I’m back in DC after a wonderful trip to San Francisco for BlogHer 08. I was an official live blogger for three conference sessions, one of which was “Building Traffic via Content and Community“. The session was incredibly informative and thought-provoking, and I wanted to talk a bit more about it today. One of the first questions the moderator (Elise of Simply Recipes) posed to the audience was “Why do you blog?” Er. Um. Because everyone else is doing it? Seriously–I don’t know about you, but I had never asked myself that question before. I’ve given a great deal of thought to what I blog ABOUT (personal development, career, finding your purpose, body image and disordered eating), to the kind of message I want to communicate to my readers (you can do it!), to the way my website looks (snazzy new redesign), but I had never asked myself why I’m blogging in the first place.

I’ve officially reached “that age”. Pretty much every conversation I have with my girlfriends these days devolves into talk of babies–whether we want them, when to have them, how many to have, how to raise them, etc.. Ah, the joys of aging. Having kids isn’t an “if” for me–my husband and I know that we want children… someday. We’re just not sure when that someday will be. We want to be sure to have all of our ducks in a row before we take such a huge step in our lives. That’s the smart way to do things, right?

I'll be attending BlogHer '08 (it's my first time--so excited!), and I'm hoping to find a running buddy for my long run. I'm currently training for a marathon, and I'll be running nine miles (pace will be around 9:00-minute to 9:30-minute miles depending on hills) on Saturday morning. I'll leave the hotel around 6:00 am. Let me know if you're interested!

Every year, my family (dad’s side) has a huge July 4th cookout at my parents’ house. The whole family attends, and with seven siblings (who produced 15 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren), it’s quite a sizable crowd. There is always great food, fireworks, gallons of beer, a gang of screaming kids, and a lot of laughter. I love these gatherings, but they have a tendency to press my mental rewind button and transport me back in time to the attitudes and beliefs of my childhood–for better or for worse. Most of our deep-seated, unconscious beliefs about the way the world works are internalized early in childhood. Unfortunately, these beliefs often reflect the fears and anxieties of our parents. (This is the thing that terrifies me the most about having and raising children–that I will pass along my issues like some kind of hereditary disorder.) For example, a single mother whose husband left her during pregnancy may unintentionally pass along to her daughter the belief that men are unreliable and cannot be trusted. As you might imagine, this belief could cause the daughter to have serious difficulties in relationships when she is older. The worst part is that she may not even know why–the belief may be buried so deeply that she isn’t even aware of it.

A close friend of mine called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that the guy she’d been seeing had just ended their (somewhat casual) six-month relationship. Like any good girlfriend would, I picked up a bottle of cabernet and headed over to her place. She was absolutely devastated, which surprised me as I hadn’t realized that her feelings for him were that strong. “Are you in love with him?” I asked. “What?” she said, surprised. “No! God, no. I’m just…” “Hurt?” I guessed.