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!

Tags: BlogHer 08, road trip, San Francisco
Filed under BlogHer 08 |

I have another post in the works about a bunch of stuff I really loved about the conference.  Which, really, is a lot of stuff.  But I’m having a hard time focusing on it and I think it’s because I have something else I need to talk about first before I can get into all the “SQUEE” stuff.  I think if I don’t talk about my suck-ass self, then nothing else is going to come out as genuine, you know?

I don’t think I took a lot of my own advice about this particular BlogHer conference.  I think I let my introversion and insecurity get the better of me.  Of course, I did do a lot better than I did two years ago.  I actually approached people that I knew.  Like Loralee and Crunchy Carpets and Carly and Rhi.  I said hi and gushed all over Y from Joy, Unexpected.  BUT, I rode in an elevator with Her Bad Mother and Sweetney and I didn’t even say hi.  I exchanged some pleasantries with Julie from mothergoodmouse and I didn’t even introduce myself.

I guess I figured they didn’t want to know who I was.  I think I figured I didn’t fall on their radar and if I said anything, they would figure I was some annoying cling-on loser or something.  Which, you know, who are we kidding?  I pretty much am.  As is evidenced by my slobbering all over Carly and Rhi and Loralee whenever I got a chance.  But really, WHAT WAS STOPPING ME?  Nothing.  Not a damn thing.

Okay, *I* was stopping me.

There was no drama, no high school revisited.  I didn’t attend enough of the conference (*snort*) to witness or hear of any bad ju ju going down.  Any problem I had introducing myself to anyone was my problem and mine alone.  Because I’m a giant, flaming nerd.

I also need to discuss Friday night.  Because Friday night I was pretty much a big wet, hot mess.  The day hadn’t gone as I had planned.  No fault of BlogHer, but more of a fault of EVIE.  The poor dear wouldn’t relax out at the conference.  The noise, the energy of the women there just jangled her nerves.  Forget nursing her there, she would not focus on it.  Bouncing her worked for about 5 nanoseconds.  The best I could do with her was put her in the sling I was using and bounce up and down.  But If I stood still or sat down?  She would wake up right away and S-C-R-E-A-M.  Sorta like she did during the Community Keynote until I finally had to admit defeat and slink out of the room during the last round of bloggers.

I got up to the room and pretty much just dissolved.  We found out we had left Liam’s diapers in the van which had been valet parked and so we had no diapers for him.  STRESS.  Evie was having a hard time coming down off her stimulation high.  STRESS.  What were we going to do for dinner?  STRESS.  Kile ended up grabbing some Quizno’s sandwhiches and bringing them back to the room while I nursed Evie.  I ate, shot off a quick post, nursed Evie again and fell asleep.  At, like, 9pm.

*hangs head*

Of course, somewhere in there I also broke down into tears because Evie was rashy and upset and I was tired and I was missing all the fun and I skipped two session that day and FOR WHAT and what were we going to do when checkout happened at 12 the next day?  STRESS. Oh, and I wasn’t taking hardly ANY pictures because the camera was in the laptop bag and I quickly found out that I couldn’t carry the laptop bag AND Evie around so when I had her, I didn’t have the laptop or the camera and so I took NO pictures.  STRESS.

BLAH.  I mean, there were gals out there getting down on the dance floor and having a great old time and then there was ME, going to bed early.  Who wants to hear about me?  Am I right?  Of course, knowing that I was being such a downer was making it WORSE.

I walked down to breakfast the next morning feeling pretty bad.  Here were all these happy, shiny bloggers and there was me who was feeling so sorry for herself she could hardly stand it.  Oh the HUMANITY.  And that’s when I saw Brit and I think I about knocked her over and cried into her beautiful, hand-made bag.  (Seriously, the gal has mad skillz.)  I was so glad to see her.

Of course, then I learned like 10 minutes later that, “Oh hai! We haz to chex-out at 12 and move van out of valet at 2 or pay exhorbitant costs!”  So… yeah.  It became a question of whether or not we should try to find somewhere cheaper to store the car for a couple hours or just go back to San Jose in defeat.  Then there was the matter of what Kile would do all afternoon without a “home base” and Evie had been resistant to nursing anywhere else but the silence of our room and surely this would mean she would go thermonuclear.

Am I making this more complicated than it needed to be?

Probably.

Anyhow, I figured that it would probably make more sense to just go.  I probably couldn’t get much out of any sessions with Evie with me anyhow and I would be worried about Kile and the van… and none of our solution scenarios would account for me being able to go to the Macy’s party which is what I REALLY wanted in the first place.  So… back to San Jose it was.

Of course, this depressed the heck out of me.  I just didn’t see any other reasonable solution.  I was able to get to one last session, the one on Commercialization in the Momosphere.  I wanted to go because it’s a topic I’m interested in and I wanted to say hi to Kristen who was speaking and also co-runs the Parent Bloggers Network.  I got to attend the session, but didn’t get to say hi because it ran over a touch and Kile called me to let me know he was checking out and needed my room key.  FRICK.  So, whatever.

We met Cagey and Brit for lunch which was kinda nice (and I actually GOT lunch for a change) (long story) before we picked up Liam from childcare (OMG, they were so nice there) and then on to valet to retrieve our automobile.  SIGH.  We were leaving BlogHer, heads not quite hanging in shame, but not exactly held high either.  Driving out of San Fransisco, I felt pretty sad.  There were SO MANY WOMEN that I wanted to meet or connect with and just didn’t get a chance.  I didn’t even SEE them.  Of course, not really a surprise considering I only attended one other session other than the one I spoke at.

(OY.  My session.  I’ll talk more about that soon, I promise.  The short of it: went well but still agonize over the hemmorage of the audience.)

I went to no parties, very few sessions, I didn’t really get to visit every sponsor table like I normally would have liked to.  I didn’t have ONE SINGLE alcoholic drink the entire time.  THERE IS SOMETHING INHERENTLY WRONG WITH THAT.  I missed the damned Macy’s party which I was hoping to be able to stop into if for no other reason than to buy a copy of “Sleep is for the Weak” and get it signed by all the bloggers.  Ask Kile, that is probably the one thing I moaned about for the rest of the weekend more than anything else.  I wanted that book.  I wanted it signed.  I AM SAD.  (Does anyone know if there were/are/will be any signed copies for sale?  Wouldn’t replace actually getting one all signed myself, but I still want one.)

Do/Did I feel sorry for myself?  Yes.  Still do.  Do I blame anyone else for any of it?  Nope.  I couldn’t.  If I didn’t have the best time while at BlogHer, it was because of me and other circumstances that couldn’t really be avoided.  Yes, since then I’ve thought of many ways we could have handled partiuclar issues far better than we did.  But… too late for that!

I will go into more details and talk about fun stuff, embarassing stuff, stupid stuff, bad stuff, etc and so forth… but I had to get all this off my chest first.  Heck, this already took the better part of a day to post (started this at about 4pm).  But anyhow.  I don’t want any of you feel you need to post a comment or whatever so I turned the comments off.  I’m just putting this out there, getting it off my chest, so I can move on to the happier stuff.

Tags: BlogHer 08, road trip, San Francisco
Filed under BlogHer 08, Sucking a Tail Pipe |

I don’t have the time or attention span to go into details right now, but I wanted to let you all know that I’m not at BlogHer anymore.  Due to the high price of parking in San Francisco, our general attitude of cheapskated-ness and a feeling I wasn’t really getting everything out of it that I could ANYHOW, I’ve left San Fransisco and BlogHer behind and am now back at my parents’ house (where Liam, Harry and Kile are splashing in the pool and Evie indulging in a much needed nap).

Not ideal.  Not what I wanted.  But… it is what it is.

Like I said, I’ll go into it later.  RIght now, Evie is waking up and Liam’s lips are turning purple (why don’t my parents HEAT THE POOL??) so I’m needed elsewhere.  VERY upset I’m missing some of the fun stuff.  Am watching Twitter rather jealously (and thinking that everyone is ignoring my tweets).  Ah well.

I think it’s because Kim wasn’t there.  It’s all her fault. ;)

Tags: BlogHer 08, road trip, San Francisco
Filed under BlogHer 08, Family Circus |

First: If you aren’t going to BlogHer this week then I will have to apologize now.  I’m not guaranteeing anything, I doubt I’ll be posting about much else for at least the next week.  I’m not wanting to rub anyone’s nose in it or anything or say, “Neener, neener!  I’m going to go have a great time and you aren’t!”  But I also realize that when you are on the outside looking in, it’s very hard not to feel like everyone is saying that.  So I understand where you all are sitting, as long as you can understand where I am sitting.

And where I’m sitting?  Is EXCITED.  And also?  STRESSED.

And since it’s a Sunday and it’s hot outside and I’m lazy, let’s do some bullets, shall we?

What I’m stressed about re: BlogHer ‘08:

• The drive down to San Jose itself on Thursday.  We’re going early, and though we’ve traveled with Evie to Elko, I’m still nervous about going over the mountain.  We haven’t made this particular trek yet.  Am worried my brain will explode when we hit Donner Summit.
• Wrangling Liam at my parents’ house.  If it was stressful to contain him in Elko, it will been ten times worse at my parents’ house.  Just trust me.  I grew up there, I know how my mom works.  The only upshot here is that with the conference and all, we’ll only have to deal with less than 12 hours of Liam Roaming Time.  Still.  I’m scared.
• Let’s backtrack a bit.  What are we going to do with our dogs?  Hmm.  We should probably figure that out, huh?  (For those just joining the program, my mom decreed that our pets were persona non grata a couple years ago so we have to leave them behind when we visit.)
• Driving up to San Francisco the day of the conference.  I’ll have to wake up at HELL o’clock and leave at an equally ungodly hour.  And deal with ungodly traffic, I’m sure.  HELP ME.
• I have an ugly nose.  And a stupid voice.  (And Kile just gave me a gin and tonic and I’ve had to retype this sentance no less than five times.)  And people … (wait… where was I going with this?  Oh yeah!) might think I’m a complete dork.  And they won’t want to sit with me.  And they’ll actively try to ditch me.  And I’ll look stupid.  Cuz I am.
• (gin and tonics are awesome, remind me to order one or two or ten at the cocktail party, kay?)
• I forget what else I was stressed about.
• Oh yeah!  Footwear.  Since it has been decreed that jeans will be worn in lieu of shorts, I probably can’t get away with wearing flip flops with those, right?  SO WHAT DO I WEAR?  See, here is where I wish I was able to get those Chuck Taylor knockoffs at Payless last weekend.  Damnit.
• I think I’m speaking or something.  Kinda nervous about that.  GULP.
• Dealing with Evie during the entire conference.  Seriously, she will be where I am 100% of the time (maybe 90%, but, eh, who’s counting?) and I wonder if my back and my nerves can take it.
• I wasn’t invited to any super-cool events this year (like last year’s Real Simple dinner).   That sorta makes me feel like a bit of a loser.
• I can’t go to the People’s Party on Thursday night.
• I may not even be able to go to either of the cocktail parties.  At most, I’ll be able to hang out for a half hour before I have to go tend to my children.  BAH.
• At least one awesome betch isn’t going this year.  That sucks.

What I’m excited about re: BlogHer ‘08:

• More of these gin and tonics, that’s for damn sure.
• Meeting all of these absolutely wonderful women that I am SO EXCITED TO MEET that I can hardly stand it.  (okay, who’d I miss?)
• Seeing some of the internet’s biggest rockstars and while I’ll be way too shy to actually, you know, SAY HI, I will get to see them and perhaps even take stealthy pictures of them.  Sweet!
• The swag.  I can’t wait to see what the swag is this year.  Every year, it seems to get better.  Bring on the goodies!
• I’m going to probably meet EVEN MORE fabulous women just like I did last year.
• (am starting to wonder if I should eat something to soak up this alcohol since it’s been a good 5 hours since I ate and I’m starting to see double here.)
• (this is off of ONE gin and tonic, ya’ll.  I am officially a freakin’ lightweight.)
• Going to San Francisco.  We haven’t been up there in literally AGES and I’m sorta excited to see the city again.  We go to San Jose regularly, but it just isn’t the same.
• Seeing some old friends that I love dearly.  You guys so totally rock.
• (OMG, still not finished with a) this post and b) this drink)
• Staying at a hotel.  Sure, we’ll have two small children with us, but it’s still the best vacation we’ve taken in YEARS.
• I am officially too drunk to finish this post.  SRY. (ONE GIN AND TONIC, ya’ll.  THAT AIN”T RIGHT.)

Tags: BlogHer 08, community, road trip, San Francisco
Filed under BlogHer 08 |