BlogHer ‘10 Party Recap: Part Two

I know, it is crazy that I wasn’t able to finish the party recap in one post, but even in my diminished state (because of work to be done at BlogHer) I still managed to hit a lot of great parties that demand to be dissected.

Because that’s how I muthaf*ckin’ roll, people.

Friday Addendum

So, I am remiss beyond forgiveness for not talking about the Mouthy Housewives Cocktail party that was held on the Friday of BlogHer.  This would be the party that you may have heard so many people talking about because LG, who was sponsoring the party, gave one of their brand-new LG kompressor vacuum cleaners to EVERY person who attended the party.  WHAAAAAAT? Yeah, seriously, they did.  We just filled out a little post card with our address and should be receiving our vacuums in another three weeks or so.  I may have had a mini-stroke when I found this out.  Just a little one that made me a tiny bit dizzy for a few minutes and unable to write my name clearly.  But I recovered, filled out my deets and then proceeded to act incredibly spoiled and started to wonder why JVC wasn’t giving me a new HD video camera, too, because I really need one of their new Everio numbers that are like pocket-sized awesome in a shiny black wrapper. Alas, I was unable to convince theJVC PR person that I would be an exemplary advocate for their brand while I was clutching a cocktail and still vibrating from performing at the keynote.

<----- Bzzzt! I’m afraid I may have come off as a taller, more narcissistic version of Bill the Cat, actually.  Sorry, if I scared you, JVC-employee!! 

OK, moving on…

Saturday

Saturday morning was tied up with prepping for and then presenting my GeekLab ROYO session, How to Edit Your Photos and Make Them 10xs Better (with Ryan and Pauline).  As soon as I was done, I hightailed it down to the lobby to go out to lunch with friends at John’s Pizzeria. Suzanne from Twenty Four at Heart organized it and some of my favorite people were there.  See them all?



That would be me on the right, looking like I just bit a into a lemon slice or was gathering my courage to tell Vodka Mom to keep her hands off my behind.  Honestly, there are too many awesome people at that table.  Since I want to link to them, though, I am compelled to name drop: Wendi Aarons, Heather of the EO, Ann, Suzanne, Momo Fali, OHmommy, Jill aka Scary Mommy, Jill, Deb, Karen, Carolyn, Stacey, and Deb. On the way back to the hotel I made Pauline pose with me in Times Square for the Forever 21 billboard. Yes, acting like a teenager is way more than actually being one!  (If you look closely at the billboard with the big 21 on it, you will see us posing right by her hand. Coooool.)



After that, I went and got myself cleaned up for the Project Mom Casting interview I had scheduled for 3:30.  I had about half an hour, though, so headed to the…

Getting Gorgeous Event

I had initially missed out on this event because it was full or I didn’t get invited, but after hearing about it, I emailed the organizers and got myself on the waitlist. I actually whooped out-loud when I found out I’d gotten onto the list to get in just a few days before BlogHer because I had completely written it off as an impossibility.  In fact, I had been pouting rather unattractively about the fact that I couldn’t get in. Ridiculous, I know…

So, I only had a half an hour, but I still managed to have  an interesting talk with the Skechers Shape-Ups ladies,  whom I still haven’t followed up with (bad blogger!) and find out about Kodak’s new photo system that is a very cool little program you can use at those printer kiosks (at Target and the like) to pick out and then print a group of photos on an 8 X 10 print and then you buy a frame that has a matte that is pre-cut to your photos, making your pics look extra snazzy and professionally collaged. A super idea. I couldn’t find an example of it online, so look for it to be released soon.
I didn’t even get to go through all the rooms, but noticed that there was a table full of jeans and a large group of women looking through them and waiting for a turn to try them on.  I didn’t have time to investigate, so headed to the swag room, collected my goodies and headed out. 

Getting Gorgeous Swag:  Holy shit. No disrespect to all the other amazing parties I attended, but the swag bags from the Getting Gorgeous event were this year’s Social Luxe swag bag (their 2009 bags had Sony HD video cameras in them). There is a tie between my two favorite things in the bag: The Power Mat portable charger for three items and the MiracleBody jeans.  Now, as I mentioned I wasn’t able to get to the table while at the party… but I saw the jeans on Kimberley Blaine later that day and was like “Uh-oh. I made a grave error in not making time to get those jeans.” A few days after blogger, through the power of goodwill and really great marketing people, I somehow found an email from the MiracleBody people in my mailbox and wrote to them about how bummed I was about not having time to try on the jeans.  The rep wrote back, “No problem! What size do you wear?” and three days later I was out stopping traffic in my new Skinny Minnie jeans that truly do make my ass look 10 lbs lighter.  NO JOKE.  If only I had a photo of them to show you! *wink,wink*  Never fear, I am planning on wearing them for a karaoke night-in with Maggie and Ann on Saturday, where I will force them to take photos of me while I sing and prance. (Because fellow bloggers will understand and dismiss without a second thought the inherent distastefulness of asking others to photograph oneself looking foolish yet still fabulous.)

That said, I was off to the Warwick for my interview with the Project Mom Casting ladies so they could get some footage of me and the other intimidatingly smart, fascinating and funny women that were selected to tape interviews for a possible reality TV show about blogging moms. Unfortunately, the interviews were running about two hours late. As I had spent the better part of the last two days anxiety-stricken or in full-on business mode, I asked if they could just give me a call if they ended up being able to do the interview before 4:30, and the lovely producer woman told me that I could just leave and there would be no harm, no foul.  Phew.  Lee was able to get some footage of me preparing for the keynote up in our room the day before, so they have that, at least. 

I made it back to the hotel in time to grab a little something to eat (was it the half a box of mint Oreo cookies from the Martha Bloggers party? Maybe.) and then get to my next appointment.

Kimberley Blaine, aka The Go To Mom, was my last business stop of the day and ended up being one of my favorite moments of the conference.  We had a five-minute interview scheduled for 5pm sharp for her upcoming video series for Sony. Kimberley strikes me as a woman who is always on time and I was correct in that assumption.  She was also fun while remaining incredibly on-task, qualities that I love and admire and aspire to, quite honestly.  I seem to be able to do one of the other, but if I start having too much fun, then my schedule always gets  blown. I was scheduled as her last interview, so we were able to have a little fun with it, and I think we made the most of it.  You’ll have to stay tuned until this Fall when the video is released, but I can almost guarantee that you will get a good laugh from the footage she took of us. 



We said our farewells, and I ran off to my room to get ready for Sparklecorn.  Fortunately, my outfit which wasn’t entirely figured out, came together very nicely with Ann’s help and then I cantered off in my peep-toe stilettos and down to the ballroom where the MamaPop crew was busy hanging posters and assembling cutouts of all our favorite pop culture icons. 

We also had a little bit of time to pose for some pictures and video and then the doors opened, the music started and I danced for the next three hours. 

BEST. DANCE. PARTY. EVER. 

That is all I can say about the event.  And that the cake was un-freaking-believable.  Yes, it was. 

Go watch the insanely awesome Sparklecorn video that Ryan put together to witness some of the exuberant letting go of any inhibitions that everyone at the best party of the weekend experienced. Imagine 1500 women just letting go and dancing and dancing and dancing the night away. With smiles on their faces and endorphins pumping through all the happy spots in their brains.  It was that good. I also took some photos that night and they will have to finish off this post. Sparklecorn faded to CheezeBurgHer party time which faded to hotel bar time which faded to hanging out in someone’s room time to being locked out of my room time to FINALLY bedtime.  And just like that, BlogHer was a wrap. 

Until next year: Party and bullshit, people.  (WATCH THE VIDEO!)







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This post was written and formatted with Windows Live Writer, available on PC’s running Windows 7 or Vista.  Microsoft has kindly loaned me an ASUS laptop for the month of August to test out Windows Live Essentials Beta while blogging. So far... I am dreading going back to the Blogger Dashboard and plotting how I can get my hands on a PC laptop to continue blogging from. Live Writer is a dream to write in and even dreamier to format photos within the posts. How am I supposed to go back to watermarking all my pics in Photoshop along with the resizing and the corner-rounding?? It will be all square edges and boring-ness come September, I’m afraid. 
And all the bits of Mac loyalty that was left in my body just jumped ship!  I guess the sad truth of it is that I just don’t have time to fuss between all the different programs I use on the Mac to put my posts together.  Live Writer, plainly put, makes my blogging life easier.