Say What To The Dress? BlogHer NYC Edition

I told myself I wasn't going to write a BlogHer '10 post because there are already so many out there and what more could I have to add? But then I went shopping to grab just 'one more thing' for NYC (like they don't have stores or something in that city) and while browsing the racks I found it. I found the dress. The dress I was going to wear to The People's Party (are you going? I hope so, I'll be there and happy to see you) and this was the dress that made me write a BlogHer '10 post.

The Big Tease

Okay, if you came here from Oh, The Joys, WELCOME! But if you didn't come from there you must go visit The Bloggess in order to make any sense of what is going on below so go read her post first (that is, if you are going to BlogHer this year -- if not, you probably won't care to read the rest.)

Because only someone who has followed the yellow brick road, uh I mean teaser trail, understands why I'm screaming out just one random-looking word, like this one:

NOW GO HERE ASAP: The Velveteen Mind

Why are you still here?

This isn't a BlogHer Recap (alternate title: Viva La Siesta!)

Random lines from posts I've started but failed to finish:

(1) Hi. My name is motherbumper and I'm a "booyah" abuser. As in, I use the word "booyah" to punctuate too many thoughts in a "yada yada yada" kind of way.

(2) My deep-dish and uncomfortable thoughts on free stuff. When it comes to free stuff, I don't go looking for it but don't get me wrong, booyah! I luuuurve free stuff. Hell, if swag lands in my lap and it's of use to me, into the bag it goes. In fact, I pack light going to BlogHer because so many generous sponsors and party hosts give tokens of appreciation for attending their party. Attending being a very key word in that sentence. It is never expected but damn it's nice and I know it's going to happen. But if it didn't happen, it wouldn't change my weekend.

Anyhow, the swag thing at BlogHer was weird this year. There was a very small number of the generally awesome population acting like freaks. Freaks as in committing blackmail over shoes or like in my personal experience while working the door at The People's Party where I witnessed something small but strange. This incident kind of set the tone for me on the subject of free stuff over the weekend.

Let me explain it the best way I can: As a hostess of The People's Party, I was handing out drink tickets and big welcoming smiles and/or hellos to everyone I could reach as they surged (literally SURGED) through the doors. When the surging had died down to a well-heeled stampede, I witnessed a woman come in, make a beeline to the swag bags, grab four (!) (as in two on each arm), and then promptly turn around and march out. The only reason I remember her so specifically is she totally didn't make eye-contact with me when I tried to hand her a drink ticket -- she put her hand up in a blocking / dismissive way and marched on by. So I watched what she did because I was taken aback (what can I say, I'm sensitive). When she breezed on past me after her bag scoop, I stepped outside the door to watch her leave and she proceeded to walk away from the party crowd towards what I'm not sure... the elevators? Her friends? They weren't anywhere near the party, that's for sure.

I told myself, she's probably just grabbing it for other people and bringing it back to the room. I seriously tried to convince myself that she did because I didn't want to get pissy at my own party like my name was JLo or something. But then I thought about all the people who were here, not getting or caring about bags, and staying because they were there to meet people. Because you know, that's the purpose of The People's Party.

But my observations are full of total conjecture and it was just odd to watch. I could be totally wrong. Maybe she had already had her free drink and her friends had sent her in to grab the swag they didn't get the first time around and ten minutes was enough time at the party for all of them.

Yet I couldn't help myself and felt compelled to record this encounter because regardless of her reason / plan of use with the bag, it was somehow appeared more important to her to grab the free stuff than to just come to the party and meet with other bloggers. Instead she appeared to be doing a free stuff recon pre-party attendance. Because the free stuff is just a nice perk, not the purpose. It left me with an icky feeling.

(3) BlogHer is a mindfuck.

(4) Can't wait to do it all again in New York.

(5) Damn everyone looked good at BlogHer this year. Especially you.


(6) All Hail the Unicorn Cake from the planet MamaPop!

(7) This week during my BlogHer detox, I had grandiose plans to clean and reorganize this entire home while SB and G were out of town but after making a mental list of everything I needed to do I took a nap.

Then I woke up, decided to add doing an internal cleanse while eating nothing but fruit and veg because I don't have to prep any meals for others all week, and felt proud that the nap gave me such clarity. Viva la Siesta! Then I promptly sat on the couch, ordered a pizza (online! no human interaction! if I could have shoved an envelope under the door with the money, I would have!), and after eating more than half of the damn thing, I fell asleep.

So to recap: this week I've accomplished nothing but a post about Joe Jonas having his heart smashed in seventeen places by Camilla Belle (which I first read as Camille Paglia and let me tell you, I was very confused) and also I managed to go pee. Oh and I also managed to make myself into a Mad Men avatar (what do you think - did I get it right?)

(8) BOO-YAH!

You there?

Holy crap, how did it get to be THIS WEEK ALREADY?!?

This Thursday night, with the help of some very special sponsors and some super beautiful ladies (The Bloggess, Green Mom Review/ IzzyMom, Mrs. Fussypants,  Playgroups Are No Place For Children, Velveteen Mind, and me), The 3rd Annual People's Party is kicking off in Chicago and this is my way of saying "you coming?" and thank you to those special folks that help provide the uber important things like a room, music, and drinks -- not to mention free stuff for everyone -- the night of the festivities.

So if you haven't said, I'M THERE yet, click on the party button to add your name to the list. Last chance for Blogmance.

Brought to you by:

The Big Tease

HEY! If you haven't read this post over at Playgroups are No Place for Children, please PLEASE start there, otherwise this will make no sense (like anything I say makes sense but that's a detail I'm just going to ignore.)

BUT if you came from Jennifer's playgroup then proceed at your own risk and remember that...

... WHAT?

You need to know how to get through this thing called life?

Well I can't tell you, you just will have to go on over to see what the lovely and vivacious Megan over at the Velveteen Mind has to say about that.

Then you can go and see the beautiful Mrs. Fussypants about that fussing in your pants.

Now if that last line didn't confuse you enough, go see the ridiculously attractive Caffeinatrix to get your fix.

And after drinking that down, end the trail with WOLVERINES!!!!!! Because every story should end that way.