Oh Canada - standing on the opposite side of the Rideau Canal from the Parliament buildings on my first day in town.
I spent the last week in Ottawa closing up the biggest project by far, of my year. I worked with an amazing technical crew that works with me on this project every year. It was a year of hard work in the making.
There were a few arguments, some raised voices on occasion, frustrations, crossed wires (figuratively and literally). But mostly it was just a lot of flat out hard work accompanied by a lot of laughs, giggles, the occasional beer, good food, and a bunch of hugs.
I’m happy to say, it went smooth as silk. Hands down the best gig we’ve ever done.
And nobody on my team shouted about it on twitter or facebook or in a blog post (until now, that is. Because I am shamelessly writing a post about them!). Nobody was worrying about their personal brand or if this would improve their traffic or ad rates or if it would get them a book deal or a tv show. I mean, seriously… who would read a book about IT people making diagrams or running cable? But… come on… I know you would watch a show about the Real IT/AV Project Team of Canada. Maybe somebody would push somebody into a rat’s nest of cable!
I spent a week working and playing with people who for the most part do not blog. Or tweet. Or Instagram. Or even really Facebook. They don’t spend a lot of time on their Berries or Androids (not an iPhone in sight, by the way…). In fact, I was probably the most guilty of that and I consider myself a mild phone addict user!
It was all a little weird, if I may say so… like I fell into the twilight zone!
So, I’m being a bit tongue in cheek here, obviously. (I hope it was obvious – if not, I surely won’t be getting a book deal!)
I’m sure at some point you’ve all had to explain to somebody exactly what your food blog is. It’s fun isn’t it?
You write about food… that you just made… and you take pictures of it… even when you go out to eat… Sooo… ok… why exactly do you do this? Do people read it? They do?? But why?
Umm… well… I don’t really know why! Because?
And if that wasn’t fun enough, then try to explain to them how you started up an organization for fellow food bloggers… that’s when you get a lot of puzzled frowns, a few questions and then a “well that’s kinda cool I guess” and the conversation moves on. Invariably it moves on to my dog… Sam is way more interesting to most people than my blog. Everyone asks about him!
my puppy had a serious case of the missings. as did his mum. reunited after my late flight home last night.
It was good though. It put things into perspective. We’re not performing brain surgery or determining the economic future of the world. We’re having some fun, playing with food.
Food blogging is not, as one fellow food blogger said recently “a contact sport”. Nor is it a competitive sport. Lately, it’s felt a lot like both!
It also made me realize that as much as the internet opens up many doors and brings new people into our lives, it doesn’t replace, and nor should it eclipse, the people who are physically present at any given moment. Family, friends (real life friends) and colleagues are important. Really important. They shouldn’t be taken for granted. Nor should they take second place to people who we barely know outside of 140 characters at a time or who we’ve never met.
They’re the people who have to put up with us every day, for better or worse. And they’re the people who know all the little things about us that we can’t hide on the internet… and they still put up with us! This seriously amazes me on a regular basis!
They don’t deserve attitude or snark. They don’t deserve being made to feel like also-rans. They don’t deserve to find out about our lives’ big moments through facebook or twitter. They do deserve a heart felt thank you now and then for being there or an apology when we’ve screwed up. Or just a random “hey, how ya doin, I was thinking of you today” phone call.
I’m guilty of so many of these things. It was good this week to have some enforced internet black out time and spend it with people who made me feel like I was important to them. It made me realize just how guilty I am of putting the real world second sometimes.
All I could think of through breakfast was the Seinfeld episode where they're all at the coffee shop counter and the conversation gets lost in translation. Still, I love these four fellas
And so… I just want to say thank you to “my boys”, as I so fondly call them, because I know they won’t blow their own horns. I could say “you know who you are” but I hate that. If somebody does something awesome… tell the world who they are or else keep it quiet and thank them privately. People deserve to know directly when they’ve done something awesome.
Roger, Hank, Howard, Krzys, Andre and Yuri, you rocked it. You knocked it out of the park. Again. Every year you make me look good. And every year you keep me in stitches with your silliness and your humour. I wish every job could be as much fun. I love that you go sightseeing with me, that you are mildly amused by my picture taking in restaurants, that you bring me chai lattes just because (and that you remember that I like chai lattes), that you always make sure I have somebody to eat dinner with in a strange city, and a million other things that you might not even realize that I notice. And I love that you work your collective butts off.
And now all of you reading know just how awesome these fellas are. 🙂 They are a big deal.
More to come on Ottawa in the coming days/weeks. We did hit up some great eateries and I had the pleasure of meeting fellow food bloggers Cameron from India on My Plate and Janice from Kitchen Heals Soul (no photos were taken during either meeting – go figure!)
Great post to reflect on. I’m certainly guilty of some of that mentality from time to time. Also interesting to consider how much we all seem to publicize details of our lives for validation from an online presence, not just the food bloggers among us. Oh how I wish I had the will power to delete facebook…Thanks for some really great points to consider.
I think you hit the nail on the head… we’re so busy looking for validation from on-line people we don’t even know that we forget the people who are standing next to us every single day wanting the best for us and rooting for us. Thanks for the comment!
This is such a sensible post. In recent times, I made a conscious decision to spend more time with real people. A lot of these people I met through online interactions, but its only when you meet them that you realise that ‘hey, this could be a really good friend’. And many of them are on their way to becoming just that.
In the end, blogging is fun. But it should not, and never should replace real life 🙂 I was chatting to a little guy about my early life and I mentioned that I didn’t actually use the internet until I was about 20. He was horrified… what did you do before that, he said! I said, well… we biked, and played in the mud and went to friend’s houses, and climbed trees and played board games, and watched TV with family… and then suddenly it struck me. How idiotic of me. I was having fun with real people. So I made another decision that my child will… hopefully… get the same childhood I did. I kicked her off the computer this evening and made her go play in the garden for a few hours. Oh, and I did the same too 🙂
exactly! I realized on my third night out to dinner that nobody had checked to their phone or tried to text/tweet/email anybody unless it was a member of our group that was MIA. I was out for dinner and the people I was with were there in the moment. What a novel experience. I liked it 🙂
What a beautiful *food for thought* post. I’m glad that you had this time in Ottawa with *your boys* and that your project went very well. They sound as if they love you to pieces and it is obvious that the feeling is mutual.
Looking forward to more posts from your time in Ottawa.
Lastly, if it wasn’t for the people *in my real life* I most likely would not have my blog. My family and friends are my most staunchest supporters even though none of them blog nor fully understand why I do. They do understand it is a creative outlet for me and my husband especially has never once complained when our counters are full of cooling cookies and that we have to eat in the den sometimes because the dining room table is full of iced cookies that have to set.
Having said all this, I must submit and leave my laptop. Someone in this house deserves a big appreciative thank-you hug and kiss 🙂
Such a great post. I have been in such a blogging rut lately….lack of inspiration and really just questioning why I am doing it. Of course I realised I do it because for the most part I love it – trying new recipes, finding new inspiration and tastes, (through other blog posts and actually reviewing and using my own collection of cookbooks!) or sometimes going back to some of my most favourite things I have eaten over the course of my life that have somehow been forgotten about!
But the big thing for me when questioning it all was justifying that the time I spend on the computer is time away from my son and husband, so unless I can fit it in when Wee One is napping or in bed at night and hubby is content doing something else then it isn’t enough. It isn’t work, I get paid nothing to do it, it’s a hobby…pure and simple! That being said I know my family and friends still enjoy reading my posts and trying my recipes and I love sharing it all with them so as long as that continues so will I, but I’m definitely not going to put myself under any pressure to do so!
Lynds, exactly. I think when it gets to the point where you’re constantly stressed about not posting enough, you’re going in the wrong direction. I had that moment about three months ago, when I realised I was spending easily over eight hours a blog post and getting crabby with everyone else. So I decided to drastically cut back on my posting, and I’ve been much happier, both professionally and personally.
This was so wonderful to read. It puts things in perspective. I think some people get too caught up in virtual life and forget about real life. I have tried hard lately to set limits. I only have a short time left before both my kids are gone. I don`t want to have any regrets about not spending time with them. I used to have the laptop glued to me all the time. Now I schedule time for blogging and when my time is up I walk away. When we watch movies the laptop sits in the other room. Life is short. I love blogging but I love my family more. So it`s finding balance in my life that is my goal now. Not fame and fortune. Thanks for sharing this with us.
I love it when life interrupts us like that, makes us ponder our habits and refocus our energies. Good food for thought here. Thanks for the reminder.
Well, there you said it, what we bloggers all know in our hearts. Real life matters the most and yet we find ourselves immersed in our internet world. Or as I affectionately tell my hubby, I’ve been F’ing around on the internet all day.
Call it what you like, social networking, building up your reader base, staying connected, learning, or whatever…but in the end you have to come to some sort of balance. It can be a sticky wicket at times; I love to get comments but if I don’t spend time leaving comments it won’t be reciprocated. And the question, am I leaving comments because I care or because I’m attention back?
It can be so overwhelming at times…what I have over 1000 blogs to catch up on Google reader???? and that doesn’t include my other feeds/likes?
I love blogging and I love the community, it’s like a crack addiction, I couldn’t give it up. The key is moderation and balance. Do what you love and love what you do but don’t let it consume you to the point that you don’t spend time enough with the people you love.
I am definitely guilty of being connected a bit to my phone/ the internet! At the same time, the majority of my (non-blogging) friend are long distance so my time is split between blog based interaction and just tweeting and texting non-blogging stuff with friends. Until recently I had never met another blogger or even really interacted with many of them (having foodbloggersofcanada really helps!) so I guess I haven’t been doing it long enough to need a break yet.
Also, who wouldn’t be obsessed with your doggy?? Such a lil bu-bu! Look at his face!