Country Mouse in the Big City

Water pressure is a wonderful thing. I think I took my shower this morning in record time (for me) due to the fabulous water pressure. Of course, it also helped that I'm the only person using this bathroom and I'm not taking care of two little girls while showering.

Last night I fell asleep around midnight on what my body reports to be a VERY comfortable bed. I woke up at 5:55am in the same position I went to sleep in, but my back doesn't hurt at all! Imagine. I intended to sleep another hour but the tens of doors slamming shut down the hall around 6am pretty much killed that idea so I laid there until close to 6:30 just enjoying the luxury of not having to get up and take care of children. It occurred to me that if I took my shower and got dressed quickly I might have time to check in on here, so I was done getting ready by 7am and here I am.

The Westin St. Francis is definitely the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in (in this country, anyway; there was the fabulous Flodigarry Hotel on the Isle of Skye in Scotland). By 11:30 last night, exhausted after the stress of finishing up my packing at home, saying goodbye to my family (who I never leave), getting here, and then meeting kazillions of women and talking with them, I could barely stand up. I made myself go back downstairs toward (I say "toward" because I only got as far as the hallway - never even figured out where the party was) the People's Party because it occurred to me that I had no idea where to go this morning. All the agenda says is "breakfast," and I wanted to know WHERE. Nobody else knew either, though, so I'll just go down to the lobby and check like everybody else. :o)

When I say "down," that's 10 floors down. I'm on the 11th floor and the (newbie) party where I spent most of my time last night was on the, get this, THIRTY SECOND FLOOR. I made the mistake of squishing myself toward the windows (the compartment was packed) in the elevator on the way up. Even though I was careful to look toward the door that would eventually open and deliver me back onto solid flooring, I kept catching bits of skyline in my peripheral vision, slipping further and further below. EEP!

The first two people I saw last night were friends - Christina from A Mommy Story and Erin from Queen of Spain. It was really nice to see them right off the bat. Christina is being so wonderful about reassuring me about everything. She remembers how overwhelmed she was the first time she did this. We were going to party hop together but I really wanted to go to the newbie party so we parted ways with the intention of finding each other at the People's Party, but as you know I never made it there... did end up riding the elevator up with Christina, though. :o) I had a great time meeting new people at the Newbie Party and nearly lost my voice talking to them, it was so loud. There were so many people there! I've already got at least 20 business cards and have given out as many of my own. Maybe I should have had more than 100 printed...

Skipping back to the evening: Leaving home was difficult. Sweet Pea, who until then had appeared nonchelant about my leaving, burst into tears as I was readying to leave the house. She just wanted to hug me and hug me. I started to wonder if she'd been such a pill for the previous two days because she didn't want me to leave. Seems entirely possible - why didn't I think of that at the time? Now I feel bad, even though I did everything I could to prepare her for this.

The Bug was totally laid back about me leaving, which surprised me to no end. "Bye bye, Mommy!" she yelled as she waved me off. I called home when I arrived at the hotel and somehow she knew it was me. "MOMMY!" she squealed in the background. Slipshod put his phone on speaker and as soon as The Bug heard me she lost it. She started sobbing and the longer she could hear me the harder she cried. Sweet Pea was all chipper and happy to talk to me. I told Slipshod that today when I call, it's probably best not to let the little one hear my voice.

I miss my family so much. They're probably waking up right now, and I sincerely hope the girls are able to wake their daddy to take care of them. :o)

The BlogHer pre-conference guides were wonderfully detailed so I feel like I packed everything I needed EXCEPT for one thing. I wish I had brought granola bars or something. I only had two bites at the cocktail party last night and went to bed hungry. Now, of course, I'm even hungrier and can't wait for breakfast!

Well, I'm off to find out about breakfast. Don't know if there will be time to come back up to the room so I guess I need to take the computer downstairs with me.

Have a great day, everyone!