For the third year in a row, my roommate was Liz Rizzo. She’s delightful, and she doesn’t seem to mind when I stick to her side for dear life when we attend parties together. She’ll walk right up to a stranger and say hello, while I find the idea quite unappealing. Thanks to Liz, I did meet a few lovely new people along the way. Here we are on Friday morning, waiting for the welcome session to begin.

For the second year in a row, Siel (“Green L.A. Girl”) accompanied me as my guest to a Nintendo dinner. (Disclosure: I am a Nintendo Brand Enthusiast.) This year the dinner was held at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, and they picked us up from our hotel in pedicabs. Not only that, all of the pedicab drivers were dressed up as Mario. It was very entertaining and we got quite a few stares on our journey.

On Saturday morning, I was invited to attend the PepsiCo Sofa Summit. There were about 30 attendees, and it was described as a “provocative, interactive discussion about the ideas, influence and impact that women yield today and potential for tomorrow.” The moderator of the discussion was Campbell Brown.

There’s a 2-minute highlight/recap video on YouTube, with close-ups of me on camera at the 11-second and 53-second markers.

Saturday night, I went out with a group of ladies to dinner at Vatan (including Suzanne, who lives in the city and made the recommendation), which is an Indian vegetarian restaurant. It was incredibly good. Four of us took the subway home. The picture below is of me and Maren. (I look tired after the long day, but check out my mini-bicep as I clutch the subway pole. Yay for strength!)

I’m leaving out a lot of people I saw and things I did, but those are a few highlights. Next year the conference will be held in San Diego. I checked my Flickr account just now and realized that my first (and last) visit to San Diego was 7 years ago this month. Will I take the opportunity to go there a second time…?

I registered for the conference last year, so even though I’ve hardly blogged at all in the past six months (and to be honest, for six months previous to that I was only blogging 1-2 times a week), I never considered not attending.

I like going to BlogHer because I always leave feeling inspired. Not just inspired to write (although that’s part of it, because I’m writing right now), but because of the attendees and speakers. There are ladies out there in the world doing some really cool things, and never do I see as many of them gathered in one place as I do at the BlogHer conferences.

Women at BlogHer are speaking out, starting their own businesses, finding their dream jobs, creating and fulfilling their Life Lists, taking awe-inspiring photographs, and inspiring other people through their writing.

Some of the attendees are ordinary, and not quite as ambitious, but a number of those ordinary ladies — I include myself in that group — get a glimpse of all the stuff they could be doing and it makes us dream of doing more. (My friend Sassymonkey attended the conference as well, and she wrote a very cool post about how she wants to Do More.)

My goal has always been to inspire people through my writing. I’ve gotten away from that goal in the past year, but I feel like I might be inching my way back.

Wanting to inspire people doesn’t mean I want you to do the same things I do. Let’s face it — even though I like my life, I could be doing much cooler things than what I’m currently doing. I’m working on a Life List but I haven’t been brave enough to publish it. If it’s published, that means I’m ready for people to hold me accountable to it.

But I’ve been thinking I should get my Life List out of draft form and publish it already. I want to start working through it. I want it to inspire me. I want to be a better, smarter, more adventurous person.

Through my actions and writing I want to inspire other people, just like some of those women at BlogHer inspired me last week.

After the conference, BlogHer Community Manager Denise Tanton said that we are more powerful than we think. Here’s a snippet:

You. Are. Powerful.

But many of you don’t know it — or don’t recognize it — or don’t own your power.

I cannot count how many times I heard one of you brush off a compliment, earnestly given. I cannot tell you how many times I heard a woman, shyly and almost apologetically, talk about what she writes about. I cannot count how many times I saw talented writers uncomfortable when another woman praised her blog. I cannot count how many times I saw women uncomfortable with their own success.

At one point when I was at the conference, someone complimented me on something — I honestly don’t remember what it was, but I think it was something I was wearing — and I downplayed it. Afterward I thought to myself, “You should have just said THANK YOU.” It’s what I normally do. It’s what I strive to do. If someone gives you a compliment, take it.

However, I am guilty of not thinking that I’m powerful. Don’t get me wrong: I have pretty good self esteem and I’m proud of my independence. But would I call myself powerful? I’ve never used that word to describe myself before, but I’d really like to change that. To me, power is a feeling I’ll have within myself, not a goal to control or have influence over other people.

I want to feel comfortable saying that I’m powerful.