Average Jane’s Pre-Blogher Day

I left for Blogher early Thursday morning last week and arrived in San Jose around 1:00 p.m.  On the shuttle to the Hyatt, I met my first blogger of the trip, Megan Garnhum.  As the van pulled into the resort parking lot, we spotted Heather Armstrong, whose identity we easily confirmed by the bandage on her arm.  We talked about how weird it was that we knew so much about someone neither of us had ever met. The other people on the shuttle probably thought we were insane.

The instant I stepped off the shuttle, I ran into Eden Kennedy and Alice Bradley.  I was wearing the "Writing well is the best revenge" shirt I’d bought from Mrs. Kennedy last year, so it was the perfect icebreaker for introducing myself.  While I chatted with them and other people (sorry I can’t I.D. you – it was all kind of a blur), a hand shot through the pack and I heard a voice say, "Hi, I’m Heather."

It was Heather Armstrong.  I introduced myself and didn’t say, "Duh, as if I don’t know that!"

Within the first hour I was there, I also ran into Amy Storch, Yvonne DiVita and Susan Getgood.

Almost everyone I talked to initially was an official conference speaker, so they were headed to some shindig to which I wasn’t invited.  I was really hungry, so I had an excruciatingly slow meal in the hotel restaurant and wandered around the grounds of the resort for a while trying to decide what to do with myself for the rest of the day.

When it got closer to dinner time, people started gathering near the pool.  I met Kyle Karl (sorry – I don’t know why I kept getting your name goofed up) from Secondhand Tryptophan, SueBob from Red Stapler, Jane of By Jane, and Marjorie from MeeVee (among many others).  I had a chance to greet Toby Bloomberg for a moment before she left for the speaker dinner.

The poolside group eventually scooted a bunch of tables together and ordered dinner as more and more people arrived and joined the group.  I got to meet Mocha Momma (whose name is actually Kelly), Patricia of Join Me in Snarkville and lots of other people whose names escaped me once I mixed their business cards in with the rest of the pile.

Speaking of business cards, I had stupidly forgotten to load up on them before I left my office on Wednesday, so I had barely more than a dozen to pass out.  I ended up writing my name and contact information on notebook paper for most of the weekend.

The early birds finished out Thursday evening trying, mostly in vain, to get drinks from the understaffed hotel bar.  I gave up around 10:00 p.m. (midnight, as far as my body was concerned) and went to bed.