Yesterday Adeline and I got a nice break from the heat: we hung out at the pool with a friend and her adorable little baby. In short spurts between me chasing Adeline around the edge of the pool, I managed to have a bit of an adult conversation.

I told my friend about BlogHer’12. About how I’m excited and nervous and stressed and also excited. She asked what I would do there and I told her about the panels and the parties and all the people I’m hoping to meet. Then she asked a question that I didn’t quite have an answer for:

“So what do you hope to get out of this?”

I’ve been planning to go to BlogHer’12 since last fall. I bought my tickets basically as soon as they went on sale. I’ve been beyond excited about it for months. But why, exactly?

Of course, it will be a blast. It will be my first time away from Adeline overnight, and I can’t wait to wake up and not have to immediately deal with a demanding toddler. It will be exciting just to be out of the house and even though it will be crazy busy, I’ll also be able to go to the bathroom by myself, so it will be amazingly relaxing.

But if that’s all I wanted, I could have just taken a weekend away. I want to network and meet other bloggers and learn how to do this whole blogging thing better. I want to get exposure. I want to increase my readership and find new opportunities for getting my writing published. I want to feel like this is real: like I could be a writer and it could turn into something that people would take seriously.

So I’ll be at BlogHer’12 with business cards and a little media kit one-pager I threw together last night. I’ll have my party dresses but I’ll also have my laptop. I’ll be having fun but I will also be, hopefully, working. Only the thing is, this kind of work IS fun. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?