For about a year now, I’ve been providing a community service — not to work off any convictions, just out of the goodness of my little blogger heart. Many of you are aware of my weekly appearance on WCAV CBS-19 where I’ve provided the extremely popular Blog of the Week segment.

Once I got over my shock that there WOULD NOT be a private, fully furnished trailer with my name on the door and that there WOULD NOT be a hair and makeup team, I settled into a weekly routine that went something like this:

Tuesday, 5pm – stop working, sprint upstairs and put on TV-worthy clothes. Slather on more makeup. Fret over hair. Add more powder. Change top again. 5:45pm, get in car, drive to station. 6:30pm, start paying attention to what’s going on behind the door at The Newsplex. 6:40ish – enter studio, take seat, and provide LIVE commentary on a featured local blog.  6:55pm, call home to see what they want for dinner. 7:15pm, pick up dinner. 8pm, arrive home, watch video clip of segment. Fret over hair. Start thinking about featured blogger for the next week.

I really loved every minute of it. I loved being recognized by people all over town. I loved that my far-flung family and friends could watch the video clips no matter where they are. I loved the chance to improve my live TV broadcast skills and to have the opportunity to get better with each week. But mainly, I loved that the segment gave a well-deserved focus on local bloggers, many of whom are friends or became friends through the Blog of the Week.

Past tense, eh?

Yes. I’m hanging up my Blog of the Week TV hat — I will provide one more week of Blog of the Week coverage and then the segment will live on with two very worthy replacements, Jason Hull of OpenSource Connections and Amy Eastlack of SuzySaid Cville. I want to thank everyone who was featured in this segment, who watched it on TV or online and who helped promote the segment via their blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It’s been a great ride.

All the videos are view-able on the Newsplex Web site and if you’re really nostalgic, you can read all the Blog of the Week posts on STLWorkingMom.

I will miss the many friends I’ve made at The Newsplex; Dan Schutte, Sara Ross, Travis Koshko, Brantley Ussery, Jim Hanchett, Brad Ramsey, John Rogers, Mark Tenia, that guy that always opens the door for me, Cheryn Stone, Jennifer Black , Tim Free, Tom La and Liz Palka just to name a few (gosh, I hope I haven’t left anyone out). Beth Duffy was my friend even before the TV segment, and I enjoyed having the chance to see her every week.

I’m taking the step back from TV to get some time back to focus on My Gift of a Year and to better accommodate my full-time day job at Standing Partnership, which has added a lot of travel into my schedule for 2010. (Also? I’m running out of fabulous TV outfits and do not want to do any repeats).

Also? It’s time to let someone else sweat under the lights of live, weekly, local television.  I’ve had my 15 minutes. Now if Oprah’s people call, that will be another story entirely.

And now, here’s some link love for all of the Blog of the Week’s I covered in 2009 and a few from 2010.

Dream House Blog http://www.dreamhouseblog.com/

www.cvillenews.com and www.cvilleblogs.com

The Children’s Book Garden http://thebookgarden.wordpress.com/

Life in Sugar Hollow http://lifeinsugarhollow.blogspot.com/

Vale of Evening Fog http://valeofeveningfog.blogspot.com/

Dried Figs and Wooden Spools http://driedfigsandwoodenspools.blogspot.com/

The blog of Encyclopedia Virginia http://blog.encyclopediavirginia.org/

NailGun Media http://www.nailgunmedia.com/blog/

Bella Eats http://bellaeats.com/

Amy’s Yard http://www.amysyard.com/

Polly Vous Francais http://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/

Suzy Said Charlottesville http://suzysaid.com/charlottesville

Small and Chic in C’ville http://www.smallchic.blogspot.com/

Run Molly Run! http://runmollyrun.wordpress.com/

The 2.0 Life (which is now Digitizd) http://www.digitizd.com/

Edible C’ville http://ediblecville.blogspot.com/

Crown of Corn http://crownofcorn.blogspot.com/

A Life Less Ordinary http://elenadoodle.blogspot.com/

A Day’s Outing http://adaysouting.com/

Charlottesville Sports and Social Club blog http://www.cvillesocial.com/

Sara’s Era http://www.sarasera.com/

C’ville Entremom http://cvilleentremom.com/

Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA blog http://www.caspca.org/

Family Hack http://www.familyhack.com/

Late Bloomer Bride http://latebloomerbride.com/

Traveling with Baby http://travelingwithbaby.wordpress.com/

Locallectual http://blog.locallectual.com/

C’ville Words http://cvillewords.com/

The United States of Jamerica http://usjamerica.wordpress.com/

Sweet Pea Photoblog http://www.sweet-pea-photoblog.com/

Jen on the Edge http://jenontheedge.com/

Shawn & Gwenn. A Boy. A Girl. A Virus.  http://www.shawnandgwenn.com/category/blog/

Real Central VA http://www.realcentralva.com/

Living United http://livingunited.typepad.com/

The Food Geek http://thefoodgeek.com/

For more Francophile blogs, check out Polly’s blogroll on http://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com

Here’s my interview with Amy Eastlack of SuzySaid C’ville:

How did you get involved with SuzySaid?

SuzySaid was started by a childhood friend of mine (and no her name isn’t Suzy). We went to K – 12 together in Minnesota. We had lost touch over the years (I’ve moved around a lot) but reconnected on Facebook. When I saw SuzySaid on her FB page I immediately wanted to know more. It was EXACTLY what I had been dreaming about doing but hadn’t been able to get the concept from my brain to the computer. Lucky for me she happened to not just work for the company but OWN it! I called her the next day and we quickly agreed that Charlottesville was a perfect market. The Charlottesville Edition was up and running within a couple of months! It was a dream come true for me.

Is it a franchise? How does it work?

No – it’s not a franchise. It truly is a girlfriends network. The women who write the local editions are friends or friends of friends that got involved that way. SuzySaid’s original Fairfield, CT edition launched in March of 2007 when my friend and her girlfriend (see, I told you it was a girlfriend network!) saw there was a void of a “go-to” kind of place for information that was updated daily in their community that specifically targeted their demographic (25-55). While most of our readers are moms, not all are. I personally strive to ensure that my content has something for everyone – so while it can be little mom-centric (I’m a mother of two
girls) it definitely isn’t just about that. We also combine the local info with stuff that Suzy (and her friends) love (which are actually quite often one and the same – a fave AND local).
The concept is built on the basis that word of mouth recommendations trump all else. Women especially go to their girlfriends when they want or need something. So while Suzy is a fictional character- she’s actually a little bit of all of us. She’s all the different girlfriends you go to when you need info., advice and guidance – but she’s all of those girls wrapped up into one – and accessible 24/7.
While it’s a little different than a typical blog it essentially runs the same way. As the “editors” of the local editions we have control over
what we write, when we write it and how we do it. Most of the other local editions are actually a duo or trio, which makes keeping the site constantly updated much easier. I am currently working solo, but that could change over time. There isn’t a set rule about how much you write or how often you update, but we all know what makes the site work. If you’re not updating you’re not accomplishing what you set out to do, really.
One unwritten rule that we have is that we focus on the positive. That isn’t to say that we lie – that’s absolutely not allowed – but if we have a bad/negative experience with a product, business, restaurant, etc we just don’t write it. There are plenty of other sites out there for that kind of stuff – it’s just not what we’re about. We are NOT paid to write articles about anything.

What can area businesses do to be part of the SuzySaid network?
We are, of course, always looking for paid advertisers, but most importantly we’re looking for information on what’s going on around town – who’s out there and what they’re doing. One of the reasons I got so excited about doing this in Charlottesville was that this town embraced the “Buy Local” thing long before it was a trendy. People here truly believe in supporting local businesses and therefore the local economy.
That’s what I’m all about – supporting Charlottesville by getting the information out to the public about all the amazing opportunities we have in our town. There are some things that nearly everyone knows about and I love writing about those, but there are also a lot of things happening that some of us have no idea about. I LOVE when I write a story and hear “I had no idea we had that here” from a reader.
I welcome contact from local businesses!
One of the most highly read sections of the site is actually the Calendar, where we list events that are happening in the community. The beautiful thing about this is that businesses/organizations can enter their event directly from the site. It comes to me for approval/editing and is live within 24 hours. I also love getting press releases, but those usually take 48-72 hours for updating just due to my schedule.
I’m also hosting a once a month event that is open to the public as a way to 1) let people know who I am and what I’m about and 2) mostly to bring women together to build a network of friends and contacts. It’s not about networking from the business-building perspective necessarily (although that happens too) but about going new places, meeting new people and just having a good time! Those events are posted on the site, on our Facebook Fan Page and are always tweeted about in the week leading up to them.

What kind of feedback are you getting from the site?
The feedback has been fabulous! The site design is fun (I can say that because I didn’t do that part) and that seems to draw people in. I really try to keep the articles short and point the reader in the right direction if they want/need more information because, let’s face it, we’re all really busy. We want a place to quickly get the info we need and move on. That’s what people are telling me they like about it so I feel like I’m accomplishing my goals!

What can we expect to see in future months?
I’m so excited about all the great things coming up with SuzySaid!

To begin with you will start to see more “guest writers” – local experts, business owners, personalities, etc. who will be helping me expand what the site has to offer (as I am definitely not an expert on all things!).
Examples of this will be Jenee Libby of EdibleCville filling us in on the best eats in Cville, Kira Sullivan of Stroller Fit offering her health and fitness expertise to new moms, we’ll be working with ACAC on a few really cool things and (on a less healthy note) we’ll be doing a “Winery of the Week” focusing on local wine in addition to working with a local wine shop to beef up our “Wine of the Week” which I, surprisingly, do not drink enough wine to keep up with on my own! This is a partial list – there are so many great things coming up!

We recently launched a weekly feature called “Women at Work” that highlights a local woman entrepreneur.  I am floored by the number of absolutely amazing women in Charlottesville! We will be expanding this feature to include not just business owners, but local women who inspire us.

Additionally, we will continue to work closely with area non-profits in our GIVE section. We will be ramping up our coverage so that we are highlighting a new local organization each week. This is a big part of what we’re all about – helping others – so we’re going to work with organizations to help them get their name out there – find volunteers or whatever their needs are. We will also be teaming up at an even deeper level with a few local women’s organizations – as women are our demographic at SuzySaid (and it’s something I personally feel very strongly about helping with).

The last thing that I want to make sure people know that is coming up is a “Local Gift Buying Guide” that will be coming out prior to the holidays.  This will be a special e-newsletter that will focus completely on the amazing, unique shops, businesses, organizations and restaurants we have in Charlottesville and surrounding areas.

A few things I’d really like people to know about 1) Our twice a week e-newsletter (Monday’s focuses on the week – Friday’s is weekend news) is a quick and easy way to see what is coming up around town. You can subscribe from the site by clicking on the “Subscribe” icon. (and we do NOT sell the info). 2) In addition to the newsletter I update our Facebook Fan Page daily and try to tweet about happenings on Twitter too  3) I LOVE to hear suggestions from readers on what they’d like to see – great deals they’ve gotten – favorite places to eat/go. etc. They can click on “Ask Tell Suzy” icon to share. They can also e-mail me at amy@suzysaid.com. 4) I have a few “Have You Heard What SuzySaid?” T-shirts left that I am selling for $10 and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to PACEM through the Cville PieFest.

This week’s CBS-19 Blog of the Week is The 2.0 Life — How to Thrive in a Digital World. I was particularly excited about this blog because it provides so much value to its audience. Blogger David Pierce, a fourth year student at the University of Virginia began the blog when one of his peers (yes, a 20-something year old) said he didn’t know what GoogleDocs was. (Not to mention, all the people who still haven’t adapted to using an RSS reader, or know how to use Twitter, etc.) Thus, David was inspired to go forth and educate the masses on all topics social media; and he’s doing a really fantastic job with it, too.

I’ll be sending more people David’s way to learn from his “grandma-tested” content.

Prior to the piece, I asked Suzanne some questions about her blog:

Who is reading your blog? Any surprises?

Believe it or not, many men read my blog religiously. They even comment, which you can find in the comments section. I have had several (older) men tell me they call it “research.”

What does the Late Bloomer Groom think of the blog?

He doesn’t read it much, but he said so long as I don’t make him look bad, he’s okay with it.

Your posts are so universally appealing to anyone familiar with the trials and tribulations of relationships. How are you attracting more than a core audience of other LBBs?

I think what we LBBs find surprising in marriage is different from people who married young or not at all. We do all deal with a lot of the same issues, but our perspective on everything is so different.  This “pointing out the differences” could prove to be interesting to anyone.

I have found, again, that men seemed to be attracted to it, because I’m giving them an “inside” peek at how we women feel about being married. I also have several single women who are also finding it interesting – it’s also research for the future!

I am always trying to point out how an LBB might feel about XYZ issue, but also how ANY woman might feel, too. And, I try to do it with some humor. Laughter beats a temper tantrum any day (though I don’t always win that battle).

What’s the best part about being new to marriage over 40? The worst?

The best is the companionship and the fact that we have all these little rituals, traditions and inside jokes. It makes me feel like I’m an insider in a secret club. It’s comforting knowing someone is “in it” with you. (Other than that…well, I won’t go into anything else that isn’t PG, if you know what I mean.)

The worst is not knowing if all this compromise is for the good of the marriage or are we chipping away at who we are/our dreams? The other day, I passed on a buying a chair I really liked because I knew Husband wouldn’t like it. If I was single, I’d be sitting in it right now. So that “checking in” thing can be quite tedious. (I also don’t like not having complete control of the temperature!)

What kind of advice do you get from those of us who married when we were children? Do you pay attention to any of it?

I do pay attention to any and all advice. But, I am acutely aware that people who got married early also may not know what they are missing, which colors their perspective. Singles get used to a level of control and autonomy – being able to make decisions by yourself without consulting another. (See chair reference above )  Suddenly having someone care about (and have opinions about!) your every move can be disconcerting.

What advice do you have for brides at ANY age?

Never underestimate the power of saying “I love you” to your spouse every day. Also, try to find the humor wherever, and whenever, you can. Laughing can really blow off some steam. Beats slamming doors.

Anything else you want us to know?

I would love to have more LBBs to comment or even guest blog with their own advice. I’m just giving my viewpoint, but I’d really like to hear from women in similar situations – to see who they are dealing with things. I certainly don’t have all the answers – just lots of observations.

My dear friend, colleague and fellow blogger Mistie came to Charlottesville.

I’ve been wanting to get her here since Day One and Mistie, with her love of history, was pretty interested in coming to Charlottesville, too.

We had a day and a half to work together on a project for our client (and our favorite airport). I picked her up at CHO on Thursday afternoon and she flew out again before dawn Saturday morning.

So late on Friday, I turned to Mistie and said, “How would you like to visit James Madison’s Montpelier?” She wouldn’t admit it, but I think there was a bit of a High School Musical-style squeal in her answer. Off we went (the historic spot is a mere 20 minutes from my home) and made it just in time for the next tour. The photo is of Mistie standing on Montpelier’s terrace, with the Blue Ridge in the background.

Of course, as we took our tour, our wheels were turning with all the ways we’d like to drive visitors to Montpelier, an attraction that gets just a third of the visitors that Monticello sees annually. We’d love to do the work, and we make a heck of a team.

I get so completely fired up when one of my team members visits (five of the 25 from St. Louis have visited me in C’ville so far). We are a force of nature and get some amazing work done in a short amount of time.

Mistie — it was so great to have you here. There’s no shortage of historic spots so we’ll squeeze a new one in every time you fly in.