So, before I forget that I ever went to Vegas, I’ll tell you guys a little bit about what I did and what I learned.
Vegas is not really my kind of town. I don’t gamble, I don’t like fancy night clubs, I’m not incredibly rich, and I’m too ADD to sit through a flying gymnastics show, so I would never go there unless there was something like the ultimate nerd conference going on there.
unflattering close up
I have a fantastic old friend who lives there now and this also provided me with the opportunity to go see her. She’s been begging me for years and the conference provided me with enough push to get me on a plane and headed to the desert. As a reward, she let me stay with her for two nights and treated me to an In and Out Burger. I, in turn, took her to a party given by the people at Klout. If you don’t know what Klout is, you’re just not a big enough dork–Klout is a measure of how influential you are on Twitter. Justin Bieber is the Ultimate Person of Klout with a score of 100. I have a 51 and I’m not gonna lie–I’m pretty proud of that, which is really a sign of how far I’ve sunk. The Klout party was held at the Palms Hotel and they had a stretch SUV shuttling people back and forth to the party. The party itself was in a Penthouse suite that could only be in a place like Vegas–it had clear floors and all the furniture was round. Odd. Vegas.
In and Out Burger, Animal Style
My friend is a pilot for the Air Force, but doesn’t like to tell people about her job, so she just told everyone she was in PR, which worked surprising well–everyone at Blog World seemed to be in PR. In fact, I met about three times as many PR people as bloggers. We picked PR after I told someone that she was a trained assassin, which she found decidedly NOT FUNNY. I might still be giggling.
Klout Limo
I did meet some bloggers though–there was a nice contingent of Special Mom bloggers there–Janis from Sneak Peek at Me, Catherine who writes Supercat Calhoun, and Sarah who blogs at Planet Josh. Fabulous ladies, all of them. Sarah and I stuck together since we didn’t know a soul and she was even nice to me after I got mad at the night club we were in, so she’s basically won my undying devotion. Sadly, we weren’t in the same hotel, so she wasn’t there when I got lost and missed my hotel–all while never going outside. Vegas is weird, folks. Weird and shiny.
E-Caregivers: Me, Janis, and Catherine
I learned some blogging stuff although I’ve realized that these events are as much about the socializing as the learning. There’s also the going home and turning it all over in your mind–figuring out where you fit into the bigger picture and all. I did have one rather startling moment where a huge, huge blogging expert asked me if I really wanted to blog about my child–while I was standing in front of a room of people.
That was a bit humbling. I did almost cry if I’m being truthful, but afterwards several people approached me and basically said, “rock on” in one way or another. I guess I just have to realize that not everyone is going to *get* what I’m doing here. Some people are going to think it’s weird or maybe inappropriate. I’m just going to keep honoring my inner voice–sharing as much as I’m comfortable with–and hoping that I’m doing well by my family and my child. I’ll probably screw up sometimes, but what parent doesn’t?
Trying on Dresses at Bettie Page
So that’s it. I’m home and back to being mom. As always, I’ve got a million ideas swimming in my head and now all I need is about a week of no distractions to make them all happen–I’m sure that will be occurring any second now. . . . right.
