Writer. Blogger. Crafter?

I've been trying to craft what to say about the Craft Cabinet. Because that's what I do: I craft with words, with metaphor and allusion and mostly good grammar and thereby shape myself via language into this persona here on the blog. I'm good at it. I have a degee in it, even. What I am not, most decidedly, is a crafter of actual crafts.  

People, that didn't stop me from trying. Nor did it stop me from driving 85 miles  from my front door to attend last Friday's Craft Cabinet event at the Salvage Life storefront in Long Beach. Salvage Life is a funky, feminine vintage shop, and its  decor helped set the creative tone of the evening. 

It was cool, and not a little surreal, to immediately recognize and introduce myself to the event organizers/hostesses Andrea and Jules.  Both are warm and friendly and especially in the case of Jules, I found myself able to chatter away like I've known her always. Or at least for the last year or so since I started reading her blog.

Funny how I can dive into certain conversations and babble away.  Not so funny, appalling actually, is how much I'm still a weirdo wallflower overall. Or maybe it was just that there seemed to be a large contingent of young bloggers who already knew one another, and it was hard wedge myself into their discussions.

But those are my own tedious issues, and they have nothing to do with how well-run the event was, or how the vibe of the evening was so laid back, warm and inviting to everyone in attendance.

I've been to two previous blogger meet-ups that were very informal non-events. (One was an unlikely bonfire at the beach.)  Strange to realize that this was actually my first "official" blog event. And it felt very bloggy to me: There was Twittering! There was Instagraming!  There was talk of blog conferences, and how weird it is when strangers on the street recognize you and your family from your blog. And most were savvy and smart enough to have business cards. 

Hmmm.  This is not so much my life, my experience. (Yet.)

But. There were also pretty, peach decorations and balloons and awesome catering: yummy salted caramel mini-cupcakes, and white wine and olives and a tasty caprese sandwich that I wish I'd been able to savor slowly, alone, instead of being paranoid that I had arugula stuck in my teeth. 

So, I did it. I went, forced myself out of my constricted little comfort zone, and
met strangers people.  Ta-dah!

Oh! And I "crafted," by which I mean I went to town with some washi tape and an Ikea planter.  Ta-dah, Part 2:

Lily was inordinately impressed with my handiwork.

(I'd brought my own craft that involved applying gold-leaf pen to a glass bowl, but foresaw me making a terrible mess whilst trying to also hold a conversation.)

It was really good to get out, meet some "real" bloggers and make some new connections.  On the long drive home in the hot August darkness, I  reminded myself that while I may not ever be much of a crafter, or a even a well-known blogger, I'm most definitely a writer, down to my bone marrow.  Weirdo observer tendencies and all.