The Trip That Ate New York! PART THREE
Yes, I'm still going on about this trip.
At some point I decided to declare it happy hour at 4 p.m. and gathered a handful of folks in the hotel bar. In my head, the bar was going to be chic and metro and on a high level overlooking Manhattan. In reality, the bar was off the lobby on the ground floor, and had a great view of an alley jammed with parked trucks. It had no more than one server at any given time, and every server seemed to hate our group.
To the bar's credit, though, they did offer BlogHer specials the whole weekend:
Did I take a picture of my child at BlogHer? No. But I took pictures of the drink menu at the lobby bar. I AM AN AWESOME MOM!
As some of you may know, Queen of Spain was unable to attend this year's conference, and this was awful and horrible and stupid on many levels. But if anyone was there in spirit, she was.
Well, and then she was there in stuck-to-sticks spirit.
And then CalifMom brought it to a whole new (lower) level, as only she can. And in such a way that we know Erin would appreciate.
Hot.
Anyway.
900 more things happened at the conference, most of which have blurred together in my head.
I know that on Friday night, we had to rush from one event in order to get to the AOL party, and the ENTIRE reason we had to get to the AOL party was so that we (Ish and I) could meet Chef Marcus Samuelsson, guest/celeb at the event. Ish wore his crazy pants in honor of meeting him.
So that was awesome.
And then I met a few awesome bloggers and had a ton of watered-down drinks and then all of a sudden we were with a group of people eating Korean food.
On Saturday, it was more of the same GO GO GO GO GO. Starting with a client-sponsored breakfast at 7 a.m., and ending with a change of clothes and Ish, the Clever Girls and I heading to the "old school" Mighty Meet-Up, hosted by Maggie Mason.
(For the record: this was not a fancy, invite-only type deal. This was a "Hey. We're hanging at a bar with not a single sponsor in sight" type deal. And it was great)
And then everyone left to go do other things, and I hung back because I -- YOU GUESSED IT -- had to go to the bathroom.
You can imagine my surprise when I entered the ladies room at the end of the party and found the hostess, among others, costuming themselves as KISS and um?
And then one of those crazy things happened. Crazier than being in the bathroom while Mighty Girl puts on KISS makeup and The Bloggess takes pictures of it.
We all have our blog idols, right?
I mean, sure, there's Dan and Brooke. And of course, there's Dooce. But like, well, okay. Back in 2006 in San Jose at my first BlogHer, I attended the "Mommyblogging Is A Radical Act" session, because it fascinated me and I didn't know anything about it, other than that mommyblogging was becoming a "term" people had begun to use.
One of the panelists was Alice of Finslippy. And I will tell you something. I didn't know anyone could be THAT funny or THAT witty in person, just off-the-cuff.
Razor-sharp. Poignant. And so. Fucking. Funny. I was absolutely awed by her.
If you've never read her, go do that. It's the kind of thing I don't bring up on my blog because saying something like "Alice is a good blogger, I'm a fan of hers" is really like saying, "You know who's an attractive actor? Brad Pitt."
(I mention Heather/Dooce a lot because I know many of you read her regularly and she's a point of reference.)
But right. I know a lot about blogging and writing and "the industry" and if push came to shove, Alice is probably the only person/blogger/writer I'd be humbled to meet.
Was humbled to meet.
But I didn't just get to meet her.
A small group of us happened to form outside the meet-up, those of us who were fascinated by the KISS situation, but not ready to join in the festivities. So as the Mighty KISS group left to storm Times Square, our ad-hoc group decided to find a place to get something to eat.
And because I don't actually know what anyone looks like, it took me until we were all seated to realize who I was in the company of. Essentially, I was surrounded by Blogging Greats, and I didn't even know it.
IT WAS LIKE THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE, EXCEPT WITH PIZZA! AND ME!
Because here we have Holly of Nothing But Bonfires and her husband, Sean. It turns out, Ish and I have a scary amount in common with this couple, but I would never know that because I don't assume I have anything in common with BRILLIANT, BEAUTIFUL, FAMOUS BLOGGERS.
And then came my favorite moment of the night, possibly of the entire weekend. Even better than when I unintentionally insulted The Pioneer Woman.
On the left, we have adorable Alice. On the right we have -- do you know? Can you guess? Because it's 100% obvious and amazing if you know anything about the blogging world WHICH I SWEAR I DO. But I just didn't put two and two together and so I asked the woman on the right, perfectly stupidly, "So, what is the name of your blog?"
Which, to further the metaphor above, is a little like asking Brad Pitt, "So, what do you do?"
I guess I recovered somewhat. I mean, I didn't actually fall out of my chair when she replied, "Oh, uh, it's called 'Fussy'." But still.
YES, EDEN KENNEDY. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF BLOGGING? DO YOU HAVE A BLOG? WHAT DO YOU CALL IT? OH, "FUSSY" IS IT? LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS THING WE BLOGGERS DO CALLED NABLOPO--WHAT'S THAT, YOU SAY? OH, YOU INVENTED THAT? OH HA! SO YOU'RE THAT EDEN KENNEDY. I SEE.
And then when all that was over, we wandered on back to the hotel and I had a lovely chat with Fussy and then it was time for CheezburgHer and crazy, awesome dancing and at some point we ended up back in our hotel room and collapsed.
At some point I decided to declare it happy hour at 4 p.m. and gathered a handful of folks in the hotel bar. In my head, the bar was going to be chic and metro and on a high level overlooking Manhattan. In reality, the bar was off the lobby on the ground floor, and had a great view of an alley jammed with parked trucks. It had no more than one server at any given time, and every server seemed to hate our group.
To the bar's credit, though, they did offer BlogHer specials the whole weekend:
Did I take a picture of my child at BlogHer? No. But I took pictures of the drink menu at the lobby bar. I AM AN AWESOME MOM!
As some of you may know, Queen of Spain was unable to attend this year's conference, and this was awful and horrible and stupid on many levels. But if anyone was there in spirit, she was.
Well, and then she was there in stuck-to-sticks spirit.
Mmmmmmwah!
And then CalifMom brought it to a whole new (lower) level, as only she can. And in such a way that we know Erin would appreciate.
Hot.
Anyway.
900 more things happened at the conference, most of which have blurred together in my head.
I know that on Friday night, we had to rush from one event in order to get to the AOL party, and the ENTIRE reason we had to get to the AOL party was so that we (Ish and I) could meet Chef Marcus Samuelsson, guest/celeb at the event. Ish wore his crazy pants in honor of meeting him.
(Photo obviously not taken in Manhattan,
but the pants deserve to be showcased as often as possible.)
but the pants deserve to be showcased as often as possible.)
So that was awesome.
And then I met a few awesome bloggers and had a ton of watered-down drinks and then all of a sudden we were with a group of people eating Korean food.
On Saturday, it was more of the same GO GO GO GO GO. Starting with a client-sponsored breakfast at 7 a.m., and ending with a change of clothes and Ish, the Clever Girls and I heading to the "old school" Mighty Meet-Up, hosted by Maggie Mason.
(For the record: this was not a fancy, invite-only type deal. This was a "Hey. We're hanging at a bar with not a single sponsor in sight" type deal. And it was great)
And then everyone left to go do other things, and I hung back because I -- YOU GUESSED IT -- had to go to the bathroom.
You can imagine my surprise when I entered the ladies room at the end of the party and found the hostess, among others, costuming themselves as KISS and um?
Maggie.
Calling card.
Wrapped in plastic so as not to smudge? I'm guessing yes.
Wrapped in plastic so as not to smudge? I'm guessing yes.
The group.
On the street.
And then one of those crazy things happened. Crazier than being in the bathroom while Mighty Girl puts on KISS makeup and The Bloggess takes pictures of it.
We all have our blog idols, right?
I mean, sure, there's Dan and Brooke. And of course, there's Dooce. But like, well, okay. Back in 2006 in San Jose at my first BlogHer, I attended the "Mommyblogging Is A Radical Act" session, because it fascinated me and I didn't know anything about it, other than that mommyblogging was becoming a "term" people had begun to use.
One of the panelists was Alice of Finslippy. And I will tell you something. I didn't know anyone could be THAT funny or THAT witty in person, just off-the-cuff.
Razor-sharp. Poignant. And so. Fucking. Funny. I was absolutely awed by her.
If you've never read her, go do that. It's the kind of thing I don't bring up on my blog because saying something like "Alice is a good blogger, I'm a fan of hers" is really like saying, "You know who's an attractive actor? Brad Pitt."
(I mention Heather/Dooce a lot because I know many of you read her regularly and she's a point of reference.)
But right. I know a lot about blogging and writing and "the industry" and if push came to shove, Alice is probably the only person/blogger/writer I'd be humbled to meet.
Was humbled to meet.
Ish and Alice.
But I didn't just get to meet her.
A small group of us happened to form outside the meet-up, those of us who were fascinated by the KISS situation, but not ready to join in the festivities. So as the Mighty KISS group left to storm Times Square, our ad-hoc group decided to find a place to get something to eat.
And because I don't actually know what anyone looks like, it took me until we were all seated to realize who I was in the company of. Essentially, I was surrounded by Blogging Greats, and I didn't even know it.
IT WAS LIKE THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE, EXCEPT WITH PIZZA! AND ME!
Because here we have Holly of Nothing But Bonfires and her husband, Sean. It turns out, Ish and I have a scary amount in common with this couple, but I would never know that because I don't assume I have anything in common with BRILLIANT, BEAUTIFUL, FAMOUS BLOGGERS.
My pictures are so bad I should be arrested. Seriously.
*Also? Can I be proud for one second? Holly actually knew who I was/knew about this blog. I found this both shocking and totally relieving because, up until this point, I had felt a little like Jane Goodall.
*Also? Can I be proud for one second? Holly actually knew who I was/knew about this blog. I found this both shocking and totally relieving because, up until this point, I had felt a little like Jane Goodall.
Amber (of The Amber Show) and her husband, Rob.
Fearless leaders in the hunt for awesome NY pizza.
Also, blog rockstars.
Fearless leaders in the hunt for awesome NY pizza.
Also, blog rockstars.
On the left, we have adorable Alice. On the right we have -- do you know? Can you guess? Because it's 100% obvious and amazing if you know anything about the blogging world WHICH I SWEAR I DO. But I just didn't put two and two together and so I asked the woman on the right, perfectly stupidly, "So, what is the name of your blog?"
Which, to further the metaphor above, is a little like asking Brad Pitt, "So, what do you do?"
I guess I recovered somewhat. I mean, I didn't actually fall out of my chair when she replied, "Oh, uh, it's called 'Fussy'." But still.
YES, EDEN KENNEDY. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF BLOGGING? DO YOU HAVE A BLOG? WHAT DO YOU CALL IT? OH, "FUSSY" IS IT? LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS THING WE BLOGGERS DO CALLED NABLOPO--WHAT'S THAT, YOU SAY? OH, YOU INVENTED THAT? OH HA! SO YOU'RE THAT EDEN KENNEDY. I SEE.
And then when all that was over, we wandered on back to the hotel and I had a lovely chat with Fussy and then it was time for CheezburgHer and crazy, awesome dancing and at some point we ended up back in our hotel room and collapsed.
Here's the thing. I like this post because yes, I read every one of those bloggers (and have, um, over 500 in my google reader), but hey, I read yours first. I didn't know what a blog was until like 6 years ago when your post was in best of craigslist. So it's like you introduced me to all of them (except I think I found a lot of them in Melissa Summers' sidebar and I have no idea how I got there) even if you're just now meeting them and they didn't know who you were.
ReplyDeletemwuah. I missed you. And crazy pants. Who will now and forever be known as crazy pants.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh, HOLLY HELL, you kicked off a blog post about the bloggity elite with a picture of me with the Queen of Spain in my crotch. God, I love you.
ReplyDeletelove your recaps. LOVE!
ReplyDelete