A Blissful Weekend At Blissdom 09

Well, it's taken me a few days to get to this post, but I had so much catching up to do first. And also so many thoughts and memories from the weekend that honestly, I didn't even know where to start. So, I'll try to keep this somewhat short and not bore you with all the little details.

Thursday
My flight left at 10:00 a.m., so we were up and out of the house by 7:15. When you're used to sleeping until after 8 at least, that's a tough way to start the day! Everything ran like clockwork and best of all, the plane landed half an hour early. I took the shuttle to Hotel Preston and was able to check in early.

Joy's flight didn't land for a few hours after I got there, so I enjoyed some complete quiet time just resting, reading and blogging. I even spent a while on the phone with Amy until Joy arrived. I can't even tell you how great it was to finally meet in person! It was like we'd always known each other - no awkwardness, no uncertainty, just smiles, and hugs, and talking (lots of talking!), and laughing. We took a self-portrait of ourselves right away.We explored the hotel for awhile while we waited for Toni. Once we knew she was on her way, we ran to the lobby so we could greet her as soon as she walked in! Once again, meeting Toni was just like meeting Joy - practically perfect in every way!

We hung out in the room, ate dinner, talked and tweeted, had dessert, talked some more. We finally fell asleep at some point.

Friday
I've always known that the 3 Moms work well together online, but now I know that it's true in real life too. We each showered, got dressed, checked email, and were out the door within an hour. Amazing! We had a nice breakfast and then went to pick up our Blissdom badges and swag bags.

We spent most of the morning hanging out in the lobby on our computers and talking with fellow bloggers. We even found a wonderful woman who willingly took us to Subway to pick up some lunch.

We got back to the hotel just in time for the opening "meet and greet" and the first session of the day. Toni and Erin from $5 Dinners

There were two panel discussions, followed by a break to get ready for the cocktail party. After the cocktail party, we went up to our room and changed into our pajamas. Then we headed down to the pajama party where we had pizza, watched some of Mama Mia and made more new friends. (I was SHY though...painfully shy!) After that, the 3 of us stayed way too late talking about how we met our husbands.

Saturday
Saturday was a very busy and full day. It began at 8:00 with a sponsored breakfast. Then we were treated to a special screening of Yanni Voices. The biggest surprise of the day was when two of the singers for the program walked into the room. They talked to us for awhile and even sang Happy Birthday to two women celebrating their birthdays. It was surreal.
The rest of the morning was filled with more panel discussions. We broke for lunch and then headed back to more panel discussions. All of the talks were amazing and so inspiring. I won't go into details about them here, but if you'd like to hear about all the things we learned and ideas we gleaned, join us at Happy To Be At Home as we share that information all this week.Saturday wrapped up with a musical performance by Chris Mann and a keynote address by Jen Lancaster. Joy wasn't feeling well so she hung out in the room while Toni and I went to dinner with the Ohio contingent of Blissdom attendees, and a few other Ohio-wannabes.

Sunday
Another early morning for me. My plane left at 8:30 a.m., so I was on the shuttle by 6:30. I woke up with just enough time to put some clothes on, chug a cup of coffee and say good-bye to Joy and Toni, who got to sleep for another few hours. Eric and the kids picked me up at the airport shortly after 11:00am. It felt great to be back home, but I couldn't believe the whirlwind weekend was over. And I already miss Toni and Joy!