Back from BlogHer

I'm a little sad to be home. I'm a little happy to be home. I'm happy to be home because I no longer have to share a teeny double bed with my wonderful friend Heather. If I have to share my bed with someone, I'm glad it's her.

Wait. That came out wrong. You know what I'm trying to say. I thought about saying it differently, but it's just going to sound wrong no matter what!

My roommates were spectacular. Heather and I roomed with LeeAnn from The Butter Compartment and Julie from Mampedia who doesn't have her own personal blog. They were so interesting and such fun! I was a little worried about ending up with roommate drama, but there was none in sight!

I wish that I had gotten to meet more of the women at BlogHer, although I know it was impossible to meet all 1399 of the other women(and men) who were there. I have a pile of people whose blogs I need to read, who I need to follow on Twitter and who I need to email! I am sure it's going to occupy me for at least the next week. Probably much, much longer.

I have pages of ideas about posts for my blogs. I can't wait to start on them! I also had spectacular cheerleader on my car ride back from Chicago. There may be a possible new business enterprise for me that comes out of the weekend. All in all, it was an invigorating, exciting, inspiring weekend! I hope I can hang onto all the ideas and ephiphanies until I have time to sort through them all! Stay tuned for exciting new things at My Kingdom For a Book and my two new blogs, Churchsurfing (about local churches), and my blog about being single, Quirky Single Girl.

Oh, and bonus for you! A photo of me enjoying an alcohol-free mudslide from Quaker Oats at BlogHer '09!

Amazing BlogHer Conference

I can't say enough good stuff about BlogHer! I am enjoying myself SO much. I am way sleepy and ready to crawl into my bed, but I am energized mentally. Can you be energized inspirationally? If so, that definitely describes me.

I would love to have questions to ask some of the panelists, but I'm so busy taking in what these women are saying that I don't have enough brain power left over for questions! I've been to some really helpful sessions--Beginning Wordpress and a session about writing Op-Ed pieces. Ooops, is Wordpress a dirty word when I'm using blogger for my blog? Are they going to censor me? Hehe.

I really enjoyed the panel on feminist/pro-woman issues yesterday. It was really thought-provoking! I've always considered myself a feminist, but in a quiet sort of way. The panel made me feel like I should be more outspoken about my feminist leanings because the things that I and my fellow women do now have lasting repercussions/implications. We need to speak up so that the lives of the daughters that come after us are improved. I'll probably talk about that more over at my single woman blog: modernsinglegirl.blogspot.com later on.

Last night's keynote was amazing. There were 15 or 20 women whose work was selected from quite a few applicants. These women got up and read in front of the community. There were women talking about food as love, about having a child with special needs, about the death of a child, about fear of medical professionals, about infertility. It was amusing, moving, heart-rending. I rarely ever cried, but these women made me cry!

This morning we had a celebrity panel talking about media, blogging, advertising, etc. There was Ilene Chaiken who created the TV show The L Word, Donna Byrd who runs a new site with a focus on African-Americans called theroot.com, and Tina Brown from thedailybeast.com. Beautiful, wonderful, intelligent, women who are leaders.

BlogHer is made of awesome!

Blogging from BlogHer 09!

We finally made it to the Sheraton in Chicago last night. The trip was supposed to take 6 hours, and ended up taking 9 or 10! We got stuck behind a tour bus wreck on I-65 in Indiana, and then in Chicago traffic at rush hour. After that, we had bad directions to get to the Sheraton and had to ask innocent bystanders how to get there! I felt like I had a big "Tourist" tattoo on my forehead! Not that I really mind--I AM a tourist!

We registered and got our room with no problem, thankfully. We had a bit to eat at the very awesome Fox & Obel around the corner from the Sheraton. Think Whole Foods, but better. We hit up the People Party around 9 p.m. and partied for a while. I was going to go to the Room 704 party, but I heard they were out of swag bags. So, I hung out in my room and got to know my very awesome roomies!

I'm up and at 'em much earlier than I'm accustomed to, but I'm excited about today! Meeting new people, lots of awesome talks to choose from! More from BlogHer 09 later!

Follow me at BlogHer

I'm on my way to the 2009 BlogHer Conference in Chicago! I'll be learning more about blogging, meeting some awesome new friends/bloggers, and generally having a lot of fun! It may lead to new things at My Kingdom for a Book. Stay tuned for my thoughts, tips, and snippets about what's going on at the conference in the next few days!