As most of you know, I went to Vegas on Thursday for the Bloggers in Sin City meet up.

Most of the others who went on the trip have already written hilarious and insightful posts about about what went down this weekend (like some of my favorite posts so far by Nico and Rachel and LivItLuvIt).  The remaining bloggers will write more amazing posts.

It was absolutely fantastic to see Doni again.  Putting faces to twitter handles and blogs was wonderful.  I was ecstatic to meet Jenny Blake and Chelsea and Nicole and Amy and Jenn and Lindsey and Nico and Stacey and Rachel and EVERYONE.  It goes without saying that meeting all these fabulous individuals was rewarding, epic and fun. While I would have loved to have spent more time with all 70ish bloggers, I came to Vegas with an open heart and a desire to strengthen ties with people I’ve bonded with online in recent months.

I thought I’d share a few of my blogger bonding moments and some emo words about friendship instead of a favorites list or synposis of the weekend.

Strengthening bonds

I arrived in Vegas Thursday evening.  I knew Lindsey was a little nervous about attending this meet up.  As soon as I found out we were both arriving in Vegas at around the same time, I sent her a message telling her I would meet her at baggage claim.  I figured we could go to the Happy Hour meet and greet together.  She got off the plane, we waited at baggage claim and her bag never showed up.  Yep.  The airline sent her bag to Denver instead of Vegas.  We went to happy hour at the Venetian to get our BiSC credentials, ate dinner and met the other bloggers. Then I had a two-hour conversation with Lindsey outside the Venetian.  That was our time together and I will forever cherish it.

As soon as Jenn and I knew we were going to Vegas, we booked tickets to see The Beatles LOVE.  We did not know the itinerary for the weekend and sadly our show landed in the middle of the Coming from a Theme Party party.  We got ready in our room with Rachel who was dressed as Lady Gaga.  I mean have you seen her costume?! Jenn and I were characters from Mad Men. The three of us hopped (OK, walked aggressively to the point of causing eight blisters to swell up on my feet) to Planet Hollywood with the gang for some VIP drinks in our Coming from a Theme Party party costumes.   After chugging a drink and oooing and ahhhing over everyone’s costumes, Jenn and I cabbed it to the Mirage for LOVE.  We ordered a giant drink called A Hard Day’s Night.  We talked about boys and the Beatles and got our drink on before the show.  When the show started, crying and chair dancing ensued.  I was doing most of the chair dancing because I just can’t sit still when my heart is that happy.  I think we were both crying though.  It was epic. Perfect. Awesome.  No words.  I will forever be grateful for that time we shared together.  It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

There was this whole scavenger hunt thing.  But I like to call it the scavenger hunt boot camp that helped us bond so we could then quit so we could start drinking while everyone else was running around like crazy people.  Yeah.  I had a blast bonding with Lacey Bean, Nico (who we lost way early on to alcohol), Becca and Ginn.

After a bunch of the ladies hung out together telling sex stories Saturday night (and I won a We-Vibe II for telling a tantric sex story because I didn’t have anything that could top the “catching the grandparents having sex” or “using my mom’s vibrator on accident” stories), Jenn and I went out for Mexican food at Isla’s in Treasure Island. We spent the rest of the evening wandering through hotels, watching the Bellagio fountains and trying to keep our skirts from flying up when we were outside.  Again, moments like these were what made this trip meaningful to me.

We all had brunch Sunday morning.  It was nice to see everyone one last time before going our separate ways.  Hugs.  Pancakes.  Bloody Marys.  Penis straws.  More hugs.  Pictures. Goodbyes.  I found out Mandy and Stacey were heading to the airport early, so I decided to hang with them before my flight to Denver.  It was great to catch up with them for a few hours and I’m so glad we had that time together.  Stacey lives ridiculously close to me, so I look forward to seeing her more often.

Friendship: Going offline

My blog is a place where I can express myself and talk about the things I value and the things that occupy most of my time.  I write hundreds of pages a semester for school and work, but my blog is for my friends and for me.  It is not for my advisor or boss or professors.  That is what makes blogging special to me: I can share part of me with friends, old and new. I have met incredible people since January when I started this blog.  Relationships on and offline are important to me.  After taking care of myself, friends and family are my top priority.  I’m blessed to have your support and love and to share tears and laughter with you.  I could not make it through work and grad school without your comments, tweets, DMs, text messages and emails.

This weekend cemented for me the importance of taking these online relationships I’ve established and strengthen them off the Internet. I made real connections this weekend with some incredible people.  I don’t think those bonds would have grown as strong in such a short time without coming to Vegas. Eventually I would have met up with people, but it would have taken time and money that I don’t necessarily have.  With a meet up like this, I was able to see everyone, even for the briefest moment.  I was able to know instantly whether there was chemistry.  Whether the interaction was as special offline as it was online.  I was able to say with all seriousness that “this is my friend” and not feel the need to say “this is my online friend.”

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This weekend I made connections offline that will probably last a lifetime. And I will forever be grateful.

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Please head over to the Bloggers in Sin City blog to read Nicole‘s Enormous Thank You post.  Thank you Toy With Me for the sex toys.  Mine shall be put to good use ASAP.  Also, THANK YOU Nicole for organizing the meet up!  And thank you to those who reached out to little ole me this weekend, to those who made me feel included and to those who are now true friends in every sense of the word.  Namasté.

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