Chicago Bound

But not, alas, to Blogher.

I managed to plan a girls' get together in the same city, on the same weekend, many months before Blogher was even announced. Leave it to me.

Let me start by saying that I have never, in 14 years of marriage and 12 years of motherhood, gone off by myself overnight. Not that I wouldn't have...but the occasion just never presented itself.

So you can understand why I am wildly excited by the prospect of being completely unencumbered by responsibility for four whole days.

We have rented a fabulous guest house in downtown Chicago, which, when divided by five, actually comes out to be cheaper than a decent hotel room. It is mere blocks from the bustling heart of the city. We can walk to countless theatres, restaurants, museums, and boutiques. We will be very close to Michigan Avenue, which in itself is exciting. It's like the Champs-Elysee of middle America.

But the most exciting thing of all, is that for the first time, I get to come face to face with four other fabulous women, whom I have internet "known" for a very long time. We have formed deep and satisfying friendships without ever looking each other in the eye. Once this would have seemed unlikely and strange, but in this day and age, I think many people have a similar story to tell. The blogosphere itself is a place where many similar friendships have been forged.

We have experienced a lot of things together, this little group of ours. We have laughed, cried, debated and commiserated. What started as just a place to land when another, larger site became defunct, turned into a haven of comfort, friendship and support. And because the group is small and intimate, we have managed to avoid much of the drama, nastiness, intrigue and upheaval which seems to plague other online groups.

I am simply beside myself at the prospect of meeting these wonderful women in person. I'm not really a demonstrative or touchy person by nature but I welcome the opportunity to finally hug each one of them for real.

So tomorrrow I fly.

I have only flown once since 9/11, due to being stranded in O'Hare airport for over 13 hours by myself with an infant and a toddler. We boarded and deplaned no less than SIX TIMES in that period of time. I ran out of diapers. The baby vomited all over himself. My then three year old had a melt-down because he began to think we were going to have to live in the airport.

That melt-down, as luck would have it, got us on the first available plane out, just past midnight. The gate agent took pity on him, or maybe me, and chose the three of us to board ahead of the several glowering business men who had attempted to bully her into giving them a seat.

I swore then and there that I would not fly again unless I absolutely had to. I'm not afraid of flying, it just irritates the fool out of me, you see.

Anyway, that was long before the shoe thing, or the belt thing, or the liquids thing. I'm a wreck trying to decide what to include in my carry on. Thank God I'm not travelling with small children. And since I'm not, I might just check everything and carry only my purse and some reading material, which, I must say, I am looking forward to being able to actually read, as opposed to reading a sentence, escorting a small person to the bathroom, reading the same sentence, serving a snack, reading the same sentence, bending to retrieve fallen crayons or matchbox cars....you get the picture.

So Chicago here I come. I'll be back Monday with tales of our raucous girls' weekend. What do you think is first on our itinerary? Why the package store of course. You can't expect five women to fuel their girl talk marathon with mineral water can you???

If you're interested, here are the girls I will be meeting: Kirdy, Nina, AA and Lizardbreath.

And to those of our group who can't make it...know that you will be sorely missed. We will drink a toast to you, and take many goofy pictures.