BlogHer: Day One (Friday) Recap

BlogHer Day One was clouded for me by a severe champagne hangover.  I don't know what inspires me to stay up until 4 a.m. Kansas City time drinking more than Mary Kate Olson and then wake up five hours later unable to sleep, but apparently I now do that sometimes.

My first panel was the Mommyblogging as a Radical Act panel. I had, in fact, no intention of attending this panel and had planned to go to the one on politics, as I've been writing more on politics this year than ever before.  But, when the time came, I was so hungover, in fact, that I allowed the crowd to gently push me down the stairs toward the cavernous mommy arena.

There was a lot of "men are trying to keep us down" at that panel, which really kind of surprised me. Yes, mommyblogging does get belittled a lot, and that does piss me off, but I'm not sure if it's because women are doing it or because unless you're in that phase of your life, you don't really care. I personally prefer to belittle MySpace for the same reasons. Had it been around when I was 14, KATIE BAR THE DOOR. 

Do men belittle women's writing?  Some do. Some that are assholes. And in return, I continue to be amused when a grown man sheds tears over a touchdown or lets a home run make or break his entire week.  Am I belittling you grown men who cry as though your dog died over a game? Yes, yes I am.  You may now belittle my poop stories. The end.

Maybe I was just really tired.

After mommyblogging, it gets hazy. At some point, there was lunch, and I found myself staring down a lovely green wrap that perfectly matched my complexion. I was sitting next to my beloved Bossy, and I could barely even make conversation. Every time I tried to eat the wrap, my stomach heaved, and I had nothing witty to say to her. (Aside: Bossy is such a liar. Her hair is not white at all. She still looks like the elfin princess that she always resembles:  tall, thin, beautiful. So not fair.)  Every time I see Georgia I keep waiting for her to bedeck me with daisies, but usually she just takes a picture.

I think the race and gender section was after lunch. There I sat next to Mocha Momma and said some heart-pounding things about needing to be an angry white woman. You'll have to listen to the podcast for more, that's all I have to say about that. Of all the sessions, this one made me the proudest to be part of BlogHer, which in many ways feels like being in college again, what with its strength of friendships and wonder of self-discovery and personal growth, and oh, a lot of hard liquor drunk from paper cups.

After that session, I started to feel almost sick from exhaustion. I went up to our room to take a nap. I set the alarm for 20 minutes, but the bastard fuck thing didn't go off, and I missed Eden Kennedy's community keynote, a crowning achievement that I am really fucking mad I missed. I will be searching YouTube as soon as I get a free minute. (If you have the link, please spare me YouTube searching.)

I woke in time to hit the cocktail party at Ruby Skye and spent the next two hours screaming at Devra, Georgia, Tracey, Amy, and my new best friend Neal Pollack, who does not like it if you threaten him with a vasectomy and was my favorite new discovery at BlogHer this year.

After the cocktail party, the contributors to Sleep Is for the Weak, the co-founders of blogHer, and members of the old media guard (Leslie from Essence, Stacy from Redbook, Karla from iVillage) and I were treated to a celebratory dinner that blew my mind with its loveliness and unexpectedness.  During the meal, a server very sweetly offered to hold Anjali so Cagey could eat her gnocchi, and I quietly died one thousand million deaths wondering whose life I had stolen while I listened to people laugh and tell stories and drink wine in celebration of this book project o'mine as I gazed at them lovingly from across a plate of three kinds of chicken.

As Alice said, "Oh, the MEAT at this dinner!"

I meant to go to Maggie Mason's Mighty Haus party after dinner, but when I got done wheeling Anju's stroller back for Cagey, I realized I physically couldn't keep my eyes open and fell asleep trying to dial my phone.

This post should have lots of links in it, and maybe it will later, but right now I am late for the little angel's swimming lessons. Enjoy.