On Blogging

Survival tips for meeting bloggers IRL (In Real Life)

If you’ve been blogging for very long, sooner or later you get the opportunity to meet other bloggers In Real Life (IRL), especially if you’re a member of Seattle Mom Blogs, where we like to inundate our gals with invites to lunches, brunches, cocktail hours, and everything in between.  Then there’s the annual big-time event that everyone starts to talk about round about now… BlogHer.  (drum roll here)

Maybe you’ve gone to one of the meet-ups.  Or maybe you’ve been busy.  Or maybe, just maybe you were afraid to go. 

Come on, admit it.  There’s something a little scary about meeting people who you’ve only had an online relationship with.

In real life you can’t control how people see you to include only the most flattering angles.

In real life you can’t edit your words before anyone hears them.

In real life you forget what you were going to say, snort when you’re laughing too hard, and get gas.

In real life you have to drive and remember directions and hope your skirt isn’t hiked up in the back.

Yep, there’s no doubt about it, IRL can be a stressful place.  There’s a reason that Twitter and Facebook and MySpace are so popular.

And yet, I’m a big believer in the notion that meeting up IRL with women who you’ve known online is totally, completely, and 100% worth it.

Honestly, I prefer hanging with bloggers IRL to online.  Here’s why.

In general, I tend to really connect with other blogging women.  We GET each other. We like the same things. And, thanks to blogging, we have endless fodder for conversation.

Do you use Wordpress or Blogger?  Why?

How do you stay on top of your comments?

Did you see that article about Dooce in the Wall Street Journal?  And how do you feel about Dooce anyhow, be honest?

Does your family know about your blog?

Why did you start blogging?

How did you come up with the name?

Are you going to BlogHer?

And on and on and ON until it’s 2am and the bar is shutting down and still I want to keep talking.

There’s something really exciting about getting together with other bloggers; an energy that’s addictive. 

Maybe it’s that many of us started blogging in order to have something that was ours and ours alone. As moms, wives, employees, consultants, sisters, daughters, and neighbors, it’s often hard to find any bit of something that we can claim as our own.  Blogging is that thing.  And getting together with other bloggers provides a moment of me-time amidst the chaos.  A chance to connect with other women who are into the same thing we are… not to talk about our kids or our husbands or our houses or our jobs, but to talk about the passion that we share.  Blogging.

So here’s my advice.

First and foremost, just do it.  Get out there.  Take advantage of the opportunity to meet up with other bloggers.

Secondly, try to keep from taking it too seriously.  Pick out something comfortable to wear that makes you feel good, but don’t obsess about what you look like.  I’ll let you in on a little secret… we all are worried about what we look like. We all wish we could’ve lost a few pounds before the event.  We all are afraid of people thinking we’re way cuter in our pictures than we actually are IRL.

What matters is the connection.  The being real.  The laughing and being silly and talking and goofing around.

Take a deep breath, plaster a smile on your face, and introduce yourself.

Before you know it, you’ll be having a great time.

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Catch more of Jenny Blackburn’s humorous anecdotes on being a mom, a woman, and a whole lot crazy at Absolutely Bananas. If you have questions, anecdotes, or topics for “On Blogging,” email jenny[@]seattlemomblogs[dot]com.