Blog Out Loud Ottawa rocks the house in 2010

Last night was the second annual edition of Ottawa’s premiere (and only!) showcase for local blogger talent, Blog Out Loud Ottawa. This year’s BOLO was a smash hit — you only need to skim the twitter feed to see how energized and excited and plain old happy everybody seems to be after last night’s event. I had an amazing time chatting with Angela and Amy and Justin and Rebecca and Lara and meeting Tania and Glenn and Allison and so many others.

I love events like these, because they demonstrate that we have some hilarious, thoughtful and highly creative writers and readers here in Ottawa. From Nat’s f-bomb filled rant about the wasps in her basement and her resulting multiple personality disorder to Spydergrrl’s manifesto on embracing her geekiness to Stay at Home Maven’s recounting of her trauma in the cookie aisle… we were rolling on the floor all night long.

There were more serious and introspective posts, too, like Lynn’s sweet tribute to her growing daughter (oh, I hear ya!) and Don and Jenn of FoodiePrint’s post about Food and Generosity and Amy’s beautiful story of the night she and her son didn’t see any meteors.

And events like BOLO are all about discovering the voices that you haven’t heard before but wish you had known about earlier, like Nadine from Adorkable Thespian. I loved her reading of her post “Why do you want to act” because she touched on themes fundamental to why I blog. Although she’s speaking about acting, she perfectly describes how I often feel about blogging and living the life I do on the Internet:

Acting was a lovely escape for an extroverted, exhibitionist who wanted to hide, but thrived on being seen. I never felt so sane as when I was on stage, safely tucked inside another person who wasn’t me.

“Why do you want to act?”?

“Because I’m an emotionally troubled attention whore.”

And her blog tagline is “If awkward isn’t the new charming, I’m screwed.” Love it!

If you missed it last night, or if you were there and just want a recap of all the really excellent stories that were shared, Lynn has links to everyone’s posts up on the BOLO blog. And speaking of Lynn — props to you for organizing an amazing night out. Everything ran seamlessly, and you did a fabulous job. Thank you!

I struggled for quite a while to choose a post to read myself. I think one of my best-written posts of the last year was the saga of the day I totaled the van, but the story as a whole is a bit of a downer, so I went with something a little, um, different.

So not only did I stand up in front of a room of mostly strangers and read the post I wrote last year about my trip to Bra Chic and my fancy-ass new cherry red bra (oh yes I did), but for my big finish I lifted my t-shirt and showed them my still-much-loved cherry red beauty. Because once you’ve announced your band and cup size to the crowd, really, what shame is left?

Thanks again to Lynn and to everyone who participated last night, and especially to those who took the time to come over and say hi. Can we do it all over again soon?

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