http://remember911tribute.blogspot.com

I didn’t get the chance to visit the World Trade Center Memorial when I was in New York for BlogHer ’12 last month. My new friends Diana and Rebecca did. I sat in the airport waiting for my flight and saw Diana send out a picture like this one on Instagram.

My stomach flipped and my heart dropped. Why hadn’t I heard about the pregnant women with “and her unborn child” written alongside their names?

Last year on the 10th anniversary of that terrible day I watched the memorial opening on television with the rest of the nation. I believe it’s important to grieve and remember each year. We have to.

This year I will be thinking of all of the victims, but especially the 11 mothers’ names etched into the stone where those incredible buildings once stood. 10 known expectant mothers were killed 09/11/01. (An eleventh died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and is also part of the memorial.) 10 of those babies were due in late 2001 or early 2002. They would be 10 1/2 now, probably 5th graders. 5th graders who love Justin Bieber and study fractions. They would have mothers. They would have families who couldn’t imagine the horrors of that day. We would be living in a country with less stringent airport regulations and less fear.

Today I mourn those children. I mourn with their families. I mourn our nation that will never be the same.

About halfway through my first BlogHer conference I realized I had only slept about 5 hours in two days. There was no stopping at this realization. I was off to the next event. I said to my roommates, two of which had been there before, “Oh my God! This is insane. I am wiped!”

One responded, “That’s BlogHer!”

She was right. That was BlogHer. It was three days and nights of non-stop hand shaking, nametag reading, card swapping, and swag toting. This is all while anxiously smiling at people you may or may not recognize from their Twitter avatar and wondering what parties they got invited to.

That is BlogHer, but it’s so much more.

I decided I had the privilege of taking four days out of my life to be there and I was going to experience everything I could. I started with rushing off my plane into a cab to be at the hotel in time to hear the leader of the free world speak to bloggers. President Obama spoke via satellite to the conference. Later in the weekend we got to hear from Martha Stewart and Katie Couric. It was also Martha Stewart’s birthday on Friday. When the crowd started singing to her, I pretended they were singing “Happy Birthday” to me too. Martha and Katie were great, but not the ones who truly inspired me.

After hearing the posts of the BlogHer ’12 Voices of the Year winners I wanted to throw open my laptop and lay fingers to keyboard. What words could I come up with to create such beautiful stories? Could I craft a piece with that much meaning, humor, or poise? After this weekend I’m starting to believe I can.

The last night I got lucky enough to be in the same room as two of my blog idols. I saw Jill from Scary Mommy and Kat from Mama Kat’s Losin’ It. I watched them pile into the funny photo booth at one of the parties. They were so at ease, laughing together. It was clear they had “been-here-done-this” but were taking in some of the festivities anyway. I felt like a freshman watching the popular senior girls. Finally, I gathered my underclassman gumption and just went up to them and introduced myself. I told them how much I like their work and how they inspired me to write. Both seemed genuinely appreciative of my words.

I suppose I could walk away from the weekend thinking there is no way I’ll ever be as talented or successful with my blog as those women are with theirs’. Or, I could use BlogHer as a start. This was the launching pad I needed to take the next step.

After all, I did become a senior girl.

After the party where I got to meet Jill and Kat I met up with some of my fellow freshman bloggers. Above all else at BlogHer, I learned no one becomes successful without others. That means in my quest to get better, I have to support others.

Support. That’s BlogHer.

I know I should be spiritually moved to change the world with my URL after all Iearned and experienced at my first BlogHer conference. It was amazing, but right now, frankly, I’m effing tired.

I’m the kind of tired where you don’t care that you didn’t wash your hair this morning and you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth. But, it’s cool as long as the McDonald’s coffee you dribbled on your dirty jeans masks your morning breath.

I hope the guy next to me on this flight appreciates my Java scent. It’s Premium Blend, Sir! Don’t give me that look!

I learned a lot. I’ll write about all that tomorrow. For now I’ll just say that I learned a valuable lesson about conference swag after an unfortunate run-in with the TSA team at LaGuardia. Somehow they couldn’t appreciate the fact that bottles of expensive lotion mistakenly in my carry-on was for a blog giveaway for the amazing Erin of A Parenting Production. I tried to explain that it was a non-greasy formula. She still yanked the bottles from my arms with her blue-gloved hand of death.

I think her lotion-hating is letting the terrorists win.

Resistance is futile.  It’s futile for me when it comes to pop music.  ::sigh::  It’s true.  My fanaticism for the New Kids on the Block led to NKOTB shoelaces and sleeping bags.  I loved Madonna into the ’90’s when my peers preferred Nirvana.  There was that summer (in my adulthood) when I rocked that Miley Cyrus song on my iPod like, everyday.

I tried this summer.  I really did.  I tried to avoid the “Song of Summer 2012” that everyone is humming whether they like it or not.  But, when the Team USA Swim Team made this video to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and my husband who is completely obsessed with the Olympics played it, like all the time, I was done.  Done.  I’ve been singing it non-stop.  Charlotte says “More! More!” when the song stops.  Ugh!

Add to my lack of futility, I found more caffeine.  I discovered Crystal Light Energy.  The girls at work have been going on about it for some time, now.  I felt AMAZING!  I got so much done today.  I had a great run tonight as I get ready for the BlogHer ’12 5K.  Guess what I listened to on the iPhone?

I told you.  Futile.

Next week I will be getting on a plane to fly to one of the world’s largest cities to attend one of the world’s largest blog conferences and it blows my freaking mind, ya’ll!

What?! What has this turned into? This was just a hobby. It was a way to remember being pregnant. It was a way to write and get my thoughts out. I really knew nothing about blogging nor the blogosphere. I believe I may have heard the term “mommy blogger” some time and cringed at the thought of the Stepford Wives with MacBooks who must have taken up that hobby.

Somebody’s Parents was just a few diary entries written in a Google Doc back in 2010. Not anymore. Somewhere along the way people besides Greyson, my sister (when she had time), and a few very kind friends read my meanderings. All of the sudden I wanted to read more blogs, more stories, and more tales of pregnancy and motherhood. I found women from all over the world experiencing the same joys, disgusting syptoms, and hardships that I was. I joined blog communities, met local bloggers in the flesh and had late night Twitter chats with “friends” I only knew by their avatar. It was fun. It was more than message boards and Facebook. It was a community.

Blogging has gone from a hobby to a passion. I love doing this. I want to get better. I’m taking myself and my little blog to New York City on my birthday. It’s my first birthday away from family in all my 31 years. I can’t think of any place I’d rather be.

I’m not big-time. I know that. I’ve heard about the “types” that you run into at BlogHer. Is it intimidating? Only if I let it be.

I got a little something this weekend to help me on my journey. Yep! Blogging with the iPad2 and a keyboard. I have also ordered my business cards.

The lovely ladies pictured here are two of my BlogHer ’12 roommates. (Visit Erin, Andrea, and Andrea!) We got a few new festive frocks last week before the trip. They are even helping me celebrate my birthday!

Am I nervous? Maybe a little, but I’ve never been much of a wallflower. I figure if I go into BlogHer with the same open mind and joyful spirit that I did when I started blogging, I’ll be okay. Wish me luck! If I see you there, please say “Hello!” Let’s exchange cards. Tell me what sessions and parties you’re going to. I promise I have no idea what I’m doing and I won’t act like I do.