Being Amber Rhea

Very important video made by the SWOP-Chicago crew! It covers prostitution laws and is a good primer for anyone to watch, regarding your rights if you get arrested. Check it out!

I realize I haven’t put up a real blog post in a week. In a way that feels like ages ago, in another way it feels like mere minutes ago. Same as always; I won’t go off on the tired old babbling about the subjective, convoluted nature of time.

So much to say but I don’t even know where to start. I’ve had trouble falling asleep all week, and many nights I’ve written ridiculously long blog posts in my head as I lay awake in the dark. I’ve also been drinking too much sweet tea over the past few days, left over from Tuesday’s catering from Wife Saver; but I know my fitful sleep is attributable to far more than just extra caffeine.

If I’d had any forethought (but how could I have?) I would’ve brought my old-school paper journal with me to Chicago, meaning I’d have it here with me now, and I could be scribbling in it whenever the spirit moves. I know I’ll be doing a fair amount of that when I get home. And I also know I need to do more writing here, and it needs to come from the gut, without a filter; I guess death always makes you reassess things and realize, starkly, how short and fleeting life can be. So I need to write here for the reason I started this blog: for ME. I need to write in MY style, which admittedly others won’t always grok. But that’s okay. Because it’s not about them. And all of this has made me feel like I can do it, must do it, write for my life, without worrying about who I might piss off or what some nebulous “they” might think.

It feels weird to know that I’m going home tomorrow. It’s been over a week since I’ve been home, slept in my own bed, seen my finches, watched my Tivo, sat at my desk… it’s been over two weeks since I’ve been to work. I know getting back into the swing of things will feel good. But like I said, it also just feels weird. Everything has felt so surreal this week. I feel like things are in a state of suspended animation and I’m moving in slow motion… that’s the best way I can describe it, and even that is not totally accurate. I don’t know when I’ll come out of this state. I do know that the old truism about never knowing how a traumatic event will affect you until you’re actually dealing with it is right on.

I’ve had nightmares almost every night I’ve been here (when I’ve been able to remember my dreams at all, that is). And yet I’ve stayed in bed until late morning whenever possible, until my back hurts and my shoulders are screaming for a massage, because the lethargy is just too great to overcome. Really the only thing that forces me out of bed is having to pee.

One weird thing that’s happened while I was here: my mom’s AC literally froze. As in, the AC repair guy came out to look at it and said it had turned into a block of ice. We ran the fan for a full day in order to thaw it out (it’s back to normal now). I’d never heard of anything like that!

—

Chicago, Tuesday, July 17th, around 9:00 p.m.: phone call from my mom. I had been waiting for a call and I knew it wouldn’t be good. And I guess maybe part of me knew exactly how not good (or good, depending on how you look at it; he was suffering a lot, after all) it would be. Dacia and I were walking down Belmont looking for food. I stepped into an alleyway so I could hear my mom better. She sounded quiet and deflated, like she had been crying but wasn’t crying at that moment.

“Hi Amber. Well… Dad died.”

What could I say but, after a big gulp of air, “Okay. I’ll be there tomorrow.”

We talked for a few more minutes. I don’t remember what all she said. I do remember he passed away at 8:20 p.m., and about six people were in the room with him at the time.

I told Dacia. We hugged. We stood there. She asked me what I wanted to do. I said, “I know it sounds bad, but I want to eat dinner.”

She rubbed my back and said, “That’s what you do when you’re alive. You eat.”

—

Thanks, Dorie, for looking after our finches.

More posting to come, either really soon or not.

Well, I was going to put up a somewhat flippant post about the first day of the Desiree Alliance conference, saying that it was a lot like other conferences I’ve been to, only that people were taking their clothes off. In a totally non-sexual way - the conference space doesn’t have AC, and it’s really fucking hot, so, solution? Remove some of those bulky layers! Pretty awesome if you ask me.

So I was going to write a funny ha-ha post focusing on that, and looking forward to day 2 of the conference. But the other news, now, is that my dad passed away, at 8:20 p.m. tonight (Thursday, July 17). I’m catching a 9:05 a.m. flight to Atlanta tomorrow, and then a connecting flight to Augusta at 1:18 p.m. Rusty will be joining me on Saturday or Sunday. At the moment, I feel weirdly (to other people’s perceptions, anyway) calm and collected. I really only started to get emotional on the phone with my mom because she was so upset and I was sympathetic with her.

We’ll see what the next few days bring, though. I’m sure I’ll do my share of crying and riding the emotional rollercoaster. Password protected posts to come, I’m sure.

I will now test the speed of your broadband connection by posting a crap-ton of photos.

Skyline seen from an Orange Line train:

Navy Pier:

Sexy bloggers/podcasters dinner/world-domination-plotting:

BlogHer kick-off:

AAG brought the best schwag:

Fan-girl redux:

Invisible buddy:

Cool old hotel sign (building is now loft apartments):

19th century medical laboratory:

Rusty breaks the internet:

Sleep buddies:

O RLY?

Many more photos available here; they’ll all have captions, eventually.

To sum up: I heart Chicago.

Wow, I was just reading about Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul at Viviane’s blog, and then Thomas IMed me and we were talking about something completely unrelated, and then he mentioned that he was reading a book he thought I’d like, and by the way, the author lives in Atlanta and is doing a reading tonight.

How is it that I never know about all the cool things that are going on in my city, right under my nose? At least I found out about it ahead of time this time, instead of the morning after, which is usually the case.

So, I’ll be there tonight, with camera and recorder in tow, hoping to snag an interview. Here are the details; if you can come, please do!

August 2
7:15 p.m.
Discussion & Signing
Georgia Center for the Book
Dekalb County Public Library
215 Sycamore Street
Decatur, GA
404-370-8450, ext. 2285
gcb@dekalblibrary.org

There’s also a longish excerpt on the book’s web site.

Thanks, Thomas!

The title is a rhetorical question. Because no, there is not.

Here’s a 32-second video of the infinitely adorable baby chicks that we saw at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Rusty has a better/longer video - complete with intro text and cross-fades! - on his blog, and I’ll have a photoset on Flickr soon. (You were joking about it, J., but I’m doing it.)

Click To Play

Tomorrow morning, we’ll be heading back to Atlanta. I’ll be glad to be home, but we’ve had a great time in Chicago. I really like this city. In fact, I’ll even go so far as to add it to the short list of cities other than Atlanta in which I could realistically see myself living. (Well, “realistic” might be a stretch; I haven’t been here in the winter!)

I know I haven’t been doing much blogging since BlogHer concluded, but that’s because we’ve been having a lot of fun being relatively off the grid.

Sunday we went to the Museum of Surgical Sciences, walked around the Lincoln Park area a little, and chilled in a random downtown Chicago Starbucks. Then we spent about four hours reading in the hotel room. Today we went to the Museum of Science and Industry for the specific purpose of visiting the baby chick hatchery. The baby chicks were unbearably cute, and I took a bunch of photos and a short video, which will be posted soon. Then we headed to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs lose. Rusty has already posted a video of the 7th-inning bleacher-bum rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

I would write more, but I’m too wrapped in up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and want to read a few more chapters before bed. I’ll write more about our trip and post plenty of photos in the next few days. Then I’ll spend the rest of the week cleaning out my inbox (current unread message count is 112; I’m sure there’s at least twice that many waiting for me at work) and combing through Bloglines.

Oh, and also I just found out I’ll be a speaker at ConvergeSouth ‘07, but more on that later.

I heart Chicago!

Susie Bright and Amber Rhea

Originally uploaded by viviane212

I haven’t been doing any liveblogging today. I’ve been doing a fair amount of Twittering but just haven’t felt like liveblogging.

We got to BlogHer a little late today because we needed to shake off some cobwebs (am I using that phrase correctly?) this morning, but it has been a great day so far. Actually, at the moment I’m sitting in the closing keynote with Elizabeth Edwards, and it’s going great. Anyway, just wanted to share this photo Viviane took yesterday of Susie Bright and me. :)

More blogging to come later! Tonight we’ll probably be chilling at the cocktail reception, and then collapsing into bed. (Major thanks to Cunning Minx for giving us a ride back to our hotel last night, btw! That was huge.)

2:45 p.m. - Does the Blogosphere Need an Intolerance Intervention?

Not sure how much liveblogging I’ll be doing in this session. I sort of want to take a break. But on the other hand this session sounds like it’ll be really interesting and I’d like to document it. Laina Dawes is talking about ten common things people do to stifle discussion of racism online. “You’re too sensitive” gets used and abused in so many conversations.

Anyway, my battery might die soon, and I might not bother to charge it.

They’re still having sound system problems. This seems to happen at a lot of conferences that are big and not free, so it makes me feel even better about how things went at PodCamp Atlanta (and also reminds me not to worry about that stuff too much).

Tish Grier says the local newspaper would not list her blog in their blogroll. They said she had to do something different to get listed. Okay, I missed what just happened there, I was talking to Rusty so I don’t know what happened with the newspaper. Also she says she goes to blogs of A-list male bloggers and disagrees with them vehemently, and sometimes it upsets them, but “they need to be.” ;)

The A-list blogs talk about how blogs are an echo chamber. But when you look at their comments sections, it’s all men talking about how blogs are echo chambers. There are no women’s voices. She says her purpose in life is challenging things and changing things.

Question to the panel (Liz Henry moderating): how do you know if an argument has been constructive? And for whom has it been constructive?

What Laina Dawes was saying just now makes it sound like she thinks “just stating your opinion” isn’t worthwhile. I think it’s very worthwhile. Maybe that’s not what she meant but that’s how it sounded.

There’s a Mormon girl on the panel (Kathryn Thompson) and she’s talking about writing about why she’s pro-life during Blog for Choice week. Hmmmmm. I don’t know. Maybe there are limits to civil discourse.

Tish asks rhetorically, “Are the A-listers gate-keepers?”

WTF is all this noise outside the door?? A guy went outside to tell them to STFU.

Question: What is the responsibility of the blog owner to corral the discussion? And how does it get more complicated when it’s a group blog?

Comment policy is needed when comments are deleted, says Kathryn. I think it’s a good idea to have a comment policy posted; but still, it is the blog owner’s discretion. Her blog, her rules. My comment policy is basically, “Don’t be an asshole.”

They’re bringing up Kathy Sierra again. This is the eternal debate about the fine line. It’s really hard and I don’t think there’s a good answer. I just wish people wouldn’t be assholes.

I want a snack.

Difference between writing a personal blog and writing on an institutional blog e.g. parenting.com - people feel like they can say much more horrible things on the institutional blogs because they don’t think of you like a person, they think of you as an institution or a company.

Tish says, “There is no credibility behind anonymous comments.” Totally agree. Fuck that noise.

Battery is dying. Snack break at 4:00. Then I need to schmooze w/ sponsors for Sex 2.0, but I don’t feel like. I’ll do it, though, and get it out of the way. That’s all for liveblogging this session.

Fri. 1:30 p.m. - Privacy, Exposure, and Risk: Can you maintain safer spaces online?

Lunch was great, and now we are back up on the 2nd floor, getting ready for the session with Susie Bright, Ann Crady, and Tara Hunt. Speaking of which, Susie Bright came up to our table at lunch to get Rachel because they were doing a book signing together. Viviane got up and hugged her. Then she turned to me and asked my name, and I stuck out my hand and said, “I’m Amber,” and she was all, “Oh! Amber!” Seriously, y’all. She recognized me from my blog, and when I kind of breathlessly asked, “You read my blog?” she acted like it was obvious and I should stop being so modest. (!!!!) Total fan-girl moment. I felt flustered after that, but not in a bad way. So anyway, that was awesome. And Susie seems like a total sweetheart. She’s up there now wearing a tiara.

Session is starting now. Lynne D. Johnson is the moderator.

My camera battery is almost dead, but it’s just as well, because from my vantage point, all my photos are going to have a bright-red-haired woman’s head smack in the middle.

Each panelist now is going to say how much they are “exposed” online.

Tara says pretty much her whole life is online and she’s not very worried about potential risks. She says she’s had benefits from putting herself out there, including career benefits because people feel that they know her better or trust her more. She says she trusts human nature and believes people are mostly good and that might be part of why she doesn’t obsess about all the bad things that could happen.

Ann says for her the benefits far outweigh the potential risks and she thinks the dangers are far over-blown.

Susie Bright hates the mics and doesn’t want to use one. But she has to because they’re streaming live in Second Life.

Someone said the feedback was “unbearable.” I just Twittered that it’s not unbearable. Ha.

Anyway, moving on, Susie Bright is talking now about some of her history in political activism. She says being out there is one of the best protections, because as a general rule, people will protect you if they know who you are. Being “out there” is a good defense; it makes it much harder for people to twist your words or blackmail you.

What does “safe” mean, Susie asks. She’s questioning the terminology and trying to define “safe.”

She says if you are a journalist and say something controversial, you will get flak. She said she kind of wants to shake people’s hands when they say they’ve been threatened on their blog, because it means they are making a difference.

She says sometimes saying someone is making you unsafe is just a way of trying to shut them up. And it’s difficult to speak out about without sounding cruel or callous.

Question from the moderator: are women more likely to get threatened online? Tara is talking about a Pew study that shows girls and women are more likely to experience bullying or threats.

Audience member asks how each of the panelists define cyber-bullying. Susie Bright says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me - or will they?” This is what women experience online that men do not or do only rarely. But she also says women are being encouraged to stay offline because of this fear, and it’s like saying you shouldn’t go out at night. It’s the problem of the bullies, not the women. She says, “Most of these bullies are full of it.”

Audience member brought up Kathy Sierra and couldn’t remember her name. Everyone in the room said, “Kathy Sierra.” If this woman tries to minimalize what happened to Kathy Sierra I’m going to feel like punching her (the audience member, not Kathy Sierra). And yes I am fully aware of the irony there!

People are fucking assholes and it can be a tough spot. I totally agree with Susie that this stuff should not silence women’s voices or prevent us from going online, because it is not OUR problem. Just like rape is not our problem, it’s the rapists’ problem. But on the other hand this stuff REALLY HURTS and more than hurts, it can be downright terrifying, and I really don’t think men understand the way women experience this stuff, as part of the larger culture. Which is why I turn off my ears when men start yapping about “growing a spine” or some shit. Just shut the fuck up, asshole. But anyway, how do we deal with this? I can’t blame Kathy Sierra for what she did. I might have done the same. That shit can be overwhelming. And yet… I feel it is vitally important for women NOT to shut up. ESPECIALLY if it’s controversial and makes people uncomfortable and shakes things up.

Audience member asks where is the line between developing a thicker skin and dealing with active threats that could be damaging to you physically, financially, etc.?
The eternal question.

Ann says, “the line is the law.” Not sure if I agree or not. Will need to think on that some more.

Audience members should use the mic because it’s in Second Life. Oh, who am I kidding, I don’t know a thing about Second Life and I don’t care.

Susie Bright says, when you get a whiff of a troll, block them immediately so you’re not inundated with their bullshit. They thrive on attention.

Susie says a woman was waiting for her in the bathroom with a knife when she spoke at the University of Minnesota one time (not sure when this was). She mentions how absurd it was. (She went with another person to the bathroom, too, btw.) She says she does not regret her activism and she will not stop. Hell yeah!

Good damn question that I wonder about a lot: what are the kids of the “mommy bloggers” going to think when they get old enough to read the blogs? I wonder about that. At a certain point (certain age?) it seems kind of like… exploitation? That’s a loaded word but I can’t think of another one. It’s a tough call. Maybe it’s just the same question as blogging about other people in your life in general.

Statistically your child has a much greater chance of being molested in the grocery store or in church than on MySpace. The media blows it out of proportion.

“Everyone in Second Life… fuck, fuck fuck!!”

Tara is talking about Molly Holszchlag (can never spell it). I love what she does on her blog because she talks about her depression and other stuff right there on the same blog as web standards and Microsoft and stuff. Molly rocks.

“It’s a sign of strength to say, ‘I’m going to say what I want, fuck you.’” - Tara

Susie is talking about the inherent sexism in the fear we feel as women about speaking up. Men are not critiqued for who they go to bed with… this is Women’s Studies 101, she says.

Audience member says handling professional criticism is a walk in the park after dealing with so many trolls. Silver lining!

Here comes the appeal to “what about the children.” I don’t buy it anymore, hardly at all.

Dude is talking about making sure you are comfortable with anyone seeing what you put online. For some reason he is really putting me off because I feel like everyone here knows that already. Thanks for words of wisdom.

Now Susie Bright is saying she believes a lot of the malicious behavior online is motivated by jealousy, and she doesn’t know how to handle that. Ann disagrees and thinks it’s mostly boredom. I think there’s probably some of both, but I can’t really attribute a whole lot of it to just boredom.

Okay this audience member has been talking too long. There’s a line of people behind her waiting to talk. I think the lilt of her voice makes me not absorb anything she’s saying. I have no idea what she’s talking about.

Audience member is breastfeeding and unlike at most conferences, no one is going to give her shit about it.

Analee Newitz is speaking up from the audience now. Personal blogging “can bite people in the ass.” She’s talking about how some of us are lucky in that we have lots of options for employment and such, but a lot of people don’t have those options and can’t say, “fuck you, I’ll work somewhere else.” I’m glad someone pointed that out. Because yes, even though this is a problem with the company, the effect is on the particular woman’s life. Ideology is nice and all, but being able to feed your family is nicer.

Now an audience member says she never intended to be a public figure, but after starting her blog, a few months later she was on the front page of the New York Times business section. She said we need to realize that it’s a risk and an opportunity that any one of us could become a public figure overnight. I definitely agree that we have to be aware of that, but I don’t think that should make people stifle or self-censor. Real people have real lives and do real things. Imagine that!

Now a woman who runs a blog called I, Asshole is talking. She is awesome. She talks about how she edits her trollish comments and adds to the end, “Now I must go home and fuck some puppies.”

Susie Bright adds some levity. Yes, we’re all talking about how important it is to stand up and have a thick skin, but it really does hurt when you feel like you’ve been passed over because of something you wrote, or because people might be laughing at you, or whatever. Pink Ghetto, anyone?

Tara says, “We all have inner Gollums.” Let’s stop putting up these facades that say we’re perfect. The world says we’re not allowed to talk about these things, but we all feel this way at some point.

Session is almost over. I’m going to try to get my picture taken with Susie Bright.

Fri. 10:45 a.m. - Digital Exhibitionists or Chroniclers of their Time: Will Naked Bloggers Make History?

“There are a lot of things happening in our lives that we feel like we have to hide.” - Stacy Campbell

“I do all the stupid stuff everybody else did, but I write about it.” - Heather Barmore

First question for the panel: How honest can and should you be? What will be missing 100 years from now?

Kris was angry with herself for holding back and not being honest at the time in blogging about a relationship that later ended

“Keeping it honest has become more difficult as the readership grows.” - Stacy
This is the classic blogger conundrum. We all struggle with this. And yet it is never less of a struggle. And there isn’t one right answer.

So far everyone on the panel has been self-deprecating and saying no one will be reading their blog in 100 years. But the whole point is, people will! This stuff that might seem mundane or even whiny now is important. Chronicling real life (everyone’s unique experience) is hugely important. I’m reminded of what Josh was saying at BlogSavannah about finding letters written to family members during the Civil War, and how in many ways that offers us the most insight. (Still, though, a blog is different in some ways… but that’s another tangent. Knowing that there’s an audience - even a tiny one, or a potential one - does change things.)

AAG says she went online to be more private… LOL. She says she is still at times afraid of being judged. I can relate.

Somebody in the audience just said she threw away all her old diaries! Aaaaaagggghhh!!! Nooo!! Sacrilege! I cannot imagine throwing away something that personal and unique… even if you do regret things you wrote, or not want certain people to see it.

Audience member makes a good point about the power of women writing blogs is that we are in control of representing our own lives, rather than leaving it up to someone else to reconstruct the story of your life and maybe get things wrong or add their own judgment.

Next question for the panel: What makes you most uncomfortable? Family and friends reading it? Co-workers? Something else?

Heather almost got kicked out of her apartment because of something she wrote. (!!!)

I realize I am very, very lucky in the approach I take to blogging nowadays. I didn’t always take this approach - because I couldn’t (e.g. when I was looking for a job when I lived in Texas; a bunch of stuff w/ my marriage; etc). And to some people who don’t know me very well, they might think it looks very cavalier… but it’s not. It’s very much intentional and I am determined to be as open and honest as possible. Of course, “as possible” is the caveat there, and the definition is always changing.

Sarcastic Journalist is talking about how she got fired for her blog. She was a reporter and she was anonymous and she still got fired - just like Dooce. A few of her family members disowned her too. Anonymity is NOT the protection you might think it is. Don’t be naive. You’re never really anonymous.

I think that’s the biggest - HUGEST - difference between blogs and personal diaries. Even though, yes, people can and do find and read other people’s personal diaries, the whole world can’t find your personal diary on Google. It’s less of a risk. Certainly can be more of a liability if people find it bc you’re being more personal and not holding back, but that is valuable; but I don’t think blogs will ever be exactly the same.

Someone in the audience is talking about how she went to a conference and found herself apologetically telling people she “writes JUST a personal blog.” Right on!! I HATE that shit! I hate that perception of personal blogs (whatever that even means; I have a beef with that term, too, but I can write about that later) as somehow “less than” other types of blogs such as political blogs.

I think we should have a session at Sex 2.0 that’s like this except focused on writing about sexuality and your personal sex life and all that good stuff. (Btw I am having some… I don’t know… burned-out? feelings about Sex 2.0. But I’ll get to that another time.) I kind of hoped this would be more sexuality-focused, but then, the general personal stuff topic is fascinating and important, and sexuality is a part of that.

Audience member says, “Our personal honesty on our blogs is politically important.” I agree. The personal is political, indeed.

Someone else is speaking now who developed a plug-in for WordPress called Post Levels, which lets you control who sees certain posts. I may have to look into this.

Culture Kitchen woman is talking now. I don’t know her name but I know her blog! (I’m surrounded by the bloggerati, hell yeah.) She says, “As my blog kept rising and getting more and more readers, it started having less and less personal stuff. The blog started to have a life of its own.”

Now the conversation is turning to talking about how personal blogs are breaking stereotypes in very powerful ways. Someone asked Culture Kitchen woman “how dare you be one of the top Latina bloggers in the country and say you’re an atheist.” Heather talks about how people assumed she was white, and when they found out she was black they’d say, “You speak so eloquently” and shit. Stacy says not everyone who struggles with depression is completely batshit. AAG talks about how powerful it is that she can be not young and not thin and still be having great sex and letting everyone know about it.

ROCK ON!

Moderator says none of these personal records are complete (she’s a historian who deals w/ a lot of personal journals, letter, etc.). This self-censoring is not unique to blogging and we should not get too hung up on it, as in worrying about whether or not it’s “real.”

Another audience member is talking about how people say they didn’t realize she was a POC. She gets called “exotic.” She says, “Guess what, if you’re going to keep calling me ‘exotic,’ I’m going to keep talking about race!” Heather says she doesn’t talk about being black all the time because (gesturing toward Kris) “do you talk about being white all the time?”

AAG says it’s not courageous for her to write about sexual abuse. This is something someone did to her, it’s a reflection on the person who did it to her, not a reflection on what kind of person she is. She encourages everyone in the audience to write about it if it happened to you. Stacy says, “If it makes somebody uncomfortable, then maybe you need to write about it even more urgently.” I am mentally high-fiving her now.

Now a dude is talking about how he feels like people at some parenting blogs think he doesn’t have a right to talk about parenting. He says even though he gets a lot of crap, it’s worth it because he’s breaking the stereotype and showing that there are men who care actively about being parents.

Another audience member is now saying she feels like her blog has brought her closer to her family. This is interesting.

Another woman is talking about how her friends pressure her to write about certain things. Like, “Why didn’t you write about my engagement.” Heh. Start your own blog!

Session is almost over… I think there’s supposed to be some kind of prize drawing. AAG brought some amazing schwag, including dildos.

Well, we’re here - at the Navy Pier for the start of the BlogHer conference. Right now most people are doing this “speed dating” introduction thing, but Rusty and I opted out because it’s just way too damn social. I know I should probably be taking this opportunity to force Sex 2.0 MOO Cards on people, but I just can’t handle it. So, instead, I’m doing what my T-shirt says I’m doing: blogging this. The wifi here is great, the schwag bags are amazing… well, generally everything is amazing so far.

The best way to follow me today will probably be Twitter, but even with that i don’t know how many updates I’ll be posting, since my top priority will be having fun, participating, and all that good stuff.

We had breakfast with AAG, Viviane, RKB, Susan Mernit, and a few other people whose names I can’t remember. Last night we had dinner w/ Viviane, RKB, Susan, Cunning Minx (who called me “perky and adorable” - ha!), and Lisa Williams. I’ll post photos when I get a chance!

So far I think Chicago is a great city. One thing we learned: there is apparently a shuttle from the Orange Line train to Navy Pier. We did not know that, and instead spent $75 on a cab this morning. Oh well, live and learn. It was the cab driver who told us about the shuttle, actually; and he was a really nice guy, he and Rusty had a grand old time talking about sports. So it could have been much worse.

Okay, that’s all for now… off to enjoy! :)

I am so excited about our soon-to-commence trip to Chicago.

We’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon at (purportedly) 4:35 p.m., whereupon we will travel to our accomodations* at the luxurious Midway Airport Sleep Inn. We’re classy like that.

Later that night, we’ll be meeting some sexy bloggerati for dinner: namely, Viviane, Cunning Minx (whose podcast was nominated for a Podcast Award; congrats!), Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Susan Mernit.

Friday morning is the start of the BlogHer conference. We’ll be meeting Always Aroused Girl at breakfast. Even though I’m sure I’ll be doing a fair amount of wandering, these are the break-out sessions I’m interested in attending Friday:

• 10:45: Digital Exhibitionists or Chroniclers of their Time: Will Naked Bloggers Make History?
• 1:30: Privacy, Exposure, Risk: Can you maintain safer spaces online?
• 2:45: Still a toss-up between Media Training and Does the Blogosphere Need an Intolerance Intervention?
• 4:30: Don’t feel strongly about any of ‘em, so it might be a good time to wander from room to room or do some blogging.

Friday night, we’ll be having dinner with some of the same folks from Thursday’s dinner, plus a few more - possibly including (OMG FAN-GIRL) Susie Bright. (!!!)

Saturday morning, it’ll be back to the conference! I’m planning to attend these break-out sessions:

• 10:30: Women Across the World
• 1:30: Blogging: the Voice For Silenced Communities
• 2:45: Sex & Relationship Blogging Behind Closed Doors, an Off-the-Record session

Not sure what’s happening Saturday night, but I think there’s going to be some sort of sex bloggers’ happy hour.

Sunday I think we’ll probably spend a fair amount of time relaxing, and then go to the Museum of Surgical Sciences. I doubt we’ll try to pack a whole lot of activity into that day. (It’s the Sabbath, after all.)

Monday we’ll be going to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the baby chick hatchery (squee!!) and whatever else we might want to look at that’s not as cute as baby chicks. Monday night, we’re going to a Cubs game.

Then, Tuesday morning, it’s back to the ATL! There will be tons of photos, and a decent amount of blogging and podcasting, too.

Btw, the BlogHer web site just launched a redesign, and it looks great!

* Firefox spell-check does not know the word “accomodations.” Weird.

This weekend, Rusty and I will be heading to Chicago for the third annual BlogHer conference! I’m looking forward to attending lots of great sessions and meeting a bunch of people whose blogs I’ve been reading for months or years. We’ll also be hanging around Chicago for a few extra days after the conference for general vacationing goodness - a baseball game, a surgical museum, and a chick hatchery, among other things. Standard issue, really.

If you’ll be at BlogHer, say hi if you see us. And yes, we’ll be recording a podcast (maybe more than one). This will be the furthest OTP we’ve gone so far!

[Cross-posted on my Georgia Podcast Network blog]