The BlogHer14 Highlight Reel, Part 1

I was at a big convention-type gathering this past weekend...and it wasn't San Diego Comic-Con. I attended my third BlogHer Conference, after a three-year absence.

I'm doing a Storified recap of the experience, in the tradition of my BEA Highlight Reel, but I'm breaking it into two blog posts so it won't take up quite as much space in your eyeballs, or in your feed readers.

BlogHer14, The Personal Highlight Reel

Recapping my third (and probably last) BlogHer Conference in tweets and photos

I couldn't sleep past 2 AM the night before BlogHer'14. I finally got up a little past 4, and discovered an email from Virgin America telling me that the flight I was scheduled to take to San Francisco at 11;25 AM had been bumped back nearly two hours. (My travel plans apparently overlapped those of President Obama, and Air Force One trumps Virgin America.) It left even later than that, and landed just in time for the Bay Area rush hour. I was already a little stressed when I got to the convention center that evening, which was a less-than-ideal condition for my solo arrival at the Evening at the Expo opening-night party.
1. 

   Proof I found my way to the #selfiebration (and it's all a little overwhelming when you walk in alone!) #BlogHer14pic.twitter.com/f29cNAExEA

   FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

   ·

   4 DAYS AGO
   
2. 
   

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

   First people I saw at #BlogHer14 were @ChloeJeffreys@babybabylemon & @barbarafeldman--nice flashbacks to CA'12!

   4 DAYS AGO
   
I actually wasn't supposed to arrive alone at the Expo, but my delays caused me to miss an earlier event where Amy and I were supposed to meet up, and I didn't actually find her until we were both leaving. But thanks to my encounters with her, Chloe, and Barbara, the weekend kicked off with a nice taste of the so-very-different Creative Alliance experience.
3. 

   Breakfast, and the heavens sing: "Yay, coffee!" #blogher14#selfiebration pic.twitter.com/vIxSvoxwJD

   FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

   ·

   3 DAYS AGO
   
4. 

   My breakfast table had lots of room! And it's near the door, so I can escape before Speed Dating. #BlogHer14pic.twitter.com/DY3boWwl2x

   FLORINDA PVASQUEZ@FLORINDA_3RS

   ·

   3 DAYS AGO
   
I did get some company at my table eventually: a team of mompreneurs, two blogging bartending sisters, a writing mom, and, believe it or not, a book (and movie) blogger!
5. 
   

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

   Meeting @yesnofilms and catching up w/ @FromLeft2Write at breakfast--I found some #bookbloggers at #BlogHer14 :-)

   3 DAYS AGO
   
6. 
   

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

   What @RebeccaSchinsky said after #BEA: "The book people are the best part." Wish more of you were here to hang with me at#BlogHer14 !

   3 DAYS AGO
   
7. I Am BlogHer.

   
   

   BLOGHER

   ·

   2 DAYS AGO
   
Breakfast was followed by the Opening Keynote, featuring a "Why I Blog" video and an interview with Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess. I reviewed Jenny's (mostly true) memoir, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, two years ago, but I bought a copy on-site so I could get it signed. (I no longer have the ARC I reviewed, so this one's my keeper.)
8. 
   

   Julie Ross Godar@Honeybeast

   You may think you don't have a story but maybe you haven't seen it from the eyes of someone else. You have a story. @TheBloggess#BlogHer14

   @florinda_3rs
   

   ·

   3 DAYS AGO
   
9. 

   I reviewed @thebloggess' book for Shelf Awareness years ago, but bought another copy just to get her to sign it at #blogher14#selfiebration

   

   FLORINDA VASQUEZ

   ·

   3 DAYS AGO
   
10. 
    

    Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    Watching #DoctorWho is part of @TheBloggess' writing process? LOVE. (Also, the streams cross. #BlogHer14 #SDCC)

    3 DAYS AGO
Over coffee in the Expo Hall on Friday afternoon, Donna (the first blogger I ever met in person) told me she hasn't expected to see me San Jose at BlogHer14, because she'd thought I'd be in San Diego for Comic-Con that weekend...and I had to tell her that we haven't managed to get SDCC tickets since 2011.

But since I wasn't in SoCal, I got some NorCal face time with one of my oldest LA-based blogging friends, which included meeting her co-blogger and sister Linda and joining her and her MOMocrats podcast partner Cynematic at BlogHer14 sponsor California Women Lead's kickoff event for the get-out-the-vote initiative The Plus 1 Project.
11. 
    

    Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    It's the one-on-one time in the midst of crowds. Thanks @babybabylemon & @brigittaLA for chats this morning at#BlogHer14

    3 DAYS AGO
    
For many, the highlight and heart of a BlogHer Conference is the Friday-evening Voices of the Year keynote.
12. 
    

    Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    The trains aren't running on time here, so to speak, but no one seems to mind. The parties will just end later. #VOTY #BlogHer14

    3 DAYS AGO
    
13. 

    Nearly wrapping up #VOTY w/ a powerful read from @firemom#blogher14

    

    FLORINDA VASQUEZ

    ·

    3 DAYS AGO
    
14. 
    

    Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    "@BlogHer taught me that just because I haven't done something doesn't mean I can't." @GDRPempress 10x10 #BlogHer14

    3 DAYS AGO
    
15. 

    And the #voty wraps with what @smacksy believes #blogher14#selfiebration

    

    FLORINDA VASQUEZ

    ·

    3 DAYS AGO
    
I'm glad I was there for the presentations, but didn't linger for much of the post-keynote partying, which should be no surprise to anyone. It all started again on Saturday morning, though...

Part 2 will post tomorrow.

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Shaking the (Blogging) Family Tree--Throwback Thursday #Selfiebration

When I started thinking about Jenna's latest BlogHer #Selfiebration question, "What Does Your Blogging Family Tree Look Like?", I was stumped.

I've been blogging for nearly seven and a half years, and the paths I once shared with many bloggers have diverged, or dead-ended for one reason or another, along the way. Then I realized that one thing about having blogged for so long is that at one time or another, I've probably mentioned some of those who helped form me as a blogger...whether they know it or not.

For Throwback Thursday, I'm shaking the tree with an update of a post from my second Blogiversary, in March 2009.

1. 

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

   Your influencers/"blogcestors"? RT @FireMom: What Does Your Blogging Family Tree Look Like  http://bher.co/ZU1e  #selfiebration#blogher14

   5 DAYS AGO
2. 

   Jenna Hatfield@FireMom

   @florinda_3rs I *LOVE* the term "blogcestors." That's perfect.#selfiebration #BlogHer14

   5 DAYS AGO
3. 

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

   @FireMom Thanks! Twitter character limits force ingenuity & word coinage :-).(And I really need to ponder my "blogcestors"!)#Selfiebration

   5 DAYS AGO

(NOTE: All blog links in the following are those currently used by these bloggers, and may not be the ones they had back in the day.)

"Gosh I didn't even know there was such a thing as Mommy blogs. I am very focused in my blog reading on book blogs I guess."

--comment from Lenore, March 2009 (before she was Lenore), on a link-roundup post

I was never that focused. My interests are pretty wide-ranging, and so is my blog reading. On the Internet, I'm a bit of a wanderer, but I've found "homes" among two communities: the "book bloggers" and the "mom bloggers." I launched this blog two years ago today over seven years ago, and it seems to me that much of my second blogging year was spent building community ties.

I'd known about blogs for a few years before I started one, although I didn't personally know anyone who had one other than my son, who started and stopped a few during his university years. But I was seeing blogs becoming a component of some of the websites I regularly visited, and it made me curious to explore them. I actually started, and then killed, my first blog several months before The 3 R's was born, because I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.

Book reviews were my reason for starting this blog (so I could remember things about what I read, mostly), and at that time, I didn't even realize how many other people were blogging about books. I started looking for them not long after, though, and finding them through activities like the still-active (as of last month) Booking Through Thursday, the long-gone MotherTalk blog tours, and Sassymonkey's book posts on BlogHer. Slowly I discovered the book bloggers, and through them, I found more...and more...and others found me. It was a while before I truly felt like part of the group, though, and as is the case with so many things related to the book-blogging community, it happened at least partly because of Dewey, thanks to her starting the Weekly Geeks activities and giving me the opportunity to host a Bookworms Carnival. The other big catalyst for my sense of belonging to this community was participating in Book Blogger Appreciation Week, during which My Friend Amy became a friend of so many of us.

If there's a "typical" book blogger, it's not me, and that's part of why I haven't always been sure I should call myself a "book blogger" at all. There are bloggers who only post book reviews, reading memes, and book-related news; you can find those things here, but you'll find a lot of other content too, whether you're looking for it or not. What I love about being among the book bloggers is that it turns out that a lot of us aren't "typical" after all, and it's a very welcoming environment. We're giving each other stuff to read--how could that be bad?

On the other hand, one of the first sites where I participated after I began blogging was Work It, Mom!, so the blogging moms weren't a big surprise to me, and I sought them out. Seeing myself in that community was more of a surprise, though, since I was even less of a "typical" mom blogger than I am a book blogger. My kids were older--two aren't even "kids" anymore--and I'm LONG past the trials and tribulations of early motherhood, a period which also gives birth to many blogs. However, "mom" is one part of my identity that will never change, and I was excited to become part of the Los Angeles Moms Blog during its "soft launch" phase in the fall of 2008. (The LA blog was under the umbrella of the Silicon Valley Moms Group of regional moms' blogs, which folded in July 2010.) The first bloggers I met face-to-face were part of this group, which gave me another outlet for writing and exposed me to the whole mom-blog-marketing thing, with its opportunities and its pitfalls. But the best thing it did was help someone who always felt like "the misfit mom" finally feel like she had a moms' group of her own, for a while.

Over time, bloggers in both of these communities have come to feel like family to me... and there's more blending and crossover between them than you might realize. I know book bloggers who are moms, even if they don't often blog about their families. I know blogging moms who love to read and talk about books--and not just books for their kids. My favorite bloggers in both groups are probably the ones who, like me, are a bit less "typical"--the ones who can't help bringing a bit of themselves and their lives into their book reviews, and the ones who have something to say about the world at large as well as its effects on their families.

Thank you all for helping form me into the blogger I have become, whether you knew it or not.

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