Velveteen Mind

5 Minutes for Moody Obscurity...

My 5 Minutes for Moody Obscurity are apparently up.  Following our evacuation for Hurricane Gustav, I found myself in a grumpy bout of emotional exhaustion.  Nothing particularly dramatic happened, however the entire evacuation process followed by long hours of waiting and watching just drained me. 

We returned home to a battered coastline but a safe and sound home.  I would think I was over being moody, go down to the beach to take photos to share with you (coming soon, I swear), then find myself right smack dab in the middle of a grump fest again. 

Lots of eating and sleeping have been going on, but no computer turning-on-ing.  ;)

However, my time for dabbling in depression has come to an end, as I find myself being dragged out of said moody obscurity by my Canadian twin-tastic friends at 5 Minutes for Mom.  Head over to their revamped network of sites and check out the first video interview I did for them while in San Francisco recently. 

What I should be depressed about is how they clearly shot me from my fat side (ahem), but aside from the rambling, I think it's a fun interview.  Susan and Janice were immensely professional and I was exactly the opposite.  In other words, it was a blast.

I think they said "stop mocking me!" at least half a dozen times, but I couldn't help it!  By the way, I was not mocking them at any point, but rather admiring their professionalism and completely contagious Canadian accents.  After working with them on The People's Party and the 5 Minutes for Mom video segments, I can't recommend this duo enough.  If you aren't a member of 5 Minutes for Mom, yet, get over there right now and sign up. 

I have the perfect first stop for you:  Me!  Talking aimlessly and touching my face way too much!

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Like Tom Hanks but Without the Cash

No, there was no live feed of The People's Party.  As far as I can tell, Guy Kawasaki hijacked our video girl (which, yes, is just like "video killed the radio star") and I'm still crushed about it.  Guy!  I thought we were working together on this!  Man. 
(I'm kidding.  I should probably spell that out.)

You know what else there wasn't?  Any more words after this next paragraph or two.  I am finally home after spending 24 hours straight in either an airport or an airplane.  Yeah...  um...  Yeah.  I was just like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, though it felt much more like Cast Away.   After the ninth hour, I looked just like a castaway, too, inspiring vendors to give me free food and drinks.  Mostly because they wanted me to stop scaring off their customers.

If you are new here, maybe some of my regular readers can vouch for this blog in the comments?  If not, my sidebars are loaded with stuff to click, including great post-BlogHer posts by people that are not me.  Or, even better, because although I am too tired to type, I'm not too tired to read... 

If we met this weekend for the first time, leave a comment with a link to your blog and give me  something to occupy my delirious brain that refuses to shut off and let me get some sleep!  Don't leave me hanging, though.  Twitter became like my Wilson at the airport...  I was doing a lot of talking and only imagining a lot of responses.  Maybe my brain will kick back on somewhere in here and I'll be able to write a real post.  Until then... Vouching and linking commencing...   now!

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Welcome to the Hotel California

Sunday in San Francisco and I am sitting at an airport bar, drinking a peach martini, and staring down the clock with the knowledge that I have eight more hours to go before my flight.  Eight more hours, on top of the six that I have already been sitting here.

Welcome to the Hotel California.  You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

My San Francisco airport experience so far has included lost luggage, flight delays, flight cancellations, rebookings, rebookings on nonexistant flights, feeble admissions that those nonexistant flights apparently existed after all but are now booked, and resignations to the fact that I had best make friends with the staff of the Mission Bar & Grill or I'll lose the only table with a working electrical outlet that I can find.

"Such a lovely place....  Such a lovely face."

That should buy me another ten minutes or so.

This has been a lovely weekend, The People's Party was a raging success, more so than we had anticipated (ahem...  there were free drink tickets and swag bags, but they flat out ran out), the sessions were so-so, but the people were beyond fabulous.  If I ever doubted once that there was such thing as community among bloggers, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt now that it is not a mirage.

I decided not to blog or twitter during BlogHer and that once home, I would write one single solitary post about it and then let it be.  But I find myself now in this strange limbo between BlogHer and home and feel justified to fudge a bit on that resolve.

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night

I will absolutely go to BlogHer next year, assuming that I am still blogging.  You never know.  Life.

It is worth it.  Perhaps not so much for the sessions, but for what you learn outside of the sessions.  So many times I would be heading to some conference room to learn how to become a wicked smaht blogger and get distracted by someone that I had been longing to meet. 

It was in the hallways that I learned about blogging.

Did I have fun?  Yes.  Were there awkward moments?  Don't even ask me to elaborate, but yes.  Gah.  I don't know when to shut up.  Was it full of cliques?  I saw one or two, but I was so distracted by the different faces that surrounded me every day, that it was hard to believe that this was an issue.

I ate every meal with a completely different group of people.  I watched every session from my place at a table full of completely different people from the last session table.  I watched every keynote with different ears to whisper into by my side.

The downside to this diversity is that I rarely spoke with the same person more than twice and more than 20 minutes.  From that perspective, I can see that some people could leave BlogHer feeling slighted by this woman or that, but you are looking at the wrong aspect of the experience, in that case.

By the end, I was utterly saturated and completely drained. 

Yet full of joy. 

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before

See you when I finally make it home.  If they ever do let me leave.

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Let's Party: Hi From GoodyBlog

Hey party people! Amanda from GoodyBlog here, just saying hi before the big bash. We are Pumped (with a big 'ol capital "P") to be sponsoring the party again this year. If you happened to be there last year at the W, I was the crazy lady with drink tickets and name tags. See photo at left, where I don't seem to have nametags, but I do seem to have a drink. Hmm. Moving on!

Even though our GoodyBloggers are also editors of Parents—you know, in our spare time—we’re really committed to being a part of this community because we it. You guys rock! (Okay, am I gushing too much?) Really, I can’t wait to see some familiar faces and and meet some new ones.

So remember the deets: Tomorrow (omg!) at 8pm in the Westin’s Elizabethan room. The party lasts till midnight, even if I don’t. See you soon!

xo,
Amanda

PS: Special thanks to the lovely Megan for letting me gush and for working her behind off to plan an amazing party!

Meet Sprout

 Guest Post from PBS KIDS Sprout

Hi Moms and Dads!  We’re PBS KIDS Sprout - the first 24-hour preschool channel featuring shows kids love and parents trust, such as Sesame Street®, Barney & Friends™, Thomas & Friends™ and much more.  From morning to night, we’re a place where parents and kids share everything from singing and dancing to birthday wishes and bedtime stories.  So no matter where you are in your day, there’s always something to share with Sprout!

Thanks so much to Megan for inviting us to guest blog on her site so that we could introduce ourselves to everyone.  We are so excited to be going to BlogHer this week.  This is our first time attending the conference and we're looking forward to meeting everyone and learning more about the moms behind the blogs!  We look forward to chatting about how we could work together on some fun projects in the future. 

Sprout is unlike any other kid’s network out there because we’re truly interactive.  We feature kid’s artwork, birthday cards, videos and photos every day on TV as part of Sprout’s original programming -- like the live Sunny Side Up Show where our hosts share viewer-submitted birthday greetings, weather reports, artwork and more each morning through submissions sent to us from moms and dads just like you via our website, www.SproutOnline.com.  Sprout relies on parents to participate in our daily programming and give us feedback on how we're doing, so we're really looking forward to making new friends and learning how we can continue to better serve moms, dads and their preschoolers. 

We're especially excited to be co-sponsoring The People's Party on Thursday night from 8-midnight at the Westin.  We hope you can swing by!  Look for Shannon, Jenni, Rebecca or Ken at the party and also during breaks between the conference sessions on Friday and Saturday at the Sprout exhibit table where you can meet Cow Bella , one of the brand new Pajanimals from The Jim Henson Company and 4Kids Entertainment.  This is Cow Bella’s first public appearance and all the BlogHer attendees will not only be the first to meet her in person, but they will also get an exclusive sneak peek at the Pajanimals musical series that will be debuting exclusively on Sprout in November. 

If you're not yet familiar with Sprout or don't have the 24-hour channel, check us out here and call 1-866-9-SPROUT to request Sprout in your neighborhood.