road trip

(For the record, I’m still mourning the loss of my x, g and u keys.  If you see one of those letters missing in my post, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Oh, and the “shift” key is also a little wonky.)

Today is a frenetic day at the Slackermama household.  We’re packing up and leaving early this afternoon for a long weekend in Elko.  (Which reminds me… why is Veteran’s Day on TUESDAY this year and not Monday??)  I’m not taking my laptop with me, since the poor thing would probably spontaneously combust if I exposed it to any more stress.  Kile will have his laptop that I’ll be able to use if need be and I’ll of COURSE have my phone with me.  If I don’t fall off the NaBloPoMo wagon altogether, then there might just be some very short entries or entries compose entirely of images so be prepared.  I don’t know what the iPhone internet coverage is like in Elko, after all, and there might be no 3G or Edge to speak of.  Still, I’ll have my in-laws wireless so that’s SOMETHING.

On top of the cleaning and packing and laundry and packing and packing, I had a parent-teacher conference with Harry’s 3rd grade teacher this morning.  It went just about as I expected it would.  Harry is doing GREAT academically, testing at the top of his class in both Reading and Math.  Socially and emotionally, however… not so great.  He’s very sensitive and is prone to overreacting.  He also has problems with other kids and often takes disappointments and small diagreements far too personally.  She says that barely a day goes by that Harry doesn’t cry about something.  She did say that he has improved in the last month or so.  I told her not to hesitate to call me if she has any concerns.  Though, I’m not sure what I could do as we’ve dealt with the same issues here at home.  He’s a very rigid, very sensitive, very emotional little boy.

He’s not going to be little for much longer, either.  In fact, Monday he turns 9 years old.  NINE YEARS OLD.  I can hardly believe it.  I see pictures of him as a small boy, as a baby, and I just boggle at the boy he has become.  These 9 years have passed so quickly.  It makes me wonder what the next 9 years will hold.  Because 9 more years is about all we have with him.  Then he’ll be going to college and leaving us behind.

Okay, NOW I’m depressed!  On that happy note… wish us happy travels!  I’ll let you know how the trip goes as soon as I can.

As I mentioned last week, my in-laws came to stay with us on Thursday.  Luckily, we were able to get the house pretty much under control by then.  And I feel I should probably say again (though I have said it before) that I get along great with my in-laws.  I am really lucky in that regard.  So when they said they would be going to Virginia City on Friday afternoon and asked if me and the kids wanted to go along, well, sure I did!

I’d only been to Virginia City once before.  Kile and I had gone up for the day once when Harry was just a baby.  So I was interested to go back and see if it was like I remembered.  It’s an interesting town.  The entire village is a historical monument and is filled with Civil War Era homes and buildings and while there is a lot there that is falling down around the knees, it’s also got a lot of character.  It’s also VERY touristy.  For instance, the first shop we went into was a leather goods store that boasted everything they sold was $20 or less.  No foolin’!  (I almost bought a purse there.)

There are people who are paid to dress up in period-style costumes and walk the streets, talking to tourists and posing for pictures.  There’s a horse-drawn carriage for rides, a trolly car that drives around the various historical landmarks and more saloons in a one mile radius than I think I’ve ever seen before in my life.  Not only are there a lot of saloons, but there’s a lot of CANDY.  There are several shops devoted entirely to ice cream, candy, fudge or whatever else.  Most of the candy and fudge is made on the premises and I couldn’t resist getting a 1/2 pound of sinful peanut brittle for Kile.  We stopped for ice cream cones and Harry’s eyes about fell out of his head.  That was the highlight of his day, perhaps even his week.   The cones were amazing and even Liam loved sharing my strawberry cheesecake ice cream with me.

The kids were actually pretty well-behaved.  We left after a couple hours and drove back through Carson City on our way to Reno.  I sat in the back of my in-laws truck, between the two car seats and if I wasn’t getting smacked by Liam, I was getting clawed by Evie.  We had to pull off the road at one point so I could feed Evie, and I was impressed that she’d gone as long as she had before wanting to eat.  We met up with Kile and my sister-in-law’s family who had just gotten to town and had dinner at the Olive Garden.  Needless to say, it was a LONG day.  But fun was had and isn’t that the point?

This is the place to get a beaver felt custom made hat while you wait

Lots of museums in this town too.  But oh, the brick is so pretty.

I saw this and thought of a particular someone.

Harry desperately had to use the bathroom so we stopped at this saloon to use their facilities.  They had lots of grisly paintings on the wall.  Like this one.

An absolutely gorgeous church.

Harry got busted.  Interestingly enough, they let him keep his ice cream cone.

Do I buy it?  Not for all the gold in Virginia City.

Quite the view.

It really is a cute little town.  I’d like to have a decent camera and spend a day there sometime.

Evie enjoyed herself too.

I haven’t had much computer time today, but here is a little peek at what I’ve been up to with my in-laws today. I’ll follow with more pictures and the rest of the story soon. I know you’re all probably waiting with bated breath. (is it too late to insert sarcasm?). I’m writing this on my iPhone in the back of my in-laws truck, squeezed between two car seats (and subsequently trapped), with Liam screaming in my ear so I had better cut this short. Mwah!

Before I get into what will most certainly be a long-winded and winding post, I want to say ahead of time that the people this year at BlogHer were fabulous.  And that it really looks like a lot of people had a really awesome time.  I had my own little set of issues this year but even so, there was a lot to love this year (even though the title of this post might suggest the contrary).

The Good

• The Westin is a tip-top sort of hotel.  The room… it was FABLOUS.  I wish I had taken pictures.  It was beautiful.  White sheets, white bedspread, 10 foot ceilings, recessed paneling, floor length windows, sparkling chandeliers, glass doorknobs, plasma tv… it was plush, plush, PLUSH.  Easily the nicest hotel I think I’ve ever stayed in.  I loved that room.  And the Heavenly Bed?  Was not an exaggeration.  It was HEAVENLY.  I think I died in that bed.
• The childcare.  KiddieCorps really did a great job with the kids.  Liam had a BLAST over there and I don’t think he missed us one tiny bit while he was in there.  They had games, movies, snacks… and a pretty much endless supply of chocolate milk.  They even took Liam down to meet GROVER (which his no-count mother couldn’t even manage to do).  When we realized we’d left Liam’s diapers in the valet-parked van, they generously and awesomely told us it was no problem and covered Liam’s diaper-shortage.
• All the fabulous women that I got a chance to meet or reconnect with.  I’m not going to link them here because I do hope to do a links post at some point in time.  But seriously.  I got some big time warm fuzzies from some of you all and I puffy pink heart every single one of you.  If anything, I’m severely depressed that I didn’t get more time to spend with you, slobbering all over your (fabulous) shoes.
• The swag.  There was some GREAT swag this year!  I mean, no, I didn’t get any laptop or Wii Fit or cameras or anything like that BUT… I got some great stuff regardless.  My kids loved the stuff that I brought home for them (Harry is a particular fan of the Magic 8 Ball and the bracelet/zip drive from PBS Kids).  I haven’t even had a real good chance to go through it all and see what all is there, but I love the tote bag and the Zazzle suite (where we could drop off what we didn’t want, pick up what others don’t want, etc) was a GREAT idea.  Since I didn’t need to worry about packing restrictions this year, I stopped by there and grabbed some extra goodies.  I even managed to get a go at the “Swag Suite” before we left and got all sorts of nifty stuff up there too.  And even then, I know I only got a small portion of the swag available this year.  It was amazing.  God bless the swag!
• The Community Keynote.  So I may not have been able to go to a lot of sessions or do a lot of fun things at BlogHer this year (I missed the CheeseburgHer Party too!), but I did make most of the Community Keynote and it was AWESOME.  It was the single-most inspiring moment of the conference for me.  Listening to all those awesome women read their awesome blog posts aloud in front of that jam-packed room really brought it home to me WHY I do what I do with this blog.  What it’s all about, and how my little blog posts can change my life (if not anyone elses).  I laughed, I cried…  it was all kinds of awesome and I hope they do this every year from here on out.

The Bad

• The food.  Now, I hate to complain because most everything was just awesome, but the food this year pretty much sucked.  I know I’m not the only one who thought so.  There was more than one grumble about the lack of bacon in the morning (it was more of a continental breakfast than anything else) and the lunches were pre-packaged sandwhiches or salads.  The only problem with that being that they disappeared like freakin’ HOTCAKES.  Apparently.  The first day, Evie was a ticking time bomb after my session finished so I had to take her up to the room to nurse her and hopefully get her to lay down and nap for a while.  By the time I was finished woo-ing her to sleep and got downstairs, the last of the lunches had been passed out.  GAH.  Thankfully, some awesome women took pity on me and took me out for a hamburger.  Otherwise, I may have very well starved to death.  I heard good things about the snacks, but the meals left something to be desired.
• The “Lactation Lounge” was about a joke.  Seriously, it was a room with a round table and some chairs.  They had water bottles and glasses, at least, but the set up was not very inspiring for us lactate-rs.  The doors were also wide open all the time so if anyone was feeling particularly modest or had an easily distracted child, it wasn’t very private or quiet either.  Maybe next year they could have a sofa or glider or something?
• The Westin was a pretty confusing place.  Shoot, they handed us maps of the place and I could still barely find my way around.  It took me half of the first day to even find out where all the mommy blogging sessions were at because I kept thinking that they were on the third floor when in fact they were on the first floor.  Seriously, I’m good at directions and reading maps and looking at the map on our agenda often made it HARDER for me to find where I was going.
• Temperatures.  And this is inside the Westin, mind you.  One minute it would be freezing, the next it would be stuffy and stifling.  You never knew what you were going to get. (For the record, the lactation lounge was pretty much always FREEZING.)  There didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to it either.  Maybe someone else has some insight?
• PARKING.  OMG.  We wouldn’t have had to leave early if it hadn’t been for the parking situation.  Perhaps next year find out if there is a way to include overnight parking in the cost of the room?  Or warn us ahead of time that it isn’t included?  Because finding out the next day that it cost us $50 to have our van valet parked overnight even though we were hotel guests was pretty crappy.  And a huge part of the reason we ended up leaving early.  Even better, work out a deal ahead of time with the hotel where conference participants can either check out later or at least keep their vehicles there later.  That would have been UBER helpful.  I know this is S.F. and parking is at a premium, but STILL.
• I didn’t hand out nor recieve NEAR as many business cards as I would have liked.  DANGIT.  EVERY YEAR it’s the same old story.  Next year, I want a bag I have to drag home overflowing with other people’s business cards.  I’m so not even kidding.

The Ugly

• There wasn’t a lot that was ugly this year.  NO, I’M SERIOUS.  No one was a total ass, that I know of.  No one was mean or rude or awful to me (that I know of).
• In fact, the only thing ugly was me not meeting everyone I wanted to meet.  I’m still excited by all the people I actually DID meet (Redneck Mommy!  Backpacking Dad! Boobs, Injuries and Dr. Pepper!  Kristen from Better Now!) but so sad by the ones that I didn’t (far too many to mention here and if I do it’s only going to make me feel depressed again).

So that’s it.  I think.  I’m almost certain that I’m leaving all sorts of stuff out here.  It really was an amazing trip and my head is still swimming with it all.  I wish I could have stayed there several more days at least and just soaked it all in.  Elisa, Jory and Lisa all put on a FABULOUS event.  And I truly am grateful that I was able to be a part of it.

Coming up: My session and how people who leave in the middle can make an introvert think she must be a leper AND a big round up of all the cards I received from people including LINKS LINKS LINKS!  Good times will be had by ALL!