10 Reasons Why My Trip to LA Rocked. Part 1

This post has been a long time coming but ya know I stay tardy for all the parties. Anyway, 2 weeks ago, I was in Los Angeles for the first time EVER. I went for the Blogging While Brown Conference and decided to stay a coupla days extra to run the streets and have time to do hoodrat things with my friends. And that I did. It was an AWESOME 5 days. One of those trips that was just dope from start to finish. Here’s why:

* I went to the beach for the first time this year. My girl, Felicia Leatherwood of Loving Your Hair, took me to a beach by Malibu to celebrate her mom’s birthday. We laid out under the sun, ate all types of snacks and got slightly bronzed up.

Felicia looking all dope and summery

Also, many thanks to Felicia for cooking me dinner (and making me eat vegetables e’em though I’m 5 years old and don’t like most veggies). AND for whipping my locs up! I LOVE YOU, FELICIA!

* I got to hang with my crew, Scott Hanselman and Adria Richards. It’s ALWAYS a great time meeting up with my peoples and this was no different. Scott and Adria are 2 of the smartest, tech geeks I know. They also happen to be very selfless people who give more than take. I’m not sure if they know it but they’re my mentors. Love them dearly. And they gave the opening keynote at the Blogging While Brown Conference on Efficiency and Information Overload. And they KILT IT!!! KILT IT, I SAY!!!

Adria, Scott and I.

Oh and by the way, if you Google “Scott” (yes, just ONE word. SCOTT), Scott Hanselman is on the homepage, right after Scott Tissue. THAT is truly badass.

* Went to the Blogging While Brown Conference for the third year in a row. I feel like a veteran. I can’t mention my trip to LA without talking about BWB, which is like a family reunion where you learn stuff. As always, I had an awesome time and walked away with a lot. BWB is my annual stop and every year, it gets better. And it’s ALWAYS good to reconnect with people.

April Davis, Angel Laws, Adria & I the day before the conference

This year’s keynote speaker was Angel Laws of ConcreteLoop. First time I met Angel was at the 2009 BWB where she spoke on a panel. Fast-forward two years and Angel is keynoting. How DOPE is that??? Very! Her insight is always great to hear, and she’s so down to Earth that you can’t help but love her. She’s hella inspiring, building an empire without ever compromising her values and integrity. Angel is that business! PROPS!!!

* One of the highlights of my trip was meeting Kim Coles. Yes, THAT Kim Coles. And she is EVERYTHING. You hear me? EVERY.THING. We’ve been tweeting each other for a minute and when I found out she was coming to the Blogging While Brown Conference, I was uber excited! I mean, this is a woman I’ve been watching on TV for almost two years. For her to even give a damb bout who I am was enough to make me *leyomi drop*.

Kim & I. Owwww!!!

Long story short, I MET KIM COLES! And we had lunch (with the crew) and had a bit of an unconference (more on that to come on a later blog post). Kim is down to Earth and is sooo warm. She makes me think of Grandma’s apple pie. She just radiates light and I’m soo glad we got to connect.

* My friends won Black Weblog Awards. This was the first year the Black Weblog Awards had a live ceremony and it was a fun 2 hours. What was dopest was that a bunch of my friends won! YAYYY!!! And I had to accept for 3 of them. Afrobella won for “Best Fashion and Beauty Blog,” PBG won “Best New Blog” for Dirty Pretty Thangs and the Blacking It Up crew won for “Best Podcast.” So yes, I accepted their awards on their behalf and almost did the dougie that one time. And my dude Slim Jackson won two awards for Single Black Male. GET ‘EM, SLIM!!!

Slim Jackson & I holding awards he won, the ones I collected for folks and my finalist trophies.

No, I didn’t win. Very Smart Brothas swept the floor with me in the “Best Humor Blog” category for the 2nd year in a row. DAMB THEM FOR HAVING SUCH A DOPE ASS BLOG THAT MAKES EVERYONE (and me) LAUGH! Ugh! In fact, I owe The Champ and Panama hate mail. Who told them to be good at this? *throws tomatoes at VSB* And then Sister Toldja beat DumbestTweets.com in the “Best Microblog” category for her Twitter account. WHO TOLD HER TO BE WITTY AND INTERESTING IN 140 CHARACTERS??? Lemme send her a howler too.

LOL. No but really. I couldn’t have lost to better folks and talented writers. It’s not like I lost to Lil Duval so I’m good. hehe.

But yes, this is part 1 of my reasons why LA was dope post. Tomorrow shall be the rest. In the meantime, getchu a piece of the photo album I posted on my Facebook page with the rest of the pictures from this trip. Album HERE.