Thanks Aiming Low

I've been all set to write about my fantastic night OUT OF THE HOUSE Wednesday night, but you know, in true Aiming Low style life has interupted. A little procrastination here, some Halloween blog obligations there. Throw in some swine flu* for good measure. (*My daughter had a fever for 24 hours, but aren't we calling all fevers along with cold symptoms swine flu these days?)

I was already planning to throw in this picture of me and my pal Lisa. Even if my face is three times the size of hers. Even though I look pregnant (I'm not!!!). But on the upshot, I'm actually tanner than someone. I was all set for the embarrassment since I was so grateful to Lisa for taking a trip to NYC with me. I was ready to throw caution to the wind.
And then, yesterday, Lisa sent me this link From Aiming Low's Flickr uploads.

So thankyou Aiming Low for the night out and the snacks and drinks. And THANK YOU for posting this picture of me. Because seriously, my face has never looked thinner.

Now let me back up a moment and start over.

Once upon a time, I found a link to the amazing blog Aiming Low. I felt like I found my true parental sorority. Women who love their kids, but may not be as crafty as some, or speak as quietly as others. One day I noticed that they were coming to NYC to visit and I felt a tickle in my tummy. I really had no idea what to expect. I had never been to a single "blogger" event before. But I immediately called my husband to see if he would be able to come home early just once so that I could travel to NYC, meet some great bloggers, and perhaps come home with a goody bag or better yet a new printer or laptop from HP. Next, I e-mailed Lisa, a good friend since middle school, a dedicated blog aficianada, and recently author of her own blog. It took some convincing, but she was in!

I decided to drive in, all the way in, and valet park at the hotel. I was convinced that I would be winning one of the rumored fabulous prizes and was concerned that it would be difficult to lug my huge prize home on the train or ferry. I figured $40 in valet costs would be a small price to pay. But something awesome happened. We got there an hour late and when we told the bellman we would be back within 3 hours he looked at us like we were nuts and asked "Why would you pay $37 when you can just leave it right here and I'll watch it for you?" Um, ok! Sure. Here are my keys, kind sir. Now before you mock me, at my willingness to have my car stolen, what the hell is the difference between leaving my car there with the employee of the hotel or having him drive it to another secret valet location? Unfortunately, when I met Marinka I was a bit tipsy and she had me so convinced that my car was already in a chop shop that I couldn't muster that argument then. So there I was, chugging gallons of water so I could sober up and leave to check on my car.

Along the way we got to play with some products. I took the opportunity to print out some of the first snapshots from my new Nikon D40. We got to peruse some crafts made on the HP website by the Aiming Low writers. My favorite was the recipe cards. LOVED them! If I can gather up the motivation, I can finally fill up my recipe holder box with pretty recipe cards and toss all my wripped out notebook pages of recipes.

As I mentioned, I really had no idea what to expect at my first blogger event. I had a vision in my mind of mingling with lots of people, but it didn't really happen that way. We kind of fell into place at a specific table, but we made some new friends and had lots of laughs. Perhaps too many laughs. We were getting odd looks.

I found myself to not really be myself. It was the booze. I only had one drink but it was STRONG. It made me laugh. A lot. And act like a moron. The HP cameraman was so impressed with my ability to print a picture that he interviewed me throughout the entire process. I couldn't stop laughing. I really could be great on tv or in a commercial. I swear. Just don't ply me with liquor first.

Besides the Aiming Low team, I wasn't really aware of any other bloggers that I am a regular reader of who would be there. Except Marinka. I was really excited to meet her in person. At the same time though, I was really nervous that she would just make fun of me and I would cry. And then I was there and realized I really didn't know what she looked like. I've only ever seen her arm online. I did look around to see if I could find someone I thought might be her, but my eyesight is terrible, even with my glasses and I felt ridiculous at the notion of going up to every person to look at their name tag. But she found me. She was incredibly nice, except for trying to convince me that my car was being stolen while we spoke and that perhaps that would gain me more readers. I was giggly and awkward the entire time we spoke. Again, the booze. I beat myself up about it the whole way home and Lisa was kind enough to agree with me, that I was as bad as I thought I was.

Everything wrapped up much earlier than I expected. Screw the baseball game, didn't they realize we had traveled 2 hours to get there? I was delighted to find out that my car was still in front of the hotel and even with a good tip, we spent half the amount we otherwise would have. We hopped in and hit the road. And then as soon as we were driving through Times Square, in the rain, we thought "Crap! We forgot to walk around a bit and use my new camera to snap some pictures." Not that I haven't been there a zillion times, but never with my new camera. So to pass the time, Lisa played a game to get the best picture she could, in between the swipe of the windshield wipers, without smeary rain all over, and without getting the dashboard in the picture or a flash reflection.

Not too bad, huh?

So we tossed off our glass slippers and headed home. Away from the bright lights, the video cameras, and authors extraordinaire. Back to reality. To NJ. Knowing that the next day we would have a very early wakeup. But it was worth it to get a night OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! With adults. Funny ones. Thanks Aiming Low!