Full vs. Partial Feeds

For the last month or so, I’ve seen a few twitter debates on full text or partial text in one’s blog feed reader.

If you’re subscribed to my blog, you’ll notice that I’ve changed mine to full. Initially, I had it full text. I only changed it earlier this year to partial feed due to fewer comments/feedback on my posts.

And then Steve started working for the government and I needed to know who was reading my blog. I even protected my tweets for a few months during his probationary period. I wasn’t saying anything confidential, but I didn’t want his security clearance to include his wife’s twitter posts, especially on the days I talked about my monthly cycle or how badly my boobs itched from pregnancy.

So if making my feed a “partial feed” annoyed you, I am sorry. Really, I am. Personally, I don’t see the BIG DEAL that it’s made out to be. I still click through to blogs with partial RSS feeds and honestly, I’m more apt to comment in that case.

The Blathering Experience

The Blathering. Well, it was wonderful. But I was THISCLOSE to not attending.

You see, Thursday night as I was doing loads of laundry and sort of packing my bag, I lost my shit on Steve. “These people are BLOG FAMOUS, Stephen.” Or “What if no one likes me?!” I’ve always had a mild social anxiety and have never traveled alone to a place where I knew virtually no one, except through their Internet writing. I have been reading Emily for years, corresponding with Jennie (and reading her blog) for a long time. She even provided a lot of comfort via email and comments when I went through a very low point last year. And have commented on Dani’s shoes for forever in the Working Closet Flickr Group. But after reading all the pre-Blathering questionnaires everyone filled out and emailed, I was so, so excited to meet all these intriguing people and because of that, I was even more nervous. But my nerves were for naught, because each and every single woman was so friendly, funny and welcoming. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was one of the best weekends of my life.

(Allow me to preface this post by saying that it is likely the longest post I’ve ever written and I also whored out a ton of links, so I apologize if it gets monotonous.)

Recaps of some of the best things about last weekend (oh my God, there were so many):
I was at the ice machine in the hotel when I heard four female voices coming down the hallway. It turned out to be Maggie, Emily, Liz and Manda. They all sort of walked by me with polite smiles (didn’t recognize me) except Manda, who stared at me for a moment and exclaimed, “You’re Whitney!” That immediately relieved me. (Here is Manda’s photo of the four of them.)
**
Everything about Elizabeth. Her house, her delicious dinner, her dog (more on that later).

**
The wine tasting. It was so relaxed and we were all able to share a little bit of our lives and blogs. Thanks so much, Natalie!
(I don’t have any photos of this, but Elizabeth does.)
**
Liz and I laughing so hard over a immature joke involving Elizabeth’s VERY sweet dog, Annabelle. I was laughing so hard that I almost caught my hair on fire by all these candles, by slamming my head into the table. I do that when I laugh uncontrollably.

(And c’est Annabelle!)

(Sidenote: I’m very sorry that Liz and I were inappropriate over your very loving and adorable dog, Elizabeth!)
**
When Manda DIVEBOMBED on top of Emily and Amber in the hammock, resulting in the hammock’s demise.


(The following photo is Emily and Manda holding up the piece that broke.)

**
Shopping downtown with a smaller group of the women. Watching Manda and Amber try on sequined hats and make funny faces.

**
Eating lunch with everyone and Shelby and Annie. Both of whom were so lovely and charming. I don’t have any photos of this because I FAIL. But I hope to spend MORE time with them next year!
**
Admiring everyone’s accessories. Seriously, everyone was accessorized beautifully, as evidenced in the following photos.
(Holly and my roomie, Melissa.)

(Emily and Amber.)

(Liz and Maggie – the latter was plagued with a billion emails prior to the weekend from me.)

(Kristie and A’Dell.)

**
Dinner at Zocalo. Or, I should say drinks, because we drank $109.00 worth of blackberry margaritas alone.

**
Drinks at Lounge on Twenty (if you click the link, you’ll see one of very comfortable white chairs I lounged in!) for a number of reasons:
One, it was unlike any place I’ve ever been in (But I’m from VERMONT and currently live in a Mormon-run town. So, that’s not saying much).

Two, CUCUMBER WATER. It was strange at first, I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was until Amy said something. At least I think it was Amy? Maybe it was Amber? Nonetheless, I have a HEALTHY addiction to cucumber, so I enjoyed this refreshing beverage very much. It also prevented me from spending another $20 on drinks.

Three, I sat next to some of the most hilarious girls ever! Amy and Liz were talking about something and started laughing so hard that I couldn’t help but laugh too, just watching them!

Four, more hilarity with Emily and Liz!

(There is video of this, too. I think Manda has it.)
And Five, Amy plucking her eyebrows. HILARIOUS.

**
Going to the gay bar, Faces. It was my first experience in a gay bar as well (hello Mormon Town!). It was a blast. Except for the part where I spent all my cash on dinner and drinks and they wouldn’t take credit cards to pay for the cover. Thank you again, Daniela (with the amazing shoes!). I owe you next year! I took a shot with Jennie and Elizabeth (also a first, as it was tequila and I normally shoot vodka). And then we danced. And danced and danced. Emily was singled out by one man there and he proceeded to swing her around the dance floor for two (or three?) songs. Emily has some moves!


And then we all went into the hip-hop room and danced some more!

(Yeah, so I clearly SUCK at framing photos well, but to see the dancing photos from that night, check out Daniela’s photo set. I could not stop laughing seeing some of those photos!)
(And! Jennie captured video of us dancing to MJ!)
Also, I was motorboated like a billion times at the gay bar by a couple of the bloggers from our group. I told a story at dinner, earlier, that night of how I went to a strip club with Stephen, his dad, my brother, cousins and various coworkers and friends for Stephen’s bachelor party and what went HORRIBLY wrong with my outfit and involved some motorboating. LONG SENTENCE FAIL. But, it was pretty spectacular. I won’t name names unless they want to be outed! (I’d hinted about this story on my 13 Things post. Daniela took photos of me telling the story.)
We danced so much that we were all SWEATY. And when I say sweaty, I mean SWEATY:
(Look at Liz all composed and lovely and OBNOXIOUS, SWEATY WHITNEY RUINING THE MOMENT)

(And then Emily, Liz and I with our mouths wide open for some reason, still sweaty)

**
I will say that I was very sad to go in the morning. And very sore from dancing.

Last weekend was nothing short of amazing. It sounds so cliche, but I can’t sum up them any better, each and every woman was so beautiful and I feel honored to have shared laughter, conversation and TIME with them all. It wasn’t enough time, of course, but there’s always next year. I found 15 new blogs to follow (get on that, Shelby!), met people who were even more amazing outside of their blogs and formed friendships with people I never would have met otherwise. And that was the single greatest thing about this weekend. Now, if I can just convince everyone to move their lives to dinky Idaho and live near me among the Mormons.

Of course, I still didn’t do this weekend justice, but if you want to read the posts that did, go here, here, here, here, here, here, here (um, SOB), here, here and here. (HOLY CARPAL TUNNEL, DID I FORGET ANYONE?)

Coming soon…

I want to thank all of you for your thoughtful comments on my Birth Story post and the advice you offered on my Delta Airlines piss-me-off posts. Seriously, this is why I love blogging.

I have several posts in the works, one of which is a video blog (not a fan of VLOG). Exciting right! Anything in particular you wish for me to talk about?

The other post is one I should have drafted a long time ago. It’s about Stephen and I and our relationship. I regret the series of posts I posted at the beginning of our relationship, especially when we broke up for a day, and I don’t think I’ve been very fair to Stephen on this blog in everything he’s done for me. So again, is there anything along those lines you want me to discuss? I have received two email questions already, so if you don’t feel comfortable leaving questions in the comments, feel free to drop me an email. But really, anything is up for grabs.

And I’m finally going to revamp my “about me” and “blogs I love” sections. I’m excited! Also, a giveaway is in the works, so stay tuned!

Double-Wrapping, Drunken Somersaults and Breffast

This is a completely random list and I’m probably embarrassing myself fully. Sadly, I can’t blame it on the ah-ah-ah-alcohol.

I’ve just rediscovered “More Than Words” by Extreme. Love. I could use some song suggestions for our wedding, one week from today!

We are moving into the most bad ass apartment I’ve ever lived in just five days after the wedding. Seriously, 24-hour hot tubs, 24-hour fitness center, year round heated pool. And we get a deal because of where Steve works.

And just a few weeks later, miss Heather is coming to visit us (she’s really coming to meet Dublin, I’m sure). We won’t really have furniture, but we will have plenty of liquor. I’ve already promised drunken somersaults in the living room. Heather is the same person that, over a year ago, threatened Steve within an inch of his life if he hurt me. She’s basically awesome and I am so ridiculously excited.

My mom keeps having dreams that I’m pregnant again. And because she calls me to tell me this after every. single. dream, I’m prompted into extreme paranoid. “Steve! Put two on, like Asher Roth suggests!”

Yeah, I just said that on the internets. (Except, I would never recommend double-wrapping. I’m aware of how ineffective it is.)

I’m going to be a hell of a lot more open on my blog than I previously was. Before, the company I worked for knew I had a steady presence online and while I don’t think my blog was ever “found” by a colleague, I had to keep a lot of what I wanted to say under wraps because I was well-known within the organization and I didn’t need people I compose spreadsheets for every day knowing that I used to hump street light poles in eighth grade. Like Jessica has admitted on her blog, I am a bit more honest on this blog than I am in person with any stranger in real life (or coworker) and I don’t link to here from Facebook for that reason. But now, everything is fair game.

I’m also going to start posting more frequently, something I am very excited about.

Speaking of Facebook….WTH? It was awkward enough when my mom joined and added me…and then Steve’s parents joined and added me and then my father. Followed along with several aunts and then my GRANDMA.

I did something stupid. I ordered my wedding dress online. FROM CHINA. Without having tried it on. I received it, just five days before I’m due to fly back to Vermont for our wedding. Except they sent me the wrong size, a dress TWO SIZES TOO SMALL. Now, if it had been too big, it would have been a billion times easier to repair. Except, a funny thing happens when your body prepares for birth – your hips expand to epic proportions, possibly eligible for their own zipcode in fact (maybe that’s just me?). More on how this disaster was fixed later.

I’ve noticed that when I eat, I have this consistent compulsion to wipe my mouth after every bite with a napkin. I don’t know why.

Also weird? I pronounce “breakfast” as “breffast.”

That blasted Birth Story post will be completed! I have so many scattered pieces of it and I really would like to post it, I just don’t want it to be too mundane.

What kinds of random things have been on your mind recently? And for real, do you have any song recommendations for my wedding? I’m up for ANYTHING.

Note: Thank you all for your comments on my last post. I know, deep down, that I am doing what’s best for Dublin. I do. So I appreciate your confirmation of this fact!