Blissdom Canada is all about ME!!

Again this year, I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to Blissdom Canada.  This was my fourth year attending and I really look forward to this weekend all year long.  With everything we’ve been coping with here at home with Mark’s surgery and chemo and general life stuff, it’s been a busy year.  While I was excited about going to Blissdom Canada again, I feel like this year it really crept up on me and I didn’t have much time to think about it or prepare for it.

The little bit of prep I did do this year involved hanging out on the Facebook page and reading some “how to prepare for a conference” blog posts which were being shared around.  One post in particular, by Joe Boughner (How You Can Get The Most Out Of A Blogging Conference ) gave me a light bulb moment and totally helped me figure out how to get the most out of my weekend.  In past years, I found myself rushing from session to session, head down, trying to get a “good” seat and then, once I arrived at the session, tweeting madly throughout the whole thing.  This approach left me tired and I felt like I was missing out on something.  Joe’s advice was to tweet if you wanted to (and what you wanted to) but he admitted that he had stopped doing that and allowed himself to be immersed in the sessions instead.  Lightbulb!! I realized that I was missing out on a lot of what was happening in the room by tweeting.  Instead, I took notes (with a pen and paper!) and allowed myself to really listen to the speakers rather than trying to transcribe what they were saying and post it in my twitter feed!  It was very freeing and I thank Joe for that!!

My Blissdom Canada Wrap-up:

• Travel with a blogging buddy if you can.  This year, I caught a ride with Susan from Lil Ms Neat and we had the BEST time.  I met Susan the first year I attended Blissdom Canada (it was her first year too) and just love her.  The drive from Kingston to Mississauga just flew by.  We had a wonderful visit and got to see a lot of each other over the weekend.  Blissdom road trips are awesome!!  We have already made a date to travel together again next year.

• My hat is off to any of you who picked up a microphone to ask a question in a session.  Wow.  How I admire you.  Those of you who participated in the Power Hour, incredible.  I am not able to speak in front a crowd of people.  I have tried in the past, many times.  I can almost do it if I’m sitting on a panel but if I stand up, I forget to breathe and the whole thing is just really horrible.  You are a brave lot, you stander uppers with microphone people!!

• I am going to do a podcast.  Thank you podcast people for inspiring me.  My husband and I are working on something together.  It will take us a little bit of time to get it all sorted but we are going to work on it this fall/winter.  It will be a series of podcasts and I think it’ll be very interesting and I will probably bug Chris Read to listen it to for us before we post it.  I have listened to podcasts for a long time but never felt the urge to do one until now.  

• Proud to say that I had a really lovely chat with everyone on the list I made during morning meditations with Optimom.  I so enjoyed that breathing exercise she led us in that I’m trying to work it into my day, every day.  I thank her so much for asking us to make the list because I know I may not have got up the nerve to talk to those folks without committing it to paper!

• Heard a lot of talk about snot bubbles over the weekend but did not actually witness any of them.  There was certainly many opportunities for said bubbles to make an appearance but I didn’t see any.  Having said that, thank you, whoever decided to put boxes of tissue on the tables at the power hour.  My puffy swollen eyes and I appreciated them.

• I totally ROCK my camera now! I learned more about my Nikon DSLR in 60 minutes with Anna Epp, the amazing Beach Mama, than I had in the 7 years I’ve been playing with it.  I will never use the auto setting again.  She was able to cover a lot of ground in our session and I have noticed the results in my photos.  I feel like I have a brand new camera.  Thanks Anna!!

I love learning and sharing with the amazing Blissdom Canada speakers and community leaders.  My favourite part of the conference is the time I spend talking, laughing and crying with folks I have met in previous years and with new people I met this year.  I really enjoyed spending time with new friends Tammy Bell, Patsy Copus & Siobhan Gillespie.  Blissdom Canada is the only thing I do every year that is only for ME.  Being part of a community of folks who I don’t have explain myself too means more to me than I can ever express.

Thank you so much Shannon, Jennifer, Neil, Melanie, Jacqueline, Lindsay, Dana and Tara (and all of the Blissdom Canada elves) for another amazing weekend.  Can’t wait to do it all over again next year!!

it's a brand new year

pooped
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I stole this from Denise (thanks Denise!) because I liked it and thought it was a neat way to wrap up 2009.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Had a pedicure

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I normally don't make them so I can't recall making any last year and I haven't made any for this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thankfully.

5. What places did you visit? We didn't get too far out of town this year. We did do a roadtrip to Montreal in May but I don't think we went anywhere else of note.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Can't think of anything!

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? August 6 - it was the tenth anniversary of the day Mark and I met and it was our wedding day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Pulling together a fun and meaningful, DIY wedding on a small budget.

9. What was your biggest failure? Does making it through another year without sorting out boxes in the basement count as a failure?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? not really, luckily just had a couple of colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought? a bug zapper for our backyard!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Sam and Gracie. They continue to love us both unconditionally and are simply awesome puppies!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Prime Minister Harper. He actually makes me feel embarrassed to be a Canadian sometimes.

14. Where did most of your money go? Life! Mortgage, Insurance and Utilities. Sexy huh?

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I don't normally get "really, really, really" excited about anything.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? You and I by Wilco

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? About the same, generally happy.

b) thinner or fatter? No change

c) richer or poorer? Probably about the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? walking with the dogs

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? work. I love my job but I'd always rather be hanging out with Mark, Sam and Gracie if it's possible.

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2009? Spent the morning and early afternoon at home, hanging out with the dogs. The rest of was spent with my family. My mum made us a great dinner.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? No.

22. What was your favorite TV program? It continues to be Coronation Street but my favourite new show was Nurse Jackie.

23. What did you do for your birthday in 2009? I worked (had a totally crazy day) and can't remember what we did afterwards. When your birthday falls in the middle of the week, it's sort of a non-event.

24. What was the best book you read? I don't think I actually finished any of the books I started this year but I did finally read the Sinclair Ross short story, "The Painted Door" and really enjoyed it.

25. What did you want and get? I wanted Mark and I to catch up on Coronation Street and be able to watch them in realtime and we did. CBC being 9 months behind the UK Broadcast schedule can suck it!

26. What did you want and not get? I wanted to win the lottery and did not. Of course, buying a ticket more often would have helped.

27. What was your favorite film of this year? District 9. It shocked me how much I loved it considering I don't like Science Fiction.

28. Did you make some new friends this year? Why yes I did, through work.

29.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Being more honest with folks (like, say Nessa from Gavin and Stacey) and less polite.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? I'd rather be comfortable than conform to fashion trends.

31. What kept you sane? I'm sane?

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Like Denise, I love, love, love Michelle Obama. She's the bees knees to me.

33. What political issue stirred you the most? The prorogation of parliament. The Tories have done this twice now. The entire government cannot throw a sickie when things aren't going their way.

34. Who did you miss? I always miss my Nana.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Life is too short to not be happy.