Category: Travel

Was BlogHer Worth It?

I was looking forward to going to the BlogHer conference in NYC so much that it rivaled the wait for Christmas. And I really, really LOVE Christmas.

After a month or so of mental build up and a few days of intensive tweeting, the conference went by in a three-day whirlwind. In a way it felt like it took forever and at the same time I feel like I’ve been pummeled from head to toe with an angry swag bag.

Since I had never been to a blog conference before, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I was really hoping to walk away from the event with a bunch of new contacts, a notebook of ideas to implement and a couple new friends.

So, did I do that?
Here’s the breakdown:

In the Good Pile

  • I have 17 pages of handwritten notes to go through. The plan is to create a list of Action Items and then slowly chip away at each task.
  • I have 31 business cards from the conference – a mix of fellow bloggers and possible sponsors. I need to click around on each contact’s links. Bloggers I like will go on a frequent read list and sponsors I like will go on a ‘need to email’ list so I can follow up with them.
  • I was offered a few guest posting and sponsorship opportunities from a few different brands – a couple of them fit fantastically with Pocketful of Joules and I’ll definitely be following up on them. In one case I need to devise a plan to use the product, blog about it and also create a giveaway for my awesome readers so that you can receive the product for free!
  • I was able to meet up with bloggers/twitter friends that I only knew in the online world and had a great time getting to know them in real life. Three of my total favorites that I was able to hang out with were: Lauren from Filing Jointly, Diana (who’s business card I can’t find right now but I really liked her) and Marcella, the Social Media Manager for Citrus Lane (as you know I’m kind of obsessed with Citrus Lane and their monthly box program)!

In the Bad Pile

  • This year’s BlogHer had over 5,000 people signed up to attend. It’s great that the conference is popular, but there were so many bloggers at the event that I found it difficult to make one-on-one connections with people. So many times I’d run into someone, talk to them a bit and then never see them again. As much as I wanted to leave with a few new best buds, it was really hard to break through the crowd to find them.
  • There are always a couple bad seeds out there. Two bloggers I met were total asshats and I’ve already thrown away their business cards so I don’t make the mistake of following up with them.
  • Apparently some bloggers were sponsored by multiple brands that paid for them to attend the conference. Which is totally fine. But I was a bit disgusted and turned off by some of their blatant shilling of their brands – both in person and on twitter. It’s cool to support and thank a brand or two, but to have a dozen different brands sponsoring all areas of your trip and wardrobe and to have to tweet/talk about them nonstop is just a bit too much for me. At least with television infomercials I can fast forward with my tivo…
  • On my train ride home I totally misheard the conductor (the speaker was turned way down low…) and got off at the stop BEFORE my stop. So instead of getting home around 10:45, I didn’t walk in the door of my house until almost midnight. BOO!
Yes, I played with Lauren’s tentacles and it was everything I thought it would be.

Random Bits O’ Fun:

  • Celebrities I saw: Martha Stewart, Katie Couric (both interviewed at BlogHer), and Matthew Broderick (on the street outside of his latest Broadway play).
  • Most embarrassing: When I blurted out to my new friend, Diana, “PLEASE tell me your ring is fake” upon seeing her engagement ring. It wasn’t. It was also a crapload of carets and super sparkly. Absolute mortification.
  • I’ve still got it: The secret to walking around NYC without being hassled is that you need to put on your “Stankface” before you leave your hotel. Basically, you don’t make eye contact with anyone, you don’t look up at the buildings and go “Oooooh, look how tall” and you walk like you’re pounding the runway on America’s Next Top Model. I pretty much rock at this and not one random person tried to mess with me. Meow.
  • Lauren from Filing Jointly totally let me play with her tentacles. And no, that’s not a euphemism for anything naughty.
  • I brought home an absolute ton of swag. In fact, I’ll be writing a whole blog post on JUST the swag I got.
  • This trip was my very first time being away from my (almost) 6 month old since he came home from the hospital and I totally did not cry once. I missed him and my husband though and was happy to come home on Sunday. Even though Jack learned this terrible horror movie kind of scream that scares the crap out of me and the dog.*

Random Pictures from my BlogHer weekend:

The view from my room — totally wish it was New Years so I could see the ball drop!
My brand-spanking-new blog business cards!
With another blogger (not even sure we exchanged names) at the Stella and Dot booth. Obviously I’m a pretty, pretty princess.
Lauren from Filing Jointly and Me — we didn’t get around to hair braiding and she’s afraid of pillow fights. However, she did bring me an awesome gift for letting her crash with me!
Oooh, look a fake fire and smores! I’m not sure if this was before or after I gaped at her ring.
Yeah, that’s me with the Jimmy Dean Sun. Because I’m totally THAT cool!

All in all, I arrived in NYC on Thursday with an excitement level of a 4 year old hyped up on sugar and left feeling vaguely overwhelmed and absolutely exhausted.

So, the question is… Was it Worth it?
Absolutely.

My main reason for attending the conference was to learn more about professional blogging. I’m going to be launching a blog at my day job in higher education and wanted to be sure I do it with as few kinks as possible.

My secondary reason for attending BlogHer was so that I can learn more about personal blogging. After stumbling through with Pocketful of Joules for the past 1 ½ years, I really want to focus on improving and growing my blog. I learned a lot at the conference and have a hugely intimidating list of ideas that I can implement as soon as I have the energy, time and money to do so.

All in all, I’m feeling overwhelmed yet inspired. Which I’m going to count as a win for BlogHer!

*Honestly, this new scream sounds like he’s a cross between a possessed demon child and someone in true terror running from an ax welding mad man. It’s horrible!

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Posting from the Train – On My Way to BlogHer!

Oh my god. It’s actually happening – I’m on my way to BlogHer 2012 in NYC!

I packed up my little orange suitcase last night (and only ended up with three pairs of shoes, yay me!) and did my last minute stuff this morning. Jack got dropped off at my parent’s house on my way up the road, and I pretty much floated on caffeine and adrenaline all the way to the train station.

Now I have to try and sit still for the next three hours. Um, not sure how that’s going to go. But there is free wifi, so I think I’ll be doing a lot of internet surfing and stalking the #blogher12 hashtag on twitter while counting down the minutes it takes to get my butt to New York’s Penn Station.

Another blogger/tweeter said it best when she sarcastically compared the ladies tweeting about BlogHer to girls going to summer camp. I know she was trying to be a bit bitchy, but that is absolutely how I’m feeling. It’s my chance to get away from my day-to-day life and converge on one of the coolest cities in the world with over 4,000 ladies like me!

The scariest thing to me is that I’m entering this unknown world all by myself. I haven’t brought a friend with me and I don’t know a single person at the conference. That is freaking me out in a huge way.

Actually, I do KIND OF know someone who will be there, but I’ve never actually met her in person. Due to a series of random events, fellow blogger Lauren from Filing Jointly and I will be meeting up at the conference and we’re totally having a freaking SLEEPOVER!

She needed a place to stay. I had an extra bed in my room and thought she was funny. So it was apparently a match made in blogger heaven.

So now it really DOES feel like summer camp. I’m wondering if she’s down for pillow fights, braiding hair and doing each other’s nails…? Either way, I’m pretty much sure we’re going to hit it off since she passed the ax murderer test.*

The funny thing is that I remember having a conversation with my freshman year roommate from college about the Stranger Danger of meeting up with someone from the internet.

Remember the late 90’s where people met in chat rooms? And not the “cool” AOL chat rooms, those really stupid ones you got to from your college’s computer lab (I think it might have been called Intranet or something?). Well my roommate at the time fell in loooooove with this guy she met online. He was from Canada and was supposedly a “little older” and in a band.  This was before the REAL internet really hit big, so she couldn’t google or facebook his ass. She ended up inviting him to our college (I put my foot down when she wanted to have him sleep in our room) and of course he ended up being old, fat, short and bald. Oh and lame. Super, super lame.

Since I can deduce by reading her blog that Lauren is NOT super lame, I think I’m good to go. I am a bit concerned about her bringing Tiny Dancer though… (Lauren, if you bring him please for the love of all that is bloggy, don’t hide him in my bed! I WILL scream like a girl and may have a heart attack and/or pee myself).

For anyone else coming to BlogHer, if you see me please say hi. I’m super friendly, just kind of shy about taking the first step to talking to someone new. Oh, and total bonus points for hugs and high 5’s!

 

*The ax murderer test is pretty much me asking, “Hey, are you an ax murderer?” and her responding with, “lol. No”. So see, she totally passed and is therefore my new BBFF (Blogger Best Friend Forever).

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Visiting Chicago with a Baby

I did it – I survived my Chicago trip.

For a minute there, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it!

As I previously wrote in 2 Goofballs & a Baby…on a Plane , I had the opportunity to go to Chicago for a week-long work conference. I was looking forward to the conference – since I’m new to the world of higher education it is really good for me to meet new contacts and learn as much as possible.

Yes, Jack is wearing his “Born in the USA” onesie — I thought it might get us through security faster…

I was also looking forward to the challenge of traveling with my 5 month old baby. He’s a pretty laid back little kid, so I was curious how he’d act both on the plane and in an unfamiliar place.

Looking back on my plan of attack, I did really well. I was super prepared and had pretty much the perfect amount of everything for baby care. I even ended up with extra diapers and outfits because he didn’t pee all over them like I expected.*

Our plan of totally hogging a row of the plane worked out really well (on our departing flight). We boarded between Group A and Group B, so when we got on I went all the way to the back of the plane and we took over the row in front of the bathroom. As expected, nobody wanted to sit by a baby so we were able to keep the space to ourselves!

Since it would be super boring for me to do a play-by-play of the entire trip, here’s the best and worst of it all:

This is Lindsay and Jack showing you how hot it is outside. Well, Lindsay is making a “Chicago is hot” face, but I think Jack is just staring at her boobs.

People Suck
Reason #1: Chicago is pretty crowded and it was super hot the week that we were there too. So I’m sure that everyone wasn’t exactly in the best mood as they were traipsing along on the sidewalk. However, when you’ve got a baby in a stroller you’re pretty limited as to where you can walk since you need to get that thing up the curb’s ramp on either side of the road.

So you can just imagine my fury when I was repetitively knocked into and pushed around! It got to the point that I would just yell out “GOING FOR THE RAMP” when in a crowd of people so that I wouldn’t have to pop a wheelie to get up the curb. Probably annoying to everyone around me, but whatever, it totally worked.

Reason #2: On our return flight we were so ready to just get on the shuttle and get home. When the first shuttle to our lot filled, the representative pointed us towards another shuttle that was pulling up to the curb. So, the entire group that was left trudged over to the new shuttle. While standing in line, a lady shoved my baby (in his carseat) aside so that she could get on with her group. Yeah, she SHOVED my baby. However, at this point I was so tired that I didn’t feel like opening a can of whoopass {I know, totally out of character for me!}. I ended up sitting next to her on the ride to our car and pretty much forgetting about it once we got off to go home.**

Waiting in line to get on our “standby” flight. Which was also the time that Jack decided he NEEDED his bottle.

People Rock
Reason #1:Throughout the entire week we ran into truly nice people. The hotel staff was phenomenal, I met lots of great people at my conference and even waiters/waitresses were super accommodating for Jack. I was so incredibly pleasantly surprised by how “small town” it felt to be in such a large city.

Reason #2: Our return flight was delayed by a couple hours, which would have us arriving home around 2:00 am. Yeah, not so great with a baby. We chanced it and arrived at the airport early to see if they could switch us onto an earlier flight and the awesome people of Southwest Airlines hooked us up. We were able to fly out around 7:00 pm and Jack and I got home around 11.

Shit Happens {Literally}
I stuck with my plan to change Jack’s diaper right before we boarded the plane. However, within about 15 minutes, Jack decided that it would be a wonderful time to drop a number two. Awesome. Of course, the bathroom with the changing table is located in the very front of the plane (and we were all the way at the back), but it was surprisingly not that terrible to use.

Fast forward a few days…Jack has not pooped the entire trip. UNTIL the plane takes off for our return journey. Yup, within about 5 minutes Jack decides to stink up our entire row and we had to sit there forever until the seatbelt light went off (actually I got up before the light went off and was instructed to sit back down, oopsie). I guess that just goes to show you, you can’t really plan with a kid!

Teething Bites
Remember how I told you that Jack was a laid back baby? Yeah, well not so much when he’s teething. Which he started on Tuesday. I got a frantic “he won’t stop screaming” text from Lindsay about 2 hours before my classes ended. So, we scooped Jack up and ran to Walgreens where we loaded up on Infant Advil, Baby Orajel and Teething Tablets. The poor guy was screaming his head off in pain, but stopped the exact instant I touched his gums with the Orajel. Thank god for medicine!

Between the Orajel and Advil, most of Jack’s pain was kept under control. However, one evening the ache came on really strong and fast and he had a baby freakout while waiting for the medicine to work. Thankfully once the medicine kicked in he went down for an early bedtime and we were able to get takeout to enjoy in our room while watching True Blood.

Week O’ Fun
Even with the conference, the extreme heat and Jack’s teething, we were still able to have lots of fun. We ate some incredibly delicious food (favorites were tapas and an amazing sushi place), saw some sights (loved the Navy Pier at night!), had lots of yummy drinks and did a good bit of shopping too! It was lots of fun, but also super exhausting which is why I totally crashed the entire weekend that I was home.

So, when I say I survived the trip – I truly feel like I deserve some sort of medal for getting through it! Thank goodness I had Lindsay there with me, otherwise there is absolutely no way I would have gotten back home in one piece.

I can’t believe that in only a few days I need to pack up and leave again. But this time it will be just me going to NYC for the BlogHer conference. Just ME! This will be my first time away without my baby and I’m almost indecently excited to sprawl out across the bed in my hotel room and only worry about myself for a couple days!

Here’s some more pictures from our trip:

At some fancy sushi restaurant called Friendly Sushi which had the BEST sushi I’ve had EVER. As you can tell, even Jack wants a piece!
This is how I keep Lindsay happy!

Jack loves his lion souvenir! And you would not believe how many times it took for me to type “souvenir” for spellcheck to figure out what the heck I was trying to say.
The hotel provided us with a crib for a midget. It took Jack about 1.82 minutes to scooch himself to the top of the crib and get his head squished at the end.
And this is where Jack usually ended up.
Bubba Gump…YUM!
Apparently my drink took too long to come and I decided to eat the bucket?

*If you don’t have kids, you’re wondering how on earth a baby pees all over their outfit. I know, I totally thought the same thing. I mean, they ARE in a diaper, right?! Anyways, now that I actually have a little rugrat of my own, I realize that they are magical beings that can somehow pee OUT THE SIDE of a diaper with no warning at all!

**This happened on Friday night. On Sunday morning I went to the Tot Swap and the moment I walked in the door a lady came over to me. The SAME LADY from the shuttle. She said that she really wanted to apologize for shoving in front of me in line to get on the shuttle. She was trying to stay with her group, but that was no excuse for her to get in front of me. She said that she realized that she “acted like a total bitch” and felt guilty all weekend long. I was absolutely flabbergasted, what are the chances that she’d run into me again?!

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