While I Was Out, Pt. 3. The Cleveland Webloggers Meetup

OK, one more of these WIWO things, then I will get back to the news cycle for good.

I attended my first Bloggers Meetup last Wednesday. If you check out this photo, I'm in the striped shirt. The official report is on Organic Mechanic.

This post is purely about my take. IT WAS GREAT.

I sheepishly admit to being a bit starstruck. It's like this. I like, for example, sports and music, and admire athletes and musicians. But my real heros are intellectuals and writers. I could meet Jim Thome and be cool about it, but if I were introduced to David Foster Wallace or Michael Frank I would gush like a little girl. I've been lurking Ohio blogs for about a year now and have come to idolize somewhat a number of local practitioners, all of whom were in attendance. In everything I do here, I stand on the shoulders of giants; these are my giants.

I sat down and realized I was between Jeff Hess and Jaclyn. Over my right shoulder was George Nemeth. In front was Bill Callahan and off to my left was Mary Beth Matthews. It was kind of like making what you think is a pretty cool model airplane, going to an aviation convention and finding yourself sharing space with Wilbur Wright and Howard Hughes.

So that was cool. What is not cool for me is logistics. I can't leave Akron before maybe 6:30. Kid T, my 3-year-old, needs me to put her to bed, preferably by about 9:00. This leaves time to drop in late, stay for maybe an hour and leave when things are just getting good. I overstayed last week and heard about it when I got home.

So I'm thinking maybe an Akron meetup would be better. I wouldn't be able to rub elbows with my giants. But we have a pretty good mass of bloggers here and building up the community is a valuable pursuit. I'll send out emails soon to guage interest, but in the meantime, if anyblogger from Akron is reading, drop a comment and tell me what you think.