The main reason I went to BlogHer was to meet some of the Peevers who have been posting on The Peevery (my main blog, for those of you who are new here) for years and who I have never met in person. I was hoping to meet more readers but I was only able to connect with Neilochka from Citizen of the Month. There were five of us Peevers there; three at the conference and two galavanting around town.
If I had gone alone, I would have had an entirely different, much more boring experience. I am not outgoing when it comes to meeting new people and I doubt I would have met any who hadn't spoken to me first. I wouldn't even have had as good of a time as I did walking the expo floor, because I was with Jen14221 most of the time and she talks to EVERYONE. Thanks to her, I found out way more stuff from the exhibitors and I got way more stuff from the exhibitors. This is where I admit to being a whore for free stuff. I am so aware of this aspect of my personality that I packed an extra bag to bring home all the free stuff I was going to get. And I shipped a box of free stuff home. (It arrived today. Yay!)
I am not a mommyblogger and I will admit to being as judgy about some of them as the bloggers to whom I linked in the previous post. For instance, the lady who let her baby crawl on the floor of the airport, and the lady who breastfed her baby while standing in the middle of the ballroom during a morning keynote, and the snotty bitches in the elevator who couldn't even be bothered to smile back after they returned from their fancy private sponsor party.
The highlights of the conference for me had little to do with the conference itself other than the fact that it made these moments possible.
Highlights:
I had dinner with Joanne, Kate the Peon, Jen14221, and Blaugra at Frontera Grill. I'd seen Rick Bayless on Top Chef Masters and wanted to eat at Topolobampo, which had been named the best restaurant in America, but it seemed too fancy so we went to the more accessible Frontera Grill. I ate the tongue tacos he won with on Top Chef. Delish! Blaugra and Joanne even tried them after some bullying by me.
I saw my schoolfriend, Liz (BabyBlooze), who was there with HP, a corporate sponsor of BlogHer 09.
I had my hair styled at the Sauve booth by Anna Vidito of Lukaro salon in Beverly Hills. She taught me a fantastic and totally easy technique for making my wavy hair look polished, instead of messy like it normally looks. I will be going to Anna for my cuts from now on.
I got a picture of Rick Bayless at the National Pork Board booth. I was going to tell him how much I enjoyed the tongue tacos but some food blogger was hogging his time and I didn't feel like sticking around.
I picked up all kinds of swag that is totally useful: deodorant, hair styling products, a cold Diet Pepsi, cute Playskool toys, Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Mr. Potato Head, nylon reusable shopping bags.
I entered to win prizes that would be totally useful if I managed to win any of them: laptop, vaccum cleaner, washer and dryer, and someone to come to my house every week for a year to do my laundry. Seriously.
I met Tim Gunn and he wants to read my blog. (That is going to be a post of its own, coming soon.) And, yes, I was wearing K-Mart pants when I met him. Boo hoo.
I got a picture of Paula Deen at the Wal-Mart booth but, I swear, more people wanted to meet her than Tim Gunn and there was no way I was going to even get close enough to say hi.
I drove around Chicago with Blaugra in a new Chevrolet Camaro thanks to Chevrolet and MotherProof.com who brought various Chevrolet vehicles to the event.
I met up with a friend from high school who lives in Chicago and found out I was there from one of my Facebook status updates. It was great catching up.
I drank lots of free booze.
The best part, though, was getting to meet Blaugra and Jen14221 in person, and seeing Kate the Peon and Joanne again. We've been online pals for years through The Peevery and we had a great time together in person. I hope we can make this an annual thing, whether at BlogHer or not.
