Category — BlogHer Diaries

I am currently sitting in a panel on social networking sites. This morning kicked off with a breakfast and opening speech from Lisa, Elisa and Jory. There are about 1100 people here right now. Just to give you a sense of the room…

Then, we went into what they called speed dating for bloggers. Everyone at the table introduced themselves. Then, two people would leave and move to the next table and do introductions again. I started out with Pamela Jeanne and Lori but then moved on to chill with a few of the fantabulous Kimchi Mamas. And I got to hug (and sniff in her amazing perfume) Chookooloonks! That one was pretty emotion for me because I love her photography and her whole kind blog movement.

Then, I shit you not, I met Dramalish. That was actually pretty emotional too because she’s…Dramalish. She’s an ALI blogger. She’s a Clicker. And she is so pretty in person:

I think my grin says it all. I may get to hang out more with Dramalish later tonight when I meet up with all of the ALI bloggers. By the way, if you missed the emails going about, we are meeting at 6 pm in the lobby of the St. Francis Westin near the circular sofa. Join us. Please. Please let me meet you. Who knows when I’ll be back on the West Coast again.

After the opening, I went out with my cousin. She is my identical twin except that she’s thinner and prettier. And I had kicked off my three inch heels so she was also three inches taller than me. But since I didn’t ask her if I could post her picture, a photo of the corner of Haight and Ashbury must suffice.

Now I’m back at the conference and sitting in the social networking…or is it social bookmarking…panel. This information is a little over my head. I think I need someone to sit down one-on-one with me and explain it.

Lori is sitting across from me and we are exchanging emails while she is trying to listen and finally get her ass on Twitter. I cannot even tell you how amazing and beautiful Lori is in person. I have actually met her before and she is a big reason why I’m out here right now. I got to have dinner with Pamela Jeanne and Lori (and Josh–hi honey!) last night at a very cool pan-Asian restaurant. And it’s emotional to meet these people who you respect so much through their writing.

I think this evening, meeting all of the ALI bloggers is going to blow my mind.

I have so much to tell you, but it’s 11 p.m. San Francisco time which means that it is 2 a.m. body time. And I am too exhausted to tell you about the 300 cool people I met this evening or how I almost won a Nintendo Wii playing boxing or how I had dinner with Pamela Jeanne and Lori or how I did all of this in three inch, knee-high boots. But pictures still are worth 1000 words, so here are three from BlogHer tonight. Stories forthcoming tomorrow.

It is very strange to have traveled across America to a city that I don’t know well and not really have a chance to explore. After stumbling out of the plane and reaching the hotel, we dropped off our bags and went in search of lunch. I had it in my head that all I wanted was a salad. But it had to be a particular type of salad (of course). Josh has the patience of a saint.

The day after we got engaged, we drove out of Washington (we had slept down by the Mall) to Great Falls, wanting a few more minutes together before we went to my parents house to celebrate with both sets of parents. As we drove out of the city, I quoted Li-Young Lee:

At the gates of the city in which I love you,
the sea hauls the sun on its back,
strikes the land, which rebukes it.
what ardor in its sliding heft,
a flameless friction on the rocks.

Washington, DC is our city. It’s the city in which I love him even when we’re no longer living within its borders.

Today, after he not only found a salad, not only found a plate of grilled asparagus, not only found a cup of iced coffee and carried my laptop back and guided me across the country, we were walking up the street and I realized as that poem popped into my head that San Francisco is one of the cities in which Li-Young Lee loves her. Perhaps it’s Chicago; it has been a long time since I read the poem and without the rest of the collection with me, I can’t remember why I thought it was San Francisco. But I do.

It is fairly cool to be in a city with someone I love inside a space where someone else loved. Even if I don’t have time to explore.

I now have to try to figure out how pressed powder and mascara work. And try not to look like a clown. I wish I had my sister with me too. She’s good at things like this.

More later tonight once I go from party to party to party–hopefully, with pictures.

I am writing this on the airplane. My plan is to cut-and-paste this into a post once I get to the hotel and have Internet access. Therefore, if you’re reading this, I’m in San Francisco. But as I’m writing it, I am somewhere above Colorado.

I am absolutely doped up on too much ativan right now so forgive me if my posts don’t make sense until I’ve gotten a chance to sleep it off. Ativan is one of those strange drugs that takes a long time to begin working and you’re so anxious for it to start working that you start thinking there must be something wrong with the pills you just took—maybe they’re too weak or you weigh too much—so you take another. And maybe one more for good measure. And then, fifteen minutes later when the first pills begin to kick in you have a few regrets about wasting all of the additional ones. Though it’s not like you can fish those out of your belly.

The last time I flew with Josh and took this much ativan, I blacked out. I do remember standing up on the plane and serenading the other passengers with a deeply moving, deeply emotional, and excessively repetitive version of “Amazing Grace” in full vibrato. I have vague memories of making our way back to our friend’s apartment. But I didn’t know that they had covered me in temporary tattoos until I woke up to pee in the morning. I knew I needed that level of ativan to get on this plane today. And instead of serenading the passengers with a fine rendition of “Seasons of Love” from Rent (playing all of the parts, of course), I am instead using my excellent powers to express myself on ativan to blog for you.

I like the idea of keeping an on-going, constantly updated journal of this experience. I like being around smart chickies who are going to say cool things and make me see the world in a different way.

Why did I need to be this far-gone to get on the plane? It has been a long time since I’ve flown. Maybe 3 years? I just don’t leave the twins. It’s not that I don’t trust others to take care of them or that I think they’ll fall apart without me. This is all about me. I cannot be without them. A case in point, I returned to their empty beds many times at 3:30 am to sniff their pillows. Not just sniff their pillows. Breathe their pillows. Hold their pillows and start crying again. I am such a freakin’ mess.

It took a long time to pack last night and we had gotten some upsetting news in the afternoon that threw us off emotional-wise. A lot of things I wanted to get done before we left fell by the wayside. But we packed until midnight and then climbed into bed with two alarms set for 3:30 am. The first one did not go off but it didn’t matter because I never fell asleep. When it hit 3:30, I simply served as Josh’s human wake-up call. I had been circling through all of my worries for 3 and a half hours. I am very good at worrying instead of sleeping. I am not as good as flipping things the other way around.

What were my worries? Being far away from home; being far away from the kids; getting work done (since this is a break from work and I have a deadline at the end of July); fitting everything in; fitting everyone in; not feeling badly if I don’t want to be social; learning how to apply make-up for this picture I have to have taken there (I haven’t worn makeup without my sister applying it); getting the most out of this experience; where am I going to store my bags until I check in; will I be able to check in early enough to take a small nap and take a shower… And then it went back to the beginning.

We headed off to the airport at 4:30 am. It was completely dark still. I was a wonderful person prior to taking the ativan. I allowed another couple to go in front of us in line during check in. I helped a woman get her items in the security boxes before I did my own. Then I took the ativan.

As I was sitting in the terminal, Mommy Needs a Cocktail came by and accidentally dropped a glass bottle of orange juice. Pre-ativan Melissa would have stood up and helped her. Post-ativan Melissa was sitting perfectly still, looking for signs that the medication was kicking in. She felt like a bitch not getting up to help with the cleanup. She’s like to apologize publicly to her for not helping. When did I switch into discussing myself in third person?

There are bloggers galore on the flight. I am not brave enough to strike up a conversation with them. It makes me wonder if this is the ativan flattening all emotion or if this is just who I am—a little shy; better one-on-one than in large groups. Seeing the other bloggers talking; laughing and shrieking and showing off t-shirts they made and cool shoes, made me feel as if I need to either kick up the sass a notch to survive this or allow myself to feel okay hiding out in the Internet café. I’m going to try to kick up the sass tonight. We’ll see how well it works.

This day is sort of gone. From the moment I land until 8 pm, I am spoken for with a series of commitments. So I could meet anyone after 8. I’d love to grab a group for a drink or quick bite before going to The People’s Party. If you are up for a quick something close by at 8, leave a comment below. Tomorrow (Friday), it feels like things are free after 6 pm. The rest of the day is taken up with the conference and two side trips to see my cousin (who looks exactly like me) and my publisher. But after 6, there are parties that I don’t know a lot about. Would people want to grab dinner at 6 on Friday? Lastly, I would need to stay at the hotel, but if people are coming to the panel, we should group up before that. I can’t access my information right now because I don’t have an Internet access, but I think it’s somewhere around 1:45. So, three ways to meet up: Thursday after 8 pm, Friday after 6 pm, Saturday at 1:45. If you can make any of these or all of these, let me know in the comments below and specify which one(s).

Once we get a critical mass, I’ll throw out a place so people know where to go. I think heading to places that are self-serve like bars or coffeehouse so people could drop in and out depending on how much time they have would work best. So I’m turning this over to Luna to name places in the area that fit that bill. Any?

Welcome to San Francisco.

Tomorrow I am going on the most expensive quest to obtain See’s candy. I mean, I’m going to BlogHer. BlogHer is the important part and the access to See’s candy is the bonus. I keep forgetting the order.

Forgive me if I present these last thoughts in list form. I am very much into lists this week:

1. Thank you for the many well-wishes. They have been printed out as a cheap, ego-boosting tablecloth for the four of us to look at while we speak. I have a photo of my TOOTPU chickies and my laptop and my camera.
2. Which means that I’m also going to blog as much as possible from BlogHer. I’ll be the crazy chick walking down the hotel hallway, typing and walking at the same time. On a laptop. A heavy one at that. And balancing a latte and croissant at the same time. With a bird perched on my head.
3. I plan on doing short posts, frequently. I plan on blogging from inside panels but also doing breathe-y “I just saw…” posts.
4. Speaking of which, do you want the truth when I meet bloggers or would you like me to spice it up?
5. Looking at other people’s posts, I realized that I have botched a lot of the prep work for BlogHer. I did not make a t-shirt or temporary tattoos with my blog name on it. I did not get my nails or hair done. I have not actually taken care of the laundry yet, though I do plan on running a load today. I had a fleeting thought that I would express myself by doing a full face of KISS make-up. But I’ve already rethought that idea.
6. I do feel badly and worried about #5.
7. The not-preparing part; not the KISS make-up.
8. I have spent the majority of the time I should have been prepping trying to convince Josh that he should start using the new word I coined when holding meetings with Jewish layleaders in the community. Juggles. Non-Kabbalah practicing Jews. What do you think? It clearly separates the Madonnas from the Malkes. How do you use it? “We should be doing more programming for juggles” or “Though magic is really cool, we also need to consider the juggles in the community when planning events.” Are Jewish layleaders actually getting confused by the Kabbalist movement? Not at all. But I just liked the way juggles sounds.
9. Juggles.
10. I am having enormous anxiety about being apart from the ChickieNob and Wolvog. I cannot even write one sentence about this without crying. So I’m going to stop there.
11. I found out today that the guinea pig Wonder Pet is named “Linny” and not “Lenny.” This surprised me.
12. I seem to be having trouble with my emails going into people’s spam filters. Could you check your spam filter from time to time for emails from me?
13. It is getting really hard to get everyone together at once so when I get there tomorrow, I’m going to scope out the area and then throw out three times that I’m parking myself somewhere. And then we’ll find each other that way.
14. These are my goals for BlogHer: meet people, have fun, learn something new. Everything else is gravy.

Back to packing. I’m taking that whole “the coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco” to the extreme and only bringing fleece. And wool caps. And a scarf.