Long time no see

I realize this blog has been slightly neglected the past few days. A few events occurred, and I just didn't get online to blog.

The funeral Thursday was beautiful for my Grandma. She is buried close to where I grew up, where my Grandparents home is. It was good to see family I haven't seen in decades, even though the circumstances on why I was seeing them was crap.

After the funeral, my brother and his wife drove me to Dulles airport so I could leave for Chicago and Blogher09. This was of course a change from my previous plans, but it worked out. My flight into Chicago was slightly delayed, but my friends were at the hotel eating dinner by the time I got there.

And how great it was to see a friend who I hadn't seen in way too long - since probably 1994. My best friend from high school. The one I set a hotel room on fire with. The one I doubled dated for our senior prom with. The one who would sometimes get called my name, and I would get called her name. The one I lost touch with, and found again on the internet.

So SJ and I got to hang out for a long weekend, along with a few new friends - Mrs. Ca and Jenny. And there was Mrs. CPA who was not a new friend for me, but now an old friend who was a riot to hang out with again.

And then there was dinner with Lostasock, who was not attending but lived close enough and answered my crazy emails of meeting for dinner. She graciously drove in from Indiana to eat dinner with us.

I got home yesterday with lack of sleep to two beautiful girls who actually let me take a nap yesterday afternoon. And Ray, who wanted to know what I learned at this conference. Unfortunately, since I was volunteering at the event (and scored a free sold-out ticket to the conference), I didn't get to attend some of the Geek Lab sessions where I am pretty sure I would have a learned a ton. I did get to attend some really good sessions, and you can go here to see the live blogs about them.

But ah, the aftermath of drama that I am sure you can read about on multiple blogs or on twitter this morning. You can't get 1,500 women together without just a teeny bit of drama. There's the people mad at the people who got mad at Nikon for not letting them bring a baby to a loud and dark bar for an invite only event. There's the people mad about the craziness of swag bags. There's the people mad at the vibrators in the swag bags. There's the people mad about the naked woman who streaked multiple times through the hotel family-filled lobby.

I am not a huge blogger, not an "A-lister". I was not invited to any "invite only" events. I was there to hang out with SJ, get some free stuff, meet some new people, learn a few things, eat some good food, laugh over drinks.

But I will summarize what I did get out of the event in the ever so popular bullet points:
- Dresses with pockets rock
- Not losing my iPhone which I was petrified would happen also rocks
- Having my roommates realize I left the present for my kids in the room and run it down to me as I was getting on the shuttle for the airport was great
- Twitter is one powerful social media tool, and finally getting Tweetdeck on my computer was good too
- I really need to get on Google Reader
- Riding in an elevator with Marlboro Man and his kids was really, really cool; meeting The Pioneer Woman was awesome as well - she was so nice even when psycho me went up to her as she was waiting for a cab

I am glad I went - glad I got to see a really cool city like Chicago (definitely taking the kids there) and glad I got to see SJ. But I am also glad to get back to reality this week and back on some sort of schedule. Last week was crazy and nuts. Both kids weren't feeling well, Ashley had a bad day at school one day, the funeral, the change in travel plans. I think getting back to "normal" this week will just what we need.