Blissdom 2013

My second-ever visit to the state of Texas was a whirlwind.The main purpose of my time in Dallas was the Blissdom Social Media Conference which was held at the gorgeous Gaylord Texan resort. And I mean gorgeous as in restuarants under enormous glass atriums with water fountains.My 4 (FOUR!) days and nights there were filled with ridiculous amounts of uninterrupted sleep and a dubious amount of calories. O and also holding random babies. Literal sat-down-at-the-table-next-to-us-and-we-stole-her-baby random babies.Elbow chub!!The adorable Dear Abby Leigh and the even adorabler daughter of Lindsey of Two Bobbins LaterThe exception in the sleep department came Friday morning when I got up at 4:30am to hear Jon Acuff speak about what he has learned from his experience in social media. It was an interesting and engaging talk, although it was not exactly what I was expecting. When I signed up for it, I understood the description as being a vision-casting kind of gathering that would be a mix of Jon addressing the group and time for us to work and write in an encouraging environment. It wasn’t that – Jon spoke the whole time – but it was fun and enjoyable. Dude’s hilarious.I have mixed feelings about the sessions I attended at Blissdom. I liked all of them. The speakers were all very professional, polished and engaging. I left each one encouraged and motivated but I was also hoping for more tangible nuggets and action items for the bettering of my blog and social media presence. I did hear from several attendees that in this session or that one there were some great take-aways, so I will definitely be going back and watching the videos of a few of those. My favorites were Sheila Marcelo’s session Redefining Success and Jon Acuff’s closing keynote.And then I got down with my bad self at the Girls’ Night Out Blissdom event. I haven’t danced like that since… my wedding, maybe? It felt so good to be out on the floor with girlfriends just having a hilariously awesome and care-free time. Only downside is that I’ve had LMFAO Sexy and I Know It stuck in my head for almost a week.I work out!After the after party I got to watch the premier of an episode of Animal Planet’s Tanked featuring my friend Laura of Hollywood Housewife. I don’t know which was more fun, watching the episode or watching her watch the episode. Yea no, I know. It was the latter.At the party viewing I had fried pickles for the first time in my life. You guys. Why did you not tell me about fried pickles before? They were so life changing that I took a picture. You’re welcome.The food and sleep were epic, but to me BlissDom has always been about the face-to-face time with my friends from around the country. It dawned on me while I was dancing under a disco ball with girls that I love with my whole heart and with whom I am humbled to share my life through friendship online and off that I am absolutely blessed beyond reason to be part of this online community.This crazy, eccentric, hilarious community.{photo credit: BlissDom} [[from left: Sharone of Zizzavivizz, Me, JJ the BlahBlahBlahger, Chris Mann from The Voice, (a very confused) Amber Riley from Glee, Abby of Dear Abby Leigh, and Ruthanne of Eclectic Whatnot]]