Blogging Is HARD Work!!

This past Saturday I got together with some of my favorite people in the world: my fellow bloggers!

Denise at Coupons For Your Family was kind enough to volunteer her beautiful lake house for our meet up. Isn’t that gorgeous? How’d you like to look out at that view every day?

Maura from Happy Deal – Happy Day and Didi from Dishin’ with Didi drove in from Rochester, and Michelle from Our Real Deal came in from Batavia.

Tricia from Tricia’s Frugal Finds and I are a bit closer to Denise, and it was just about 45 minutes for us (I’m at the other end of the Buffalo ‘burbs, Tricia is out in the wilds of Niagara County).

We have a Western New York blogger group on Facebook, and we have done meet-ups, lunches and attended conferences together, but I am not kidding when I tell you that never before has the scenery been so glorious! I am hopeful the rest of our group can join in next time.

So what do we do when we get together? Well, we… laugh… and drink … and laugh some more … and eat … and laugh even more.

Ostensibly we get together to hone our blogging skills (what!? You think this comes naturally? Or easily!?), and while we do share war stories, monetization practices (hosts, staff, programmers, time ain’t free), SEO tidbits, social media tips and much, much, more inevitably we end up spending a lot of time talking and laughing. These ladies are simply a joy to be around.

So, this is some of the delicacies we enjoyed this past Saturday:

Michelle brought her Chocolate Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries and OMG were they good!

Didi brought her Spanakopita Rolls and we devoured them! They were delicious and light. Mmmmm

Maura treated us to her fantastic pasta salad!

And Denise slaved over the subs! (Which were wonderful! I do love Wegmans subs.)

It was Tricia’s birthday, so we sang to her over candles… and Michelle’s banana poke cake (which was fabulous!)

My job was drinks. I arrived with Tim Horton’s for all! (Custom orders) I also brought along a box of liquor. I had an idea for Friday’s cocktail recipe and the ladies were kind enough to be guinea pigs.

Aren’t they pals!?

See there is a computer on the table proving we did do work!!

Blogging is in many ways a solitary pursuit. A blogger sits down in front of the computer, and starts typing on a screen. There is no one else involved in the process of telling their “story”, and it can be highly personal.

But blogging is also one of the most social jobs I know of; from interacting with readers on social media and the blog, to connecting and networking with other bloggers, blogging is a highly social form of communication. When I attend a conference, a webinar, a seminar or a group meet-up, I recognize the wealth of knowledge in the network of bloggers I know and interact with daily. And I am grateful to them.

Everyone who blogs has a voice. Some voices are louder than others. Some are funnier than others. Some are wiser than others. But these ladies all bring their wit and wisdom to our network, and I am very glad to number them among my friends.

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