Attending Blogalicious 2010 helped me accept my fame as Euphoria Luv

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In October I attend the Blogalicious 2010 conference in Miami. Now, I don't in general attend blog conferences but I knew the women behind this conference and knew their goals of showcasing a blogging community based on diversity. Which means blogger's attending will be black, Asian, Hispanic and any other hue included in the rainbow. Sounds like a perfect place for me :)

And yet when it came time to register I hesitated at the section asking blog name....what to put I wonder...

After splitting my blog personality earlier this year I've made sure to keep things separated. Race issues did not cross over to the regular mom blogging blog and vice versus. Since this was a "blogging" conference I decided to go as The Mommy Factor and be a good little blogger who played nice with others...unlike that Euphoria Luv blogger who's always making trouble. LOL.

So here I am in Miami pretending to be Miss Mommy Factor. I'd mingle and connect with other major bloggers of color and do my thang. Sounded good...until 7am the first morning of the conference when the universe brought me and Ananda Leeke together.



It all started with a good morning on Ananda's part. Kudos to her for speaking to a total stranger. LOL. As we chatted while waiting for registration to open it happened. Ananda said, I know you. I'm like yeah I just introduced myself. LOL. Ananda was like...no, don't you have a blog about Asian and black people? And there is was, my cover was blown.

Once I dropped the Mommy Factor cover our conversation flowed to another level. We spoke about being black Buddhists women, about race and identity, the need for black female voices in the blogosphere and her connection to the Asian community. We ended up interviewing each other for our blogs. LOL. I will post Ananda's interview in another blog post but you can listen to Ananda interviewing me online :)

From there putting back on my alter ego of Mommy Factor wasn't as easy I planned. While meeting other bloggers throughout the conference I heard the same expression....I know you, you have a blog about Asian and black people. I'd say I do but then follow up with the "But I'm here as The Mommy Factor" line. It worked on a few but for other bloggers that line didn't mean anything.



When Jen introduced herself to me, her follow up line to my follow up line was... uh huh (ignoring my Mommy Factor reference), so I've been following Euphoria Luv for a long time. I learned that Jen is blasian (Chinese and black) and also a mom of biracial children. We started talking (and laughing) about the reaction we get from people when they see our mixed race families. We also talked about dealing with the Asian family member's who need some help adjusting to having black cousins. LOL

Then Jessica, who's also biracial (black and white), joined the conversation and shared about her "is that your child" stories. We all then spent a good amount of time trading stories as mom with biracial children and as bloggers of color.

You'd think after that I'd give up the farce of pretending to be Mommy Factor right? But no, I still kept labeling myself as this "other" blogger. Well by dinner time it was a running joke.



By the look of the women I joined for dinner, you can tell I was clearly still in denial about being Euphoria Luv. LOL. Joining me for dinner included Kim (Mom of a blasians), Sandy (Hispanic married to an asian, mom of biracials), Leticia and Sheila. By the end of the night I gave up trying to explain who I was there "trying" to be. No one was hearing me anyway. LOL.

During the rest of the conference I had more phenomenal experiences. I was introduced to another mother with blasian children who was so excited that I had a website and community that she can relate to.

I also met Felicia, an Asian sociologist attending the conference to understand the world of mom blogging. That meeting led to a long conversation which lead to an interview about how I use blogging for community awareness.

After ALL of that and then some, I started asking myself some real hard questions. While I know who I am, do I know which blogger I want to be?!

I asked myself that question in Oct 2010 and now in Dec 2010 after being really true and honest with myself about my purpose...I'm now back to where my home has always been. Now that I've stopped all the fooling around lets get things back on track!

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