As I was lamenting on how I wish I was going to the BLEND Retreat, I started counting up just how many blends I have met over the years and how fortunate I feel to have met SO many! I thought it would be fun to go down ‘memory lane’ and share that very list here. These blends (blogger +friend= blend!) span everyone from fellow divorcees, to fellow daters (online and such!), to fit and fab, to any and all of the above. These blends are truly some of the friends that ‘get’ me most of all, that mirror me to a “T” in some cases, who have turned into some of my closest friends, and even, some that live closeby and I get to SEE them (relatively) often – the cherry on top, doncha think?
A trip down memory lane…oh, the blends I have met! (in no particular order!)
- Meeting Lee (In my Tummy) a year ago this week, actually. SUCH fun (we met at a Digital Summit social media event, how fun!)
Whew, I swear there are some that I am missing, but after scouring pictures, that is all I seem to have! (that is quite the list though already!)
Not pictured but met:
Amanda! BEST fact ever about our meeting? I got home from our coffee date and M proposed to me not an hour later…how’s that for an epic meet-up, and one we need to do again VERY soon!! Hell, if that happened when we met last time, can you imagine what would happen this time?!
Also from my weekend in Chicago? Snarkbutt Divorced (blog now defunct), MyHeartHasHope, IntrigueMe, NYSoonerGirl, and for a third time? Shannon! The best weekend of meetups ever! (oh and a kind of sort of meet up? I saw her running the Chicago Marathon but we didn’t get to actually chat, sad face! Heather!)
I do believe INRIS was one of the first bloggers I met! Great great guy 🙂
LiveLoveRunYoga – LOVE her, she’s awesome, AND another local!! 🙂
These Happy Miles – another fab local runner! we still have yet to meet up again, but we must…barre and running 😉
Westford Mommy – yet ANOTHER local fab runner! She came to barre n9ne once, which was so much fun!! Also needs to happen again 🙂
Poise in Parma – gah, another fabulous meet-up – her brother lives in Boston, and it was suuuuch a fun meetup with Jess (somewhat!) recently. Redo needed 🙂
Adding all of these up, it’s kind of crazy how many I have met, and how many I *still* want to meet. So SO many. I am fortunate I have a job that has taken me to many locations where I have blends in, so I have been able to meet so many that way. And I have my bucket list of blends I still am dying to meet (Sarena, Spabettie, Christine, Naomi, Rachel – this one is in the works, must happen!, City Girl, Booshy (fun fact! I was in her town and we didn’t get to meet up in the 24 hours I was there but she left me a gift at my hotel. sweetest.thing.ever and the list goes ooooonn and onnn!)
Have you met a blend before? Do you have any on your list you would love to meet? And if you have met a blend before, doesn’t it almost feel like a blind date at first? 😉
Determined. To Be... 
I love the friends I’ve met through blogging. Some are real close IRL friends now! When I think of all the people I would NOT have met if I hadn’t started my blog, it makes me so grateful that I did decide to start blogging over 3 years ago. 🙂
Isn’t it amazing?! It’s just the best to meet people that just GET you!! We must meet REALLY since I just saw you run by (LOL) at the marathon!! on my list 😉
I have met three blog friends when they’ve come through Portland (including The Cotters! – they got to meet Basil 🙂 ), and I have met a BUNCH at the Vida Vegan Conference in 2011.
…and next week? is the second annual Vida Vegan and there are even MORE I get to meet, SQUEEE!
yes, your list of must meets – I have my own as well, and YOU are on it!
oh i miss you! and I love this Jo! So many wonderful people! can we all just go escape to wine country now??
I miss YOU TOO!!! that was such fun!! wine country, yes!!! please!
Oh I love the Cotters!! they got to meet Basil? AND you??? SO lucky 😉 I can’t wait to meet you one day…Portland wine country?!
Wow sis, you’ve met even more blends IRL than I have! I’m totally jealous — especially of your most recent meet-up AND that you’ve met Lee and Dorry and I have not, sad face. My bucket list of blends is pretty much the same, not gonna lie. I love blends, they are such a special breed, huh??
PS Heather M — SO SAD we never got to meet in Chicago this year!!!
I’ve met a lot, when I put this together, I can’t believe how many! and I know I am prob missing some too!
awesome roundup! wish you were coming to blend!!!
I SO WISH too!! AND to meet you!!
love this! You have the distinction of being the ONLY blend that I have ever been lucky enough to meet up with. And now I count you among my most valued friends so I’m so happy that we have come to know each other better. And if my move plans happen, there are more epic times ahead! 🙂
I am the ONLY ONE?! I LOVE that distinction, what an honor 🙂 You are a valued friend too, dear, and I so hope your move plans happen!
This makes me smile. Love it. I haven’t gotten to meet nearly as many as you have. Sarena, Lindsay and Kristina are at the top of my bucket list.
Makes me smile too! SO glad we have gotten together TWICE now…but need more of these meetups 😉
wow girl you get around!! : ) isn’t it the best though? one of the MANY reasons I love blogging
Ha! I totally get around ;-P
I can’t believe it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. I’m so glad we got to meet a few times and we need to find a way to see each other again!
I can’t either! It was soooo fun meeting last year and AGAIN for lunch this year!! we need another 🙂
Love this! I can’t believe how many people you have met…how awesome! I can’t wait for our next meet up!
Reminds me we NEED to meet up again!!
Love the pictures!!! So strange that it took me so long to find your blog since I have been reading Jess’s for so long. A happy reader I now am 🙂
Aww! so glad!! 🙂
I have no idea what a Blend is but it sounds like we need to make our own Blend Retreat! 🙂
blogger+friend = blend 🙂 and yes we do!!
This is AWESOME!!!! I’m so glad we met, but so bummed that it’s probably been almost a year and we haven’t done it again yet. LOVE LOVE LOVE that you got engaged the same day!!!! Still makes me smile. 🙂
Ok we seriously need to get together, this is ridiculous!!! But I LOVE that we met literally hours before I got engaged 🙂 Makes ME smile too! I still have your text on my phone from that day!! 🙂 (I saved a few of the cutest ones!)
I love that you’ve met so many amazing blends. Isn’t it incredible?? You and your sis are most definitely on my bucket list of blends to meet. Soon I hope! Maybe Blend next year if not sooner??
It IS incredible!! you are high on my list my friend!! Hoping to GET to NYC to meet up with you one of these days, and hit up that Chobani bar, too, how fun would that be?!
it is so incredible that you’ve met so many amazing people through your blog- I love this so much.
It really is, when I put it to paper – there are so many! LOVE!
I put up that tweet last night before reading this since I’m so far behind! You have met some awesome people and I can’t believe it has been three years since our first meet up. Where will we be in another three years? All dragging children to a beach instead of Vegas? Who knows! So much bloggy love!
Right?? SO much has happened since that meetup so many years ago it feels like now!! And I am honored to have you as such a good friend in my life!! Three years from now…wow, the sky is the limit 🙂
Come back to Atlanta!!! We will meet one day! We will make that happen! The one major thing I brought home from Blend is that these people that I blog with really are some of the most incredibly people I’ve ever met…virtually and in real life. I feel so incredibly fortunate to call you my friend. Missed you at Blend, but we really will meet up soon! We need to make that happen!
Gah, I wish I knew you more when I was in Atlanta last year!!!! that would have been epic! have you met Tina or Lee before?! Blend sounds incredible!!