Category: Daily Life

One of my favorite things about my three-night hotel stay last weekend was the showerhead in the bathroom. Unlike the much-hated one I have at home, it rinsed my hair quickly and thoroughly. Naturally, I made a note of what kind it was and ordered the brushed nickel version for my own bathroom.

As I did so, it occurred to me that this is far from the first time I’ve been inspired to buy something after a hotel stay. The toiletries provided at the Hotel Roosevelt in Los Angeles led me to become a die-hard Fresh fan. I now use their shampoo, conditioner, lotion and shower gel.

A stay at a Ritz-Carlton several years ago made me understand what the big deal was about high thread-count sheets. I didn’t buy theirs, but I’ve since gotten a couple of perfectly nice sets at Target.

Growing up in the lower reaches of the middle class, I wasn’t really exposed to much in the way of luxury. I’ll never understand the appeal of designer clothes, shoes or handbags, but I do appreciate the way the premium items I’ve mentioned above make life more pleasant and comfortable.

I imagine that I’m not the only business traveler who’s been influenced this way. My room last weekend also included a Sleep Number bed, which I liked very much once I figured out on the second night that it was adjustable, and softened it up a bit from the 100 setting. The marketing there wasn’t so subtle – there was a card on the bedside table offering a discount for purchasing one.

Despite the fact that I’m in the market for a new bed, that’s too much of a splurge for me. However, I’ll bet some people are taking the bait. I’m actually surprised that other premium bed companies don’t partner with hotels.

Have you ever bought something you first discovered in a hotel? What was it?

Wow, was I impressed with the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk I witnessed in Chicago this weekend. There were more than 2,300 walkers who raised a total of $6.1 million. And that’s just the first walk out of 14 this season.

I flew into Chicago with two other members of the PR team on Thursday. We made our way to the staging site in time to see the rehearsal for opening ceremonies and pick up the car we’d be using for the weekend.

The opening presentation was extremely moving. Even though it was only a practice, all of us got a bit teary-eyed.

As this was my first Breast Cancer 3-Day event and they’re generally handled by two-person teams, I decided to give myself the role of unofficial photographer. You can see the majority of the photos here. I also drove as needed so that the team leads could make media calls and navigate from one stop to the next.

On Friday morning, the day the walk began, I set my cell phone alarm for 4:00 a.m. and met the team at 4:45 a.m. to go to the opening ceremonies location at a suburban mall. While my colleagues worked to coordinate interviews, etc., I walked around and captured photos of the walkers and their supporters arriving and settling in.

The opening ceremonies were just as moving the second time around, and we stayed and watched as all the walkers filed out and began their 60-mile journey.

The walkers pass through numerous pit stops, "grab-n-go" beverage stops and cheering stations before and after their lunch stop. They end up at a campsite that includes a huge dining tent, and a "main street" of sponsored amenities, a gear shop (where I bought myself a much-needed hat) and an event information center. There are also truck-mounted showers, a stretching area, a medical tent, and a flagpole in the center of camp that remains bare until the last walker arrives each day.

We spent each day following the walkers to various stops, meeting up with members of the press, and ending up at camp for the after-dinner information session and show.

The coordination involved in routing and caring for the walkers is nothing short of amazing. That doesn’t even count all the training and fundraising support they get before they even arrive.

It didn’t take long before I started feeling the urge to sign up for the walk next year. Even when I saw the walkers at their lowest ebb on Saturday, I still envisioned myself out walking with the group in some interesting city (since the event won’t be held in Kansas City next year). The fact that many of the tired, stiff-legged walkers turned into dancing machines at the Saturday evening dance party was heartening as well.

As inspiring as the opening ceremonies were, the closing ceremonies were even more so. When the walkers who are breast cancer survivors filed in, the other walkers each held up one shoe in tribute. I realize that sounds a little odd when you’re just reading about it, but the symbolism was very powerful in person.

I’ve been very fortunate that no one in my family has ever suffered from breast cancer (although other cancers have taken their toll). Still, I have met enough breast cancer survivors over the years to have a strong interest in making sure they all remain healthy.

If anyone is interested in forming a team and picking a city for 2009, let me know. We’d have plenty of time to train and fundraise ($2,300 each) between now and the time of the walk. Even as an observer, I could tell that the walk was the kind of experience people remember for a lifetime. Who’s up for a challenge?

Just popping in to say "hello" after my four-day business trip to Chicago. I didn’t get home from the airport until after 10:00 p.m. last night and I’m heading into work now, so I’ll post a write-up of the event tomorrow.

The winner of last week’s giveaway of Sleep is for the Weak is Calee from Sacred and the Profane. Congratulations, Calee!

I’m headed to Chicago tomorrow as part of the public relations team for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. I ended up buying an entire wardrobe for the trip consisting of cotton capri pants, white sneakers and various types of hot-pink shirts that I will probably never wear again.

My husband has the whole house to himself until Sunday night. Well, almost all to himself.

The concert I went to last night required a lot of endurance. It was so hot that I sweated completely through my shirt. It was so crowded that there was no way to leave my spot for the duration to buy a bottle of water or a t-shirt. People kept rudely pushing past us to get to the front; many of these people were shirtless and sweaty, which made the experience a number of degrees less pleasant. Still, I endured.

My breaking point was the crowd surfers. If you don’t know what crowd surfing is, it involves hoisting a person
into the air and passing them forward toward the stage over the heads
of the audience. The surfers do this willingly; the audience members’ main goal is to get the surfers away from them as quickly as possible.

The first one got my attention by landing on my head and shattering my last good pair of sunglasses. I was watching the show (naturally), so I didn’t realize that someone had launched a woman into the air from behind me until I felt my sunglasses snap in half on top of my head. She may have received a bruise or two on the way by me.

The last straw was the one who kicked me in the head on her way by, despite my efforts to avoid her. Later I learned that she’d managed to kick my husband in the face, which explained why he looked so cranky toward the end of the show.

Between those two examples of head and neck trauma and the ringing ears my husband and I both still had when we woke up this morning, our next summer concert is likely to involve a DVD, surround sound, and the couch in our living room.

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This week’s book winner is Sharon of The Hokey Pokey IS What It’s All About. Congrats!

I am happy beyond measure that it’s Friday and I’m almost, kinda, semi-caught up on work. Barring any surprises, I should be able to pare down my to-do list to a manageable level by this afternoon.

My incentive to do so is the tickets I have to see Judas Priest, Jackyl and Drowning Pool tonight. It’s going to be hard to find a parking place and ridiculously hot and humid outside, but I’m really looking forward to the show.

I don’t have much in the way of weekend plans, but I hope to work in a yoga class and some clothes shopping for next weekend’s Breast Cancer 3-Day in Chicago. I’ll be there as a PR representative and I need to wear something a little preppier than my usual jeans and t-shirts.

What other unfinished blog business do I have? Oh, there’s a new post of mine up on MidLife Bloggers. Also it’s not too late to comment on Monday’s post to be entered to win a copy of A TV Guide to Life: How I Learned Everything I Needed to Know by Watching Television by Jeff Alexander. I’ll choose the lucky recipient on Saturday.

Have a lovely Friday!

Insomnia sucks. I’ve been waking up every couple of hours throughout the night for the last couple of weeks. If I sleep under the covers, I get hot. If I sleep on top of the covers, I get cold. I wake up because I’m thirsty, get a drink of water, and then later I wake up again because I have to pee.

Fortunately, my husband stays up all night, so he’s neither a contributor to, nor annoyed by, my dysfunctional sleeping habits. That is, unless he decides to go to bed early some nights, but by then I’m usually so tired that I don’t even notice the snoring.

The wild cards in the situation are the three cats in the bed. Velcro sleeps on me, so she has to settle down and get comfortable again every time I toss and turn. Velvet gets excited that someone might be available to pet her, so I’m likely to feel her raspy tongue on my hand if I happen to stretch out my arm in her direction. Only Xena, who prefers the end of the bed (often under the covers), sleeps soundly no matter what I do.

I’m really swamped at work (still playing post-vacation catchup), which is probably the main reason my brain can’t seem to gear down when I’m trying to rest. When I have my wits about me, I can do some breathing and relaxation exercises to drop back to sleep. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always occur to me right away at 3 a.m.

I have another minimally-scheduled weekend coming up, so if I can just get my workload under control, there’s hope that I can sleep and nap my way back to a normal schedule. Just in time to leave for a business trip to Chicago next week. Well, at least I’m not changing time zones again…

The gig I mentioned on Saturday night was not without its challenges. An hour or so before my husband and I were planning to leave, it started raining and hailing heavily at our house. We waited until the hail stopped and drove to the neighborhood – about 25 miles east of us – where the block party was being held.

It wasn’t raining there at the time, although it was obvious that it had been raining before we got there. Two other bands had set up the PA gear and drums beneath two tents in front of a double garage. Our guitarists brought their own amps, my husband brought a snare drum and a bass drum pedal and I had my favorite microphone with me. We got everything set up as quickly as possible and started playing.

As we made our way through the first four or five songs, it was apparent that the crowd was getting rained on, but they didn’t seem to mind. A song or two later, and I was seeing enough lightning to be hesitant to touch my microphone stand. We ended up playing seven of the thirteen songs we’d planned before the rain picked up enough that we had to stop.

And that was that. It seemed obvious that the rain was there to stay for a while, so we loaded up our gear and went home. My husband and I stopped by Sonic for a quick dinner and I made it to bed before midnight.

I woke up on Sunday with nothing on my schedule, thinking I might go do something with my sister. As it turned out, I was more tired than I thought. I lay on the couch to read for a while and fell asleep. Eventually I transferred myself to the bedroom and slept heavily for a couple more hours, complete with weird, vivid dreams. It was not one of my more productive days, but at least I’m finally caught up on sleep.

So on to this week’s book giveaway. It’s a copy of A TV Guide to Life: How I Learned Everything I Needed to Know by Watching Television by Jeff Alexander, a.k.a. M. Giant, of Velcrometer, Blogging Dad and Television Without Pity. To enter, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll choose a winner on Saturday.

First things first: the winner of Off the Beaten (Subway) Track is M. from Elemento-P. I’ll post a new book drawing on Monday.

Last week was kind of a blur because I could not manage to switch back to Central time and get the sleep I needed. I kept staying up well past midnight and still getting up around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. I finally went to bed early last night and slept past 8:00 a.m. today, so I think I’m fixed.

On Tuesday I took a half day off from work and went to Mayhem Fest with A Librarian. It was like this:

The most annoying thing about the festival was how difficult it was to get in. There was a sign by the entrance to the parking lot that said, "No big purses." It turned out that they really meant, "No purses." So we slogged back to the car to stuff our money, IDs, keys and sunscreen in our pockets. When we got back to the gate, we were turned away again because one of the containers of sunscreen was an aerosol can. Sigh. I had forgotten my earplugs anyway, so we made the hike to the car yet again.

They also had a "no cameras except disposable cameras" rule, but obviously I made it in with my BlackBerry.

Speaking of the BlackBerry, during Dragonforce‘s set, I was IMing my husband just to say "hi." The burly, Mohawked guy sitting on the grass next to me seemed to take great offense at this. He said, "Did you really spend $50 to sit here texting?"

I just shrugged, but I wish I’d said, "I’ll spend $50 to do what I damn well please!" It’s a good thing he didn’t see all the Twittering I’d been doing before I lost my Internet access.

I was mainly there to see Disturbed and it was their t-shirt I bought as a souvenir. I enjoyed most of the other bands I saw, though, particularly Airbourne and Five Finger Death Punch.

On Wednesday night, my husband and I saw The Dark Knight, which was just as amazing as everyone says.

Tonight, my band Earthquake Jake is playing a block party in our bass player’s neighborhood. We’re only doing one set, but it’s going to be rather uncomfortable out in the heat and humidity.

So that’s my non-BlogHer life to date. What have you been up to?

Hey, remember me? I just spent four days in San Francisco at the wonderful, friend-filled, informative, fun, overwhelming conference known as BlogHer. I stayed busy every moment but still didn’t meet everyone I meant to meet, photograph everyone I wanted to photograph, or attend every session I wanted to attend.

I’ve put a few of my photos on Facebook and I’ll try to put a more comprehensive batch on Flickr sometime tonight.

I have a full week of work and other activities, but I’ll do my best to write up my post-conference impressions between now and Friday.

For now, I’m still adjusting back to Central time and the beastly heat and humidity of Kansas City. I need to get ready for work and gather up my extra swag to share with co-workers.

A big shout-out to everyone I met at BlogHer. I think I set a record for most hugs received in a four-day period (and I’m really not a hugger – that’s just now nice everyone was).

If you couldn’t make it to the conference for one reason or another, I urge you to start clearing next July’s schedule and saving your pennies now. It just keeps getting bigger and better every year.

Finally, I have been purchasing a lot of books written by bloggers lately and for various reasons have extra copies of several of them. I’ve going to give away one per week for the next three weeks, starting with Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City’s Best Unusual Attractions by Suzanne Reisman. Just leave a comment on this post and you’ll be entered to win. And no, you can’t have my autographed copy!