AmazingGreis

BlogHer '09, oh what a weekend! – Part 1: Thursday

Thursday:

• A party at the airport – Dawn had booked a limo for a group of us that were arriving around the same time.  We were to meet up and ride together to the Sheraton, host hotel extraordinaire.  Shonda and I were on the same flight out of Houston.  We met up with Krystle, Michelle, Andrea, Brittany & Dawn.  It was like our own little party in the O’Hare terminal while we waited for the limo to arrive.  When we finally arrived to the hotel Jen & Victoria were outside waiting for us.  It was our own welcoming crew.  It was nice meeting all these wonderful ladies before getting our BlogHer on.  If all else failed I knew I’d at least know a few people this weekend.
• Lunch at Dick’s hosted by Amy – this was an amazing opportunity to meet so many people in a very casual environment.  The food was good, the company was great and the service was obnoxious!  I was excited to finally meet Jenny & Emily, Amy, Leslie, Danielle, Issa, Bridget, Carla, Tom & countless others.
• The SocialLuxe Party – I hear this party was awesome and very well put together, unfortunately I didn’t make it there.  I went back to the hotel and met up with my roomie Kendra.  I kept her from taking a nap and we chatted for a good hour or longer.  It was a great way to sepnd some down time before the BUSY night ahead.
• Dinner with friends – I was invited to tag along with my newfound BFF’s (Issa, Cat, Kirsten, Stacey, Andrea, Kari, Renee & Maura),  for an authentic Chicago dinner.  We decided on Gino’s Deep Dish pizza, hello, couldn’t go to Chicago and not have pizza.  The pizza was amazing but the time with friends was the best.  It was definitely a highlight of my weekend.
• The People’s Party – this shindig was exactly as it states.  It was a party for the people.  EVERYONE was invited.  I was a little late to the party but enjoyed my time while there.  I was finally able to see Chris Mann perform live.  I’m so sad that there is no photographic evidence of my Mann sighting, because RAWR, he’s hot!  I also met Jenny – The Bloggess, one of the party’s hostesses, and she’s just as AWESOME in person as she is on her blog.  We both live in the same city but had to travel to Chicago to finally meet in person.
• The Room704 Party – this is the party hosted by, you guessed it, the Room704 girls.  It was by far the craziest of all the parties.  There was a line mob formed a good 10 or 15 minutes before the party was to start just for the swag bags.  They were pretty awesome swag bags, but really, was it necessary to fight, claw, push and shove just to get one?  The party was held in the back lobby of the hotel.  Basically an open area to meet and mingle with 500 of your closest bloggy friends.  I had the pleasure of meeting so many of my “online” friends during this party. After searching high and low I finally found Meghan selling raffle tickets, of course, with Heather D. We shared a hug and quite possibly a very loud SQUEE, it was very exciting.  My other mission was to finally meet Heather.  There was conflicting information as to where she was, but after a little more searching I found her, clad in her purple boa and glowing behind the swag table.  She didn’t recognize me, as was to be expected.  I introduced myself and we shared a hug.  She is so sweet and cute as can be.
• After Party – the Room704 party ended but the lobby stayed packed.  Many of us continued to chat and meet into the late hours of the evening.  Not too long after the official party ended there was a naked person sighting.  It wasn’t just any naked person, it was NakedJen.  She took a stroll down the escalator, through the party and then casually walked back up the escalator.  We had been warned that she was about to make her appearance, but until you actually see a naked woman walking through, you just don’t think it’ll happen.  She is definitely braver and more secure with herself than I will ever be.  And I absolutely commend her for that.

Other Thursday Meetings:

1. Anissa – she is teh awesome and gives great hugs.
2. Miss Britt – it was a brief meeting, but she’s funny and such a sweetie.
3. Tanis – I met her outside of the hotel and I may have outed her on Twitter.  About what?  I will never tell! (she never said I outed her, but others did.  So, I quickly retracted my tweet and apologized profusely!! LOL )
4. Andrea – she may or may not have taken some incriminating pictures with a blow up doll.
5. Casey – so beautiful and she doesn’t even remember meeting me.
6. Cindy – I absolutely love her!!!
7. Jen – she’s a quad mom and I may have stalked her while in Chicago.  OK, so maybe not really stalking, but I kept running into her and her absolutely adorable family EVERYWHERE.

If we met and I haven’t listed you, please don’t hate me.  There are 2 more parts coming.  I also have a horrible memory and I’m sure I’ll forget some awesome people.  I will begin apologizing now.

**OK, so this is getting way too long.  I’m gonna break it up into 3 parts.  If you stuck around to the end, you ROCK and I thank you!**

Posted in: BlogHer

Tags: bloggy friends, Blogher09, Conferences

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 10:10 pm and is filed under BlogHer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.