My first book signing wasn’t until noon on Saturday, so I didn’t set an alarm. Dana actually got up and went to yoga! I stayed snuggled into that Heavenly Bed until about 8:30 I guess. Lori called to see what we were doing, so the three of us decided to go get some real breakfast (Friday’s breakfast for me had been a cold bagel). We found a restaurant on Geary called Lefty O’Doul’s that advertised breakfast until 11. We had to wait a few minutes, but soon I was tucking into scrambled eggs, huge slices of crispy bacon, and sourdough pancakes-YUM. Oh and Starbucks coffee, woke me up!
By the time we were done there wasn’t that much time left before my first book signing, so we headed back to the hotel. Oh, but first I popped outside to the designated smoking area (I know, I know) and chatted with Karl, but did I get a photo of me and Karl? Dammit! I did get a photo with Corinna and then who should come up to join us but Robyn Tippins! I met her last year through her work with MyBlogLog, and we made an instant connection. Now she’s a Yahoo! Community Manager. I also snapped a photo with the lovely Corinna, she put a smile on my face every time I ran into her the whole time.
My first book signing was with two ladies who are not only terrific writers, but also fabulous people! I couldn’t believe they were happy to be meeting ME! And the blogs these two have-sheesh. I’m talking about Stephanie Klein, author of “Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp” and “Straight Up and Dirty”, and Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, author of “Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay” and “Naptime Is The New Happy Hour”. They were both so enthusiastic about signing books and had the biggest smiles, it really made my morning!
In between signings someone came rushing up to me calling my name, it was Velma! She was so sweet and we posed for a quick photo together. And then Maggie and Evany arrived, EARLY even, and I went a little fangirl on Maggie, I can’t help it! She’s got so many amazing blogs and she’s so pretty, last year I probably would have been terrified to even look at her. But this year, keeping with my personal theme of fearlessness, I said Hi Maggie! I’m Elizabeth, and she hugged me! See? Fangirl. She introduced me to Evany, who has a Flickr photoset of her wearing the most amazing outfits. Maggie’s book is “No One Cares What You Had For Lunch” and Evany’s is “The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide”, which is a really clever look at different sleeping positions that couples get into. It was great to meet both of them!
That was a big day for me as far as blogger meetups, I posed for photos with Sizzle, Liz from Mom-101, Cathy from Mayberry Mom (whose daughter had a burst appendix and I didn’t even know about it, I’m so sorry, Cathy!), Rhi (who is adorably scrumptious!), and Christine from From Dates to Diapers.
I had a break after the second set of book signings, and Elisa had insisted I go to a session, so I went with Lori to, um, something about Monetization without Advertising? By the time we got there the room was packed, so we had to sit way in the back. I sat down, and when my body realized it was going to get to stop moving for a minute, I was immediately overcome with exhaustion. Good thing I was in the back, because I said goodbye to Lori, went up to my room, set the alarm for an hour later, crawled into the Heavenly Bed and fell instantly asleep. Best. Nap. EVER.
I woke up feeling much better, freshened up, and headed downstairs for the last book signings, with the lovely Devra and Aviva, authors of “Mommy Guilt: Learn to Worry Less, Focus on What Matters Most, and Raise Happier Kids”, and Jennette Fulda, author of “Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir”. It seemed like their signing went by really fast! I snuck into the Closing Keynote, Elisa was interviewing Stephanie Klein and Heather Armstrong about what it’s like to live as if you are in the Truman Show with people watching and commenting on your every move. It makes me so sad that there are HATE SITES devoted to these two women, who did nothing to deserve any hatred from anyone. What is wrong with people?
You may have heard there was a moment of drama in the Keynote, I’m not going to address it here. I’ve learned my lesson about posting anything about blog drama, so please don’t ask. After that I went back to my room to change my clothes for the reception at Macy’s. It was crazy, they had sections of Macy’s closed just for us, we started out in the HANDBAG department which just about killed me, so close to all those Coach purses and not able to buy one. There was champagne (wine?) and a totebag from Ooops! with an 11% off coupon good just for that day in Macy’s-wouldn’t have helped me afford anything. From there we went up a floor to shoes, where there were little chinese food containers with cold noodles, some kind of little nacho-like thing, and shots of the new Vivanno drinks at Starbucks-banana chocolate, yum!
After that was the LINGERIE department, I’m sure all the guy bloggers really appreciated that. There were these little glasses with this white drink in it, someone handed me one and said I was supposed to drink it in one shot, so I did. It was CHIPOTLE PEPPER VODKA and White Chocolate Liqueur! Damn, it burned all the way down. Thanks a LOT, whoever that was. LOL There were also these trays of cookies, soft and spongy on the outside with fillings, one was purple and I think it was lavender flavored, the other was white and I think vanilla. Kind of weird tasting. That floor was sponsored by KY, who handed out little tubes of KY Intrigue lube, which was definitely the most adult party favor I got that whole weekend.
Our final stop was the furniture department, where there was a DJ and a table with the new book “Sleep Is For The Weak” on sale, and all the bloggers who contributed to it were there signing books. At $10 each it was very affordable. I can’t find my copy at the moment since it’s buried in a pile of stuff I still have to put away, but I know I got it signed by Rita, Alice, Eden, Liz, Kristen, Amy, Tracey, and Susan.
Whew! Now, I’m headed to Cincinnati tomorrow until late Tuesday night, so I might not be able to finish my BlogHer recap until next week. But thanks for reading!
Hello and welcome to Table for Five! I'm Elizabeth, and this blog started in September 2005 as a way for me to participate in the Mommy Blogging community. I'm married with three terrific kids-boys ages 11 and 9 and a 2 year old daughter. Things I love include my family, coffee, Diet Coke, TV, reading, and Target.
Please contact me at table4five AT gmail DOT com if you would like to discuss anything I've posted here, place a text or button ad, send me a product to review, or provide a guest post. Thank you for stopping by!
