BlogHer Day 1

Greetings from Chicago! Wow! It's been a whirlwind adventure so far. First of all, thank you to everyone who generously donated and shared the fundraising link to get me to BlogHer13. I am touched. Special shout out to my soul sister Donna who made a special top secret move at the last possible moment to get me here. I love you infinitely.

Yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am and got on the Long Island Rail Road with a giant backpack.

I got to the airport and ran like a zebra with it's tail on fire being chased by a lion to get my boarding pass at the automated machine for JetBlue flights, then to the security line. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face as my matching backpack and purse went through the security check.

Of course (since I was already running late for my flight) The TSA decided to stop me and demand that I empty the contents of my reusable water bottle, because clearly it's hazardous to other people's safety.

And then they made me throw out my hairspray.

After I begged them to let me go, I ran my zebra ass to the airplane on got on the flight.

I was flying standby but thankfully I got on the 6:47am flight to Chicago! I sat next to a pisces man who told me about how he got into Harvard back in the 1980's and rejected it to go to Fordham. He regretted that decision, but admitted that he was poorly advised. We exchanged contact info.

The flight attendant (Rene) was born one day after me on October 18th! Wee!

Then we landed and I was starting to get nervous:

But I calmed down eventually and started talking shameless self-portraits:

Then (with the help of the nice pisces Fordham alum) I found the EL train! I got the Chicago version of a metrocard, but clearly not from this machine...

Then I met a man on the train named Dave who was missing two fingers. He told me the story of how he lost them while using a table saw. He was a Cancer.

Finally, I got off the train and walked the gorgeous streets of Chicago:

With the help of some nice construction workers I found my hotel, and checked into my room. It has an amazing view:

After that I registered and headed into the conference.

I attended a workshop on how to make your blog into a book. It was incredibly informative and gave me a lot of insight into the publishing world. It was led by Melissa Ford who blogs at stirrup-queens and Hannah Kaminsky a vegan cookbook writer.

I feel like I have a strong foundational knowledge of how to write an agent query and book proposal now. Thank you ladies!

After that I met up with my roommate Trish and her buddy Stefanie. I love these ladies. Here's Trish and I at a wine bar that overlooks the river:

In the afternoon we headed over to The McCormick Convention Center for the BlogHer Expo. There I handed my business card to 234902384234902098 companies and took very silly pictures:

Then Stefanie, Trish and I went out for deep dish pizza and saw Chicago at night, which was stunning.

So far it's been a blast!

Can't wait to see what today holds!