A Blow to My Blogging Ego

You all know I talk a big game about being in the blogging world simply for the love of writing.  You know I couldn't give a rip about networking and tweeting and Klout.  To constantly be self-promoting through the various social media outlets sounds like a lot of exhausting wheel-spinning to me. 

Now, let me be clear that I am not denouncing those who are good at such things.  Some people are just better suited to vocations that require networking and self-promotion.  I am not one of them.  We're all different, which is good because there are so many different jobs out there that need to be done. 

So there will be no social media-based hustling for me.  I get it, I didn't put in the effort to promote my blog, and so I will not reap the rewards.  This blog is a hobby, no more, no less. 

Except, sometimes I find myself wanting to have my cake and eat it too. 

For example, you know what you need to bake a cake and eat it?  Housewares! 

Nobody loves housewares more than I do.  Okay, that's obviously not true.  A lot of people love housewares more than I do.  Martha Stewart, for example.  But I love housewares. 

So I was truly disappointed when I found out that some bloggers got invited to the International Home & Housewares Show right here in Chicago.  I think it goes without saying that I was not one of those invited. 

But it seems like everybody else was invited.  And, not only that, but they got invited to multiple parties associated with the housewares show. 

Now, I didn't work hard enough to make myself important enough to get invited.  I understand that.  But I still feel left out that I don't get to go.  It feels like high school when everybody was talking about a party that I didn't get invited to. 

And I feel like I'm just getting farther and farther away from the status of my fellow bloggers.  For example, this week on a Facebook group for bloggers, the following topics came up:

• Annoying people who denounce your blog as just a "hobby.  This led to a discussion where people basically implied that they're actually earning a salary commensurate to a regular professional office-type job, through blogging. 
• What you used to do for work before you had a blog.  What?  A blog can be your job?  Even if you aren't Heather Armstrong or The Pioneer Woman? 
• Who was going to the Disney Moms conference.  Dude, this shit isn't even on my radar. 

Then I read another, well-known blog complaining about how you can't tweet about a product you love without a PR rep from that company contacting you immediately to ask you to be a brand ambassador for that product.  Yes, this kind of thing happens to me all the time.  

Again, I know I didn't put in the effort, so I can't reap the rewards.  I'm truly happy with my current blog status.  

Except when I'm not.  


Anyway, housewares be damned.  I'm setting my sights higher and trying to get a press pass into the Sweets & Snack Expo, put on by the National Confectioners' Association.  The candy show!  I've wanted to go to this show since forever, since Homer Simpson won a free pass to a similar show and got a coveted gummi Venus de Milo, and since I used to watch two episodes of the Food Network's Unwrapped every Monday night.  I think my admittance to the show is kind of a long shot, but I have applied.  So if you know anybody at the National Confectioners' Association, send them an email and tell them you're sweet on Same Old Shannon.