Eight Super Great Things I learned at Bloggy Boot Camp Boston

8. Use Lists in your blog posts. People love lists. This is perfect, because I love lists!

7. Boston is cold. And windy. Even in May. But the locals will be wearing shorts and telling you it's the nicest day of the year. The locals will also be drinking heavily if the Bruins do something everyone kept referring to as sweeping.

6. You should include good photos in your blog posts. Which made me realize my photos are bad.

5. You should not steal other people's good photos. Like The Modchik's good photos. That's even more horrible than just using your own bad photos.

4. Finagle-A-Bagel makes amazing chocolate chip bagels. I don't care if I lose every New York reader for writing this. I LOVE THEM. They are my absolute most favorite bagels in the world. (And I don't care who knows.)

3. I should exercise more, and probably a lot of other bloggers should, too. And it's not just me who thinks this. The Pioneer Woman does too, and I quote: Blogging is an insidiously sedentary activity, and if you blog daily you should take steps to markedly increase your daily movement. Ree, you are so right.

2. Blog friends are real friends. And in my case, my blog friends can drink and fight like real Massholes Bostonians.

And, the number one thing I learned at Bloggy Boot Camp Boston:

1. Tiffany is pretty. For reals.

Bloggy Boot Camp and a Bad Case of Bostolgia

Bostolgia is supposed to be a clever combination of the words Boston and Nostalgia, but it didn't come out as well as I had hoped. But I still have it - a bad case of Bostolgia on the eve of my visit to Bean Town tomorrow to attend Bloggy Boot Camp, my first blogger conference.

I lived in Boston for six long, cold years in my twenties and have only been back a few times since leaving over a decade ago for the brighter lights and bigger city of Manhattan. Trips back to Boston have been ones for weddings, birthdays, babies, not for wandering the city trying to re-capture my faded youth. And even this trip, I am going for just a little longer then one day, enough time only for a quick visit to my dear friend's new baby (whose almost one already!) and not enough time to see any of the other Bostonians I would love to see.  So, I'll say the same thing I say every time: Next time, for sure.

When I lived in Boston, my roommate and I (we shared a fourth-floor studio walk-up) used to spend most of our time in workout clothes at The Capital Grille, completely incongruous in a stuffy bar frequented almost exclusively by middle-aged men in suits. The bartender always asked, why do you come here? And we'd laugh, telling him we live around the corner. It's the closest bar. We like the Stoli Dolis. It was our true local, even once letting us put our groceries in the bar fridge when we decided to stop in on our way home from the store.

We went back to our old stomping ground about seven years after we both had moved away - me to New York, and she to Mexico City - to see if the place still looked the same. We wondered if our bartender friend would still be there, guessing probably not, and were surprised and happy to see he was there tending the bar when we sat down. We sat heads together, whispering at each other, wondering how dumb we'd sound if we asked if he remembered us, and in the end we didn't ask.When we looked up to place our order, we saw he had already brought us our favorite drinks.

So Boston, I'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be having a Stoli Doli. Next time, for sure.

Looking forward to seeing and meeting everyone at Bloggy Boot Camp Boston!