Whaaas Up?

Guess what tomorrow is? No, forget it. I’ll just tell you. It’s the first ever LA Bloggers Live!

Readers list:

Joe from Artlung

Lynda from One Day at a Time

Deezee from Confessional Highway

Neil from Citizen of the Month

Jenn from Aka Jesais

Abigail from My Life According to Me

Will from Wildbell

Kevin from Kevin Charnas

Peter from The Buddha Diaries

Tim from LA Daddy

Join us tomorrow, Thursday, June 28th at 6:30pm at the Tangier Lounge.($4 cover charge at the door)

In other news, once upon a time, a long, long time ago, Grace and I were talking and she was all ‘You should see if Amy Sedaris would be on your craft panel at Blogher.’ and I was all ‘Oh, ya. Right. Like that would happen.’ and Grace was all ‘No. Seriously. You should because it would be so great.’ and I was all ‘Dude. If I could make that happen I think I might crap my pants.’ and she was all ‘I’m sure you can figure it out. Go forth! Make it happen!’ (Insert pretty illustrations here showing me pounding the pavement.) And so I did. And Amy Sedaris is going to be on my craft panel at Blogher along with Kathy Cano Murillo, Kristin Roach, and the fabulous Natalie Zee Drieu. And then we all lived happily ever after.

(More Than) Two Things

The latest version of LAB Magazine is up! You can view/download it here. Also, for a beautiful hard copy, order from Lulu here. Joseph Robertson is the bomb and does a really nice job putting it together. Also, my interview with Natalie Zee Drieu is in there!

Speaking of Natalie, she’s coming to Blogher this summer to be on my craft panel. Joining us will be Kristin Roach and Kathy Cano Murillo. Are you going to Blogher this year?

We have a mostly permanent home for LA Angst and LA Bloggers Live! (crowd cheering) I know, I know. It is great because they will be held at the Tangier Lounge, which really rocks and has the perfect ambiance for reading to an audience. So join us for our first Live! on Thursday, June 28th, 6:30pm and the next Angst on Wednesday, July 11th at 6:30pm, won’t you?

Also Known as Jenn

My awesome friend from San Diego, Jennifer Simpson, was at Blogher and I got to see her all of about 5 seconds. She posted an audio clip she made from a few different bloggers, me included, about why we blog. I love the idea of it because it’s like a mini-interview. (And who likes interviews??)

Does everyone hate my laugh or is it just me?

The Recap

Wow.

I was still going through my questions and finishing up last items on Thursday but I felt pretty prepared by the time I went to the dinner on Thursday night. All day Friday and all day Saturday I interviewed some amazing women. I was so busy that I didn’t get photos of all of them. Dang. In fact, I was so busy that I didn’t get to meet nearly as many people there as I wanted to. On the flip side, I got to really talk to those women that came in to film. We had a few problems come up and some people were very understanding and patient as we figured out the kinks (THANK YOU) but all in all it was a great weekend. Isabel Kallman, founder of Alpha Mom is truly an amazing woman and I thank her so much for sending me Mario for the weekend, without whom I might have died. And Chris. And Jesus. Can I get an amen?

The panel I was a part of went well, I thought. Danah was a great moderator. I wish I would have had more time to talk to her because I find her smart, fascinating and sporting great hair. It was great to finally meet Jenn, Denise and Erica in person. You can read more about our panel here on PBS Mediashift by Mark Glaser and here on The Huffington Post by Liz Henry. I was watching Liz type furiously during the panel and wondered how she could possibly get it all down. All in all, it’s a pretty accurate account. One part where she quotes me as saying, “Leah Peterson: I don’t blog about my kids, I have 4 kids all teens. And also my relationship with my husband.” was just a little off. I said something more like I make sure my kids are ok with what I blog about them and if they ask me not to blog something, I don’t because I want to make sure they always know they can tell me anything. But, wow, Liz can type fast.

And if that all wasn’t enough, Arianna Huffington sat down with me and Alpha Mom for a few minutes to talk about her new book. On Becoming Fearless….in Love, Work and Life is truly inspired. I think everyone should get a copy. I’ve read it twice now. I don’t know when any of the TV segments will be coming out but I’ll link to them when they do.

There were a few things like weird/spotty and not free internet connectivity and a large, laid-out conference area that made things challenging. And even though I only got to pop into one other panel besides my own for about 20 minutes, I was acutely aware that some people there were harboring and fostering some types of negative energy which made me sad. In my mind, when you get 700+ women together, we should all be planning to do something good, like switching things up in the government or figuring out how to make the perfect pair of high heels that make our calves look fantastic but don’t create blisters, rather than turning on each other. Just think what we could all do if we worked together! It would truly be a tragedy to waste the creative opportunity for greatness that Blogher facilitates.

Update: Sour Duck says some nice things about the panel here.

In San Jose

And I think I’m the only Her blogging. (Get it??)

The hotel is crazy busy and only one building has an elevator. They charged me $5.50 for a beer. I’m tired and a little sweaty from driving all afternoon and evening. But I’m glad I’m here.

I stopped to get gas about midway and went into a Foster’s Freeze. I haven’t seen one in a long time and I remember liking their fries when I was little. Plus, I had to use the ladies. When I walked in and saw that the place was empty, I was all, ‘Cool! The place is empty! No line in the ladies!’ But when I walked in to the bathroom, it was sans toilet paper, so I walked right back out and asked for someone to fix that situation. While I was waiting for the one and only girl to go in and add some TP while the guys all kind of stood around and helped, um, no one, since there was no one to help, I ordered some fries, an iced tea and because I knew I’d probably need some protein, a burrito. It wasn’t until a few minutes later when I was washing my hands that I thought is was odd that they even had a burrito. I didn’t remember any burritos when I was little. But, what the heck. A burrito.

I walked back out into the deserted dining area to sit down and wait and noticed that I wasn’t really all alone after all. The table next to me had two flies on it. So I walked to the next table. It had three flies on it. So I just kept walking around the room, passing table after table of flies having dinner, until I had completed one lap and then stood next to the counter, hoping against hope that all the flies were, for some reason, more apt to be on one side of the counter than the other. Sadly, I was wrong, and the flies by the warmer and dancing on top of the drink station seemed to be having quite a party.

My feet frozen to my spot, but keeping my arms twitching and my head swaying lest I look like a good landing spot to a fly, I heard a ding and I thought, ‘Phew! My flies, I mean, fries are done!’ But alas, it was not my fries but instead my burrito getting pulled out of the deep fryer. My fries were under the warmer becoming a fly family of 9’s appetizer.

The young man grabbed the fries, shoved them and the burrito in the sack, handed me my iced tea and asked if I wanted ketchup. I KNEW I wasn’t going to eat them, and FYI, I never eat ketchup on my fries, but for some reason, I said yes. He threw some in and handed me the sack. I walked outside and into my car and sat there for about 3 minutes in silence wondering why I didn’t demand my $6.01 back.

Instead, I grabbed the burrito, mostly because I was fascinated that they had put in in the deep fryer (??) and cracked it open. It was filled with chili.

Huh.

So, I threw it all away in the trashcan in the parking lot and went back to the gas station and bought a water and a bag of pumpkin seeds. That and this beer is dinner. Nutritious. My mother would be so proud.

Off to take a cold shower and get in bed. Hey, the comforter is pretty nice. I brought my own from home for nothing……

You Can Touch My Weenis at Blogher

What’s really, really funny is to walk around saying ‘weenis‘ all the time. Just ask my kids. They come up to me and pinch my elbows and say, ‘Oh, sorry. Did I hurt your weenis?’ and then laugh and laugh. And laugh. And then they do it to each other and laugh some more. Not only do I not find it funny, I think the word ‘weenis’ should die a quick death. It’s a dumb word. Who invented it? I’d like a few minutes of their time. Creating a word that sounds like another word, that happens to be what we in these parts call a Potty Word, is just dumb. I’m living in a sitcom laugh track over here. Come on!

I have Blogher on the brain. I’m a little nervous about my panel but since I’m doing it with such great women, I’m mostly ok with that. But, in an insane moment, Alpha Mom asked me to do interviews with some pretty choice women. These are FILMED interviews. And I’m nervous because, dude, I am not used to being on the other side of the camera. All I can say is that it’s a darn good thing there is a makeup artist there to help me when I have something on my chin that looks like cheese doodle. So, if you’re going to Blogher, I’ll be the one that is going up and down the elevator every fifteen minutes before, after, and in between the workshops trying to fit in time to speak with all of my internet rockstar idols. I can’t wait to meet them all and I hope they don’t think I am too much of a dork. Unless they like dork. And then, my friends, they will be blown away and fall in love with me.

Here is a list of all the wonderful women I get to interview in no particular order besides the order that I had them written down in Notepad:

Marrit, Yvonne, Amy, Tracey, Tracey, Alice, Angela, Eden, Kim, Jen,
Grace -n- Molly, Andrea, and Catherine. And probably Heather, if I can get her to put down the martini and sober her up with some coffee. Or, I could just film her while she’s sleeping.

There are some other women that I can’t wait to have a drink with and do their hair and nails and if you are going, this probably includes you. I’m driving up Wednesday. Anyone else around that early?

Update: I’m a dweeb. I left off Melissa. And also Karen!