Meeting Bloggers IRL



New Orleans is a great place to live, an even better place to visit. And it appears to be the place to go when you turn a certain age. For the sake of keeping confidences, I'll not mention the specific age. Two different bloggers that I've written to online via blogs, emails, texts, Skype, came in town to celebrate birthdays.

Ok, heads up - if your birthday falls in the summer time, do not come to New Orleans on your birthday. Natives stay inside with the AC, while tourists melt.

I won't go into a lot of detail or many pictures of my fellow blogger friends, because I don't want to give out too much personal info.

The first bloggers to visit were T&C from Philly. (My first bloggers to meet IRL - Woot!) They got engaged in Paris, France. How romantic! They are a sweet couple who fit right into the laid back atmosphere of the South. T calls me a Southern Belle, which is great and partly comes from the poetry forum I used to run years and years ago before blogging. I recognized his poetic voice when we were writing emails and I'm thrilled that he has a published poetry book. Greg and I look forward to attending their wedding.



The next blogger to visit was L from NYC. She loved the night life of New Orleans and even met some new friends from a Haunted House Tour group. L also appreciated the Garden District, Street Cars, Cemeteries and Swamp Tours (something that I had yet to do and took the opportunity to schedule while she was in town - so cool, I even held a 2 year old gator!). Below are pictures of us at Pat O's (Bourbon Street), famous for the hurricane drinks and the fire/water fountain.




Meeting T&C and L were definitely new experiences. I learned a lot about them and also about myself. After their visits, I read some survival tips for meeting bloggers IRL (in real life). I thought I'd share them:

Try to keep from taking it too seriously.
Pick something comfy to wear that makes you feel good, but don't obsess about what you look like.
Meet them somewhere in public, safety first.
Not every minute has to be planned doing things, you need down time to talk and goof around.
Don't worry about not 'clicking' IRL, plan on there being differences in personalities.
Focus on the things you had in common while blogging and center it around that.

Comments

That's great you got to meet several blogger friends! Hey, I know better than to go to NO during the summer. Would really like to see it sometime though. Will let you know if I head that direction!
Golden Eagle said…
How cool that you got to meet blogger friends! :)
Jules said…
Oh, I'm so jealous. It is really rare you get to put a body to the words you read and follow. What a treat! :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
Head Ant said…
I've sort of met blogger friends.
Carma Sez said…
I've only met one blogger IRL - I need to work on meeting more!!

"Not every minute has to be planned doing things" - I need you to advise my husband of this - that's why we always come home from vacation completely wiped out!!
Joanna Jenkins said…
It's fun when you get to meet bloggers IRL. It's takes the blogging relationship to a different level and it's usually really fun! YOur tips for meeting bloggers is sound advice too.
Happy weekend, jj
Sylvia Ney said…
Sounds like fun! I'm about five hours from NO. I live just over the border in Texas. I've been there a few times and it is just as brutal in summer as my area - YUCK!
Sylvia Ney said…
What fun meeting blogging friends! I live about five hours from NO, just over the border in Texas. I've visited a few times and the summer there is just as brutal as ours is here - YUCK!