Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium has offered a generous deal to BlogHer attendees! With your BlogHer badge or LobbyCon bracelet, you can get free admission for yourself and a friend anytime from Thursday to Monday.

On Thursday night from 6 to 10 pm, “Jazzin’ at the Shedd” is open to BlogHers as well – free admission for you and a friend, AND a free drink!

Since LobbyCon Ladies cannot check in until Friday, they should bring their tickets (the ones with the barcodes) for admission on Thursday night.

Take advantage of one of Chicago’s great attractions while you’re in town. Even if you’re spending Friday and Saturday inside at the conference, this is a great activity for Sunday.

For more info, go to http://www.sheddaquarium.com and follow @shedd_aquarium on Twitter.

Ladies, there is now an official BlogHer forum for LobbyCon discussion. Click on over to get involved in the introductions and making plans for our time between general sessions!

Even if you’re NOT going to LobbyCon but ARE going to BlogHer, stop over at the forum and read some of the introductions so you’ll know who those nuts are hanging out in the Sheraton ChiBar and cruising the Expo all day. Because we will be cocktailing with you on Friday and Saturday nights, you know…

Like Donkey Kong. Oh yeah.

My slacker-self always misses BlogHer for two reasons:

1. I forget to sign up on time.
2. I do not have the money to sign up anyway.

This year I have thwarted both of those excuses. Even though I did forget to sign up for a full conference pass (and couldn’t have afforded it anyway), I’m still going because BlogHer 09 is in my friendly neighboring city of Chicago and I can get a partial admission called LobbyCon for only $99. This means I get to be in on the streaming video session of the general and keynote addresses (on-site at the ChiBar at the Sheraton), as well as the cocktail parties, the after-parties, and the swag at the Expo. I’ll miss the breakout sessions, but that’s okay. I’d rather come for part of it that I can afford than not go at all.

Do you know anyone doing LobbyCon at BlogHer?

Since LobbyCon-goers are not involved in the breakout sessions, we have a big gap of free time during the day Friday and Saturday, all of which cannot be spent harvesting goodies at the Expo. But BlogHer is at the Sheraton Towers in downtown Chicago, close to lots and lots o’ fun, even outside of the conference! Since no official forum exists, I’m working the comment board on the one article about LobbyCon, trying to gather email addresses to at least get a mailing list together so people can share ideas.

Because, you know, we don’t get to eat lunch with the rest of you guys.

If you are interested in LobbyCon, click here for a link to an article with the details, and click here to go to the Eventbrite page to register.

And if you’re going to BlogHer, with whatever kind of ticket, I strongly recommend that you check out  “The Unofficial Guide to BlogHer ‘09″ at Guidespot.com. Jenn of Free and Flawed put that puppy together and it is all kinds of helpful, especially for first-timers like me. I learned many things, including that I need not be afraid of taking my laptop around, but I might like a sexier laptop bag with more pockets. And that my social anxiety may be assuaged if I have pretty blog cards to break the ice with new people.

So I bought this from Amazon:

and these from socialcirclecards on Etsy:

The blog cards even come with a super-cute matching case. It’s not too late to order yours!

</sales pitch>

Of course I had a cold on my vacation. Of course I did.

The good news is that my teeth didn’t feel like they were going to fall out this time.

It’s been a peaceful week without the Interwebs. I fully intended to get back on the blog after getting back from my float trip in the middle of the week… but something (Antihistamines? Diphenhydramine?) slowed me down. I stayed in bed most of the first day back, nursing my one bug bite and my tiny sunburn and cuddling E, smelling him smelling like soap for the first time in several days. And I just did not want to plug back in.

For many days, obviously.

But I’m going back to work tomorrow and I have to wear real clothes… and so it’s time to check voicemails and blogrolls and any email that hasn’t forwarded to my phone. I’m actually typing this post on my Sidekick because I haven’t gotten back on the computer except to add to my Netflix queue. I haven’t even unpacked - everything is still in Rubbermaid tubs in the garage while I hope that everything will dry, cease to smell, and the remaining bugs will crawl out on their own.

And maybe my clothes will wash themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I love camping. I’m a great camper. I’m a crappy swimmer but I love float trips. But I do not love hail. And there was hail.

I’d rather camp in the hail again than go back to the real world.

Well, shoot.

My sister’s bridal shower is the last weekend in June. Same as the 20SB Meetup in Chicago.

*mumbles expletives*

I’m probably fired as a sister if I skip the shower. And my mom might amputate my head if I miss it, even if my sister said I could skip out.

But I want my trip. I am selfish and awful and I want to see my friends and make new ones and go shopping and drinking with them.

Doooooom.

Update, 3 hours after original post:

My sister is so cool. I didn’t even ask her about it but made the mistake of posting on Facebook** that I was bummed to miss the meetup. She read that and texted me, said I can absolutely go and she doesn’t mind if I miss the shower. But… I can’t miss it. She’s my sister, my (taller) baby sister. And even if she doesn’t mind that I want to go on a trip, I WANT to be there. I’m really feeling pretty dumb because I knew when the shower was – except in my head, I “knew” it was the weekend before the meetup. So I kind of set myself up for it. Boo on me.

But it’s the right thing to do, and I’m okay with that. I’ll make sure there are swag bags at the shower.

___________________________________________

**Accidental Facebooking? Yeah, and I know I’m not the only one.