I left off my last post having crawled into bed at about 12:30 AM after Thursday’s FOUR parties in one night. Now, I went to BlogHer this year as a volunteer, my title was “Bookstore wrangler”. The person who carries the microphone during sessions is called the Mic wrangler, the person who oversees all the volunteers is the Volunteer wrangler, etc. Because I had been working for a little over a month helping get the books ordered from Barnes & Noble and emailing the authors answering their questions, I thought I was supposed to spend most of Friday and Saturday in the BlogHer bookstore.

So I set the alarm clock for SIX AM Friday morning, took a shower, stumbled downstairs to the Westin lobby where they had a company called Caruso’s selling coffee drinks and delicious pastries, grabbed a ginormous Mocha and a Chocolate Nutella croissant OMG, and went into the bookstore. I chatted with the iRobot people who were setting up Roomba demos and once Terri from B&N and the boxes of books arrived, I got to work helping her unpack all the boxes and set out the books.

Before I knew it, it was noon and time for our first book signing. After weeks of emails with the authors, looking at their book titles and their names dozens of times in the spreadsheets, I came to think of each of them as “my” authors. I asked each of them to pose for a photo with me and they all kindly obliged, plus I snapped photos of each of them signing a book. First to sign was Anna Post, the great-great-granddaughter of Manners Maven Emily Post, the whole family writes books about manners! Anna signed her book, “Emily Post’s Wedding Parties”, plus other titles from the Post family. Anna was wonderful, and after I told her that Kaitlyn’s idea of sharing was to say “give me that, now we sharing”, she kindly gave me a copy of “Emily’s Sharing and Caring Book“-let’s hope it helps! lol Signing books alongside Anna was Mona Gable who contributed to the book “The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change”.

My other author signings that day were Claire Mysko who wrote a book called “Girls Inc. Presents: You’re Amazing!: A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self”-Claire was so enthusiastic about her book signing! She gave me her cell number and when a lady purchased her book and asked about getting it signed, I called Claire and helped the two of them meet up! Along with Claire I had Suzanne Reisman, who blogs at Cuss and Other Rants, signing her book “Off the Beaten (Subway) Track”. She had a great turnout! Right after them were Jennifer Graf Groneberg who wrote “Road Map to Holland: How I Found My Way Through My Son’s First Two Years With Down Syndrome”, and Vicki Forman who contributed to “Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs”.

SO. At that point, Elisa Camahort came into the room to see how I was doing. When I told her I had been there since 7 AM, she said “no, no! You don’t need to STAY in here! You just need to be here during the book signings! Haven’t you gone to any sessions or anything?” Oh. Um. OH.

So I left and walked through the exhibit hall, I wrote a lot about the products I saw on http://momreviews.net if you want a more detailed description. There were great exhibits from Picnik, PBS Kids, Sprout, V-Tech, Leapfrog, HP TouchSmart, and a whole lot more! Anna Post was not just there to sign books, she was also there working with one of the exhibitors, Merci Chocolates! They were giving out one pound boxes of chocolate to everyone, oh YEAH. I’ll be writing more about their National Thank You Day, and the contest that Merci is having.

After that, I went to the Sesame Street Suite! I met Abby Cadabby and Grover! I could have recorded a little video with one of them, but the spots were filling up and I had so much on my mind I completely forgot to go back. But I did chat with Abby and her lovely puppeteer, and found out from Grover’s puppeteer that he learned the voice of Grover from Frank Oz himself! I could have just camped out for hours in that room, they had milk and cupcakes, tootsie rolls, Sesame Street episodes on the TV-it was like a little room in heaven.

But, soon I had to go back for my last signing of the day, with Lisa Witter, author of “The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World — And How to Reach Them”, and Diane MacEachern, who wrote “Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World”. After that last signing, I tried to go to the Community Keynote, which had bloggers reading their best posts on stage. I tried, but I was just so darn exhausted, and I still had two parties!

I popped up to my room, freshened up, then Dana, Lori, and Christina (A Mommy Story) and I headed out to the cocktail reception at Ruby Skye, which was just around the corner from the hotel. It’s beautiful inside, and there was food and drinks and music to dance to. I was grateful for the pasta bar, I was starving! AND, in one corner of the club, they had set up the “TNT Drama Lounge”, because the party was sponsored by TNT and the shows “Saving Grace” and “The Closer”. I got to meet Gina Ravera, who plays Detective Irene Daniels on “The Closer”, and she was amazing!

We talked for a long time about her life as an actress, and how much she loves going out and meeting people. You know what was interesting? When we were posing for the photo, the guy taking photos kept saying no, your eyes were closed and no, the light is wrong and then Gina, ever the actress, turned to him and said “tell me what you need from me. What do you need me to do?” It was such an actor moment! She was sweet. They gave out bottles of “Closer Red” nail polish and really pretty little clocks, too.

After Ruby Skye, a bunch of us piled into cabs and headed over to Maggie Mason’s Mighty Haus Launch Party. Maggie and her husband Brian did such a great job with the party! The logo for Mighty Haus is a key in an orange box, so everything at the party was ORANGE. There were bowls of Cheetos, Goldfish crackers, Reese’s sticks and cups-fun! Everyone got to choose a small key on a thread to wear as a necklace, and there was nice wine and unique sodas to drink. I would have taken a lot more photos, but I FORGOT to reformat my camera card and didn’t have any room left! GAH! There are a bunch on Flickr though, search for the tag mightyhaus.

I also got to meet Heather Armstrong, who has the most charming Southern manners, beautiful hair and clothes, and is about six feet tall PLUS she wears heels. There’s a hilarious photo of us on Flickr that I’m still looking for, she is standing behind me and I guess I thought she was going to grab me or something because I’m like shrieking with laughter and my mouth is WIDE open-not really that attractive but still funny. The party was at the Adaptive Path offices which were about six blocks (?) from the hotel. When I was ready to go, I walked out with three other bloggers thinking we would either a. flag down a passing cab or b. call the phone number on the card the cab driver had given us, the card that read “WE ALWAYS ANSWER THE PHONE”.

So there I am with Genie and Secret Agent Josephine and another blogger whose name I can’t remember (sorry!), walking down 3rd Street, thinking if we just keep walking, eventually a cab will stop. Genie is very tall and she was waving her arms and jumping up and down, and still, no cab would stop. SAJ pulled out that cab driver card and called the number on it. “WE ALWAYS ANSWER THE PHONE” turned out to mean “The phone will ring a billion times but no one will answer”. We called the Yellow Cab number (333-3333), they HUNG UP on SAJ. We just kept walking, me getting more and more freaked out because here I am with my purse and my huge camera walking down unfamiliar streets with people I don’t really know, and all I want is to get in a freaking cab already.

Do you know where we ended up? AT&T PARK. We walked all the way to the baseball stadium before we finally flagged down a cab and threw ourselves in it. Oh, did I mention the man I passed pushing a shopping cart with a sign that read “SMOKED A GIANT DOOBIE, HAVE THE MUNCHIES, PLEASE HELP”? Awesome.

And THAT, my friends, was FRIDAY at BlogHer. It was just as exhausting to do as you might think from reading about it! And I still have to recap SATURDAY and SUNDAY! I know we are heading into the weekend when most people don’t read blogs, but I leave for Cincinnati on Monday so I have to get this done. Please say you’ll check in over the weekend and read, and leave comments? kthxbai!

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I can’t believe what a hard time I’m having writing about BlogHer! It’s like, I don’t want to say too little, but I don’t know how much to say, so I’m just sort of stuck! I arrived last Thursday just in time to hop on a shuttle bus to the Kirtsy/Alltop party, and while waiting for the bus, I had a chance to hug Julie and Kristen from Parent Bloggers Network, Liz from Cool Mom Picks (Kristen is CMP too), and Krisco from Crib Ceiling. I ran into Gwendomama in the lobby, she’s a PBN blogger, and my roommates were Anne and Dana who reviews at Dana Reviews. When I got to the room, I found Lori waiting for us, she has a bunch of great blogs including Cowgirl Critiques. She is so cute and she just jumped right in to all the BlogHer craziness! I was so glad she came!

On the shuttle bus, I chatted with Dana, Lori, Jennster (she just gets hotter every year), Kristie from SlackerMommy, and Corinna from A Celebration of Curves, who has cleavage like you wouldn’t believe! And then, I start chatting with the blogger sitting across from me, and she goes “Elizabeth! It’s MICHELLE LAMAR!” Michelle blogs at White Trash Mom and was one of “my” authors in the BlogHer Bookstore! I just wanted to pack her in my suitcase and bring her home, she was so sweet and fun.

Despite our shuttle bus driver having NO CLUE how to actually get to the party, we arrived at Guy Kawasaki’s house in Atherton to find all the Kirtsy ladies, plus so many other wonderful bloggers whose sites are listed on Alltop. There was a photo area where you could dress up in costumes and get your photo taken, a huge bowl of paella, fancy wine, and my favorite, plastic cups of mashed potatoes with barbecued chicken on top-yum! I was so happy to see Gabrielle from Kirtsy again, she was at the Disney event I went to in April. I met Laurie from Kirtsy at last year’s BlogHer too.

I ran into BOSSY, big smooches for her, and Stephanie from Adventures in Babywearing and Stephanie from Ladybug and her Blogging Mama, who also went to the Disney event. I talked to Kristen from Mommy Needs a Cocktail but DIDN’T get a photo with her, darn it! I hugged Casey from Moosh in Indy about half a dozen times, plus shook hands a little nervously with Eden from Fussy, Alice from Finslippy, and Melissa from Suburban Bliss. I don’t know what I was so nervous about, they are all quite lovely and friendly.

I gave a big hug to Christina from A Mommy Story, and squealed a bit when I met Wendy from Sparkplugging! After picking up buttons that read “Kirtsy, we bring bitches together” (ha!) and debating over the one that read “I heart Guy K” or the one with Guy’s face on it (I went for the face one), and grabbing a ginormous swag bag (cute red totebag from Scholastic positively STUFFED with swag) and a black tee that reads “I Write For Me”, we boarded the shuttle back to the hotel. Fortunately, that driver knew where he was going, plus rush hour was over.

We got back to the hotel just as the MomCentral “First Drink on Us” party was wrapping up, and after hugging the heck out of the adorable Abbey, I gratefully accepted a Cosmo and a totebag with three new hardback books I can’t wait to read. I also met Kara and Stacy from MomCentral, and let me tell you, they are all the nicest people you could ever want to work with. Then I bumped into Anne-Marie Nichols, who I first met at BlogHer 06 when I knew absolutely no one and asked if I could sit with her at breakfast. And here we are 2 years later!

Okay, so let’s see, where are we? That’s the second party of the night, TWO MORE parties to go! We took a cab over to Rye bar even though it was only down the street and around the corner because we hadn’t been there long enough to get the lay of the land, so to speak, so we didn’t realize just how close to the hotel it was. Rye bar was the site of the party hosted by The Experience Project, where I happily greeted Armen and Julio, who I first met last year. They are still so awesome and so enthusiastic (and rightfully so) about their website. I sipped a Cosmo, picked up a cute gift bag, snapped some photos, and then it was time for the FOURTH party of the night, the People’s Party!

Hosted by a bevy of amazing bloggers, the People’s Party was where I met Loralee from Loralee’s Looney Tunes, Leah Peah, Mr. Lady from Whiskey in my Sippy Cup, and ran into my blog pals Liz from This Full House, Shannon from PHAT Mommy, Kerry from Crunchy Carpets, Amber from Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck, and Shannon from Believer in Balance. I also met Mrs. Flinger (finally!) and found Charlene, formerly of Maya’s Mom, who now runs Shine, the parenting site for Yahoo!. AND, I found James and Zameer from BabySpot, who are like big huggable teddy bears and I am so happy to be writing their weekly newsletter! Thanks for the job, guys!

Oh, and someone, I totally cannot remember WHO, but I know she’s a relatively new blogger and it was her first BlogHerCon, bought me a drink at the party. THANK YOU, whomever you were! Turns out, four Cosmos is my limit, and after that, I needed to go to BED. Unfortunately for my roommates, I fell right asleep while they were still up, and I started TALKING IN MY SLEEP. According to Dana I said something like “no, I already did that”-ha! And then I tried to SPOON Dana, but it’s not my fault, we slept together last year too, and I’m just so darn comfortable with her! LOL Sorry sweetie!

And THAT was Thursday at BlogHer. Turns out a 41 year old out of shape mother of three CAN go to four parties in one night! Just not more than once a year. Tomorrow? I’ll recap Friday!

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So, it’s more than a little disconcerting to have other bloggers say, upon meeting me, that they miss the purple flower I used to have in my header! Here I thought I was keeping it fresh, and instead it turns out I’ve just been confusing the hell out of people who no longer can tell right away that they are visiting Table for Five. I’m so sorry!

Which means I am now attempting to get the purple flower back in my header, as well as a photo of myself, because I also found out that not everyone who reads this blog follows me on Twitter, so they don’t know what I look like! Again, so sorry!

My brain is still a bit discombobulated, so if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to work a bit on emails and some other things for a while, then I’ll be back with a BlogHer recap of some of the finer moments of the trip. It will probably take me the rest of the week just to remember everything that happened!

And then on Monday and Tuesday of next week, I’ll be in Cincinnati at another blogging event-a PR firm that represents Pampers is sending me and some other fine bloggers to Proctor & Gamble headquarters! I can’t wait to tell the Pampers people how their diapers and wipes are the only ones we use, plus I hope I can talk to P&G about their new “Aquaporins” line of products. Should be fun!

So my dears, I’ll be back soon with all the BlogHer talk you can stand. Leave me a comment, tell me what’s going on with you!

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well, I won’t have flowers in my hair, but on Friday night, I will be wearing this:

Have I decided yet what to wear on Thursday for my flight there? Or what to wear to the Thursday night parties? Or what to wear during the DAY? Nope.

And when do I leave? About 7:45 AM on Thursday. Am I ready? Nope.

But at least I have Friday night covered.

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All I can say is WOO HOO! I am grateful to the depths of my core to Elisa from BlogHer, who called me today and offered me a job working at the conference. She reads this blog (hi Elisa!) and has been following my saga of trying to figure out how to get myself there. I will be working as the coordinator between the bloggers who are coming to sign and sell their books, like Heather Armstrong whose book “Things I Learned About My Dad (In Therapy)” will be released on April 29th, and the bookstore that we will have come to take care of the payments. I will be making sure that everyone gets where they need to be when they need to be there. It’s the perfect job for me as a book lover!

Oh, and because I apparently have less than a fully functioning memory at the moment, I originally told a friend I was going to San DIEGO and not San FRANCISCO, and I apologize right now to native Californians for making that mistake! I’m chatting with her and saying hey, I need to look up the city on Google and see what fun things there are to do, oh look, I could visit some San Diego microbreweries! It’s a little embarassing, I know.

To those of you who have so kindly nominated me for the “Who’s Your BlogHer Hero?” contest, I am still in the running for that, and if I do happen to win, we will work something out as far as the prize is concerned. And to all of you who have nominated me, left me the greatest and most supportive comments, who have emailed me and chatted with me on IM and on the phone, THANK YOU. If I didn’t have the support of this blogging community, this blogging family, I don’t think my hopes would have stayed as high as they have been.

It takes a lot of fortitude to be a blogger, to hang in there through the ups and the downs, and to look at negative situations as temporary while assuming that positive situations are ahead. It just makes me want to work that much harder and be that much better at what I do. I know that even while working at the conference, I will still be absorbing knowledge and making contacts that will make this blog even better in the year to come! Thank you, all of you, for being on this journey with me. From the bottom of my blogging heart, I love you all.

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