TheMommyBlog

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We arrived at The Fort and greeted everyone with huge hugs and big, silly grins. It is an amazing thing to meet people for the very first time while feeling like you’ve known each other for ages. None of us pulled out photos of the kids (Look online. Each of us already had.), none of us asked what the other did for a living (read the “about” page. Duh.). We pretty much kissed each other and called to the waiter, “MORE WINE. And keep it coming.”

The restaurant was wonderful, situated in the hills at Red Rocks. The table was in a little alcove with doors to the patio, and there little surprises at everyone’s place. Jim and Michele presented each of us with a festive bag containing a genuine, Genuine Blog t-shirt and CD of music assembled just for us. Autum stunned us all with her personalized gifts of beautiful handmade fleece blankets, one for each blogger, with our names and URLs stitched into the corner. They were perfect for drawing around our shoulders while standing outside, talking, at least until we got drunk enough not to care anymore.

Amber and I were a teensy bit overbearing obnoxious drunk excited to see one another. I don’t have a lot of the photos on my camera that I remember being shot, and perhaps that is a good thing. I do remember getting up to go to the Ladies’ with her, and passing an open display case with buffalo head hats, complete with massive horns and furry flaps that hang down the back. We looked at each other, grabbed the two closest heads, and ran back to the private alcove where our table was. One by one, everyone at the table looked up at us, blinking. There was a second’s pause, and then I have never seen a group of people scramble for their cameras so fast in my life.

Amber inspires me like that.

I have set up a special Snapfish photo album and will send the info to those who were there so that everyone can load thier pics up onto a single site if they like. Some have already started to post pics on their own blogs, so you can always check them out for yourself:

Amber
Autumn
Matt
Lee
Genuine
Mrs. G
Hula Doula
Kira
Anne-Marie

And, as a special reward for those of you who have stuck with this post this far, I give you the snippets of conversation that made us laugh hard enough to wish we’d be able to remember them later. Luckily, I had my trusty GoodLink, and acted as scribe, emailing badly phrased and horrendously spelled quotes to myself all night long. ("Look! I’ve got mail! Oh, it’s from me.")

Mindy: “Oh! I can’t wait to show you! Lee’s got this HUGE telescope.”
Amber: (snicker) “Well that’s where I’m staying! What did you see?”
Me: (deadpan) “Stars.”

Michele: “Jim will eat anything.”
Jim: “I’m looking at my meat down here.”

Autumn: “I put rosemary here. And it’s wafting up.”
Matt: “Your boobies smell great.”

Lee: “I told my dad that I had a PDA and he said, ‘What does a public display of affection have to do with it?’” (Believe it or not, this was REALLY funny at the time.)

Michele: (reflectively) “He’s got a big wanger.”

Everyone: “Goodybye! It was great meeting you! Drive safe!”
Michele: “There goes Mindy! Bitch. I hope you miss your flight.” (Everyone wanted me to skip the flight and come to the BBQ the next day*)
Me: “Fuck you.”
Michele: “You wish.”
Me: “You are SO not welcome at my house.”

And the one that kept Amber and me giggling sporadically through the night, and which caused her to shake me awake several times so I could remind her of the exact phrasing:

Me:: “For years, Logan had a violent peanut allergy.”
Amber: “A what??”
Me: “A violent peanut allergy. What did you think I said?”
Amber: “I thought you said he had a bilent penile energy.”
Me: “Yes, that would make him fluent in two Lents.”
Everyone: (guffaws, followed by many jokes in the worst possible taste)

*By the way, I came home at lunchtime to a screaming Daphne, who had a raging, stretched-to-bursting, infected eardrum. I would have been too ashamed to live if I had stayed for the party and then come home to such a sick child…

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