Minnesota Bloggers.

For the past couple of years, one of my more identifiable traits is the fact that I love to meet bloggers.

Love, love, love.

I would do it for a living if I didn’t actually need to work full time to support my drug habit (i.e. insulin). But since I do have that habit to keep up, my ability to flounce around the country all willy-nilly is basically relegated to my vacations and/or business trips and/or how far my car will carry me in a weekend.

So when my boyfriend told me that his nephew was getting married (his nephew is the son of his half-brother, who is many, many years older than him) and that I could go with him to the wedding in Minnesota, I jumped at the chance. To meet bloggers, of course.

I made the arrangements to meet with a few bloggers at Mall of America, which is not only centrally located (well, kinda) but it’s also a stone’s throw from the airport, making it a good pitstop before flying back to New Jersey after the wedding weekend.

Scott Johnson – yes, the Scott Johnson – picked me up from my boyfriend’s brother’s house and we drove to Mall of America where we met up with Amber, Heather, and my friend Bob from Diabetes Station (I’ve known Bob since I was 16! I’ve know him, Betty and Scott Strumello the longest… they were there when I graduated from HIGH SCHOOL. I was a kid!) and his daughter, Sandee.

OK, before I continue, I want to say 2 things about Scott.

1) The dude has blue eyes. No, like blue eyes. I thought they were brown. Or… something. I don’t think I’d ever seen a close up picture of Scott before and, like, woah. Surprise.

2) The dude is tall. See picture below (wait, not yet! I’m not done with the story yet!).

3) He’s really nice. (OK, so that’s three things, but yeah whatever).

When we got to the mall, we quickly found each other, and then divided again so we could all find something to eat (although I was coming from a crazy brunch so all I had was a salad since I was suffering disastrous blood sugars). Even though this was the first time meeting everyone – and even though I was the lone East-slash-West Coaster – I still felt very comfortable and we had no problem getting into even the nitty-gritty of how difficult it is to live with diabetes and how we’ve managed to cope through the years. We talked about infusion sets, and we talked about diabetes educators, and our diagnosis stories. We even spotted a teen girl wearing a Cozmo! See – we’re EVERYWHERE. Muahahaha…

We were at Mall of America for about three hours, and then Erik and his mom arrived to retrieve me and take me away to the airport… ::sniff::

It was a wonderful time and when all was over I gave everyone a big hug because when you’re a diabetic, you’re family. End of story.

Me, Scott, Bob, Sandee, Heather and Amber.