This is the pathway of destruction left in the wake of four bloggers taking Orlando by storm this weekend:
1. Two car wrecks in the first two minutes of hitting the road from Brandon….one on fire, one flipped over….I have had pictures **see #4 and you’ll know why you’re not seeing any of them.
2. One air mattress (that I’ll be replacing ASAP because it belongs to my MIL)….after driving on the interstate for an hour, Izzy and I got out of the car and realized that the cord hadn’t gotten all the way into the trunk and had been dragged for miles…it is now a sad, pitiful nub of plastic….again, picture, but no picture.
3. One set of pajamas and my most beloved pillow left behind at Shash’s house. I have no idea how I’m going to sleep tonight, but I can guarantee that it will be with bitter tears of disappointment.
4. Shash lost her Razor phone and I mourn my Blackberry, plus all four of us lost cameras in a wet purse incident at 2AM in City Walk. We have no idea what happened, but the purse interior retained enough fluid to brew a full pot of coffee and everything we had was soaked and destroyed….except for Britt’s memory card. So sad. I am now cell phone-less and camera-less. I can almost feel my life’s purpose draining away.
5. If SeaWorld burned down today, I have no idea what anyone is talking about. I was in Brandon the entire weekend and I’m sure I can find alibis.
But SO WORTH IT, people!
What made it worth it all?
1. Getting the chance to meet three women whose blogs I’ve been reading, who brought real life personalities to entities only captured in twitter and emailes and blog posts, sharing stuff about blogging that no one else in my non-blogging world understand…I felt like part of the community in a whole new way. It rocked!
2. We laughed. Oh my stars and garters did we laugh. We were giggling fools, we tickled ourselves silly. I don’t know that I’ve ever laughed so hard for so long. There was nothing sacred or inappropriate and we just let it all hang out and you know what? We laughed at that too.
3. Learning the coolest things about new friends: Britt really does have the best hair on the interwebs, folks…Shash drives like a Nascar racer….Izzy might be the most photogenic person I’ve ever been near, and forced to photograph WITH, which was highly unsatisfying on my part…Britt’s laugh is totally contagious….Shash loves all the same movies I do…Izzy has a thing for hot shirtless things walking down the street.
4. No one slapped me becaues I snore…which, hello! hotel room with three practical strangers/new friends and no one said, “Dude, you are so on your own for a room at BlogHer next year, sorry”….BFFs ya’ll.
5. And FOR REAL, when the cabbie asked who we were and how we knew each other, I got to hear Britt tell him, “Well, we’re kind of a big deal on the Internet.” She uses the phrase “we” so liberally. And again with the laughing.
So, my cell phone and my camera bit the dust (Izzy and Britt’s good cameras both made it out alive, so hopefully I’ll steal some of those to share with you).
That really, truly, monumentally sucks.
But I wouldn’t have missed this weekend for the world.
