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Home » Blogging » Camp Mighty – Stupid is Always Fun – My Embarrassing Encounters with The Bloggess

Camp Mighty – Stupid is Always Fun – My Embarrassing Encounters with The Bloggess

Last Updated February 15, 2016. Published November 20, 2012. By Mindy

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After the downer that was my Camp Mighty recap, I thought I’d better hurry up and share the highlight of the entire trip, which is the saga of my interactions with one of my blogging heroes, Jenny Lawson – aka The Bloggess.  If you aren’t familiar with Jenny’s writing, you need to be.  Not only is she sharply witty but she’s one of the most open and honest bloggers out there.  I admire her for being open about her anxiety disorder and her struggle with self harming, because I struggle with these things, too.  And I know that by being in her position, and showing that you can have these issues and still be a success, she has made an impact on several people’s lives, and surely has even saved some lives.  I just downright admire her.  I blew through her book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened in two nights.  I basically want to be as cool as Jenny Lawson when I grow up.

When I found out Jenny was going to be a speaker at Camp Mighty, I felt a mixture of excitement and nervousness. This might be my chance to meet one of my blogging idols.  But what would I say to her?  “Thank you” sounds stupid. “I think you’re super rad” sounds equally dumb.  Who am I kidding?  I know I’m too shy to even approach her.

Camp Mighty officially kicked off with a Welcome Dinner on Thursday night, complete with an ice breaker bingo game and a very generous hosted wine bar.  After running around with my bingo card and making *ahem* several trips to the bar for Chardonnay refills, I suddenly needed to take my sweaty self to the restroom.  I entered the lobby and turned the corner into the hallway, and there, right in front of me, was my blogging hero.  Please add “YOU’RE JENNY LAWSON!” to the list of idiotic things to say to your heroes, which is what I totally said.  Followed by, “Can I hug you?”  Ugh, really Mindy?  But of course, Jenny is the greatest and she said “of course” and she gave me a hug.  And it was awesome.  And in my mind, Camp Mighty was already a success.

The sober reality of the next day made me too shy to approach her and apologize for my weirdness the night before, and despite seeing her be approached by several other campers and her being totally friendly and nice, I just couldn’t do it.

(That night, at the Space dance party, I ended up leaving the party early because I had an anxiety attack.  I’ll do a whole post on this later but just keep this in the back of your mind because it’s important to this story.)

The following day (Saturday now), Jenny’s panel kicked off the activities for the day.  Her panel was, of course, hilarious, heartwarming, inspiring, and I’ll just say hilarious again.  She talked about taking criticism – “If no one is judging you, you’re probably not doing anything.”  Success and failure – “It doesn’t make you a failure just because you failed at one thing.” Making decisions – “Always do something stupid. Stupid is always fun.”  And coping with difficult tasks – When she was nervous about recording her book on tape, Neil Gaiman’s advice to her was “Pretend you’re good at it,” which I’m pretty sure I’m about to get tattooed on my body somewhere.  Also, I can’t remember exactly what was discussed, but I remember Jenny saying something about having anxiety the day before, and I remember thinking I wanted to tell her that I had problems with anxiety, too.  And maybe we could both feel less alone about it.

Camp Mighty - Stupid is Always Fun - My Embarrassing Encounters with The Bloggess
{Jenny (on the right) during her panel, saying funny and smart things and showing off her see-through hand.  Moderator Maggie is clearly envious.}

After her panel was over, I went outside to try to get my book signed and tell her about my anxiety but she was gone.  In fact, I didn’t see her the rest of the day, and when she wasn’t at the Farewell dinner that evening, I assumed she had gone back home. The disappointment that I had blown my chance to properly talk to her hit me pretty hard.  Darn my shyness.  Darn my social anxiety.  I felt like a failure.

After waking up Sunday morning, my roommate was telling me her events of the morning and casually mentioned that she saw Jenny in the hotel cafe.  Oh!  She’s still around!  But what are the odds of running into her, especially with the luck I’d been having all weekend.  Slim.

I quickly showered and got ready to go settle our hotel bill with my two roommates.  After I was done paying my share, I was waiting in the lobby for my roomie to get her credit card back, when I see Jenny Lawson walk across the lobby and out the front door.  I immediately began an internal debate with myself:  Should I run after her?  No, she probably doesn’t want to be bothered.  And you already made a fool of yourself that first night.  But remember the anxiety stuff you wanted to tell her about? She probably doesn’t care.  She probably hears stuff like that all the time.  But this might be your one and only chance to talk to her!  And why did you come to Camp Mighty in the first place?  To get inspired to take some risks, right?  Eff it, I’m running after her.

So I did, without even telling my poor roomie where I was going, because I knew if I said it outloud I would begin to doubt myself again.

I ran after her through the walkways of the hotel, yelling her name until she stopped to turn around.  In my shaky voice I said, “Hi, my name is Mindy and I just wanted to say thank you for your presentation yesterday, it was really funny and touching, and I have anxiety too, and I spent half the space party crying in my hotel room.”  She looked and me and smiled and said, “Me, too.”  She explained she got overwhelmed and that’s why she wasn’t around much on Saturday.  I told her I could relate.  She told me I’m not a failure and I told her I really needed to hear that and I wanted to thank her because she makes me feel like I’m not alone.  Then she said, “Thank you, you just made my morning.”  I’ll never, ever forget when Jenny Lawson told me I made her morning.  Then we hugged and I apologized for my wet hair and she said it was okay, and then I said goodbye and floated away.

As I was floating back down, I realized I should have asked to take a picture with her.  D’oh!  But it’s okay, I’ll forever have this memory.

I made my way back towards the lobby as my roomie was coming out.  I apologized for abandoning her and told her why I did, and she said she totally understood.  Then I told her all about my talk with Jenny, my voice still shaky from nervousness and excitement.  I was on Cloud 9.  All the difficulties and disappointments of the previous two days had suddenly melted away and Camp Mighty was now 110% worth it.

About an hour later, my roomie and I were back in the lobby, storing our luggage while we went to get breakfast.  As we were headed out, there Jenny was, seemingly waiting for transportation to the airport with some other people.  The universe put her in front of me again, so I seized it.  I approached her again (“Hi, it’s me, that annoying girl who keeps bothering you”) and asked if I could take a picture with her.  Of course she said yes, because she is amazing and kind.

My roomie told us both to say “Yay Mighty!”

Camp Mighty - Stupid is Always Fun - My Embarrassing Encounters with The Bloggess

Then my roomie said, “On second thought, maybe ‘Yay Xanax!’ would be more appropriate?”  We both agreed and perked right up.

Camp Mighty - Stupid is Always Fun - My Embarrassing Encounters with The Bloggess

So the moral of this story?  Always do something stupid.  Stupid is always fun.  And Jenny Lawson is the greatest.

(She’ll never read this, but thank you Jenny for being so incredibly nice to me.  I’ll never forget it.)

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Comments

  1. Jeanette says

    November 20, 2012 at 10:11 am

    I’ve been reading your blogs for a couple of months now, and if it wasn’t for this post I never would have known you had anxiety attacks. You’re amazing and I just wanted to let you know you’re my blogger hero. 🙂

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      November 20, 2012 at 4:08 pm

      Awwww, what a way to start my morning! Thanks Jeanette! Although being someone’s hero is strange, like I feel the need to start eating more vegetables or something.

      Reply
  2. Amanda Mann says

    November 20, 2012 at 4:29 pm

    Mindy my hubby suffers from anxiety so I completely understand where you are coming from. I’m new to a lot of what you posted (just bought her book though, thanks!) and this post made me teary. I know how hard it is to blog sometimes and feel like NO ONE is reading or understands. I wanted to take a minute and tell you this was a great post and keep it up!

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      November 20, 2012 at 5:40 pm

      OMG, you are going to love love love her book! Your husband should read it, too. Thank you for reading and understanding me, Amanda!

      Reply
  3. Jenny, Bloggess says

    November 20, 2012 at 5:27 pm

    I so adore you.

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      November 20, 2012 at 5:40 pm

      Thank you for everything, Jenny. I am typing this from under my desk as I hide from embarrassment, but thank you.

      Reply
  4. Ever After Wendy says

    November 20, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    I also suffer from (sometimes crippling) anxiety, especially in social situtations. I break out in hives which just makes it worse! Not so great on interviews or when speaking in front of groups at work. I’ve resorted to wearing turtlenecks when I know I’m going to do something that triggers it. Thanks for mentioning her book, I’ve been looking for a new read and I’d love to check it out.

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      November 20, 2012 at 5:50 pm

      Wendy! I’m surprised to read this because you seem so confident online. It’s a strange disease, isn’t it? I also get hives when I’m anxious. At my last job, I would have to go into high pressure meetings and my hands would just swell up. I’m sure no one noticed, but due to my paranoia I felt like everyone MUST be staring at me, which made it worse. Thanks for sharing this with me, Wendy. It’s important to remember that we’re not alone and we are all okay. You are going to love Jenny’s book!

      Reply
    • Katelyn B says

      November 20, 2012 at 8:03 pm

      Mindy- Geoff and I both have anxiety disorder, among other invisible ailments, so I absolutely understand where you are coming from. I’m glad you got to meet your blogging hero (and your “can I hug you” interaction made me literally lol because that’s about how it was when I met Josh Groban). I’m so glad to have met you (online) and the next time I’m in CA I seriously need to not be nervous and we need to do a meet up. And yay for finding the Mighty Mindy we all knew was there, even with out a printed life list. You are great, you are mighty, you are Mindy!

      Reply
    • Mindy says

      November 20, 2012 at 9:35 pm

      Why do we always assume celebrities want to hug us? I can’t wait to meet you someday, Katelyn!

      Reply
  5. Hope at Disneyland says

    November 20, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    I always enjoy your candor Mindy. You never seem shy around me, so it sort of throws me off when I read you talk about it because that’s not how I see you. 🙂

    How awesome to have met your blogger hero AND to have her be as kind as she was! I see people I recognize all the time but never approach because I don’t want to be embarrassed when they tell me to buzz off. I’m glad that wasn’t the case with Jenny.

    And duh- who wouldn’t want a Mindy hug? I can’t wait for my next one! 🙂

    Reply
    • Mindy says

      November 20, 2012 at 10:43 pm

      I was SUPER nervous and shy when we had our first meet up (we’ve talked about this!) but of course now I’m (mostly) super comfortable when I’m with my good friends. I still have my moments. If I ever announce I need to use the restroom and don’t come back for 20 minutes, it could be because I have food poisoning but it’s most likely because I’m feeling overwhelmed just need to be alone for a bit.

      Reply
  6. Hope at Disneyland says

    November 20, 2012 at 11:08 pm

    I know, but you don’t *come off* off that way. So either you’re a better masker than you think or I’m too distracted by my own nervousness to notice anyone elses!;) lol

    Reply
  7. Brittney Scholnick says

    November 21, 2012 at 2:40 am

    I also LOVED Let’s Pretend this Never Happened, my boss and I totally listened to the audio books while we were doing a boring project and had to pause it occasionally so we could breathe because we were laughing so hard! I had read the Bloggess’s posts religiously and was shocked to find out that she had anxiety disorder, and I’m very surprised to find out that you do too- you are amazing ladies who have clearly found a way to reach out to your readers and I’m very proud of you!!!

    Reply

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