My dear friend Kelsey came over to our apartment the other night, talking about a conversation she overheard on the streets of Manhattan. Apparently two women were talking about their blogs, without really knowing what the other’s was about. My friends, while awesome and totally the most wonderful people ever, don’t really read my blog. It’s just not relevant or interesting to them. My shit doesn’t apply. Plus, we see each other every day and only random people who I haven’t talked to in forever (Hi Ginni! You’re not sketchy, don’t worry. Let’s hang out.) “catch up” with me via marianlibrarian.com.
Point being: my friends and my blog friends are two entirely different entities. Except sometimes I feel like my blog friends know just as much and know me just as well as the people I see every day. Why? Because we comment on one another’s blogs, pass along information, help each other out, make referrals and generally have this awesome and mutually beneficial relationship that’s built on similar interests.
Initially I would have thought this a little tacky. I mean, “real” relationships are built over time and – more importantly – in person. Except I love my blogger friends! They live all over the world and I actually care what they have to say. So maybe I don’t meet them for drinks every week or call them when I’m having a bad day, but after a few months I’ve managed to create this little community of fellow bloggers who I truly and genuinly like.
This whole love post is spurred on by the fact that in the past week I’ve met two blog friends. One of which started as a comment on the blog of Guy Gonzalez and ended in coffee and awesome news which I will announce later. We bonded over publishing, social media and the upcoming conference, Digital Book World. The second meet-up was just last night with Julia from Julia the Reader. To be perfectly honest, I can’t even remember how we met – but I’m 90% sure it was blog induced. Regardless, we’ve been pen pals and mutual blog commenters for months now and she was in NYC so we met at a local Starbucks (the blogger meet-up of choice, apparently) finally.
The coolest thing about these get-togethers is that I’m able to actually talk to someone about publishing and blogging and the job hunt without them wanting to slit their wrists. While enormously supportive, my friends are probably sick of hearing about my online doings and, since they could care less what happens in the publishing world, I try not to bore them with the particulars. On the other hand, my blog friends totally get my interests and I can learn from them instead of talking at them.
And sometimes, with the friends I haven’t met (yet), I feel like I’m connecting with someone famous. Like when Penelope Trunk and I had some fun email exchanges or when Jenny, The Bloggess, started following me on Twitter… This is where social media makes up for its lack of personal connection. Though I’m sure if I actually meet any of these so-called famous bloggers, well, I might possibly turn in to a 12-year-old school girl seeing Miley in person. Totally awesome.
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