I couldn't move my elbows, and the excitable smelly boy decided it was kosher to (excitedly) comment when he saw me texting, "You have a crappy flip phone, too!" But. I was seated directly underneath an air conditioning vent and I had a clear view out of the front windshield, which was the one and only reason I did not barf up my in-flight Craisins all over the delightful group of vacationing Kansans in front of me.
I praised Allah when I made it to the Hilton, and immediately headed across the street to a little deli I knew had fresh fruit -- this happened to be the same hotel I stayed in several times in high school for Model UN conferences (yes, yes, I'm a dork), and I'd frequented this little store back then, though usually for pints of Ben & Jerry's. After getting my sustenance on, I hit conference registration and collected my swag bag which, for a conference of women bloggers, was ironically filled with an incredible amount of meat and sausage related coupons and products.
I had a volunteer training session that afternoon, which was quick and painless. Afterward I got myself checked into my hotel, and as I was getting my room key I asked the gal at the front desk if there was a Whole Foods nearby. Round about a mile and a half later in my five-dollar Target flip-flops it became abundantly clear to me that me the front desk lady had starkly contrasting defitions of "nearby." Despite the serious trek, when I finally made it there I decided that anything I bought would be pretty gross by the time it made the great and arduous journey back home, so I headed back toward the hotel, grabbed two slices of cheese pizza and thanked the hotel lady for making me feel less guilty about eating it. In fact, I felt so good about my brief tour of the financial district that I followed said pizza with cheesecake. God bless you, New York. When you're bad, I hate you. But when you're good, you are GOOD.
Friday morning was the opening keynote and breakfast, followed by the first session. With around 2,500 attendees at this thing I was meeting people left and right as soon as the day began. The common ground was fantastic -- you'd open your mouth to say something about yourself or your blog or how you like your oatmeal and five people would inevitably turn around and say, "Me too! Let's talk."
During the afternoon I live-blogged two sessions, bopped around the exhibitor halls and attended the community keynote (BlogHer's Voices of the Year, an awesome project that puts the spotlight on fantastic writing around the BlogHer community) and the reception that followed. But the best part of the day was the hour and a half or so I spent at the Birds of a Feather lunch. You can dine in the big ballroom at lunch, or you can sign up for a BOF lunch and sit with a small group of bloggers who have similar interests. On Friday I sat with other bloggers who write about dating, relationships and single life. I was the youngest woman at the table by 12 years, and it was an extremely refreshing experience. It made me realize how much I do feel pressured to settle down and marry, even if that pressure comes from nowhere but all up inside my own crazy brain. When I expressed this, they all just kind of looked at me, like, really? You've got time, kid. CHILL.
They were all such bright, vivacious, accomplished women, so much older than me and clearly SO much wiser. We talked about our blogs and how they got started, projects we'd undertaken and challenges we face. One of the gals is in the middle of a huge project interviewing single women across America and Europe, and I promised to connect her with some of my single girlfriends in London.
But actually? I lied. The best part of the day was totally the celebrity stalking.
cheers,
elizabeth
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