Some of you will be sorely disappointed but once again, I failed to dance naked at BlogHer or do anything even mildly wild and crazy (I admittedly have a history of being a BlogBore). Although I did recklessly put in my contact lenses as I sat in my seat during the plane ride!!! And I boldly requested a room change so I could see the San Diego harbor! And I went riding backward down an escalator as I chatted with someone standing on the step above!!! And I broke my low-carb diet!!! Yeah.
I so wish more of you could have made it to BlogHer, especially for the Special Needs Mini Conference (note, everyone there was fully clothed, so clearly I am not the only person who failed to engage in debauchery). We had lunch, chatted amongst ourselves and listened to Rob from Fighting Monsters With Rubber Swords, Shannon des Roches Rosa of The Thinking Person's Guide To Autism and Squidalicious, and Aurelia Cotta from No Matter How Small.
Here I am with Maya from Musings of a Marfan Mom. One thing I've come to realize is that you are going to feel like a Weeble if you stand next to beautiful tall women. Moms I met included Jennifer Bush from Anybody Want A Peanut?, Dana from The Sears Fam, Cheryl from Little Bit Quirky, Angela of Empty Uterus Syndrome and Astacia Carter from Mamikaze, among many others. At just a couple of hours long, the Special Needs Mini Con felt about six hours too short; it should have lasted a whole day (are you listening, BlogHer Powers That Be?).
The conference has gotten ginormous—supposedly, there were 3700 bloggers there. Whew. As usual, I picked up some good nuggets of info and heard about cool stuff:
• At the Voices of the Year keynote, where bloggers read from selected posts (always my favorite part of BlogHer), I listened to Invisible by Diane of Momo Fali. It's about her son, a one-time preemie who has special needs. This, you must read.
• Maybe the best parenting idea ever, from Danielle who helps run Education.com and who plucked it from an article there: Buy a copy of Oh, The Places You'll Go! Each year, have your child's teachers write notes to him or her in it. Show the book to your child someday when he is grown up.
• Walking around conferences helps burn carbs, although how some women do it in four-inch wedges is beyond my powers of comprehension. I wore flats and was still desperately happy to snag a pair of Dr. Scholl's custom fit orthotic inserts. They make your feet very happy—and they are carb-free!
• If you ever need a local special education advocate or attorney, visit the Council of Parents, Attorneys & Advocates (thanks to the wise and wonderful Liz Ditz for that one).
• There's a breakthrough new widget, &you, you can place on your blog that'll list all your fave causes. It's an easy way to keep track of events and make donations (I just put one up on the right).
• I got my hands on a copy of The Digital Mom Handbook, written by my friends Audrey McClelland and Colleen Padilla. I am still hoping Max becomes a supermodel so he can support me in a style I'd like to become accustomed to, but if you have dreams of making a living off blogging, check out this book. It's packed with genuinely helpful info. In it, I speak longingly of naps.
• I'm loving these adorable message and name bracelets you can create, by ShainsWare (they have notebooks, too). Everything's made from recycled material, and the company donates 10 percent of sales to environmental organizations.
• Interesting site: Pinterest, a virtual pinboard. It's like the love child of Tumblr and Flickr.
• If you've never signed up for Upromise, a free service that lets you sock away money for your kid's college education just by shopping, consider it. We're saving for both Max and Sabrina. I'm not just dreaming Max will go to college; I am determined he will. He can put his supermodel career on hold for awhile.
• Leapfrog is coming out with the LeapPad tablet on Aug 15. It has 100+ activities and games and a built-in camera, and if I get one for the kids it would make me their favorite mom EVER. Oh, and if you are a child who drops it OR you are an adult fondling one at a demo and you happen to drop it (eep), it will not break!
• Something I learned at the Life Well Lived day during an aromatherapy session in which everyone inhaled: Dab frankincense on your wrists, or another essential oil, so you get an invigorating whiff throughout the day.
• One night, a bunch o' bloggers got a sneak preview of Pan Am, an ABC TV series set in the sixties about the escapades of flight attendants. It debuts September 25 and stars Christina Ricci, who I love. The show seemed amusing enough, and made me wistful for the days when airplane travel was glam and you didn't have to worry about security. Or snacks with carbs.
• Speaking of which: If you are going to break your no-carb food plan (more about my Eat Well or Die regimen coming soon!), you'd better do it on something good. I'd say that a Dove Bar counts. Especially if you get to down one as you are sailing around the San Diego Harbor. Note to self: Find yacht for sale on eBay and/or check if Retail Me Not has a coupon for one.
• At a breakfast thrown by The Blogging Angels (their podcasts are excellent...and carb-free!), we got scoop on making your blog more fab. One tip: Make it easy for people to share posts. Voila! My new thingie below (the one that says "Share the love!"), also known as a Sexy Bookmark. And I got me one at the BlogHer Geek Bar, courtesy of Sarah from Technology For Moms who has vast amounts of patience. One of these days, I will quit being so html-phobic. Can't someone create some html that will let me eat carbs?
I have 10 coupons for a free container or carton of Dove Ice Cream, and I'd be glad to help you break your diets too! If you want one, say the word below and I'll email you for your address. Or just share what wild and crazy thing you did or did not do this weekend.
Note: I received some of the stuff mentioned above gratis, but the opinions expressed and calories are solely my own.
