My Bliss Bubble
Wow.
{one word.}
Wow.
I am so amazed at the weekend I just spent. Not only did I get to meet some of my best internet friends and get reacquainted with ones I had already met, I made new ones too. And not only did I make new ones, I fell in love with them. It was an amazing weekend. *I can’t even begin to link and name names. That would be insane. My hope is that I reached out to as many people as possible. Not only with my camera, but with my spirit and voice. That’s my hope.
The weekend started when I woke up at 5:00am, on Friday, to get ready to drive from my home town, northeast of Atlanta, to Nashville. I left early because I am notoriously late. That day I was going to be early, dammit. And I was. I got there and had time for a quick bite of breakfast and some iced coffee. Then I went and registered. Then I pulled out my camera and started clicking. I got some great mingling shots and was feeling pretty good. I kept checking to see if my room might be ready early so that I could put on my pretty outfit, but it wasn’t. Then the third time I had checked, the front desk gal sent me on my way with a key. Thrilled; I was beyond thrilled.
I gathered my million things from the van, ran into some awesomeness in the parking lot, and proceeded to get to my room. I was fully prepared to fall into my king sized bed for half-an-hour and then put my face and my outfit on. However, I got up to my room (315, whut-whut) and it was a mess. The bed was slept in, there were towels on the floor, coffee cups were on the nightstand, and the ironing board was still out and plugged in, though off. I called to get them to come remedy it, but wasn’t about to leave my stuff there. I just got online and chilled. And I tweeted about the state of my room. Little did the hotel know my little tweet would pale in comparison to the tweets of The Elevator Incident with the Elevator 13 (a/k/a #elevator.) I was paid a little visit from a new bloggy pal, too. It was really nice to chat as I got dressed and ready to go.
Little did I know that as I started to shoot Friday’s events I would feel majorly inadequate. I don’t know where these feelings came from other than some bad shots with the really bad lighting. Honestly, my confidence level dwindled and soon it was non-existent. I was a total wreck. Luckily I shared my feelings with a few of the right people. A few “right people” who have become some of my “favorite right people.” I went upstairs, had a reality check, and returned to do the fine job that I was called upon to do. I walked between sessions, then attended a dressed up cocktail party, then partook in some camera jabbering in the lobby, and then was completely surprised. Michael showed up a day early; it was awesome. We caught dinner and then went up to our room. Bow Chicka Bow Wow.
I woke up on Saturday, got ready, and headed down to the breakfast and special screening. It was awesome, to say the least. The special surprise, that morning, was that two of Yanni’s Voices were there to spend some time with us. It was dazzling, endearing, funny, sexy, wonderful, and just a great experience. Everyone was more than happy to wait in line to get autographs and a picture taken with Nathan and Ender, too. The line was deep but I loved taking every single picture. What I really loved was hearing what women were saying to the guys. From “I felt you in my bones” to “you made my eyes well up with tears,” I heard all the comments and felt the love, gratitude, and excitement.
The rest of the day was spectacularly fantastic. My mojo was definitely back and I worked that camera. Then it was time for my panel. Michael came and took over snapping while I was up on the panel with Leslie, Deanna, and Jenny. I think it went really well, too. Deanna, Jenny, and Leslie are just so awesome. Afterwards I made some more connections with bloggers over lunch. Then it was back to work. Before I knew it the day was at the end and I ran into my boyfriend–errr–Chris Mann! What an awesome guy. I’m so happy that I got to be among one of the first to shake his hand.
In the midst of all this my girlfriend Maggie showed up. The hug! Oh Em Gee, the hug, it was awesome! Maggie and her man Tom drove from Oklahoma and we planned to hit the cocktail party for a bit and then dinner in Downtown Nashville.
Jen Lancaster, the key note speaker, was the grand finale and the conference day was finished with some raffle prizes. I experienced so much love, generosity, more love, happiness, and even more love. It was BLISS! I got to take some pictures of Chris with all his Twitter Boos and his new Blissdom Boos. Then I rushed upstairs to get my dress on to make it to the cocktail party. Michael was ready to go and thank God the knee highs didn’t leave extremely bad marks on my legs.
I totally missed singing some Karaoke, but it didn’t matter. I got to see some of my new pals sing and I got to mingle with the best girls of the blogosphere. I took a ton of pictures of the dance floor, which was flooded with hot babes who were dancing and singing their hearts and souls out.
Shortly thereafter Maggie, Tom, Michael, and I headed out. We piled into our mini-van and made our way to the Big River Brewerey for dinner. The company was perfect. Conversations flowed and it just felt so good to be in the company of friends.
New friends.
Awesome friends.
Good times.
Good people.
My Bliss Bubble.
Please never pop.
After we ate and drank we headed back to the hotel for a night cap. At this time I got some requisite dancing in, too. We closed the Pink Slip bar out by sitting around laughing, drinking, telling stories, and enjoying each others’ company.
On Sunday morning I was accompanied by a special bunch of women on a Photowalk of Downtown Nashville. It was so relaxed and wonderful. We all walked and talked and learned about each other; it was just a dreamy way to end the Blissdom09 weekend.
Even now when I think about it I can’t say much other than this:
Wow.
{one word}
Wow.
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*I apologize for the lack of links. I’ll work on it as I can. Now I’m off to get the 1200+ pics that I took, weeded and perfect, uploaded to the Blissdom09 Flickr Group!
Tagged: best blogging conference in the world!, Blissdom09, blissfully domestic, canon, mishelle lane, nashville, photgrapher
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Hi Mishelle, Fantastic post. Sounds like you had as much fun as I did. I used one of the sewer grate pics on my post. Came out not too shabby (for me.) Thanks again to you and Michael for the Photo Tour Walk. Way better than sleeping in…
You were so amazing taking pics the whole weekend that I am so glad to see you in these here. I especially love the one with Chris Mann. Looks like you are at a movie premier… beautiful!
Nice to meet you and share in the Blissdom experience!
WOW! I can only imagine. I fear I will never make it to something like that. yes…I do believe it might never happen.
oh and I have no clue who Chris Mann is, so that might be way I don’t deserve to go to a swanky thing like that. LOL
Wow. Wow. Wow. My mind is still reeling (is that a word and did I spell it right?). Oh honey child, your blog is totally fantastic. I’m so glad I stumbled upon you. Wasn’t #blissdom09 just the most amazing experience!? I didn’t want to leave my new friends. I have barely even been able to blog about it and put it into words. But YOU have been able to capture in words and photos…WOW…love you, love your site. Can’t wait to meet you in person one day. — Carole Hicks http://www.everythingnorder.com
I could not be more jealous of your photo taking skills, you rock. Loved the Nashville walk. Thanks for letting my tag along.
I am so jealous. But so glad you had such a great time.
You are such a delight, Mishi!! I am so glad we got to spend time together and it was such a privilege to moderate your panel!! you = super STAH. I love you!
i am so glad i got to meet you!! you were definitely one of my highlights! your pics are unbelievable…such great talent.
keep it up and keep in touch…you RAWK girl!
big love,
thebeadgirl (lisa)
and I love you!
period. end of story.
sounds like fun!
I love you. Tom loves you. I loved getting to meet you. It was so very much worth the drive. Good times, all of it. I love all of your shots, too, and if you ever doubt yourself again, just call me, and I’ll tell you how fabulous you are and how your photography kicks that ass. Once you get through the millions of shots, shoot me ones you find of us, k? No rush at all. I’m still ecstatic!
Oh you got some wonderful shots!! I can’t wait to see more!
Great recap, Mishi!
The fact that you *EVER* doubt yourself in anything dumbfounds me. You truly are an awesome beautiful lady and I’m so happy to know you!!!
Light wasn’t that bad. Especially for those of us who crashed the festivities with our big glass. hehehe.
I am SO HAPPY you had an amazing time! I can’t wait to see all your pictures!
Sounds incredible!
It was great to see you at Blissdom! What wonderful photos you shot. Wish I could have gone on the photo walk with you.
You reached out to me with both your spirit and your voice. I was totally nervous and thinking “Oh my gosh, there’s Secret Agent Mama! She totally wouldn’t know me!” I’m glad I spoke and ended up chatting with you a few of the “quiet” times in the hallway. You were so nice and welcoming — that helped me feel at ease :)
I told my husband one of the moments that made me truly miss him was seeing you when you saw your husband walk in a day early :) I could see the love in both your faces and it was truly precious. If I had any photo skills, I might have taken a picture of it!
I’ll patiently wait for all your wonderful pictures to be uploaded and desperately hoping I’m not in any of them — your photo skills rock, but I was not looking my “best” this weekend :D
I know, right? Like, HOLYCRAP. I’m wordless really. Wordless.
And that’s hard to do.
Loves to you, babe. Seriously, we’ll SO TOTALLY connect again. And again. And again… :-D
Friggin jealous.
At least I know my shirt and shoes work well in the company of those ladies!
Chicago. BlogHer. Bitches.
Oh I totally enjoyed this recap and I have SO enjoyed your photos of the event. I regret we didn’t get to meet. Next time, perhaps? :-)
UGH! I hate that I missed this. I love that Lotus went Sunday =) And why doesn’t it surprise me that she’s the one giving the “rock on” hands? lol
Amazing shots! Every time I see someone’s pictures it brings it back – BlissDom withdrawal. That’s a thing, right?
Mishelle, it was so nice to meet you at Blissdom! (We ate lunch together on Friday.) I loved your panel and am looking forward to reading your blog!
And oh yeah, great shots – can’t wait to see the rest! :)
~ Mary
Dude. My knee highs totally made HUGE indents in my legs, right in time for the cocktail party. I had totally forgotten about that until I read this post! Oops, I hope my dinner buddies didn’t notice!
So happy to have met you… you are AWESOME!
How precious you are! I loved meeting you, and you got some awesome shots! I have my pic of us in our kohl’s shirts on my blog, too! (hee hee) We look good, don’t we? ;)
I totally wish I would have scheduled my plane for later on Sunday. I would have loved to walk around town with you guys!
It was a pleasure to meet you! You are so awesome and I can’t wait to see all the photos you took.
*smooches*
Wow, what a great recap of the conference and your weekend. Your photos are the best. Thanks so much for giving me and others who weren’t able to make it a glimpse into the experience of BlissDom!
Gee wow! I’m jealous!!
I hope, that maybe someday, I’ll get to meet you and all of those awesome blogger friends for real too! Must be some kind of an experience!
And what’s that about loosing your confidence in yourself?
You are SO cute, Mishelle! I love this post!!!
Mishelle:
I’m so glad we connected this weekend, starting with you finding me through the bracelet/pouch giveaway. I’m just so excited to find someone that I have so much in common with who is practically my neighbor.
I love this post. You did a wonderful job of capturing the conference. I’m dead serious that I want to double date with you and your hubby soon!
Love,
Dawn
Your photo skillz are da bomb!!! I think we only met when u were taking pics of Chris and his “boos.” I was on cloud flippin 100 and I knew you were busy so didn’t want to interrupt!
Great recap! Can’t wait to get to know you better through the blogosphere and the next conference!!!
Hi ya! I just came across your blog through the Blissdom Linky Party. I personally didn’t get to go so I’m living that experience through all you gals who did. :) I just have to tell you how incredibly pretty that you are. Hope that doesn’t sound to weirdo-ish but you are. Loved hearing your details of the confrence! -Mandi
You. Talented. Extremely Talented. And oh-so-very-kind. I just sort of stumbled into you – and you were truly one of my very favorite people and therefore make up some of my very favorite memories of this amazing event. You shine, from the inside out. You have a special gift for making people smile (very useful in photography, I imagine) My experience wouldn’t have been the same without you. Must. Please. Have. Picture. Of . Us. Hugs.
i so love you!
These. Pics. Rock.
OH EM MOTHER BUMPING GEE!!! Chris Mann just commented on my blog!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hee, awesome. Woot woot! So glad y’all had such a great time! Con recaps are such fun. ;p
You are, in a word — um, no, make it two words — SIMPLY AMAZING.