Yesterday, I posted about my VidCon date with Ian, and yes, it was a bit sickening. (The post, not the date.) It also brought to my attention that I hadn't yet actually shared anything about the rest of my trip to California to meet new Internet friends and hug the vintage ones.

On June 26, I hopped on a plane to LAX to spend a week with Ian, Pham, Nico, Hung, Joey, Tiffany, Nick, Katherine, Patrick, Ashley, and Treavor. Most of us knew each other from VEDA (Vlog Every Day in August), an annual YouTube project. I only made a handful of videos last year before realizing that my style of vlogging involved a lot of time in Photoshop and iMovie and couldn't be a daily thing unless I quit my job. But we've found other ways to keep in touch since then, and now that we've shared beds and drinks together, I can honestly say that all of those people are more delightful in person than they appear online.

We took Anaheim by tipsy storm, starting with Disneyland and Munchkin and ending with YouTube celebrities and VidCon dance parties. Favorite moments from the week, in no particular order:

• Receiving the following series of text messages from Ian: "Joey has just full-on rolled over onto me. O_o // I'm trapped // Also, being sleepy is lame. // Also help. // S.O.S."
• Establishing that Joey cuddles everything.
• Drunk Pham whispering long stories to me while I was meant to be keeping score for Munchkin.
• Having my name misspelled by every Starbucks barista in the county.
• Changing my Facebook status to "in a relationship."
• Critiquing bathroom doors and everything else with Ashley.
• Proposing to Katherine with a Ring Pop.
• Seeing Nick Pitera, iJustine, Alli Trippy, the guys from Gentlemen's Rant, and so many other lovely YouTube stars in person.
• Realizing that I had a network of good friends, many of whom had just met me, trying to work things out for me and Ian.
• The "Excuse Me" dance.
• Discovering that Treavor and I somehow have a mutual, not-from-the-Internet friend in Texas.
• Getting Treavor to strike a pose with Katherine's foot.
• Baby Wingman, new on TLC.
• Being serenaded by every person at least once.
• Watching Rich gush about movies and realizing I was experiencing 90 Second Love without YouTube.
• Earning the respect of Wil Wheaton for being part of the best (and only) cheering section at his Settlers of Catan game with Ian.
• Texts and tweets from Smugs.
• Hank Green dancing with Felicia Day.
• Eating at In-n-Out for the first time and getting an extra penny back from the charming cashier.
• Finding an abandoned cherry on the floor outside our hotel room door one morning.
• Taking the following picture:

It was a really marvelous week, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. If you feel like basking in other peoples' memories from VidCon, here are some other recaps you can read or watch: Ashley (blog), Hung (vlog), Joey (tweets, blog, and vlog), Pham (blog), Patrick (blog and vlog), Ian (vlog), and all of the other ones I was too lazy to find. Ahem.

Hope to see some of your pretty faces there next year. Or at VEDA, since I'm stupidly doing that again in a few days. Or in Chicago! People who come to visit me are rewarded with pizza and/or cupcakes.

If you knew me at all in August of 2011, you knew that I was having a lot of fun with VEDA (Vlog Every Day in August) and my new YouTube friends. You also probably got at least one message that said, "Umm. I most definitely have a crush on Ian."

By September, you probably wanted to kill me to stop me from texting things like, "Did you see what he posted on Twitter? Swooooon." Every. Five. Minutes.

I'll spare you the nauseatingly sweet and sappy middle portion of this story, but after months of non-stop flirting over Twitter and then iMessage, Ian asked me if I'd go on a date with him at VidCon. I agreed—wholeheartedly, enthusiastically, . . . ecumenically.

The date was one month ago today, and it was lovely. So were the next two dates we crammed in while in California. So were all of the international Skype dates we've had since then. I can't stop smiling. It's one thing to be dating the guy was voted 20SB's sexiest male blogger (and best overall blogger), but it's another thing entirely to have a boyfriend who is completely caring, selfless, charming, clever, respectful, nerdy, funny, and weird in all the right ways.

Thanks for a really great first month, Ian Holland. I'm really glad I get to have you in my life. xx

I have approximately four more loads of laundry to wash and dry before tomorrow morning, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to talk about boys, travel, podcasts, and tigers. We definitely don't need to discuss why I have four loads of laundry to do in the first place. That's what Laundrybook is for.

The past four months seem like a blur to me. Things on the job front have been unstable for the first time in my working life, and I'm only now realizing how much that has affected my confidence in searching for new freelance opportunities and moving forward with related career plans. Meanwhile, I've been participating in more #winetoreach events with my new Internet friends, spending more time with my family (and more time outside with books), eating healthier, and dubbing Ben Franklin my spirit animal. These are all pretty great things, and they've definitely helped me from becoming Queen of the Useless and Unnecessary Pity Parties. (Because really, the job stuff will work itself out, and it's a blessing just to have a job around here.

Also, my little brother graduated from Columbia College in Chicago with a degree in screenwriting and being awesome.

Other really cool things that have been keeping me busy:

• Planning a trip to Anaheim, CA, for VidCon 2012. I get to hang out with many of my favorite Twitter/YouTube friends, and I am crazy excited. The agenda includes a day at Disney, a night of go-karting, a girls-only pillow fight, so many glittery Katherine (@purekatherine) hugs, Ashley (@writetoreach) watching me sleep, Pham (@phampants) rolling his eyes at me, and a lot of ducking and running away when I see famous YouTube personalities face-to-face.
• Planning a date with Ian (@Dutchface) while he's in the States. (Eee!) After months of chatting on Twitter and then iMessage, we're excited for real hugs. And punches. (From me. Ian doesn't hit ladies.)
• Tiger Thursdays. (Tigers don't hit ladies, either.)
• Emailing Katherine twenty times a day about crafts, apartments, and crafts that we would like to use in decorating our future apartment. I don't know if she was serious when she first suggested moving to Chicago and becoming roomies, but it was a brilliant idea from its inception. We even have plans to bug the apartment as a means of gathering content for a weekly podcast, and Katherine had the brilliant idea to get a place with a third bedroom, dedicated to crafts and a vlogging studio set-up.

I've also been listening to podcasts on a pretty regular basis at work and at home (as well as editing the first episode of Men with Skirts, my new podcast that will be launching in July). Podcasts I truly love: You Look Nice Today; Back to Work; Bob and Dan Cast; and My Brother, My Brother, and Me. Podcasts I always mean to listen to but have fallen super behind on: The Talk Show (Mule Radio version), This American Life, and Bullseye. And then there are the boring podcasts I listen to because they provide me with insider tips about budgeting or computer hacks or whatnot, but I don't want to give away all of my secrets in one post.

(Keep it secret. Keep it safe.)