Monday, July 27, 2009

Away I Go...

I had to wake up at 4am.  To totally rip off one of my very favorite Seinfeld quotes, 4am "was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man at a deli trying to send back soup."  I know few people who are fans of waking at 4am.  Even fewer who spent the hours of 11pm-3:55am being kicked and whined at by a should-be-sleeping-soundly-by-this-freaking-point-in-his-life-what-is-WRONG-with-him preschooler.  So, things started off great, right?

Ethan was, in his usual style, too cute to stay annoyed at. He spent the drive to the airport talking about how the stars were going to sleep and the moon (he calls her "luna") was going to go to bed and that the sky was getting light--the concept like sunrise, which we take for granted as so simple, is a bonafide phenomenon to a 3 year old.

My catapult into blogging fame (please note the dripping sarcasm) started at LAX, where a random woman waiting to board the same plane as me (which I guess makes her somewhat less random) asked if I was going to Chicago for BlogHer. She was, too. How fun. Let's exchange business cards. See you there. Have fun.

How was my first flight in over three years without a child in tow?  


Starbucks peppermint mocha, awesome book and tunes. A treat not enjoyed in flight since my trip home from Hawaii/San Francisco honeymoon in '05.

So the book, Julie & Julia, about a blogger who wrote a book and they made a movie about it?! With Meryl Streep? Hello, dream. Of course, in completing Julia Child's recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking for her blog, Julie Powell had to dig marrow out of cow bones with a hacksaw. Being a mom and writing a blog about that? Much easier. Well, on a good day. The book is amazing--Julie Powell turns a description of a potato into a poetic and poignant metaphor for life. That is not. easy.  I adore Powell's voice and getting to sit for THREE HOURS to read without interruption?  Ohdeargodinheaven, thank you.  

And the music? The soundtrack to the film Away We Go. Have you seen this movie yet, people? For the love of all things beautiful, DO.  So sweet and inspiring and funny.  Later I whipped out about an hour of the Indigo Girls. I figured,  hell, I am going to the blogging equivalent of Lilith Fair, might as well, right? 

It was a happy discovery for me to realize that I do still have solidly ass-kicking taste in music. After so many years of Music Together playlists and Laurie Berkner CDs, it was a relief to set my iPod to "shuffle" and be consistently psyched by the music that was flowing.

Something else I learned on the flight? My iphone tends to totally ignore my right hand. What is up with that?!  Random.

Note to self for future flights: Try not to sit at the back of the plane. Not only does it mean you will sit on the plane for 15 minutes waiting to disembark when you land (am so glad I've finally learned not to bother standing up, hunched over like quasimodo, in the center seat. Much easier to sit comfortably an wait until a row or two ahead of you starts moving). But it also means that you're sitting a few rows from the rear restroom. This leads to an endless stream of people in need of relief, hopping from one foot to the next in the aisle, elbows clunking your seat (or your head, thank you very much), and far too many bums hovering over your little plastic cup of ice water.

Also on the plane? I took random notes to help me remember things I wanted to blog about and I realized that I have absolutely zero control over my pen-and-paper writing hand. I've been using computers for so long now that my actual handwriting is beyond illegible. Loops fly out of control and ends of words trail off like a signature. It's very disturbing. I might have to start writing out blog posts by hand and then typing them in, to make sure that by the time I'm 50 I haven't completely lost the ability to put pen to paper. Crazy.

******
The rest of the story will have to wait.  Still processing so much of the conference.  The people I met, the experiences, both good and bad.   But I started writing this days ago and wanted to get a post up.  There's much more to come.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed meeting you at dinner. Where the heck do you get a peppermint mocha in July? Is that Hollywood magic?

Carol (txcarol on twitter)

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful description of sunrise thru the eyes of a 3 year old. E taught me something tonight. Thank you for sharing that.
Uncle Al

Becca said...

I enjoyed meeting you too! You were exactly like your blog--smart, funny, and beautiful.

I have the same problem with handwriting! And I was writing notes by hand as recently as March, so it doesn't seem to take very long to lose that skill.

Can't wait to hear the rest of your BlogHer posts.

Emi said...

Good I was starting to worry.. I have the same problem with the writing.. it's totally scary... oh and a calm plane ride - it is possible huh???!!!! :-)

Florinda said...

Hello from the random woman at the gate at LAX! Saw you a few times in Chicago, and looked over your posts here before leaving this comment - looks like you had a great time.