Saturday night after all of the BlissDom09 festivities were over, I headed to Hopkinsville, KY and met up with Randy (My father in law) and Penny (step-mother in law) at O’Charley’s for dinner and we enjoyed some steak and baked potatoes oh and REAL Sweet Tea.  Something I definitely don’t get enough of in Portland is real southern Sweet Tea.. Yum. 

We headed back to their house after dinner and just hung out watching HGTV and chitchatting while playing around on the internet.

Sunday we woke up and had breakfast, watched Mission Impossible (The original, I had only seen #2 before..) while lounging around.. I tell you, after the previous couple of days activity, lounging around was nice!

After the movie we got up and headed out and about.  They took me to “Jeffers Bend” to show me what they do in the summer with the school kids, etc.. Then we went to the Riverside Cemetery to try to find the grave of old Edgar Cayce, but no luck there.  It was kind of interesting walking around the cemetery though, as the graves are all pretty darn old. I have this weird thing about making up stories about the lives of the people buried in graveyards, I don’t know why.. it’s odd. 

After driving around for a while, we went and had some yummy Mexican food at Cancun in Hopkinsville, KY and spent the rest of the evening just hanging out and relaxing.

Monday I got up, got packed up, had lunch with Randy and high-tailed it to Nashville to fly home.  Barely made my flight, but the folks at Continental are quite wonderful and let me on the plane at the last minute…

And that’s it in a nutshell.. I’ll start posting my thoughts about the actual conference in the next couple of days.. I’ve come down with a horrible cold and can barely think straight right now.

No, I still haven’t actually MET or talked to Jen Lancaster.. Pathetic, I know.

Saturday was spent in a whirlwind of semi-chaos attending many sessions on varying blogging topics.  ...

After the sessions were over, we were all treated to a quick mini-concert by Chris Mann himself.  He was pretty funny and has an amazing voice, I can’t wait until his CD comes out so I can buy it!  While the crew was tearing down the musical instruments Barbara Jones from One 2 One Network and Walmart.

Then came the fun part - The keynote speech by Jen Lancaster.  I have to say it was probably one of the best talks I’ve heard in a long time.  It truly is inspiring hearing her story of how she went from being an associate VP at an investment firm to being practically homeless, carless and prada-bagless to turning it all around and now being a NY Times Best Selling author!  It just goes to show that in the face of adversity you have 2 options.  Do nothing and sink further into depression, debt and defeat or rise above it and move onto bigger, better and more amazing things than before.  I usually choose to go with option B, but not many people do and choose to sit and play the “woe is me” card and will not do for themselves but expect good to come to them without having to work for it.  But I digress..

After the keynote speech was over, I headed out pretty quickly without getting her autograph as I was already running late to meetup with the in-laws.  Hopefully when her new book Pretty in Plaid comes out in May and she goes on tour, she’ll come to Portland.  I WILL go see her this time.  Last year when she went on tour for Such a Pretty Fat she was in Portland on the same night as the Coheed and Cambria concert, and since I love my husband more than Jen Lancaster, I had to miss it :(

Next up .. Spending time with the in laws by myself and a trip to the cemetery!

Saturday morning I decided to splurge and order room service breakfast, and it was good!  I had some bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns and a bagel with cream cheese.  The coffee at The Hotel Preston is atrocious but I drank it anyways. 

I got all of my stuff packed up, got myself prettied up and headed downstairs to check out of the hotel since I was not spending Saturday night with the rest of the ladies.  I headed into the main meeting area and grabbed some more coffee.  The coffee that was provided by the conference was a lot better than the hotel room coffee, but it was still pretty awful. 

During breakfast we were treated to a “Special Screening”, but we weren’t privy to what the special screening was going to be about beforehand.  I was surprised to find what it was, but it was a pleasant surprise.  We got to be the first to get a sneak peak at Yanni Voices an incredible musical experience where young musical artists are putting lyrics (and dance!) to Yanni’s music.  It was really cool to watch, and sounded beautiful!

As a special surprise Ender Thomas and Nathan Pecheco surprised us all by showing up IN person to thank us for watching the preview and answer any questions we had.  They were also kind enough to sing Happy Birthday to 2 of the ladies in the audience in both English and Portuguese! 

Next up - Busy day of sessions, hot men and Jen Lancaster!