Let’s do the Time Warp again!
Welcome to the seventh installment of my blog hop/writing exercise called Time Warp Tuesday here on Four of a Kind!
Today is also the eighth day of NaBloPoMo, so if you found your way here from the Blogroll (I’m #313 on the list of 2,216), a warm welcome to you! This post is what I hope and intend will be the eighth of thirty posts, in thirty days, here on my blog. I appreciate your encouragement and I am excited to be giving NaBloPoMo a try this year!
In case you missed my original post about Time Warp Tuesdays, here is the background of how and why I came up with the idea. If you are here to participate and link up your post, you can do so with the Linky Tools at the end of this post (or if you have any difficulty using it, you can share the link to your post in the comment section here).
The gist of Time Warp Tuesday is to revisit and share some of our favorite blog entries from our archives and reflect on our journeys since we wrote them.
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The theme for this week’s Time Warp Tuesday is: Meet-Ups
As I shared in my post last week, no matter how long you may have been blogging, it is likely that you have formed relationships with others who also write and post about their lives on the Internet. If we didn’t care about connecting with others who have some shared experiences, we likely would be content just to write in our own personal journals, rather than a public weblog. Sometimes we have the opportunity to meet another blogger in person and that can be a wonderful experience or maybe we have enjoyed the fantasy of getting to “meet-up” with a blogger that we feel a strong bond with or admire.Choose a post from your archives where you wrote about “meeting” a blogger(s) offline. Your post might be about a time you were able to meet-up with another blogger and wrote about it on your blog or it can be a post where you shared about wanting to meet a blogger. Then write a new post on your blog about why you chose the post that you did and what has happened in your life since.Participants can write about whatever you want in your new blog entries. However, for those who might have needed some help and inspiration to get started, here are some questions to consider:
Why did you pick this post? Has your perspective changed since the day you wrote your original post? Has your relationship with the blogger(s) you met up with offline changed since you got together? If so, how? If you haven’t gotten to meet the blogger(s) that you wrote about wanting to connect with in person, do you think you will ever get to meet-up with them? Do you think you would still feel the same way if you were writing your original post today? What have you learned about yourself, your family and your life since you wrote it?
Note: This week’s topic was suggested by Lori from Write Mind, Open Heart. If you have an idea for a future Time Warp topic, theme and/or writing prompt, please feel free to share it in the comment section or send me an email. If I choose to use your idea, I will give you credit and link to your blog that week.
Time Warp Tuesday: Meet-Ups
I have only met-up with other bloggers (that I first got to know online) offline twice, the first time I wrote about in the post that I chose for this week’s Time Warp and the second time I wrote about here.
When Lori suggested this topic I knew immediately which post I would be reflecting on, in part because I haven’t had the opportunity to meet many bloggers offline and also because getting to meet-up with our Stirrup Queen Melissa Ford two years ago, when she was in town (here in Chicago) for BlogHer 2009, was such a great experience for me!
Here is the link to the post that I chose:
BlogHer and Our Stirrup Queen!
Please go and read the post that I am reflecting on today (and comment if you choose), if you haven’t already, and then come back here to see what I have to say about my journey since I wrote it.
***Here is where you left off before you stopped to read my old post.***
As I said in my post that I am reflecting on today,
Getting to spend time with (Mel) today felt like a combination of getting to meet an old friend and a celebrity. Ever since I first stumbled across her blog two years ago I have been amazed at all that she has done and continues to do for our ALI blogging community. I wish that her book existed back in April 2007 when I began blogging, while we were doing our first IVF cycle. However, I am still glad to have my own copy now and was honored when she signed it for me today.
Two years later I still continue to be in awe of Mel and all that she is and all that she does for her family, her friends, ALI Bloggers, BlogHer members, NaBloPoMoers and fellow writers in general (especially those who aspire to try to get their writing published). I know that we all have busy lives, but when I stop and think about everything that Mel juggles in her life and how she still manages to make time for so many people that she cares about, both on and offline (including me) I am impressed and feel grateful.
Ironically tonight (Monday), as I have been writing on this post, I received three separate emails from Mel about three topics that I had written her about at various times recently. I joked in one of my replies to her that she must be getting ready to check “reply to emails from Kathy” off her “To-Do List!”
Since I wrote my original post after meeting up with Mel, as many of you know, her second book and her first novel was published, a chick-lit book called Life From Scratch. I really enjoyed participating in the book tour that Lori hosted for Mel’s book earlier this year. If you haven’t read Life From Scratch yet, what are you waiting for? Seriously, check it out!
At the time I wrote my original post I was consumed with my hopes and fears related to my pregnancy with Abby, after having lost Molly the previous year soon after she was born. Back then I still blogged more out of necessity, to process my life and my journey through secondary infertility and loss and to connect with others who had been in my shoes.
Since then I have grown to love blogging and writing for somewhat different reasons. Though I still love to connect with other bloggers who have had similar experiences trying to build or expand their families, I have also gotten more involved in (and become more aware of the vastness of) the blogosphere than I was back then. I have even ventured out of my little corner of it here, including working with Exhale, doing more with BlogHer and writing for the3six5 Chicago.
Two years after writing my original post, I continue to be grateful for the friendships that I have made through the blogosphere and getting to meet one of my favorite bloggers in person was really awesome! I hope that I will have the opportunity to spend time with her offline again someday, as well as to meet-up with more of my bloggy friends, especially the blogger who suggested this week’s topic.
Interestingly, I recall when I wrote this having little interest in attending or participating in a BlogHer conference, even with it being held in my very own town that year. Now, I would love to be able to go to BlogHer `12 and am seeing what I can do to make it to NYC next year in August for the big event!
Thank you for reading and for doing the Time Warp with me this week. I look forward to your feedback about this post, as well as reading and commenting on all of yours. Please feel free to comment even if you didn’t write your own Time Warp Tuesday post this week. It is not too late to participate if you are interested, click here for the details.
Below you will find next week’s topic and I hope that you will join me back here on Tuesday when we “do the Time Warp again!”
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The topic for next week’s Time Warp Tuesday is: Attention
Note: Next week’s topic was suggested by Jen from Here We Go Again. If you have an idea for a future Time Warp topic, theme and/or writing prompt, please feel free to share it in the comment section or send me an email. If I choose to use your idea, I will give you credit and link to your blog that week.
Choose a post from your archives that, as Jen suggested, “generated the most interesting comments (in your opinion) or a post that you were surprised got so much attention.” Then write a new post on your blog about why you chose the post that you did and what has happened in your life since.
Participants can write about whatever you want in your new blog entries. However, for those who might need some help and inspiration to get started, here are some questions to consider:
Why did you pick this post? Has your perspective changed since the day you wrote your original post? Why do you think it generated such interesting commentary and/or got so much attention? Do you think you would still feel the same way if you were writing your post today? What have you learned about yourself, your family and your life since you wrote your original post?
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For those new to Time Warp Tuesday, here is a quick recap of how it works:
1) Browse through your old blog entries to find one that fits the topic for the given week. The topic is shared at the end of the previous week’s “Time Warp Tuesday” post here on my blog (see above for next week’s topic).
2) Write a new blog post in which you introduce, link to and then reflect on your journey since you wrote the older blog post and put it up on your blog on Tuesday. Please include this link http://chicagobensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Time%20Warp%20Tuesdays in your blog entry, so your readers can find their way to my post with the list of other participants, in case they would like to read more or participate themselves.
3) Share the link to your new post here on Tuesday and then visit, read and comment on the other blogs.
4) After you have done all of these things, you are welcome to grab the code for the the Time Warp Tuesday button by clicking here and put it on your blog. The link will take you to a Google Doc where you can copy the code. If your browser does not allow access to your computer’s clipboard, you can use Ctrl-C for Copy and Ctrl-V for Paste, or use your browser’s Edit menu.
5) Check back here every Tuesday to find out the new topic, theme or question for the following week (I welcome your ideas and suggestions) and then return to Step 1 of this recap to participate.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see you back here on next Tuesday when we’ll “do the time warp again!”
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Thank you again for reading, commenting and participating in my Time Warp Tuesday blog hop. Link up below and click through to visit others who are doing the Time Warp! (If you have any trouble with Linky Tools, please share the link to your blog entry in the comment section.). Also, please don’t forget to comment on my post here, as I do not have a link to this (my own) post below, but I would still really appreciate your feedback. xoxo
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! I think I would be intimidated to meet Mel; she feels too much like a celebrity. I feel that way about a lot of bloggers, especially the ones who have a lot of followers (you met Alexa, too??). But it's so awesome that you were able to meet with that whole group. BlogHer sounds a little scary because of the large number of people, but I'm sure they're all super-cool people, so I hope you can go.
Deborah – I was a bit intimidated/nervous about meeting Mel that day, but as I said in my post, she could not have been more kind, gracious and down to Earth! She made me feel like she was as excited to be meeting me, as I was to be getting to meet her.
It's funny that you mentioned the other bloggers I met that day, as I totally forgot to even comment on that in this post today. I had actually never heard of any of them prior to that day, so it wasn't until I went home and checked out their blogs that I realized how "popular" some of them were in the blogosphere.
Its probably better that I didn't know ahead of time, as it might have made me more anxious about the gathering. This way I was able to be myself and enjoy the time I had with everyone, without any preconceived notions or expectations, other than being over the moon excited to meet Mel! 🙂
BlogHer does sound overwhelming, but having gone to a big University for college and grad school, I imagine that I would be able to find ways to make the event feel smaller and hopefully seek out and spend time with bloggers that I know (from online) and care about (and vice versa).
It's really fun to see how you've evolved as a blogger, spreading your wings and writing in all sorts of places.
And I, too, am grateful for our bloggy friendship. I hope that one day we meet in person. I've told Mel that the only way I'll get to BlogHer12 is if I'm 100% sponsored, so I'm waiting to see if The Universe takes me up on the dare :-).
<3
How cool to get to meet Mel! I too think it would be a bit like meeting a celebrity, I mean, she basically is one in our community.
It is really inspirational to see how you have blossomed as a blogger and moved out of your own space to share yourself in other spaces. I hope that someday I can follow your lead and do the same.
I wish very much that I could meet so many women from the blogosphere in real life. If I'm ever in Chicago you better believe I'm looking you up!
Thanks for putting together the Time Warp again. I'm sorry it took me so long to link up, I posted my piece a bit ago and forgot to do the linky! Oops!
Lori – Thank you! xoxo Well, then I will send lots of positive thoughts and prayers out into the Universe and hope that it takes you up on your dare so that we can meet in August in NYC (that is assuming I am able to find a way to get there myself)!
Esperanza – Thank you! I know you can (and will) branch out (from your blog) one of these days and will be awesome at it (you have so many wonderful things to share with the world through your writing)! It was awesome to get to meet Mel and I do hope I get to meet you too someday! When and if you visit Chicago (or I head out to the Bay Area) one of these days, I would love to meet up with you! 🙂
I really enjoyed this post about your evolution as a writer and your continued friendship with Mel. She definitely is a huge celebrity but she is so down to earth also and connects with so many despite having so much on her plate. She's amazing.
Thank you jjraffe! I appreciate your kind words and agree that Mel is amazing! 🙂