It’s over. Now I can breathe again!
I hope you all had an amazing time at Blog Out Loud last night – I sure did. I can’t thank you all enough for coming out to this event – it would not be a success without this amazing Ottawa blogging community. You guys are incredible. Also, you scamps (aka the readers) who got together to get me an amazing thank-you gift – I love it! You’re amazing.
I just want to say a special thank you to Ross for taking on MC duties; Dani for doing all the work of putting together the photographer slide show (and her husband for providing tech support!); Pam, FameThrowa, Colette, and Kaitlin for working the door; an extra shout-out to FameThrowa for fielding many hysterical calls from me early in the planning and holding my hand through all crises; Sara and Jesse for photographing the event; Tanya for live-tweeting it and acting as my social media guru; Ron for the loan of the projector for the slide show (and some technical support last night to get it running!), and of course, all the readers and photographers who offered up a little piece of themselves to make this evening great.
Always the number one request I get after the event is for links to the posts that were read, so here they are in the order that they stepped up to the mic. Links to the photographer’s sites can be found here.
I Have The Perfect Punishment for War Criminals
Tanya Snook of Spydergrrl on the Web
And Now For Something Different: My “Last” Post
Dani Donders of Postcards From the Mothership
Green. Yellow. Red.
Vicky B. of Some Kind of Mom
I’ve Been Here Before
Maranda Carvell of Momicon
Milestones
Sara McConnell of My Points Of View
If Wishes Were Horses
Pamela Stewart of Word on the Beach
A Poem of Love and Welcome
Jenn Bennett of 1qtnewf
Top 10 Worst Moments Of Being The Old Me
Karen Wilson of Karen’s Chronicles
Ten Years
Rebecca Stanisic of A Little Bit Of Momsense
4 Years Ago Today
Annie of PhD in Parenting
Let’s Throw The Assumptions Out With The Bathwater
Amanda Jette of Stay-At-Home Mayhem
I Am The Greatest Mom Alive (now with busted up shoulder)
Scott Kobewka of ScottKobewka.com
He Lied And Said He Was a Writer
Krista Gray-Donald of Life In The Hutch
Uninvited Guests
Nadine Thornhill of Adorkable Thespian
Size Small
Tamara Manning of Flavoured Echoes
Why Photography?
Grace of Mothermind
I’ve Forgotten What Quiet Sounds Like
Nat Hanson of From Nat’s Brain
Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon
Jes Lacasse of Your Sweet Bippy
Act Your Age… Or Don’t
Claire of FoodiePrints
Things That Scare Me: Champagne… well, corks…
Finola Francis of Finola’s Blog
Valedictions
This’ll give me reading material for a while; anything I’ve already read is certainly worth a revisit!
I couldn’t help notice on Twitter that the event seems to be heavily based on women’s blogs, and seeing the list above only confirms it with only one male reader. Any theories on this? Do we just not have male bloggers in this city? Or do they have a hard time with public presentations for one reason or another? I envy the women bloggers in Ottawa for their great sense of community and togetherness, but I wonder if it’s also hard for a man to be a part of it all.
Ch… I mean, All the best!
Greg
I know Greg, you’re not the first to notice this problem. I was kind of hoping *you* would read! In general we have a problem attracting male readers, so any ideas you have, I’d love to hear them. You can email me directly at lynnturtlehead@gmail.com.
I’m a pretty nervous public presenter most of the time. Maybe next time I’ll work up the nerve! I’ll have to write some more interesting, touching, or funny posts before then, though.
I cannot sleep. I must still have adrenaline coursing through my veins from tonight or something…..
Lynn, as a newbie to this event, I want to thank you profusely for putting it together. It really is about more than just words on paper being read out loud….
It’s about energy, sharing, being brave, taking bricks off of our self made walls, connecting with new people and accepting others as they are. This event was spectacular, and I only wish I had been able to stay till the very end. I will absolutely not miss it next year.
You did a fabulous job of organizing, and I am ridiculously grateful.
Thank YOU.
Jenn – 1qtnewf
You brought down the house, Jenn! Awesome and brave reading.