could drop her off at the airport. On our way home, we stopped for Cracker Barrel, peaches and boiled peanuts! There were about a million other Southern things I wanted to share with her, but there was no time.

She’ll just have to come back again!

It was a great weekend. Like Fadra mentioned, blog conferences are similar to summer camp for us. We commune, we grow, we learn… but there are no counselors to make us go to bed at a reasonable time!

There’s so much more I could write about, but I think I’ll save some for another day.

NEWSFLASH: Crystal’s going to BlogHer in NYC with me now!!! YAY!!!!