Bloggers in person
I’m here in New York, with the unbelievably lovely weather and the daffodils all in bloom. It feels like the tropics to me. Big celebration tonight for a major birthday of my brother–which one? I’ll never tell.
But last night I managed to meet up with a bunch of bloggers for a drink, dinner, and conversation. Present were the illustrious Cara and Jeremy from Who Knew, Norm Geras of Normblog (visiting from England and doing the tourist thing in NY), Mary of exit zero (and presently guesting, with Jeremy, at Michael Totten’s), and Judith of Kesher Talk.
See, you have dinner with me, you get a link–just like that!
One of the many beauties of the event is that I don’t have to write about it much, because I imagine the others will. But I did want to say a couple of things. The first one is that, as you might imagine to be the case, bloggers can talk. Even bereft of our computers, no problem at all.
Secondly, I think there might be a future in some sort of twelve-step program for bloggers. It does have a fairly addictive quality. Those bloggers among you, you probably know what I mean.
Thirdly (although I know it’s hard to believe), we are all even more fascinating and charming in person than in print.
I think one of the interesting things about meeting other bloggers in person is that, in a sense, we already know far more about each other’s minds and the way we think than most people do when first meeting. And we already knew through our writing that we all share a certain commonality of thought, so there’s already a bond.
It was great meeting you, NN. An interesting point about social skills: I can’t speak for anyone else, but I find that my social skills are contingent upon the social dynamic of the person or group with whom I’m interacting.
With some people I never seem able to express a coherent thought because there’s simply no resonance between us or because they think I’m mentally disabled (that never helps in an intellectual discussion). We seemed, on the other hand, to be a really good group so everyone easily brought forward their most healthy and witty selves. Other than My insulting New Jersey in front of Mary I don’t think I made any of my usual social pratfalls.
That is encouraging to hear, that social skills and human qualities exist and hopefully still take precedence over computer screens.