BlogHer Travels: Day 2 and I Woke Up Exhuasted

It’s absolutely gorgeous in Chicago. Yesterday, was Day 1 of BlogHer 2009. It all started for me with a day of flying starting at 4:30 a.m. Yes, yours truly left her house at 4:30 a.m. and finally arrived at her hotel about 5 p.m. Not by choice of course, oh and did I mention that I had really not eaten anything.

So my final flight (the one that landed into Chicago) landed about 1:30 and after I got off the plane I headed to baggage claim to meet up with Scott and Sara and get my bag. Oh and on a side note, I absolutely will be doing a rolling carry on next year, my shoulders were ready to murder me by the second flight.

Okay back to the story, my flights for the most part were okay and I had just enough time in each connecting airport to not have to rush but not have to sit forever either. The flight from Dallas to Louisville and Louisville to Chicago were a bit rough on my tummy because they were on those smaller planes and it there was a bit of turbulence. So I sat, white knuckling the arm rests but I made it safe and sound.

My final leg of my trip was on a United Airline Plane and when I finally made it down to the baggage claim area I was ready for my bag, as were Scott and Sara, and were ready to eat. So we wait and watch for my bag which never comes. Finally I talked to one of the employees who looked into it and he said it was scanned in. Um, okay so where is my luggage then. After about an hour or so he goes down to look for it and at this point yours truly is a bit on the freaking out side. I was going to have to spend all weekend in the same outfit, I just knew it. So what do I do?? I call for reinforcements “Mom, pray that they find my luggage, it’s lost” So she does and low and behold about 5 minutes later it arrives…whew.

We leave the airport to wait for the limo who is “pulling up” as we are waiting. We wait, we wait and we wait some more and no limo. So we find out that one is full and they are sending another to pick us up. Okay whatever, just hurry we are hungry and tired and have parties to attend to. Finally after waiting an hour we have a limo arrive, which is packed down with luggage already. We managed to get all loaded and met a few peeps in the limo and were on on way to the hotel. About 30 minutes into the ride we notice surroundings are familiar and realize we are circling back to the front of the airport!!! As if being tired, missing luggage and starving weren’t enough now we were missing the Social Luxe party, which made me really sad.

Finally about 5:30 we arrive at the hotel, hurry and change and head to dinner at Portillo’s. Absolutely amazing food let me tell you! I had a chili cheese hot dog topped with onions and it was divine. I highly suggest going to this place when you are in Chicago. We then return and head to the highly anticipated People’s Party which was a bit crowded to be honest but hey what’s better than a mass hysteria of women racing for swag and free drinks. Then it was off to eat a deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s. The pizza was delish.

Amidst the hysteria we got our third little roomie, Miranda who is one of my closest bloggy friends and it was like little girls in high school. We squealed, we hugged and we giggled. Finally after dinner and the Room 704 party (where I met Miss Blondie and Kadi for a minute) we headed up to our room to crash. Well crash we did but not before ordering room service for chocolate cake at midnight. We gabbed and giggled and finally went to sleep about 1:30 (okay so I dozed off before the other girls).

Today is day one of sessions and the party schedule tonight is even more fierce. I am a bit worried about my sanity after this evening. I am however super excited to meet Consumer Queen, who was gracious enough to ask me to some events with her. By the way I am such a schmuck, I saw her at the elevator last night and because I wasn’t sure (in a sea of 1200 bloggers you aren’t sure people are who you think they are) so I didn’t say anything, I did find out by text later that it was her.

So my lessons learned on BlogHer day 1 are:

~ Go ahead and talk to someone assuming you know who it is, if all else fails look at their name tag or ask for their card and then you will be sure.

~ It’s probably best to take some 5 hour energy shots or some equivalent with you, the energy you need is much much more than you actually have (or for me anyways).

~ Bring comfortable shoes (I did) because you will eventually want to change into them, even if they don’t match your outfit.

~ Be prepared to be overwhelmed, with so many women and wanting to meet the ones you “know” it’s easy to get a bit flustered in the sea of women.

~ Last but not least, have a BLAST!!!!!!

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Toni Patton

Owner at A Daily Dose of Toni

Hi! I'm Toni. I am a happily married, christian, momma of 3 living on Florida's sunny Gulf Coast. I am a lifestyle blogger and Seint Arist. I started blogging when my last child was born as a way to share my love of all things travel, cooking, beauty, recipes, and more. Now pull up a chair, grab a glass of sweet tea and let's get to know each other. I truly hope you enjoy getting A Daily Dose of Toni!

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