I was talking to my friend Sugar Jones about how this year’s BlogHer was “different.” She smiled, started to bounce around to the music, and simply said – “We’re different. We’re older” and proceeded to dance her butt off. I smiled and realized that she was right. The first few days of BlogHer had me feeling slightly uncomfortable – something seemed off. But as Sugar bounced back on the dance floor, I knew that being different wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, after a few hours of recovering – I realized that this was a pretty great event. Below are some of the things that felt a bit “off” and some of the things I am excited to experience. In random order. I’ll probably have to write another recap too – but this is just what’s top of mind:

1) I cried. Here. And if you didn’t laugh more than you cried, well – then you weren’t listening. While I work in the internet, I always believed that it’s powered at its root by community. That’s what BlogHer is. And that’s what this panel was about – communities coming together to help those that are in need. While I’ve avoided real tragedy in my life, the internet has helped me more than once in coming to terms with that empty feeling of loneliness that comes with the mean reds. Big round of applause goes to Cecily Kellogg, Loralee Choate, Kim Trimble, Anissa Mayhew, and Peter Mayhew – who became the first man to appear on a BlogHer panel. And while he, without a doubt, would prefer that the circumstances that caused him to be up there never happened – he is also the only person I could think of deserving to break the gender barrier there.

The grieving session also made me miss Erin Kotecki Vest. While she was having BlogHer at home, she was in many people’s thoughts. I heard her named mentioned a lot. BlogHer missed you this year. Get better fast.

2) I missed my Ohio girls. I don’t have favorites in the Blogosphere. I work with a lot of different people. But sometimes you just miss people when they aren’t there. I missed Jenny and Emily. Amy. Katie. Andrea. Erin. and Tara (although I did see Tara this year already!) I’m sure I’m missing a few others. With my girlfriend being from Ohio, I do have to say that I have a soft spot for the Mid-West and missed all those Ohio women too cool to stop by. At least I did get to see Tricia from OnceaMonthMom.com – which made my day. I did drag her into the booth to make a video though:

3) I have great friends. Seriously – great friends. I was hugged by so many of my friends that “live in my iPhone.” Friends that I see once a year – if I’m lucky. Lori Falcon sat around with me for 5 hours on Wednesday while I did work and worked on final details for BlogHer. Christine Young took me to the Russian Tea Room after winning a gift certificate. Audrey McClelland made sure I was the best boyfriend by letting my girlfriend visit her Getting Gorgeous event. I saw some of my favorite Colorado people in Aimee and Bryan and, briefly, Tara. I had a great discussion about blogging/brand practices with Jessica Randazza, Christopher Barger, Bonin Bough, and a room full of attentive bloggers thanks to Lucretia Pruitt and Jenn Fowler. I saw so many people that I’m going to stop naming names because it will never be complete enough. All I’m saying is that the great people that I know – the people that make me happy – all come to things like this. It makes me energized and I am already looking forward to next year.

4) It was under control. The complaints from last year should vanish. No more repeating stories of blackmail, over zealous bloggers and swag, and brands hating babies. It was, in the end, a great conference with very little controversy (unless I missed something). Like Sugar said, BlogHer has grown up. So has the community. It’s a wonderful thing to see – especially since it still hasn’t lost the fun and there are still McDonald’s bag hats and Unicorns and Sparkles.

5) I can’t dance. Not that I didn’t already know this. I did a preview for “Just Dance 2″ three times. My scores progressively got worse. It’s horrible. As the sun set, it didn’t get any better. I tried twirling Sarah Pinnix a few times but only ended up looking stupid in the process. I tried dancing with Leah Segadie too. Nope. Not cool. Note to self: Don’t try dancing with people that get compared to Lady GaGa by the Huffington Post. Just don’t….

One Post Isn’t Enough – I mean, c’mon, most of the pictures haven’t even been uploaded yet. I will definitely write more soon.