BlogHer Day 2: Crowded

Yesterday there were roughly 300 tickets available for the conference, and it was sold out. Today, there were 750 tickets available, and it is also sold out. There are a LOT of people here. And in a place with this many women, and this few bathrooms, it’s amazing everyone is still being civil.

The Hyatt San Jose is a very pretty place, but lacking in some areas. For one, our rooms are a little strange. Even the Motel 6 has a sink outside of the bathroom so one person can be at the sink while the other is in the bathroom. Not here. And no exhaust fan in the bathroom either? I had to wipe the steam off the mirror every 2 minutes after my shower in order to get ready.

And for a blogging conference, the lack of network infrastructure is painful. It’s taken several hours and lots of stops and starts to get this post written and published. I spent most of the morning staring at this message:

The hotel clearly didn’t understand the network needs of women bloggers. At least half of the women here have laptops, and they all want their share of the WiFi space.

After the welcome message, the crowd split into the Birds of a Feather breakout sessions. I stuck around to hear about the BlogHer Ad network, and now I am so excited about it. It’s no secret that Google Adsense is not a good structure for those who get less than 1000 hits a day to their blogs. Plus, the weird links they find to put onto my site are mind-boggling. After hearing Lisa Stone discussing the BlogHer Ad network, I can’t wait to sign up. And I’m thinking about this at the moment because I’m currently sitting in a session about making a living from your blog. And one of the panelists is Dooce. Yes, I can see Dooce right now, from a distance, of course. Although in the picture I took of her, she looks like she’s got demon eyes. (and you can see that I was nowhere within reach of her)

I swear that figure far away in the darkness is Dooce. Just take my word for it, OK?

After the ad network meeting, it was time for the Mommyblogging as a Radical Act session. Any argument that mommy bloggers are not a strong force could be crushed by seeing the crowd gathered for this session. It was awesome to see so many mom bloggers gathered together in solidarity. More amazing was that there were several people there who are not moms.

Lunch was poolside today, and once I saw the spread I felt right at home: burgers, corn on the cobb, potato salad and apple pie. Only baked beans could have made it more of a midwestern meal.

I’m missing my warrior princess, but every time I call home she seems to be just fine without me around. Although I did tear up a little when I had this conversation with Cordy on the phone a little while ago:

Aaron: Here Cordy, talk to mommy!
Cordy: Bah-wahababa!
Me: Hi Cordy! It’s mama!
Cordy: Itza mama!
Me: *stunned* Yes, it’s mama! Are you being a good girl for daddy?
Cordy: Itza good!

I’m skipping the last panel of the day in order to rest up for tonight’s cocktail party. I’m sure there will be more drunken blogging, because once again there will be free wine.