It’s been a week since I got back from the Type-A Parent conference, and I think I’ve finally recovered. Not from the conference itself, since that was mostly learning with a healthy dose of fun, but from my red-eye flight back and only getting 2 hours of sleep last Sunday night. I am way too old for that sort of thing.

Explaining to people I was going to a blogging conference is always weird (I usually say “work thing” and hope no one asks what I do) but once you get there it’s SO NICE to be around people who don’t think writing on the internet is crazy. Even if sometimes I think it’s crazy too.

I feel like warning you this is going to be picture heavy is almost redundant at this point, since it’s not really any more picture heavy than anything else on my blog these days.

I was super lucky my friend Miranda is Atlanta-based, since it meant I had an instant conference-buddy and didn’t feel quite so alone, although if I had gone alone I think I still would have had a good time. People were very welcoming and friendly. At one breakfast I swear I talked for 15 minutes straight before realizing I had told 6 people my entire life story and shut myself up. But no one seemed to mind – or at least they hid it very well and only talked about me behind my back when I left.

I put myself out on a limb a little bit and attended the Military Spouse bloggers tribe session on the first day and I’m so glad I did. I met the cool people behind NextGenMilSpouse and realized there are a lot of brands interested in talking to us as a community – and even if it’s a community I don’t always self-identify with, it IS one I belong to and that has value.

Type-A has been on my wish list of conferences for a while, but it wasn’t in the cards this year because of E’s work schedule and my investment in the photography thing instead of putting blog pennies back into blogging. Amazingly, the awesome team at MinuteClinic stumbled across my blog a few months ago and offered to send me as one of their sponsored bloggers. Not only was I honored to be chosen, I had a fantastic time with the whole team. We took a slightly extremely terrifying cab ride to a delicious restaurant I probably couldn’t find again if my life depended on it, and I totally bonded with Vicki over New England and photography.

The hilarious and awesome Heather of The Third Boob mans the MinuteClinic table during meet & greet

Yum, yum, and yum

Definitely the best booth at the expo

The sessions were really good, especially the technical ones. I got some excellent tips on using Google+ I plan to implement as soon as I can force myself to start caring about Google+. The session about the legal side of blogging could have been twice as long and still not long enough – did you know if you watermark your photo and someone crops out the watermark without permission it’s an instant fine in court? Obviously the lawyer was in favor of watermarking, although while I was chatting with the photographers after their session they shared my opinion that watermarking is generally useless, since people will take it out/clone it out/use your pictures anyway and you still won’t know. Watermarking might be worth it though, since I’ve found my photos on several sites recently thanks to the fact that they linked back – although that’s not quite the same as ASKING me if they can use them. But whatevs. I’m pretty busy trying to figure out webmaster tools, I can’t spend the rest of my life sending takedown notices.

The coolest sponsor event was the AT&T Digital Life house. Their PR team knows how to do it RIGHT – cocktails in mason jars, amazing tiny food, and great info. It’s a good thing my husband wasn’t there, he would have signed us up for the magical house that turns on and off automatically in a second. I have to admit it’s super cool and would be so handy as the kids get older – who doesn’t want a door that tells you when your kid gets home from school??

The best night was definitely the Disney Star Tours party plus the Time To Play game night. I was a little nervous “game night” might be lame – not because I don’t LOVE game nights, but because I figured I might be the only dork who DOES love game nights – but it was a blast. At one point I think I actually peed a little from jumping up and down pretending I was on a trampoline and laughing so hard. I wish I was joking (Headbanz, get it).

The drinks were called “Dark Sider” (which was spiked cider) and the “Jedi Mind Trick” which was a delicious mystery. It WAS the martini I was looking for.

I think the absolute highlight of the conference was the We Still Blog readings on Sunday. I wish I had submitted something, although that’s an easy statement to make AFTER the fact when there’s no chance I might have to get up in front of 300 people and read a post about my vagina. Which is exactly what Miranda did, and it was HILARIOUS. It was nice to hear people read their posts out loud – not just because they were really great posts but because it’s a good reminder there is a person behind all the words on the internet. Even though tons of my friends live in my computer (and let me sleep on their couch when I come to Atlanta) sometimes I forget people are reading MY words and I need to make sure I’m using the best words I can. That was something Erika Napoletano said in her closing keynote and it’s definitely been on my mind ever since.

Miranda reading about her lady parts, and with Erika after her keynote

It was a wonderful weekend and I’m so glad I got to attend. I felt like the balance of education and entertainment was spot-on, most of the speakers, especially the womens health speaker, were real experts on their topics, and I met some great people. If you’re thinking about attending in 2014 (it’s in Atlanta again, super easy to catch a flight and the public transit is amazing!) I would say definitely put it on your calendar!

Atlanta is beautiful at sunset

My laptop is broken again, and this time shaking it and yelling didn’t magically repair whatever the hell is wrong. The good news is I transferred all my October photos off of it minutes before it crashed, so even if it’s completely fried all I lost was last week’s iPhone pictures and the shots from the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular on Saturday. The bad news is I also lost all my bookmarks, Photoshop Elements, my address lists, my party invitation lists, my password lists, everything I’ve ever scanned and countless other details of my I had stored in my computer. I had actual nightmares last night about time running out on some important project while I stared at the wonky gray screen and begged it to turn on. It’s silly to feel so lost without a laptop – it’s just a MACHINE – but it feels like my lifeline has been ripped away.

Maybe that’s really sad. I can easily make myself feel pathetic for being so attached to my computer – “Come on, Suzanne! It’s not real life! You obviously spend too much time on it! This is a great opportunity for you to finally get away from your screen!” but mostly I don’t feel bad at all. Sure, some of my friends live on the interwebs and could be called “Not Real” but ALL of my friends use the interwebs to stay in touch – even the Real ones. I LIKE the internet, even when it’s full of politics and drama and secret I Hate Your Stupid Blog And Here’s 345832 Reasons Why Facebook groups. It’s also full of blogs. Pretty blogs, wordy blogs, recipe blogs, inspirational blogs, funny blogs, blogs written by my friends, blogs written be people I WISH were my friends, blogs written by people I would never in a million years want to be friends with but love peeking into their lives because I’m sort of a jerk.

My own blog is going to suffer a little until I can get the computer thing worked out (sorry Mom) since E has his laptop set up like the command center for the Death Star or something and it took me 10 minutes just to find the internet. I can’t edit photos from this monstrosity either – unless I can find my Photoshop Elements disk, which is about as likely as finding Bigfoot hiding in the coat closet – so my brilliant post about organizing my closet will have to wait too. I know you’re devastated. Let’s start a secret Facebook group and talk about it for hours. Or maybe I actually will take this opportunity to go get away from my screen and get something done in my real life.

Today is my 4 year bloggiversary. This was my first post, which was stupid and uninteresting so I posted again later. That one was a little better – much too over-sharey and full of run on sentences, but at that point I thought I was just writing anonymously into a void no one was ever going to find.

Four years later I still call my husband E, I still overshare too much, and I’m still blogging. And since you’re reading I owe you a huge thank you. If I was smarter, cooler and more organized I’d have set up an amazing giveaway, but despite my 1300+ posts I’ve yet to have a single company send me a free washing machine (rude). But the friends I’ve made, advice I’ve gotten and support I’ve received from this little corner of the interwebs are worth a hundred washing machines. Thank you so much for everything.

xoxo

Suzanne

I signed up for Audrey’s handmade exchange with some misgivings – not because I didn’t think I would get a wonderful gift, but because between Caroline’s party and Christmas I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make anything even REMOTELY worth sending to another crafty person. I managed to get something in the mail (although I STILL haven’t sent my recipient my guest post) but the really pleasant surprise was a beautiful pouch and delicious macaroons from MY secrket gifter. Check out her guest post below!

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Hello!  I am Kelley.  My blog is Casa Crafty where I write about my many crafting experiments, my family and day to day life.

This year, I thought it would be fun to participate in the Handmade Sekret Holiday Exchange from Audrey at Planet Hausfrau.

I did have fun! Although, it is difficult to make something for a stranger, so I searched and read and combed through this here blog to get as much insight into Suzanne as I could.

 

 

You better go put on your Thanksgiving bib, cause I’m about to spew rainbows and sunshine all over you. This post is the literary equivalent of a unicorn frolicking with sugar-dipped kittens while eating an ice cream sundae topped with rock candy. Your teeth might actually rot from your head before you can even eat your pie. Better have the pie first. I can’t handle that on my conscience.

Today I am thankful for you. YOU. Reading this right now. You are my thankful today and every day. I am thankful for every single person who has ever read my silly words here on my silly blog. I am thankful for the amazing advice I’ve gotten, the friends I’ve made or reconnected with, the support, the encouragement, the happy thoughts, the prayers, and the nudges back from the edge on the days I don’t think I can take it anymore. I am thankful for the people who read every day and the ones who have only read one post. I am so luck to have found a village – even if it’s a virtual village – in my journey as a mother.You have supported causes important to my heart with your time and your wallet. Because you read I get to call myself a blogger (when I’m feeling brave) and a writer (when I’m feeling REALLY brave). There truly are not enough words for me to express how much I love my corner of the internet and it is ONE BAZILLION PERCENT because of you.

I am not the best blogger or the funniest or the coolest or the most generous or the kindest or the most fashionable or the healthiest or the most creative or any sort of superlative at all. But I would like to try to be better at being a friend. If there is anything I can ever do for you – YOU – please let me know.

I hope you’re having a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with as much food, football and family as you can possibly stand.