August 1, 2010

For Those Who Will Meet Me Soon Enough

For the first time ever, I am attending BlogHer in New York City this coming weekend. I bought my ticket as soon as they went on sale and we booked our hotel room quickly too. I was super excited about going, and then life got in the way and I put it on the back burner. My Grammom got sick and passed away. Then this knee business started again. . .

Mr. BBM kept asking me before my surgery on July 20th, if I was excited to go. "No," I told him. I simply couldn't think about or concentrate on anything other than getting through my surgery and recovery. To be honest, I'm nowhere near finished worrying about the recovery part yet. Walking after being in an immobilizer for so many days isn't exactly a piece of cake right now. I'm hoping the only forms of transportation in the hotel and around BlogHer are elevators and escalators. Because otherwise. . . well, you don't want to be behind me going up or down the stairs right now, especially if you're in a hurry. Imagine your 1-year old when they're learning to navigate the stairs. That's me. I also kind of limp and walk funny right now. You would too if you had a hole in your bone.

By the time the conference rolls around this week, I'll be able to stop wrapping my leg up in gauze, but the steri-strips will probably still be there. They're nasty. There's dried blood and pen marks underneath them. It's not exactly the first impression I want to make. I thought about wrapping my obi around my incision. I mean, I am "Black Belt Mama" and all, but somehow I'm thinking that obi's are meant for the dojo, not for blogging conferences. I'm also thinking that keeping it wrapped in gauze to hide the steri-strip excitement is a major fashion faux-pas, and who wants to wear pants in August?

People who might meet me this weekend should also know this. On Friday night, I sat outside for hours and have like five mosquito bites right by my left temple. It's so flattering, and the stupid bug couldn't have sucked the right side of my face where my hair covers. No, definitely go for the side where I always push my hair back behind my ear. Because of the way my body reacts to mosquitos, I'll probably be scabbed and diseased looking by Thursday, so people who are about to meet me are in for some serious fun.

Oh, and thanks to some weekend virus that came to haunt me, I've lost five pounds. Most people would be happy about this, but I believe that the entirety of those five pounds came straight from my atrophied hamstring and quad muscles. In other words, I'm not even symetrical.

In addition and thanks to my whole "have to get through surgery" attitude, I didn't realize that when you attend the conference, that doesn't mean you're signed up for the parties. I am waitlisted on all of them, and at this point, I'm not exactly hopeful that I'll be breaking into any of them. I told Mr. BBM, who is tagging along with me to explore the city while I attend the conference, that we may be having some quiet nights alone while there.

Then again, maybe I'll throw a private "Black Belt Blogger" party. If you can't attend the parties, make your own right? I just need to get out of this mental funk and enter the conference with an open mind. Those who know me in real life probably have a hard time believing I'd have anxiety about entering a conference of 2400 people without really knowing anyone there. But I'll admit, I'm a little bit intimidated.