Monday, November 5, 2012

I am a PNW Blogger

For those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter (or happen to notice which badges, buttons, gadgets are in my sidebar), you may have known that I have been planning on going to the Pacific Northwest Blogger Holiday Party. (That is a mouthful.).
The Paper Mama Blogger Meet Up

Being the overly-ambitious yet quietly-unassuming blogger that I am, I snagged a ticket then went to work creating my very first, very official blogger business card. Please, no criticism of my design. It's already done. If you think it looks terrible, just remember to offer suggestions and guidance the next time around. Thanks. ;-)

The event was organized by The Paper Mama (whom many of you may recognize from that oft pinned tutorial on how to get gorgeous curls using nothing but a simple headband... okay, she's known for a LOT more, but I saw that tutorial LONG before I knew who she was and only JUST made the connection). It was catered by Whole Foods (yum) and held at West Elm. Now, if you're like me, you may think that West Elm is a home decor, etc. store that exists solely online. As it turns out, we were wrong! They really do have brick and mortar stores. They're filled with gorgeous displays of exactly how you might wish your home could be if only you could afford it and didn't have young children in the home who would destroy every material possession you love... maybe that's just me.

Anyway... about the meetup. You would think after working as a professional, successful hair stylist for several years (before having kids) I would know how to interact with complete strangers. You would be wrong again. I have such incredible social anxiety in these types of situations, it is ridiculous. As I stood in line to check in, I just kept thinking "What in the world am I doing here?"

As I approached the first group of bloggers that I felt brave enough to speak to, I'm pretty sure I was on the verge of hyperventilating. I could have brought my inhaler and made jokes about being like Mikey from The Goonies. (If you're too young to get that reference, please do not let me know.) Although, I'm not sure if that would have made things better or worse. As I spoke to these (super nice) ladies, I felt like I had lost all control of my speech. Words were just spewing out of me and I'm pretty sure I was turning a lovely shade of bright red. But then I started getting more comfortable. (THANK. GOODNESS.) I still had some moments of awkwardness throughout the night, but I had nice a time overall. And more importantly - I survived my very first REAL blogger event! Okay, for real more importantly, I met some very cool bloggers in real life.

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8 comments:

  1. I wish we had the opportunity to meet--there were so many people!

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    1. Seriously! I thought with "only" 50 tickets available, we'd get to meet everyone... what a joke. ;-) Fun night though.

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  2. I'm not sure if we met or not (Sooooo many new faces!) but I just have to say, that if you would have walked up to me and joked about Mikey from The Goonies, I would have known I'd just found my new BFF.

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    1. Good to know people share my sense of humour AND taste in movies. Maybe we'll get to meet in person some other time. In the meantime, I'll have to check out your blog!

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  3. What a great event! Nothing like that around here, unfortunately. However, BlogHer will be only a couple of hours away next year. :P

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    1. It was great. I wouldn't have minded having you there with me, though! BlogHer would be so fun! Baby steps for me. Although... Blissdom still has early bird tickets available! Something to think about.

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  4. So glad you came! I have super bad anxiety attacks when around a lot of people. I always talk really loud or not loud enough. I'm a total dork at events like these. BUT, I do love meeting bloggers and getting to talk all about the thing I love to do. If you are in the Portland, Oregon area we do Portland Bloggers meet-ups about every 2 months (pdxbloggers.com) and we have much smaller groups. :) And, if not then maybe I'll see you at the next PNW event!

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    1. Thanks! You looked super busy all night. I hope you were able to sleep in on Sunday. Good to know about the local meet-ups - I am in the Portland area! Maybe I'll show up sometime. I'll most likely make it to the next PNW event, too. My husband would love a trip to Seattle... so he can go to the pinball museum. haha

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