The Blathering

Hey! So, a lot of my (few) readers know me in real life. Mainly because I share my blog posts over on my personal Facebook page because my Mom wants me to. It's how she knows there is something new to read, and who am I to not do as my Mama told me? Anyways, so yes. Many of you know me from school, friends, work, or whatever. So, you will totally not be surprised when I tell you I flew away for the weekend to meet 50 something strangers of which I had met exactly ZERO in person before. Yeah, that's totally the Lacey you know, right? [If you don't know me, then I'll spell it out for you...that is definitely not something I would normally do.]

But, I had gotten to know 2 other bloggers really well over the past year or so (or at least as well as you could over the internet) and really wanted to meet them in person. Couple that with the fact that I love to travel and see new cities and The Blathering was in New Orleans, a city I'd yet to visit, and the fact that I really have never done anything for JUST ME, and I was in. I told myself, "I'm just going to do this." And I did.

I stole this picture from another attendee. I never even took my real camera out of my suitcase the entire weekend.

First things first though. So, besides going to meet Heather and Laura, there were going to be 57 other people there that I should probably get to know as well. No problem since they were all bloggers and I most likely read all of their blogs, right? Um, no. I read exactly zero of their blogs when I signed up for this. So I had about 10 months to get to e-know 57 people. And I tried, I really did.

But, I pretty much failed. Turns out that yes, all of them started as bloggers, but apparently blogging is falling by the wayside* and Twitter is where it's at these days. Most of them tweeted way more often than blogged so if I wanted to get to know them I'd have to join Twitter too. I love social media, so even though I had plenty on my social media plate I added a helping of Twitter in too. I didn't want to be the only stranger girl in New Orleans in November.

Without drawing this out much further, I hate Twitter. It's basically a bunch of private chats, only they aren't private and can be between multiple people at once, and they are all listed BACKWARDS. So a normal conversation between people I was trying to get to know looked like this:

Twitter Person 1: Good night! Bye!! @xoiufg @orwelktj  #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 2: Thank you so much for laughing at my jokes. I'm going to bed now. @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 1: HAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU ARE SO FUNNY! @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 2: Dumbbell didn't work so I had to knock. @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 1: Dumbbell who? @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 2: Dumbbell. @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 3: Who's There? @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces
Twitter Person 2: Knock Knock. @xoiufg @orwelktj #somethingwittywrittenwithoutspaces

Dumb I tell you. Dumb. But apparently I'm the minority on this because all of the rest of them love it. And love it so much that on our name tags for a BLOG get together  they included our twitter names instead of our blog names! Crazy, right? I think they should rename this gathering from The Blathering (Blog Gathering) to the Twithering.

Another stolen picture. Thanks Laura. I didn't even ask if it was okay!

I'm basically failing at getting to "know" anyone before we go. And then life happens and it goes by so fast and then it's the day before I leave and I know nothing about no one except for a few of them that still blogged. But don't ask me their names or what they did or looked like. My memory was definitely on overload. MAX CAPACITY.

I get there, find my e-friends and we go downstairs to the hotel bar to meet others and decide what to do about dinner. I am SUPER overwhelmed when we get there. I can usually fake it 'til I make it, but there was very limited personal space, very loud volumes, and very many people I did not know. I tried though, really. And then, Laura, Heather and I broke off from the group to go to dinner on our own to get to know each other better before we dove in headfirst to all of the group stuff the next day. It was lovely. I love them even more in real life than through the internet, if that was even possible.

We had just officially "met" hours before this. Don't we look like friends from way way back? No awkward spaces between us or anything!

And now, it would seem appropriate that I do a rundown of where we went and what we ate and what we saw. But, I feel so incredibly repetitive doing this because Heather already did it for me. And you know what? I did not leave her side the entire weekend so everything she did, I did. Except for sleeping in until 9 on Saturday morning. I woke up at 7:30 due to a phone call from my lovely husband who didn't know I was in a different time zone.

And speaking of sleeping...I did not do too much of that. You see, our hotel was at the corner of loud and louder streets, meaning there were drums, (YES DRUMS), tubas, car horns and sirens outside of our hotel window at all times. And the hotel is well aware of this as they issue ear plugs to all of their guests. Obviously, the appeal of this hotel was their location. The ear plugs helped, but I still struggled to fall asleep each night. And those ear plugs? They didn't drown out the sound of my phone ringing at 7:30 Saturday morning! JOHN!!

I'm doing a terrible job of explaining all of this. I make it sound like it was awful. No sleep. Strangers. Crazy city.

But it was far from all of that. In fact, it was extremely fun. And even though I may not remember that I met you or what we talked about (again, information/faces overload) I enjoyed meeting every single person and chatting with you. I couldn't believe how pretty Arwen was. Or how Maggie and Megan weren't vegetable lovers either! And Sheila was so funny. And there were so many more that I talked to, but I was too ashamed to re-ask their name. I am so terrible with names that half of the time I don't bother to re-ask because chances are, I won't remember the second time either. So, all of you nameless people, I loved meeting you too!

Hey look! All people on the internet aren't creepy and/or weird. There are actually beautiful and nice people on the scary internet, too! But yes, we can be weird too.

I ate gumbo and liked it. I even had shrimp and wasn't totally grossed out by it's texture. I tried new beers and drinks and beignets. Twice.

But most of all, I made new friends. Well, I already considered them friends, but my Mama insists that they were strangers until we met face to face. So now, I can officially call them friends. My Mama says so.

And if life doesn't get in the way, I may even go back next year. It's in Charleston, SC next year which is driving distance for me. Plus, I have a whole year to prepare this time. I could make flashcards to learn people's names and stats. That's not creepy at all, right?

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*Here is the list of things I had to Google while writing this post:

Falling off the wayside. Apparently it's falling by the wayside.

Speaking of a quality wardrobe...

I mentioned that I am now working towards having a more quality wardrobe versus quantity. But, as is the case for most people, the budget really hinders a quick transition from quantity to quality. I don't have much patience, and don't really like wearing my quantity wardrobe pieces with my newly acquired quality pieces. They don't match on principle alone, right?

BUT! Then a friend of mine invited me to a website that sold quality USED clothing for the same prices I was getting my cheap clothing at before. I was leery, but I ordered a couple things to check it out. They also gave me a $10 credit for my first purchase, and since I used the link that my friend shared with me, she also got an extra $10 credit in her account.

I ordered my very first thing from Anthropologie ever, and a BCBG shirt. It was $43 for those two things including my $10 discount, so, not as cheap as I was getting stuff at Kohl's and Target previously but I was expecting these things to not pill and wear out after one season of wear. Let me just say that you can instantly tell how much better quality clothing is than COKATC. (cheap-ol'-Kohl's-and-Target-crap) Also, it took two whole days for me to get my new things, which was a bonus. AND, if all that isn't reason enough for me to give them a try, they also offered a 30 day return policy, where they pay the return shipping! I figured I couldn't lose, so I was convinced to try it.

That's the Anthropologie shirt there. It's lace, which is totally appropriate considering my name.

So, then I shared the website with another friend, who then purchased some things, which gave me another $10 credit in my account. I was itching to use it, but knew I shouldn't spend the money. But each day, I'd go to the website, add several things to my cart, and hover over the purchase button. As usual though, I'd rethink it, and close the page out before I'd purchase. It wasn't a ton of money I was about to spend, but spending a little money is still more than spending NO money. 

But today, as I hovered over the purchase button while I had 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts in my cart for $85, I had a thought. I NEVER order anything online without doing a quick google search for coupon codes for websites. (Although obviously the first time I purchased something from there I did, but whatever.) So, retailmenot comes up, and right there is a 20% off code. I type it into my shopping cart, and bam. An additional $17 came off, on top of the already free shipping (since I was spending more than $50). I've never hit purchase so fast in my life. I ended up spending $58 (after my $10 credit too) on 5 things, and I know for a fact that each piece was more than that new. And now, commence stalking of the mailbox. I'm so darn excited!

So, perhaps I should share this website with you now that I've talked it up? It's liketwice.com, and I've liked it twice myself, and I plan on liking it several more times. Especially if you guys like it too, buy something and I get more credits in my cart. John would really love that! Hehe. Oh! And if you want to try the coupon code too, it was LOVETWICE20. 

Also I feel like I should mention that I am in no way affiliated with this website, or am I getting anything by sharing this unless of course you buy something and I get the referral credit. BUT, the referral credit was not even why I wanted to share it with you (even though that's a nice bonus). I just get really excited when I find a company I really like and I like to share the excitement. It would have been a quick Facebook share, but I obviously had more words to use than Facebook would allow me. (Seeing as how I'm at 657 words and counting...) But I too get annoyed with the blogs that are constantly advertising or having "giveaways" so I hope you don't see this as the same. It's hard to tell when a blogger is really into something these days, or if they are just writing a rave review because they are getting free crap, and that's really lame. 

So anyways, if you want to go shop here is my referral link: https://www.liketwice.com/uO0xL

And, if you aren't into buying used clothing (it's fine, it's not for everyone!), you can also sell your clothes to them. I would especially encourage that if you are a size 10, tall, and you like the things I like. ;) Just let me know when they post your stuff so I can snag it first!

WWW. We go Way Way back.

Some people find it strange that the internet plays such a big part in my life. But they don't understand the internet like I do. (I've got your back, internet!) He and I go way back. I basically have been BFFs with the internet since 1996ish. And before that I was all over Mr. Computer too. Lemme tell you a story.

Mr. Computer and I were introduced in 6th grade. Well, I lie. I had been using computers in school since 1st grade, but I think anything before Windows doesn't count. Let's be serious. So, when Windows made it's way to my classroom in 6th grade, our teacher thought it was important to begin getting us acquainted with using a mouse and using Windows. Since my last name was at the very beginning of the alphabet, I was in the first foursome of students that got to try it out. (This was lucky for me because she never continued on with the rest of the class!) Our lesson that day was to open up Microsoft Paint and write our names on the screen using a mouse! Oh, teach! You expect so much from us! Anyways, this is when my love affair began even though I'm sure my first assignment looked something like this:

but worse, I'm sure.

From there, Santa brought us a home PC soon thereafter and I spent several years playing Solitaire and other software games that came with the PC. (Yes, came WITH it! Crazy, right?)

But one cold, December night in 1996, my best friend and I had had enough phone chatting. We needed more social interaction and we knew just the way to get it. We promptly hung up the phone and ran to ask our parent's permission.

We'd only been getting the AOL CDs in the mail and with the newspaper every week for months on end. We figured it was time to see what this was all about. Both sets of parents willingly gave out permission and credit cards and we were set to go. I haven't been without it since.

The first few years of our relationship I'd categorize as "The Chat Years." The sole purpose of using the internet was to instant message my friends, chat in random chat rooms, and listen for that lovely, "You've Got Mail" sound each time I logged on. Getting kicked off was commonplace. In the summers I'd stay up really late chatting with my friends for hours because this was the only time that it didn't matter if I tied up our only phone line. There was also an occasional game thrown in, such as Slinko. Remember that one?

After I turned 18, I entered the next phase of my internetting. I'll call this phase as the "Barely Legal" years. You can use your imagination to figure out what I did for those years. The introduction of the webcam was a major turning point here.

JUST JOKES! (Mama, please sit down and let your face return to its natural color.)

Anyways, where were we? Ah yes, let's continue....

The next few years we'll call "The Research Years". I was in college and was really beginning to see just how much information the WWW had to offer me. Very factual information of course. This was clearly before the internet became flooded with misinformation. You could quote any random website in your bibliography for your paper and it was considered a fact. No questions asked. Towards the end of college they began requesting information only be taken from scholarly digital libraries and such. Such party poopers. Because I know it says right here that the world is going to end in a few hours and I believe it because I believe everything I read on the internet.

I became the fact-looker-upper for my family. They all knew that I could get them whatever information they needed, so they'd just make a mental list of whatever they needed to know and give it to me to figure out for them. I still have this role with my parents and I love being able to help!

Which brings us to today's era. "The Look-At-Me, Look-At-Me, My Entire Life is Playing Out on the Internet For You to See, and I'd Love It If You'd Give Me Some Attention Please" phase. This one is so right up my alley that I don't know if I'll ever outgrow it.



We started with MySpace (because we were out of college and you had to have a college email address to get a Facebook). Then came blogs. Message Boards. Online Gaming. And finally when Facebook revised their joining requirements, came Facebook - the godfather to all social networking. There are picture sharing sites, and tweet-sharing sites (I'm not really on board with that one.) Consumer reviews out the wazoo. And people sitting at their desks on a beautiful Saturday afternoon blogging instead of out enjoying the weather. Oh, maybe that last one is just me.

But regardless, I belong here. Each piece of feedback I receive, whether in person or online, fills my social-networking-loving heart up that much more. I may like some of my online buddies more than some of my own siblings! (There's 3 of them, and they'll each think it's not them that I'm referring to so I'll be safe by telling you that!)

Regardless, I'm glad we met, me and the WWW. He completes my life in a way that only he can. I mean, who else can suck so much life out of me on a daily basis? The WWW on my phone on the commute. The WWW on the computer during the workday. The phone on the commute home. The computer once I get home. And then one last check of the phone once I'm in bed. And who couldn't love something like that?

10 Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what website I'm on!

PSA

Hurry, everyone buy one of these laptop privacy sweaters!

Yesterday I panicked. I was reading some public forums on the internets and came across someone bullying someone else on there. She was e-yelling at this other girl and said to her, "I googled your screen name and know where you live, have tons of pictures of you, etc. etc." As interesting as it was to read, it made me realize something. The internets are not safe, yo! I had never thought to do this, but I then googled my own screen name. I was completely shocked!

I don't know about you, but my memory can only handle remembering so many screen names, user names, passwords, secret questions, site keys, etc. So I typically use the same screen name for everything. Maybe not the best idea I've ever had. But hey, hindsight is 20/20.

So googling myself led to this:

First, I put all of my pictures on a photo sharing website and kept all of the albums public. I didn't want my friends to have the hassle of logging in every single time. What kind of friend would I be if I did that? So, upon googling, I discovered all 71 un-private albums. And did you know that I had to go into each and every album and change the settings from public to private for every single one? That's 71 times, for those of you not good at math!


All I could think of was something crazy ridiculous happening to myself or my family, say, like one of us running for president, and those crazy media peeps going through all of my pictures looking for some dirt until they see this one:
....and plastering it all over newspapers, magazines, and billboards. Disgracing my family completely because I am sitting on a plastic paint bucket drinking a beer with the illegal Mexican next door neighbors who no habla ingles. NOT good press at all for daughter/sister/aunt to be mingling with the illegals!

Next, I found reviews I posted of the various activities my parents and I did on our trip to Alaska last year. I guess this one isn't a dangerous, because, well, we aren't still in Alaska so they can keep searching the Godwin Glacier Dogsled place but we're not there anymore! Suckers! But still! I post reviews on things to be of help to others, but I do it anonymously. If I knew I could be traced to my reviews, I wouldn't be reviewing!

Then, on a local website for Charlotte's nightlife, I found the most embarrassing thing yet. Apparently, allegedly, supposedly, seemingly, I was a bit bitter after my break-up with my old boyfriend. When he showed up in a picture on this website because he was out having fun at a bar AFTER we broke up (I know, how could he possibly have ANY fun after we broke up??) I may have, allegedly, apparently, supposedly, seemingly commented on his picture that he was a loser. But that might not have been me, I may have been set up!

So, what I'm trying to say is the internets are not safe! Privatize everything....facebook, myspace, photo sharing sites, etc.

What about this blog, you may ask? Well, duh, have you been reading at all? I'm not making this private! What kind of friend would I be if I made you log in every single time you wanted to read my words of wisdom?

And for those of you acronymly challenged, PSA = Public Service Announcement.

You can't tell me my blog isn't educational!