The Daily Sabs

today was day one of blogher, and i think i asked those two questions about 3000 times. okay maybe it was more like 500, but still. as ali said, man the pitch is sounding tight.

i am exhausted though. we spoke to so many people that i thought my voice was going to give out (and yet, it feels like we're not really making a dent in brochures - i think someone lied to us on the estimated amount we should have - that or everyone is skipping out on the conference they paid to go to, so they can hang in nyc instead). my feet are also killing me. i'm so glad i was in flats (sara was crazy and went for professional cuteness and wore heels), although i think i might wear the extra hotel pillows as shoes tomorrow.

Sara, Melissa and I were doing an okay job at running the booth, but we were so glad that Ali came to help out. We couldn't have done it without her. The booth really needs two people at all time (preferred three), and during the session, if she wasn't there we would've been screwed. She was also awesome at rolling up her sleeves and getting busy with the gluedots in sugz sweatshop style. You know who else helped out sugz sweatshop style? randall. he apparently works for hot tamales. he also makes an excellent coffee runner. so if you need cheap page labor, look him up.

this year's blogher experience is totally different from last year's. this year the expo hall isn't as nice (that's the hilton's fault, this conference hall feels blech and not as open), and it's totally different working the booth rather than playing. we didn't even go to the parties (1) we were busy night one putting booth together (2) we were exhausted today. on one hand i'm okay with that, it's probably best to save the voice for tomorrow. but on the other hand, well the parties are really part of the whole blogher experience.

also if we had gone to the parties, we wouldn't have gone out for dinner (which meant we wouldn't have eaten anything all day). i finally had naeng myun (cold glass noodles in spicy sauce with egg and skate). it sounds scary but it's delicious.

afterwards we hung out with a just arrived from the west coast marketman, his sister, her roomate, and a lot of banana pudding from magnolia. sara and i split a container. i thought sara was going to cry tears of joy. melissa also said there would be no way we could finish it. she clearly doesn't know us like she thinks she does.

sidenote: we also bought some cupcakes. we tasted them but didn't eat them. the banana pudding was just too good (seriously it tastes like banana frosting with nilla wafers and bananas). sorry magnolia cupcake fans.

ps. i saw padma today. she was hawking jimmy dean food products and no one seemed to care that she was there. it was sort of surreal and weird.

pps. melissa is still feeling camera shy.

the main reason i'm in new york right now is for the blogher convention. this year we're actually doing a booth. it's the first time we've ever done a booth at a convention like this, and it's been a crazy learning experiencing (like how it's a crazy racket and union dudes are an interesting bunch). we started off at 11:45am crazy excited, especially once the photo booth arrived. however, as the day tolled on and things didn't go 100% as planned (worked out in the end), we were crazy exhausted. i mean it was 8:15 when we left the hall. if you don't believe me check the before and after.

ps. melissa's not in the photos as she was too camera shy.

pps. here's a sneak peek of the booth. the photo is crappy because there was a lot of freight in the way. i'll get better ones later!

How do I deal with a red eye to ny? Three words: glass of wine.

In related news, it's been 10 years since I've been to ny. This time
there will be no couch surfing, but I do imagine there will be some
late night hijinx. Stay tuned!

Ps. If you're going to blogher, stop by and say hi! I'll be there
pimping out onsugar and shopsense! And if that's not enough to get you
out there, then all the treats we have planned should definitely
entice you. Wr have so many tricks up our sleeve!

I spent the first chunk of my life as a military brat. But let me preempt you before you ask if I moved a lot. I didn’t. My dad was oddly stationed at the same base for almost 10 years and then he retired. So no, we didn’t move much. We didn’t really move at all.

Recently someone said oh so unlike other military kids, your life was pretty stable then. I hardly think that a new best classmate each year counts as stable. You see while I might not have moved, my friends did. The twins, the kid with Pappy dog next door, my awesome best friend from 2nd grade, Tina from across the street, all the kids who’s names I’ve forgotten and then even Davita moved away. In the end, while I stayed in the same place, my friends changed constantly.

Once I said this outloud I realized what had been so obvious all these years. It clearly had a huge impact on who I am and how I interact with people, and what I expect from friendships even. To me friends are people I have a good time with, hang out with, love and live for, you know while they’re there. Once they’re gone I instinctively find their replacement. I don’t mean to. It just happens. This is not to say that I don’t have amazing friendships that have lasted over the years. This is to say that I’m okay with making new friends and have gotten pretty decent at it. You know, survival instinct and what have you.

Tonight I ended up at the Blogher holiday meetup at Tres Agaves. I ran into some old faces, and met a lot of new ones. This is Marie, she runs an online boutique for curvy gals. She’s working on a fashion show and has all sorts of other tricks up her sleeve. Something tells me we’ll see her again. That is, unless she moves away.

ps. i have a feeling the above abandonment is also why i don't fully understand the term "i miss you" but that’s a topic for another day.

i went to a blogher meetup today in redwood city. it was hosted by the lovely liz henry (who i might add, rocks the dyed hair in a way i never pulled off during my hair-dying years) and was just a casual gathering of blogher folks in the area. next month there's a big convention in chicago (yours truly will be there, so drop me a line if you are going) and this was just a gathering to say hi and meet some folks who are also going.

i have to admit, i was a little bit nervous to go to this. i wasn't sure who would be there, what the personalities would be like, or what i would say. would it be weird because i work at sugar, or would it be better? who knew. however it wasn't weird, it turned out to be a lot of fun, plus i met some really great folks (and had some great foods - whoever made the rocking corn/black bean salad, please to give me the recipe? thanks.).

to familiarize us with everyone's sites, liz printed out the homepage of everyone's blog. here i am posing near mine. is that meta or is it just vain? i'm not sure, but i can tell you what is vain. me "retouching" out my panda eyes. they were huge, i couldn't handle them.

ps. the bangs totally need a cut, this weird parting is what starts to happen when they get too long. they shift left and right and it's a parting of the seas. anyone want to take a bet on how long it takes before i actually cut them?