Archive for the 'Mom's Night Out' Category

February 20, 2009

People Let Me Tell You ‘Bout My Best Friend

My BFF Amanda turned 30 on February 16th, the same day I got the fabulous news I was pregnant. Before I could say the words, Miss Manda knew. She looked at my stomach and with a huge smile on her face, she shouted, “Yay!”

Amanda was my first visitor in the hospital when I gave birth to Dawson. At that time in 2004 she was living in Texas and managed to drive home for a visit during the same week I was admitted to the hospital for induction.

Amanda and I have known each other since the eighth grade. Her mom, also named Dana, became fast friends with my parents and they were part of the same social circles.

Amanda and I have never had a fight. Not once. We both hung out with different groups of friends when we were in high school, but we always managed to pick up our friendship wherever it left off. After graduation, Amanda moved to Texas to go to school (her mother’s family is from Texarkana, Arkansas, and her father’s family is from Wisconsin) and I stayed in Stevens Point to attend college.

Whenever Amanda came home to visit we made time to hang out and catch up. On my 21st birthday, I went to Longview, Texas to visit her.

Miss Manda (a nickname given to her because she’s from the south and still has her southern drawl) is the kindest person I could ever want as a friend. She’s always got a smile on her face and she loves to have fun. Whenever we get together it’s inevitable that I end up sounding like Scarlett O’Hara. Her “accent” is contagious.

We celebrated Amanda’s big 3-0 by having dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Mezcal, with a few other friends. I only stayed for dinner (too tired from the day’s excitement) but told Miss Manda to have a drink or two for me. Of course she obliged (and promptly ordered a shot of Tequila).

Happy Birthday, girl! Here’s to being 30! I’m right behind you, dahlink!

Posted by Dana 11:55 AM • Gal (and Guy) Pals, Life, Mom's Night Out • 2 comments

January 18, 2009

Home Sweet Home

We’re back from our getaway weekend in Milwaukee. Actually, we got home at one o’clock this afternoon, but I am so drained that I didn’t feel like doing anything but sleep. Of course, I couldn’t do that until I returned the rental car, retrieved my child from Grandpa’s house (which took much bribing on my part) and unpacked all the bags and suitcases.

I’ve head a headache ever since I got home; the kind that hurts so terribly behind my eyes and at the bridge of my nose. While I was driving home from my parents’ house, Dawson was chattering from the backseat about all the fun he had with his Poppa, and I kept thinking about swallowing two Excedrin and crawling into bed. I think my exhaustion hit harder than I expected. It was a long, 2 1/2 hour drive home, but the trip was worth it. I’ve got a recap post planned and I’ll post it as soon as I finish some other important tasks.

I stopped at K-Mart today (before I went to get the Doodlebug — shopping is easier without him begging for toys) and picked up my prescription for Clomid which I’ll start taking tomorrow. I’m pretty optimistic about this cycle, but I must say that even if it doesn’t work, I won’t be taking it next month. I’m hoping this is the “boost” that does whatever it’s supposed to do.

Also at K-Mart, I got a new ceramic-barrell curling iron. I’ve been wanting to curl my hair for awhile, probably because I can’t remember the last time I did something with my locks other than straighten them with a flat iron. When I went to use my old metal-barrelled Revlon a few weeks ago, I noticed the curls went flat instantly. My hairdresser told me that the metal ones cause static and the curl won’t set, and they are bad for the ends of my hair. We’ll see how this new one works.

I also bought three new books, one of which is Marley & Me (I refuse to see the movie until I can read the book, although I said that about The DaVinci Code and I still haven’t finished that book — and I did see the movie when it was on HBO a while back). Can’t wait to read that book, but I’m still trying to get through Gone With the Wind. Even though I’ve read Margaret Mitchell’s masterpiece at least twelve times, I love reading it every few years.

Dawson got three new CARS cars and a children’s bible. I knew I’d have to persuade him to come home, so I told him I had a surprise for him at home (even though I had bought the stuff before I picked him up, and had it in the car!).

My little guy didn’t want to leave his grandparent’s house. This is the first time he’s spent the night there in a very long time. Usually he starts to cry when it gets dark, and wants to go home. But, since we were out of town, he had to get over his fear. Grandpa took him tobogganing and sledding, they rented movies and had dinner at Pizza Hut. No wonder he didn’t want to leave! He was spoiled rotten!

So. That’s what’s up so far. More to come. I just need to go to bed. Sleep sounds so good right now. I didn’t get much sleep last night at the hotel. There was an argument between boyfriend and girlfriend on our floor and it was so loud that we actually had to call the front desk to complain. They told us they received other complaints as well, and the cops were on the way. Not sure what happened, but I saw two Milwaukee cops dragging a guy down the hallway when I was peeking out of the peep hole in our hotel room. This was at 2 a.m., so needless to say I’m a little sleep deprived. My bed is calling my name….

Posted by Dana 9:52 AM • Mom's Night Out, The Doodlebug, The Hubs, Travel Mama • 1 comment

January 4, 2009

Dana + Dinner + Drinks + Partying All Night = Really Bad Hangover

Last night Doug and I went to a holiday party at the Red Mill restaurant. We had a fabulous time.

Dinner was delicious. We both had the ribeye steak and potato puffs, and I had chicken dumpling soup while he had the tossed salad. Then we had cheesecake for dessert, too. I had several cocktails — before, during and after dinner. One too many cocktails.

(Speaking of the desserts, the waitress told us if we didn’t like cheesecake we could order an ice cream drink instead. So then I said, “Oh! Do you have the cricket one?” And she replied without missing a beat, “No, but we do have the Grasshopper.” That was totally what I meant. Cricket, grasshopper — same family, right?)

I started out drinking a glass of Coca-Cola. Then I decided since I drink maybe once a year I was going to enjoy myself and have a screwdriver. After two of those, I switched to Malibu and OJ because the vodka was tasting funny. That could possibly be because I was getting sloshed.

Doug had two Budweisers and then promptly stopped drinking so that he could drive us home, but the friends who hosted the dinner invited us to their house for a glass of wine, or coffee and to hang out. Because we like these friends, Doug and I agreed.

When we got there, I decided to have soda so that I could sober up. I thought that I could avoid a hangover that way. It didn’t work.

While at the after party, Doug got to try a wheat beer that our friend E. offered him. It was a German beer (I only know this because it had Weisse in the name) and let’s just say it was probably made of river water and rotten cheese because the toxic gas emissions these men were giving off could have killed a village.

We were just getting ready to leave (because my brother was babysitting and we didn’t want him to drive home too late) when S. got me involved in a game of Catch Phrase. Oh my gosh is that way too much fun. Imagine six drunk people trying to play a hilarious game, similar to the game Taboo. Much laughter and cursing were shared. I had the best time so I promptly purchased the game from Amazon.com today.

Right after I drank three huge glasses of water and swallowed an Excedrin.

Oh the headache.

Now were going to have lunch at the Tempura House. Nothing cures a hangover like salty Chinese food!

Posted by Dana 12:24 PM • Gal (and Guy) Pals, Holiday Hell, Mom's Night Out, The Hubs • 10 comments

July 26, 2008

BlogHer ‘08: Thursday Edition

I know I’m very late in posting my BlogHer Conference recap, but after I returned home from the beautiful city of San Francisco, it took several days to decompress and return to normal life. Whatever normal is, I have no idea.

The Wednesday before my departure, I frantically ran around town as well as around my house, completing last minute errands and checking my luggage 80 million times to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. Total waste of time, because I realized I packed too much when the mountain of swag I collected wouldn’t fit in my suitcase. I ended up having to ship most of that stuff home on Sunday, because there’s no way that Northwest Airlines would let me check that bag without charging me $50.

I couldn’t sleep at all that night, the anxiety and anticipation were killing me. However, I had nothing to worry about, because this year’s trip to BlogHerCon was fantastic. 100% better than Chicago, and I love that Windy City.

Thursday morning I woke up at the ass crack of dawn, showered and got dressed, while Doug got Dawson ready. My boys were driving me to the airport and thankfully, I was smart enough to put all my bags in the car the night before. At 5:30 a.m. we were on the road for the 35 minute drive to Central Wisconsin Airport.

It was kind of difficult for me to leave Dawson. I must have kissed him 100 times and I started to cry as I walked into the airport and saw my little boy waving from the backseat as they drove away. Doug didn’t want to bring him inside the airport because Dawson wasn’t so happy with me leaving and it might have made matters worse.

After the usual checking-in procedures and getting through the grueling security measures, I was on my way to San Francisco . My plane departed at 7 a.m. and I was dreading the 4 1/2 flight. I was so excited to be going to California for the very first time.

I arrived in the City by the Bay at around 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, and I managed to find a shuttle to the Westin St. Francis Hotel where the conference was being held. Once I got to the hotel, I tried to check-in but didn’t realize the intricacies of hotel check-in procedures.

Turns out, I need a credit card with a huge limit in order to stay at the fancy Starwood hotel. For security reasons, we keep our credit limits low ($500 max) to avoid huge losses in the event our cards are stolen, so I wasn’t able to get my room keys. I tried to use my debit card to pay for the room in full, but apparently the Westin doesn’t accept payment in full until check-out (which is very, very strange) and instead they asked me for a cash deposit for the room cost plus $200 for incidentals.

Unfortunately, I don’t carry $800 in cash because my greatest fear is being mugged. So, I had to sit in the lobby for nearly two hours until my amazing roommate got to the hotel. She was able to use her American Express card to get us checked in.

While I was waiting for Anne and our other roommate Elizabeth, I found PunditMom wandering around the lobby and we had a quick bite at Caruso’s, a little cafe in the hotel lobby. While we were chatting, Jenn from Mommy Needs Coffee stopped over. A few moments after that, Christina from A Mommy Story popped over and we all hung out for awhile.

After that, Jenn welcomed me to her hotel room to wait for my roommates, and I met Busy Mom for the first time. She and Jenn were roomies and they graciously allowed me the use of their ladies room to straighten my hair and change out of my travel clothes.

A little while later, I met Krisco from Crib Ceiling and told her how much I missed Mary Tsao. She and Mary were roomies at BlogHerCon last year, and I told her I go to Flickr every day to get my Daily Dose of Mary via her fabulous photos. I was happy to learn that Kris does the same thing!

Finally, Anne called my cell phone to let me know she arrived at the hotel and just a little while after that we had keys to our room. Or so we thought. We got up to room 952 and started to put our luggage on the beds. The I looked in the closet and saw someone else’s clothes hanging in the closet. Anne discovered a man’s business cards on the desk. We had been checked in to an occupied room.

I made a frantic call to the front desk and told them about our problem and I was assured that we’d be checked into a fresh, clean, unoccupied room immediately. I ran downstairs to get the new keys and then Anne and I rode the elevator to the eleventh floor and where we found our new, much larger and totally awesome room.

We each claimed two corners of the room to toss our suitcases, and then I patiently awaited for Elizabeth’s arrival a little while later. Once she got in, I gave her a room key and then we all just sort of chilled for a few moments.

Elizabeth then introduced me to her friend Lori who came down to our room awhile later. Lori is awesome. She has this sweet, southern accent that I somehow managed to pick up. Okay, really, I’ve always had this knack for picking up accents, but the suthin’ speak is something I’m accustomed to, being that one of my closest friends is from Texarkana and whenever we hang out I start saying things like, “Fixin’ to” and “All y’all.”

After our introductions and a few photos, Elizabeth, Lori and I headed to the lobby to meet Jennster (also known as Dirty Mouth Whore, if you ask Lori — don’t worry, it’s a term of endearment, I promise) before going to the Kirtsy/Alltop party at Guy Kawasaki’s house. Anne stayed behind to freshen up and grab a bite to eat before the many other cocktail parties going on Thursday night.

Let me just say that Guy Kawasaki lives 31 miles south of San Francisco, and somehow we thought he lived 31 minutes south of the city. After a two hour shuttle ride to Atherton — two hours because our driver was a moron who twice passed the street we needed to turn onto — we arrived to a beautiful California home with rose bushes and hydrangeas lining the flower beds.

Guy’s backyard was meticulously manicured. Green grass, beautiful Japanese lanterns and swimming pool in shape of the number eight were just part of the scenery. The food was delicious. We had paella, grilled vegetables and barbecue in a cup, as well as delectable hors d’oeuvres and wines.

I was in awe of everything, and when I was introduced to Guy Kawasaki, I was rather shy. In all honesty, I didn’t know who he was, other than the founder of Alltop (and no, I’m not on Alltop, but I was asked that a hundred times that night).

We stayed at the party for about an hour and then promptly got back on the shuttle to head back to the city for the three other cocktail parties we had to attend. We stopped by the Mom Central party, the Experience Project Party and then finally, the People’s Party. (Note to future party hosts: Please, don’t have all the parties on Thursday night! It’s too much stress and takes way too much planning to be able to attend everything all in one night.)

I can’t exactly remember all of the goings on of Thursday night, but I’m sure the pictures will explain it all:

Connecting with old friends and new.