Thursday, April 07, 2011

HOCO Thursdays- When the blogging world and the real world collide

Do you know where I went last night?  To a party.  ON A SCHOOL NIGHT.   I know, I couldn't believe it either.

So I live in Howard County and I'm a blogger which qualifies me for Hoco Blogs.  And once a month they have a blogger party.  This is what I learned at this party.

1) Ian is a real person.  Remember a few weeks ago when I posted about my road and then I wrote about it here:   Yep. I meant the County executive's chief of staff, in person.  And he's awesome.  And I'm NOT just saying that because there's a very good likelihood he's reading this blog.  He was down to Earth and talked honestly about local government.  

2) I met TJ. A few days ago, an email appeared in my inbox, and you might not know this about me but I'm a little OCD about checking my inbox.  Anyway he found my blog and asked if he could quote me in an article for The Patch about blogging.   He, too, is awesome. You can read the article here.

3) Elizabeth she is the editor for The Patch in Elkridge.  In a work...awesome.   Are you detecting a trend here?

4) Blogger in Howard County come in all shapes, ages, ethnic background.  As soon as I walked in to the Stain Glass Pub, i felt like I instantly belonged.   Every blogger I spoke with genuinely cared about connecting with other bloggers and sharing their interests IRL (in real life- for those of you who aren't down with the tech speak)

5)Jessie Newburn ROCKS at throwing parties.  She runs the hocoblogs.com website and organized the par-tay.  She came around talked with everyone-- she very cool tech guru who is reaching out to the communities of Howard County and trying to bring us all together.  Oh and something magical will happen if I do the hocoblogs@@@ in my blog post.  go to hocoblogs.com to see what it was.

6) Blogging, like writing, always felt like a solo thing I did.  It wasn't until Mo suggested I join hocoblogs that I ever considered writing about my home town.

7)The food at The Stain Glass Pub was amazing (you thought I was going to say awesome, did you?)

8) People like free drinks... they really really like them.  Our waitress seemed shocked when I ordered a sprite, I think I was the only adult drinking a soda.  Didn't everyone else know it was school night?  To go along with that, our waitress was nothing sure of amazingly awesome.

9) I was stressed about writing this post because I have a shameful confession.

10) I'm a sticker slut.   (Although some of them my daughter put on me)

I had a sticker that said #geek but I'm pretty sure with my shirt it was a little redundant.
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11 comments:

  1. WhofanApril 7, 2011 at 8:59 AM

    Love the t-shirt. :)

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  2. MoApril 7, 2011 at 9:38 AM

    Bwahaha, I love that caption. :D Party was fun! And those pomegranite wings were quite tasty. I never would have thought it.

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  3. Alicia GregoireApril 7, 2011 at 11:22 AM

    I almost wore that shirt today.

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  4. jessiexApril 7, 2011 at 12:07 PM

    Erinn, Love the post. Thanks for your kind words (and, yes, I do take the par-tays quite seriously). Ian is awesome and his genuine-ness makes him ferReal Awesome, not just Showy Awesome. :-)

    In your wrap-up post, I was most impacted by this statement: "6) Blogging, like writing, always felt like a solo thing I did. It wasn't until Mo suggested I join hocoblogs that I ever considered writing about my home town."

    To that new bit of information, I say, "Awesome

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  5. JessieXApril 7, 2011 at 12:10 PM

    Oh, you might consider posting a link to this post on some of the post-party wrap-ups, or even on TJ's Why I Blog post: http://elkridge.patch.com/articles/why-i-blog

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  6. macsmomApril 7, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    I indulged in the G and T's even though it was a school night--I think you took the wiser course, lol! It was great to meet you, and yes, I loved your shirt.

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  7. Marshmallow ManApril 7, 2011 at 1:59 PM

    Where are the exploding peeps???? And here Erinn, you thought I was BSing when I told you I've heard of your blog. ; )

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  8. IanApril 7, 2011 at 5:00 PM

    It was great seeing that you're a real person too! I'm really glad we got a chance to meet, and thanks for saying such nice things.

    Thanks, too, to Jessie for another great party. And to Elkridge Patch for hosting. And to everyone else for coming -- it was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

    One minor correction: I'm the Exec's deputy chief of staff.

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  9. TeeJayApril 7, 2011 at 6:57 PM

    Good times, good times. This comment exist only to prove that I read this, and appreciate your compliments, and return them in a most glowing fashion. HoCoBlog Parties: good for the swelling of one's ego!

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  10. duanestclairApril 7, 2011 at 9:13 PM

    It was great to put faces to bloggers. Thanks to Jesse for blogger bonding events.

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  11. jessiexApril 7, 2011 at 10:21 PM

    @all - thanks
    @duane - Blogger Bonding? Hmm, well, I like it as long as in our "bonding" we become not stagnant and fixed, but connected and nimble. ;-)

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