the obligatory pre-BlogHer post

I’m leaving for BlogHer in less than 48 hours, and I’m oddly calm about it. Sure, there’s a lot to do: laundry, packing, getting cash from the ATM, stocking up on groceries so Dave won’t have to do it, etc. But I keep seeing people talk about how anxious they are, nervous about meeting the popular bloggers, and OMG it’s going to be like high school and I’m going to hide out in the bathroom the whole weekend or whatever. And I guess I’m feeling sort of “meh” about it. I hope I get to meet all of the bloggers that I love, and I hope that none of them are stuck-up snobs. (I have no reason to think that any of them are snobs; if I did, I wouldn’t bother reading their blogs.)

Really, there are two things that are making me nervous:
1. I might get to meet Tim Gunn. This scares me because I adore him and I know I’m not exactly the most super-fashionable chick on the planet. But I know that if I have the opportunity to get my picture taken with Tim Gunn and I don’t, my mom will kick my butt. (My mom loooves her some Project Runway.) So again… eh. I know Tim Gunn is way too polite to tell me to my face that I look like crap, so I’ll just have to pretend that he isn’t secretly judging me. Although I’m pretty sure that he will be.

2. This will be the first time ever that Dave is on solo-parent duty overnight. (And this will be for THREE nights!) He’ll have some help, Catie will go to daycare on Friday, and I think Cat and Tony are planning to take Catie off his hands for a few hours over the weekend so he can pack. (Hear that, buddy? Packing. Not playing Scrabble on Facebook. I mean it.) I’m just worried because I’m still Catie’s primary translator, so I worry that there will be some communication breakdowns and frustration on both sides. But I just have to trust that they’ll get through it and it’ll all be ok.

Mostly, I’m just excited. I get to sleep in a hotel room where there will be zero chance of a two year-old climbing into bed next to me at 3 a.m. I’ll have conversations with grown-ups. I can have cocktails. I get to meet a lot of brilliantly funny, lovely women whose writing I’ve admired for years. There’s really not much negativity or anxiety around it for me.

For three days, though, man alive I am going to miss this face.
Catie in the toy store
How could I not?

looking for my party dress

I’ve got a bunch of stuff swirling around my head right now, but most of it is not really all that interesting. I doubt any of y’all really want to hear about:
* This chapter I’m writing, which is due on Friday, and has got me all sorts of stressed out. Oh, and how yesterday I drew the most awesome diagram of an Active Directory-integrated DNS zone in the entire history of diagrams of DNS zones. Yeah, baby.
* The fact that my house is a mess (because of the aforementioned book deadline) and it’s starting to gross me out. I’m already making a mental list of which tasks I’m going to tackle as soon as I’m done writing.
* House-hunting and my ridiculously long list of criteria, and how we sort of like this one new development, but there are a whole bunch of risks associated with new developments these days, and oh my god, how am I supposed to make a decision like this? Whine whine, woe is me and my privileged little life. People are losing their dream homes left and right and I’m debating over whether to buy resale or have a house custom-built for us. Yeah. Poor me, I know. Shut up, Cindy. God.

So instead, let’s talk about BlogHer. Because I’m going.

BlogHer '09 In Real Life

It’s next month, and I’m already getting a little nervous. As it turns out, when you go to BlogHer, it’s not just the conference itself (which is on Friday and Saturday), but there are also a bunch of parties. So, I’m flying in on Thursday evening, and I’ve already RSVP’ed to two different parties that night. And that’s just Thursday! Before the conference has even officially started!

”The

And I’m also going to the Room 704 party that night (alas, their badges aren’t working).

The parties are at different times, so that’s fine, I should be able to attend both. But here’s the thing: everyone dresses up for these events. And my wardrobe consists mostly of jeans and hoodies. Seriously, you should see the shoes that some people plan on wearing. (Hi, Heather!) It’s crazy. I’m definitely feeling the pressure to cute-ify myself up a bit. (Yes, I just used cute as a verb. Shush.)

So I’m now shopping online for dresses that I can wear on the plane, so I can arrive at the hotel looking gorgeous and ready to party. It’s only an hour and a half direct flight, but you know, it’ll be July. So the sweatiness (and ensuing shiny forehead) is a concern. And I need a dress with at least a little bit of sleeve. Because as much as I might act like my flabby upper arms don’t bother me and I’m fine and “yeah, I’m cool with my size 12-ness” in person, I also know people will be taking pictures at these parties. And if I see photos of my flabby upper arms, my whole self-acceptance facade will fly out the window, and I will cry and beg people to delete the pictures of me. So that’s no good. But it does make it harder to shop, since it seems that most dresses are sleeveless.

I did, however, manage to find these online (thank you, Macys.com – now if you’d only make linking easier so I don’t have to copy & paste everything):

black & white dress
I think this one is my favorite. It’s so pretty and looks like it would be very flattering.

black & white patterned dress
I honestly can’t tell if this is flattering or not because of that ridiculous pose the model is doing. But I think I might like it? Maybe?

brown dress with cap sleeves
I’m not sure what I think about the brown, but it also comes in black. It meets my two requirements as far as covering a little bit of arm and not being too clingy on my tummy area. And if worn with the right bra, it might actually give the illusion that I have boobs. Hmm.

black & white print dress
I don’t usually like all-over prints on me, but something about this dress really appeals to me. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s cute.

little black dress
This one might work, since I know I won’t look nearly as severe and dead-behind-the-eyes as the model. I probably won’t lean on walls like that either.

What do y’all think? Votes?

As for the shoes, I think I’m going to have to find some cute ballet flats or something, because I refuse to be That Woman who wears heels through the airport. Maybe I’ll toss something cuter in my bag to change into once I get to the party, but I haven’t figured that part out yet.

I'm going to BlogHer

Last week I made the decision to go to BlogHer. Well, I didn’t make the decision on my own, Dave is actively encouraging me to go, which kind of surprised me. I hemmed and hawed for a while. I mean, sure, I want to go, it sounds like a lot of fun. But it means 3 nights away from Catie, which is more than I’ve ever done (so far, I’ve spent a grand total of one night away from her. ONE! In her whole life!). Plus it’s expensive, paying for a plane ticket, hotel, conference pass, etc. And it’s scary to think about meeting some of the bloggers who I’ve been reading for years. I’m a little scared that it’s going to trigger some sort of high school flashback and I’ll be sitting by myself while all the cool kids party it up. (And yes, I do realize exactly how ridiculous I am for thinking that.)

But here’s the thing. Most of my job-hunting is turning up zilch, so in the meantime, I’ve started doing a little bit of freelance writing. And I love it. So if I really want to market myself as a freelance writer and blogger (and I think that I do), then it makes sense to go to a conference to learn more about the business side of blogging. Right? Honestly, I’m really looking forward to that side of it. I imagine that I’ll learn a lot.

Of course, there are a ton of bloggers who I would absolutely love to meet in person: Heather, Yvonne, Jodi, etc. I’m going to be totally overwhelmed by the Genius and Awesomeness. And there are also the rock star bloggers (you know who they are) who I will try really hard not to squee or pee my pants if I should happen to get the chance to meet them. But let’s face it, I’m a huge dork, anything could happen.

So I bought the conference pass, and I booked my plane ticket with frequent flyer miles (thank you, American Airlines!). All that’s left is the hotel. Which brings me to my main point: if anybody who reads this site is also going to BlogHer, and if you want a roommate to go halvsies on a hotel room with you, leave me a comment or drop me an email. (Um, women only, please. I don’t need to go getting myself into trouble with my husband.) I sort of love the idea of having a hotel room to myself for three whole nights with no one (read: Catie) to interrupt my sleep, but they’re hosting BlogHer at the Sheraton, and it’s kind of expensive.

Also: holy mother of God, I can’t believe I’m actually going. Only almost-5 months left to freak out about it!