bethysmalls

So back to the BlogHer story.

Day 2(but really day 1) of BlogHer10 started out well. I headed to Manhattan via subway and I went to breakfast, then a session moderated by ElisaC and then lunch. After I left the ballroom, I spotted Karen Walrond from chookooloonks.com and Laura Mayes from thequeso.com. They were just standing there talking to each other and I decided that if I can interrupt Joe Sestak’s conversation to say hello, these ladies were ripe for the interruptin’. I walked up to them and they looked at me and I put my hand out, “@chookooloonks, @lmayes, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” I said to them and I made some ridiculous comment about meeting them IRL and they both seemed to get a kick out of that. We exchanged business cards, Karen told me I was beautiful(holy shit!) and spent the next 30 seconds fawning over my choice of colors. I was in such a state of shock that I can’t remember what I said only I’m sure I definitely did not pay her a compliment in return and I am still kicking myself over it, because, duh she’s gorgeous and has the best hair ever. No joke.

So after that (what?!) I did another session. This one was with 4 bloggers I’d never read before, Aunt Becky from Mommy Wants Vodka and 3 ladies from The Mouthy Housewives. It was a session on writing an advice blog. The woman who stood out the most to me was Marinka who writes at Motherhood in NYC and she is hilarious, y’all. If I go back next year, I am TOTALLY going to interrupt whatever conversation she’s having to say hello. So, ya know. Look out, Marinka! At that session I spotted Lisa from Smacksy in the front row and after when everyone else was running up to chit chat with the panelists, I ran up to her and told her how great I think her blog is and how my friend Jon Solomon introduced me to it. It was shaping up to be a pretty awesome day.

After that session was the session sponsored by Eden Fantasies and Sexis Magazine about bringing sex out of the closet. It was very interesting and I’m glad I went to it but… There is just no way I can bring myself to have sex discussions on my blog. Both my parents and my mother-in-law read this blog… occasionally… I think. And plus I don’t even talk about it in real life. It turns out I’m pretty much a prude.

After THAT session I hit the ladies room and while waiting in line, Alice Bradley from finslippy.com was washing her hands right in front of me! So I said, “Alice Bradley! I’m bethysmalls!” and she actually said, “I know you.” Which, c’mon, but SO sweet, right? I told her I was staying in Brooklyn and was thinking of tweeting her to see if she wanted to ride the subway together and she asked me where I was staying. We like, conversed! And as she left I realized that her writing partner from Let’s Panic About Babies!, Eden Kennedy, was with her. I would have run after them to say hello to her, too, but I really had to pee.

So the last thing for the 1st official day of BlogHer10 was the keynote address and gala. I watched my new friend Karen read her incredibly touching piece from the Life category. My new BlogHer crush, Marinka, read her piece for the Humor category and Lissa Rankin from Owning Pink read What? We Can’t Say Vagina? from the OP-ED category. Both hilarious.

After that, I met a woman whose name I can’t remember but she was very sweet and friendly and she and I talked about Bruno and how awesome he is. We talked about her and how she wanted to start a blog but was nervous about doing everything right and I told her to just go for it or she’d never start. There is a lot to figure out.

We were both waiting for the gala to start and after a while she excused herself and I looked at the time and realized I should call home. Bruno sang part of the ABC’s to me. For the first time. I lost my cool, I did. I spent the next few minutes in the bathroom crying. Then I went up to the Serenity Suite where some ladies were talking. One was a blogger who writes at The Elmo Wallpaper and sitting with her was Lisa Belkin from The Motherlode! I sat and listened to them talk for a bit and then eventually butted into the conversation, like I do, and sobbed my sob story to them. Lisa Belkin of the New York Times gave me a pep talk. I realized that I had had enough awesome for one day and so I skipped the gala and headed back to Brooklyn. The day was just a little too non-stop and I was in no fit state to gala-vant.

All in all a really good day. Too much for me to handle as it turned out but still. Good.

Somewhere in this crazy day, I introduced myself to @herbadmother as well. I almost made us both cry. In a touching way. I think. She’s something special, that one.

I’m using plants on deck’s recipe that was adapted from smitten kitchen’s recipe. So many ways to make kale chips!

Yum.

DEEEEEEP BREATH….

Mother of PEARL that was awesome! I knew it would be awesome, but it was AWE. SOME. I, like many newbies, was shaking in my shoes over “What if everyone there already knows 5 people and no one needs to make anymore friends and I end up crying the whole time because I’m a lonely loser who nobody likes???!!!” Everyone else on the internet has been reassuring us newbs for the past year it feels like. “Don’t worry! It’ll be great! Everyone is nervous!” They were all 100% correct, of course. Let me fill you in on all the great things that happened to me:

In the Hotel bar, while waiting for my badge to get reprinted, I spotted Joe Sestak (!?) and he gave me his card. It was a completely weird experience but good practice for the 3 days to come when I’d be spotting lots of people I recognize who would likely have no idea who I am. After that, I met Kelli from Rancid Raves and Celeste from Average Jane in the reprint line. I felt as though I recognized both of them, most likely from twitter and they were very nice and chatty while we waited. So the 1st hour and I already had 3 introductions under my belt.

A bag of swag, a trip to Brooklyn and back and a wardrobe change later I was headed to the People’s Party. This is a party held the night before BlogHer officially kicks off so that everyone can mingle and meet up and find their people, so to speak. After I’d received my drink tickets, I turned around and Jenny the bloggess was standing right next to me! I introduced myself, we hugged, joked a bit and walked in together. I left her almost immediately after reaching the inside of the party as I was still really nervous and had run out of things to say then bee-lined to the bar. I was feeling super awkward despite the fact that I’d just had a very successful(not mortifying) encounter with one of my Blog Heroes and decided that holding a drink in my hands could only help my situation. After acquiring my Jack & Ginger (which would turn out to be MY official drink of BlogHer10) a girl tapped me on the shoulder. “Do you know anyone here?” She asked me with her eyes wide open to match my own. “Nope!” I replied and decided we’d be each other’s First Friend. Our home base for the weekend. A person who would have our backs and assure that neither one of us would be the lonely loser. She handed me a business card and a kazoo. I gave her my card and we set off into the not-so-scary-anymore party. Elly is awesome. She is tall, gorgeous, hilarious, just crazy enough and she was my home girl last weekend.

At one point, Elly had to excuse herself and I ended up back at the food table, aimlessly examining the bruschetta when someone else spoke to me. “Are you just wandering around, too?” “Yes!” and another home girl was acquired! Mara, a body image blogger from Cape Cod who is also gorgeous, has very luxurious hair and brought a Starbucks to the party (kick-ass), became the second person in 10 minutes to ’save’ me. After that, Mara Elly and I had a group. It was such a relief! Just having those two ladies there was enough to make the rest of the night weekend a piece of cake. Anytime I got a little unsure of myself, one of those ladies would turn up. Magic they are.

Now that I was part of a posse and could take on the world, I met some really terrific people. Fun Fact: over 50% of them were from Toronto! (Just sayin, Hoagey! They have health care, paid leave and lots of awesome bloggy types! We can forgive them for the Blue Jays, right??). TO’s Haley and Karen stand out as being particularly awesome to me, not just that night but the whole weekend. I came away with so much more than I ever could have expected and I can’t wait to build relationships with these and so many other women.

I promise to share more stories soon. I introduced myself to every one of the people that were on my, “Wouldn’t it be crazy if I met…” list. I discovered people to put on edition 2.0 of that list. I met some people who would be on that list if I hadn’t already met them! And I don’t want to take away from any of it. So until then, fair cyber-people.

******

I’m slowly adding to my blog roll, ya’ll. I have a stack of business cards, a knack for procrastination and a 19 month old son who doubles as a wrecking ball. Please forgive me if this takes longer than the average human gestation for me to complete.

Our new door!

I say it’s a sneak peak because you can hardly see the door.  But surely you can tell that it’s much better! And it closes all the way! Every time! Even when it’s really hot or really cold out! hooray!

I promised pictures of our new door. But today we have a feverish little boy. Door pics tomorrow. This weekend for sure.

UPDATE: he’s STILL HERE. He appears to be cleaning up and we still don’t have doorknobs or all of the frame.

Sure the installation guy was 4 hours late, didn’t call, and barely speaks English. Sure the baby is trying to nap with a tooth coming in and has been woken up by the installation once already. Sure there is a huge hole in the front of the house letting out our precious cool air. Sure the barley-English-speaking guy said that the installation would take all day (Does that mean all day from the time you should have been here or all day starting now? Who knows?). But this front door?

It’s ugly. And it needs to go. Today. Right now. Buh-bye.

Don't let...yourself... hit... yourself... on the way out. Loser.

We went to a movie! It was NOT HARRY POTTER RELATED! We watched the final minutes of the world cup! (not on purpose. Cool anyway) And we had some good food.

Back from the beach and we spent an evening with an alarmingly slap-happy 18 month old. He keeps swinging at me and Hoagey when he doesn’t get his way and the verbal discipline and time outs haven’t done much to deter this particular behavior.

He really is a sweet kid but I can’t get it through his little head that hitting = unacceptable.

And with a kid this goofy it’s hard to keep a straight face when you need to.

Hoagey’s fathers’ day dinner.

My baby and his daddy.

And his Daddy’s Daddy.

Doing what they love best in the world: Eating burgers and hot dogs. Watching baseball.

And then the two daddies went to the Phillies game and got to see  11 innings of baseball. And while the outcome wasn’t the best, I’m pretty sure they had an alright time.