Talk To Strangers

Before I do the obligatory BlogHer RECAP post (or two), I need to go through pictures and come back to reality a little bit. In the meantime, I have a story to share with you, one that is related to BlogHer, sort of, in that it takes place in San Diego and there is much talk of bloggers and blogging…

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Upon arriving in San Diego last Wednesday, my roommate Michelle and I checked into the hotel and decided to hit the pavement in search of a place to enjoy lunch. As we strolled behind the hotel on the Embarcadero, Michelle pulled out her smart phone so she could consult Urban Spoon, and we decided on a little Mexican place in the Gaslamp District. We kept walking, and soon we approached two women who were walking in our direction. They were dressed, well, like us: San Diego-casual. As they got closer, they were all smiles at us and one of them said, “Hey! So have you found anything to do here yet? You were on our flight!”

Score! New BlogHer friends already! Talk about hitting the ground running! We stopped to chat and told them that we had just checked in and were headed to lunch. I said, “Want to go with us? You’re totally welcome!” They said, “Are you sure?” and we were nodding and saying “Sure, the more the merrier!”

They introduced themselves as Jodi and Jo, and one of them asked me if the picture on my laptop was of my sons. “I saw it on the plane!” she said.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Yes, those are my boys! I was working on an article that’s due Monday; I wasn’t blogging.”

“Blogging?” she said, with an unfamiliarity that caused the sound of screeching tires to enter my brain.

“Yes, blogging! You know, BLOGGING! (pause) BlogHer?”

I looked at Michelle.

Michelle looked at me.

And then, the question.

“What’s BlogHer?”

“You’re not here for…BlogHer?” I asked.

“We’re here for a girls’ weekend!” one of them said.

Oh.

So let’s recap.

Michelle and I arrived in San Diego with thoughts of blogging and bloggers in our heads.
We left the hotel in search of lunch.
We saw two strangers who totally “looked like bloggers” to us. (What does that even MEAN? I have no idea.)
We talked to those strangers.
I, within thirty seconds of meeting them, invited them to eat lunch with us. Strangers. Non-bloggers, even.

I was slightly horrified at my boldness, but really, what was the difference between eating lunch with two total strangers who don’t blog and eating lunch with two total strangers who DO blog? Nothing, when you think about it.

So eat lunch with two non-blogging total strangers we did. And you know what? It was a great lunch. We had a nice time with Jo and Jodi, taught them all about blogging, learned a little bit about what they do, gave them our business cards to stay in touch (they’re from the Chicago area, remember?) and then parted ways.

Being open to new experiences? That’s the best mindset in which to begin a BlogHer conference weekend.

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