I’m in Austin, Texas for the BlogHer Food Conference (Howdy!). It’s my first conference as someone behind-the-scenes, so I’m pretty excited about it. Also, I’m speaking on a panel along with Momo (BlogHer’s Social Media Manager) and Denise Tanton (Blogher Community Manager). The panel is called “For Good Measure: Search and Social Tracking and Measurements” and THIS IS BY FAR THE GEEKIEST THING I HAVE EVER OFFICIALLY DONE. Anyway, Momo flew from Columbus to Chicago yesterday so we could fly here together. I arrived at the airport in time to check my bag, get through security, and find her gate so I could greet her. Remember the good old days…
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California Dreaming
I just returned from a long weekend, a glorious weekend, in southern California. The reason for my visit was my cousin’s wedding on Saturday, but I flew out there (alone) early Thursday morning so I could see a couple of friends and spend some time “doing my own thing”. I had an amazing time. I mean, truly amazing. I felt so purely happy for the duration of the trip: I loved it. So many good things. (I have since decided that I need to figure out a way to travel regularly. Really.) Though the four days were chock full of goodness, here are some of my favorite things about the…
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Return Trip
If it weren’t for the fact that I love and miss my family and have lots of stuff going on in Chicago (life and other details), I might consider staying here indefinitely…but I’ll be on that plane for my return trip tomorrow afternoon, trying to figure out how soon I can plan a return trip back here. Sigh.
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Flat Sue’s Back, And This Time We’re Headed West!
If you’ve been reading for a while, you may remember how my friend Sue–who I’ll call Real Sue for the purpose of this post–sent me a Flat version of herself–Flat Sue–so she could “experience” the BlogHer conference in New York last summer, sort of, since she wasn’t able to attend in person. I, with the help of several friends, Instagrammed the heck out of Flat Sue’s New York adventures. If you set aside the fact that we lost track of Flat Sue (ahem, LIZ.) for part of one evening and had to put out a “Missing ‘person’ Report” on Twitter, well, the weekend was hysterical. Wait. Let me back up.…
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I Care Deeply About What’s Going On In The Overseas Markets
I have this odd quirk that makes me a really cheap date (and easily entertained) when I’m on vacation in another country: I love foreign grocery stores. I can’t explain why. It’s just a part of my life-long foreign fetish, I guess, but there’s just something about checking out what foods are popular in other countries, how they’re priced, what the packaging looks like, and anything else that pops up as I stroll up and down the aisles. A worldwide tour of grocery stores sounds like a great kind of vacation to me. I’m weird like that. When we went to Germany in 2010 I had a great visit to…
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Immersion
It’s interesting what happens when you are placed (or place yourself) into a world completely different from what you’re used to. After a while, your brain starts to make adjustments. The length of time varies for everybody–I have a feeling it has a lot to do with how open-minded a person is and what his or her past experiences include–but eventually, we all adjust. Studies have shown that being totally immersed in a foreign language is the best way to learn it, and although I believed that before I arrived in Costa Rica on Sunday, today I can say that I know it to be true from personal experience. Although…
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All By Myself
So here I am, at this awesome hotel in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Actually, it almost doesn’t even seem like a hotel. It wasn’t, always. It used to be someone’s house. Now it’s a “hotel” with twelve rooms and four suites, one of which Jim and I were given (yay!). I am in heaven, honestly. This is a working trip for Jim, and I tagged along willingly, knowing that I would be left to my own devices. I find that most people either don’t mind spending time alone, or they absolutely hate it. I rather enjoy it, to be honest. It’s not that I don’t like (or prefer) being with others–I…
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No Hablo Español
As I walked around Alajuela, Costa Rica yesterday, my thoughts and feelings were in opposition. On one hand, I was focused on being very, very careful. Being a woman, walking around a strange city all alone and not speaking the language (not to mention the glaring lack of street signs anywhere, plus my lack of a cell phone with International capabilities), I knew I had to be extra careful. I kept my purse tightly under my arm and held onto the straps as an extra measure. When I took my camera out to grab some pictures, I was quick about it and then shoved it deep down into my purse…
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It’s Coming Back To Bite Me.
It just occurred to me this morning that all of those times in high school I used the “late to class” slips I took from the guidance counselor’s office–in my junior year when I spent time assisting in that office–and filled out as officially as possible and handed to my Spanish teacher two or three times each week so that I would be excused from the first half of class and easily get away with spending time with Jim during his lunch period, and my teacher didn’t mind because I had an “A” in the class, and she’d say, “No problem, Mercedes”, which is the name I picked for Spanish…
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Thoroughly Enjoy Illinois!
You may know that I really like taking advantage of all the great things my state has to offer. Even though it’s right in the middle of the country and is totally flat in landscape, Illinois is FUN. You may not know that I wrote a book called Chicken In The Car And The Car Won’t Go: Nearly 200 Ways To Enjoy Chicagoland With Tweens and Teens. (I know: longest title EVER.) I am very proud of this book. I worked really hard on it and in the research stage, my family had a blast checking out all kinds of fun places in the Chicago area. Believe it or not,…