Meeting and Breaking Bread with the Bloggernacle

This past month I met Ben from Juvenile Instructor. What a humble and brilliant person. One of the things that I have most enjoyed about blogging is the opportunity to meet smart people who I might never have met.

Ben was the fifth member of the JI crew that I have met in person. I met with Ben at Denny’s in Provo. Food has been an important part of meeting folks on the bloggernacle. I met with David G. at the Fuddruckers in Frisco, TX after I interviewed at a community college there in 2009. I met Christopher later that year in Rexburg. I was teaching there and he was visiting his brother. We had dessert at JB’s. I met Jared T. at the Provo Wingers during the summer of 2010. He was in town for the Bushman seminar at BYU.

That meeting at Wingers was also the first time I met, in person, BHodges. We have had breakfast a couple of times since then. He is now a perma here at FPR. He is also one of my favorite people in the world.

I first met Kristine at the presentation of papers at the end of the Bushman seminar that year.

I met Ben Pratt and Ardis Parshall for breakfast at a little cafe on Main Street in Salt Lake City on the Friday after Thankgiving 2009.

I have met jupiterschild. If I told you when and where….I would have to kill you.

I met Bored in Vernal in March 2010 at the SMPT meetiing in Orem. We had lunch together that August at Sunstone. Thai food. fMhLisa and crazywomancreek were also at that lunch. I met up again with crazywomancreek in the last few weeks. My 3 kids and I where in Cheyenne when I found out that my wife’s flight into Denver was going to be late, if not delayed a day. I reached out to crazywomancreek, one of two people I know in Cheyenne. She and her great family met us for dinner and then led us to the Cheyenne Goodwill and helped my 9 year old find combat boots…the thing he wanted to buy that day.

Sunstone is a good place…well…for meeting bloggernacle people, at least. There I met Matt Bowman, Ziff, Kaimi, and Bridget Jack. I also met briefly met KLS, Mark Brown, Tracy M, mfranti, Karen Hinckley, and Steve Evans there. I saw SteveP there as well, though I had met him at SMPT earlier in the year.

I sat behind Scott B. once. However, I did not realize it at the time.

Earlier this year, at Restoration Studies in Independence, MO, I met John Hamer. I also presented with Tracy M, Kristine, and Russell Fox at that conference.

Silus Grok recently stayed with my family for a weekend in Casper. My children think he is one of the funniest people on the earth.

DMI Dave had breakfast with me here in Casper not too long ago.

Last Thursday, I had lunch with Mark Brown. We talked for almost 3 hours.

I met John C. many moons before I met the bloggernacle.

DavidHSundwall was my hometeacher when he was a teenager and I was in Primary. He has always been kind.

I would like to add to this list. I am sure that I have left some off this list and I apologize if I have. If this just reminds you of a painful experience, I apologize for that, too.

Blogging is not the most important thing in my life, but it has made it a better one. The bloggernacle is my people.

Thanks.