Blissdom ’13 – The Recap

From the moment Nicole told me that she would pick me up at the airport, I knew Blissdom was going to be pretty awesome.

And despite the fact that my sweet roommate Kim got sick, it was quite wonderful.

We kicked it off with a wonderful photo walk on Thursday afternoon where I finally got to meet Meagan and sweet Sarah.  And wouldn’t you know it, they BOTH taught me something about photography while we were on the walk! 🙂  I also got to talk to Jennifer (who I met at BlogHer last year) and one of my first bloggy buds, Holly toward the end of the walk. (separate post coming for photo walk alone!)

I enjoyed the photography sessions with David Molnar as well as the writing session with Lisa Leonard that I attended.  Each of them inspired me to Capture MY Story, one with words and one with photographs.  I believe I can do both…

The key notes from Scott Stratten and Jon Acuff were quite entertaining and I am excited to read both of their books.

It was also great to come “home” to a conference, back to my favorite state of Texas and be in my old “stompin’ grounds” (and partake of some of my favorite beverages. ahem.)

I may have overdosed just a tad on Tex Mex though (not possible, right?!)

Oh and did I mention the celebrities?

That’s right, some of the cast of All My Children were there as well as Chris Mann, Amber Riley of GLEE fame (who can totally sing like a maniac, by the way!!) and Anna Gasteyer and Jeremy Sisto of Suburgatory.  And I rubbed shoulders with most of them.  How fun is that?

(My mom might pass out when I show her my photo with “Lujack” from The Guiding Light, just FYI…)

Plus I had an awesome massage from Jesse (I think) in the Bissell booth and attended a super hard fitness session led by Rachel Canella on Saturday morning.  She totally kicked our booties! And gave us some great swag from SoyBu!

But what usually makes a conference for me is the opportunity to hang out and hug my “peeps”.  My internet peeps that is.  I can honestly say that this was the FIRST time that I felt like every person at this conference was my friend.  I am not even kidding.  Blissdom is the right size and everyone that I experienced was nice, genuine and beautiful. Every time I walked the corridors people were smiling and happy.  I didn’t feel rushed or overwhelmed.  Everyone is included in every event and I never felt alone or left out.

In short, Blissdom = Friends.

                                    from top, clockwise, me with Katy,  Erin,  Meagan,  Nicole,  Hillary and Jennifer

Not to mention, Y’all, I am truly blessed to have a found a really good friend through blogging, who I clicked with from the beginning and who is easy going and fun and makes me laugh pretty much the entire time I am there and many times gives me a new perspective.  Thanks for being a wonderful roommate and friend, Jennifer!

p.s. check out her new weight loss blog at Mom and Mommer – she’s doing great things!

And I hope to be at Blissdom again next year, fingers crossed it’s in Dallas again. 🙂