Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I'll go wherever these ladies go*



What strikes me the most about the Blathering is how comfortable I felt with everyone. People I’ve only seen in person once or twice before. People I’ve never seen before. I felt comfortable with every single one. I recognized them all by sight. I didn’t have to introduce myself. I never felt awkward. Really. Not once.

I’m sure a big part of that is the fact this is my third time. I didn’t have as big of a learning curve as some, given that I had met at least half of the people there at previous Blatherings and have been reading their blogs for years. The first year I went, I started reading attendees’ blogs in June, then met them in November, and yeah, it was awkward at times. I knew them academically:  how many kids they had, where they lived, what their husband did. But I didn’t KNOW them yet. It was still a great weekend and I always felt welcome and like we all ‘got’ each other, we just weren’t best friends yet.

But now, even the people I started following in June of this year, I felt like I KNEW. I’m repeating myself, but it felt easy and natural to hang out with every person there. I ended up in a lot of different groups through the weekend and it was always easy. I was never the third wheel. I just have never known anything like it.

*Subtitle: But New Orleans is a terrible place for an introvert, so perhaps let's not go there again. (I did not like the city. But I'd go again if my people were going to be there!)

7 comments:

  1. WAH I DID NOT GET TO TALK TO YOUUUUU. I kept thinking, "Oh! I need to go sit by Jessica! I need to make sure I see her later! I'll definitely monopolize her TOMORROW." And then it was Sunday and I was on a plane going home.

    DAMMIT.

    I am so glad you had fun, but I am so sad we didn't carve out some time. Le sigh.

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  2. It was so good to see you! Bathtub chicken forever!

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  3. You got some really good pictures. It's so funny to come to people's blogs and be like, whoa! that's my face.

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  4. What A'Dell said! Although, even though we only had like 10 seconds together, it was SO GREAT to see you and to give you a real hug and to know that it was OKAY that we didn't get a ton of time together because we WILL at TJ's. And I WILL text you and email you in the meantime :)

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  5. Thank goodness we had some time in Denver together, because wow did the weekend just speed by. I'm so glad we got to meet, and hug, and that now I know one more person going to TJ's. :-)

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  6. Long live bathtub chicken.

    Also, I LOVE that you plopped yourself down to me on Saturday night and we talked. Jessica, you are incredibly easy to talk to and hope that you're there next year for Charleston so that I may give you a hug.

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  7. Jessica, you are rad. And I got EXTRA, CALM Jessica time and could not have felt more lucky. You are a wise, fancy, lovely GEM and I'm so glad we're Not-Just-On-The-Internet friends. xo

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