February 2010

I don’t even know where to start….how on earth do you cram the most amazing weekend EVER into one post?  I don’t think I can without asking you to commit to several hours of reading so I’ve decided to just share it in short blurbs and pictures.    Unless you want to listen to me go on for several hours, in which case, let me know…I’ll call you and my husband will probably send you a gift just for taking me off his hands for a few hours.

Ready?   Let’s go!

This year was different than last year.   Way different.   Still the same great group of people and still intimate and personal but this was the year Blissdom became oppulent and larger than life.    In short, it was BIG TIME.

Speaking of big, that’s my giant mug on a humongous screen during the opening session.    Now you can all offically say I have a big head because on that screen it was approximately 10 ft large.   Not a nice way to wake up a lovely group of women.

Aside from all the incredible learning at Blissdom, I had the chance to hang out with some of my very favorite people….these women are some of my dearest friends even though I only get to see them once or twice a year.

That’s my roomie, Deanna from Domestic Chicky.   She’s used to me hugging and kissing on her…she knew what she was getting into long before we got there.

This is Ally from Ally B Speakin’.   She’s not as used to me hugging and kissing on her but she was a good sport.   Of all the people this year that knocked my socks off, she was at the top of the list.   She was so shy last year but this year she totally came out of her pretty little shell….she’s wonderful.

Meet Cassie, she’s the one who was running around handling details all weekend making sure we were all taken care of.   She’s like a little sister to me.

The one and only Poppy Buxom from The Opiate Of The Masses.    I do so love me some Poppy….I just wish she’d come out of her shell.   She’s so…..reserved.

Oh Canada!   Catherine from Her Bad Mother and Tanis from The Redneck Mom.   I finally worked up the nerve to talk to them….Catherine and I had a fine little fake blogger fight set up for Harry Connick, Jr. night but sadly, I never got poked by the cane Tanis had with her…you can’t win ‘em all.

Speaking of reserved, meet Debbie from Vodka Mom and Cecilia from Sasstown.   We all went to lunch and they made me cry of laughter when they shared stories about raising their teenagers.   I’d like you to know my children are now locked in their rooms and will never be allowed out again because clearly I am not ready to have teens.    Don’t worry, I still feed and water them…most days.

The official #honeyplease crew:   Dinner the last night with three superstars…..Liz Strauss from Successful and Outstanding Bloggers, Danielle Smith from Extraordinary Mommy and marketing genius Shelly Kramer. I’d like to tell you the #honeyplease story, but then I’d have to kill you.    I have no idea how I ended up with them but I am in awe of all three of these amazing and incredibly nice women that I can learn so much from.   Plus, I’ve warned all three of them that I have no intention of ever leaving them alone again.

The other half of the #honeyplease crowd….Amy from Mom Advice from who is the tiniest and funniest (and possibly adorablest…is that a word?) girl I’ve met in a while with  Poppy and Michelle Lamar formerly of White Trash Mom fame.    If you’ll recall, last year Michelle and I became friends when she belched during a very serious meeting and blamed it on me.   Thankfully, we did not have a repeat of that performance this year.

And then there is this person….

…Alli, who I love most of all.   Last year gave me the chance to meet her, this year has given me the chance for us to become inseperable and I am so very thankful to have her in my life.    This weekend, she, Barbara Jones and Paula Bruno put on an event that changed the lives of 500 women.  I have never been prouder of a friend in my life than I was of her when she took the stage the first day.    Alli is amazing and I am so proud to call her one of my very closest friends.

So to all of you that I met, and all of you that I hugged (even if it was against your will, sorry), seeing you was so much fun!

I swear I’m going to post those Harry Connick, Jr. pictures as soon as I get them.    And yes, I hugged him too.

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I’m on my way home from Blissdom today.  Had a great time and I am thrilled to report that there is no active restraining order against me for any attempts I may or may not have made to cuddle with Harry Connick, Jr. I’ll be sure to share pictures later in the week but let me just tell you…he is even better looking in person than he is pictures. And nice.

SWOON.

I arrived on Thursday to a room full of squealing women running around hugging each other. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to be back again this year and see the faces of the friends I made last year.  After about an hour of this activity, I realized something. My feet were killing me. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel is freaking HUGE. And there was one thing I had forgotten in packing my weight limit defying bag.

Get ready for it.

No, really…brace yourself…

SENSIBLE SHOES.

I know!!!!

You never thought you’d hear it out of me, did you? But there I was, trying to stay true to my brand (you…in the back…stop laughing right this very minute) and had only brought very high heeled boots. Such a bad call. I went in search of flip flops because honestly, I was at a point where I was prepared to crawl from session to session and never go back up to my room again the entire time. I finally located some, flipped them over to look at the price only to find they were $50.00 Fifty Bucks??? For a pair of flip flops? No way. I was not going to be the sucker that paid $50.00 for a pair of rubber flip flops.

Ahem.

Fifty dollar flip flops? Meet my readers. Readers, meet the fifty dollar flip flops.

When I get my head together and get off this plane, I’ll be sure to post some pictures for you guys and share some fun stories. Until then, I’m just going to continue to stare at my shiny new flips and pretend like they were a wise fiscal investment.

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First of all, you read that right…new job! As I mentioned before, I had two great opportunties to choose from and I spent most of the day yesterday making myself physically ill trying to decide. One involved a really nice amount of money, the other, while not quite as lucrative, offered me the chance to stop flying around every week and spend some time with my family and work with some seriously amazing people. In short, it offered me happiness.

I chose happiness.

This morning I got up with a song in my heart (I think it was Kanye) and a spring in my step and proceeded to sign the offer letter they had so professionally put together. I made sure my signature didn’t look like the normal chicken scrawl it normally does. I even typed out a fax cover sheet instead of just jamming it in and pressing send without one like I would usually do. I made sure I looked good on paper when they received my acceptance.

Yeah, about that….

The one thing I didn’t do was check the copier area of my fax machine because why would I? I live an almost paper free existence and couldn’t tell you the last time I actually copied anything.

What I didn’t count on is that a budding young artist in our household, known to all of you as Miss G, had drawn a picture so pretty she felt a need to make duplicate images for her friends.

So now my new employers not only have a neatly executed offer letter from me, they also have some really great art for their cubicles.

I’m awesome at sharing like that.

As if this week could get any better, I’m off to Blissdom tomorrow to see my new boyfriend Harry Connick, Jr. It’s okay, The Man knows all about my plans to woo Harry and has even agreed to participate in a Wife Swap if things work out. Updates to come shortly on any possible restraining order activity that may occur while I’m there!

xo
TSM

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Wait, wait….

I mean…I don’t quit you, because sorta like Brokeback Mountain, “I can’t quit you…”, you know?

No, it’s another type of quit, as in today I quit my job. Remember that post a little while back about how I was going to take control of my life again and seek out things that made me happy and fulfilled?

Today was the first big step.

Just like in a relationship, sometimes you grow apart. Things that fit you once, no longer fit the way they used to in your life. And at that point, you owe it to yourself to move on which is sort of were I was when I wrote that last post about getting the old me back.

I thought about it all week. Agonized over it really. By the time the weekend rolled around, I had made up my mind and I felt so relieved. So I did what any soon to be unemployed person lacking common sense would do, I went out and bought myself a shiny new watch.

See?

All I can tell you is this was not a planned purchase, it was just one of those things that felt right at the moment.   And it continued to feel right…right up to the moment I walked into the house and my husband almost passed out at the site of it.    After addressing me as PDiddy Fiddy and asking if he had missed a lottery win or something along the way, I calmly explained to him that while yes….it is a large watch and it does give me sort of a FlavorFlav vibe…

…that it’s a cheap (sort of) knock off and not actually the Rolex or whatever it is he thought it was from a distance.

Crisis averted. No smelling salts involved.

Wait, where was I?   Oh yes, the job situation.

So before you think I’ve totally lost my mind and quit a perfectly good job in the middle of the nastiest recession in ages, I’m not completely crazy.   I’ve been getting ready for this for a while. The past three weeks have been a blur traveling the country…Chicago, San Francisco, NYC….I’ve seen it all. I’m not kidding when I tell you the site of an airplane now could actually incite hysterical screeching and Rainman type running in concentric circles on my part. The great news is I actually have a couple of really wonderful options for where to go next and will likely spend the next 24 hours pulling my hair out trying to make a decision.

And probably drinking copious amounts of wine…and possibly scotch.

When I finally do make my decision?   I’ll probably go celebrate with a nice pair of Choos…because that’s just how I roll, yo.

Wish me luck!

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