• Amazing People,  Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    Friends First.

    September 3, 2015

    Momo and I met online seven years ago, at some point in 2008. (In Internet time that’s virtually 575 years ago.) We met in real life in June of 2009, when I helped bring a van full of meat to her house. (The Momo’s Meat Wagon story is here.) We’ve been close friends ever since. I became her contractor at BlogHer three years ago, and for every day of those three years I have been one half of a total Dream Team. I don’t think every pair of friends could have a successful work relationship, but we do. We have worked together seamlessly, with excellent communication and just the right…

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  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Food,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Skydeck Chicago,  Travels

    Life In The Fast Lane Surely Make You Lose Your Mind

    July 30, 2015

    It just hit me on Tuesday evening, right after I dropped Liz and her middle daughter off at the airport (how much I hate goodbyes could be a whole other post, ugh), how much I had done/accomplished/enjoyed in two weeks. It made me dizzy, and perhaps piled on more exhaustion, on top of my exhaustion. It also made me smile. The last two weeks of July just might have been the busiest two weeks of my entire life, but I’m not complaining. It was a blast. First there was the BlogHer conference in NYC. I went into it exhausted; the weeks leading up to conference weekend are crazed for our…

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  • Travels

    Travel Itch

    February 9, 2015

    I’m getting a little squirmy because it’s been absolutely forever since I’ve gone anywhere. OKAY, it’s been two weeks since we went to Wisconsin to move D into his new place. I don’t count that as traveling, though. It’s actually been two months since the last time I went somewhere that “counts” as traveling, and that was a pretty awesome trip to Miami (pretty sure I’m still hungover) and then a five-day cruise to the Bahamas. I shouldn’t complain, because most of you are likely thinking “Geez, it’s been a year (or two, or five, or whatever) since I’ve gotten out of town!” but I’m complaining anyway. These days I’ve…

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  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Friends

    #BlogHer14: It Was About The People

    July 30, 2014

    On Sunday night I returned home from San Jose, California and the tenth annual BlogHer conference. This was the sixth BlogHer conference for me—the second as a team member—and while it was exhausting, it was also just SO GOOD. I’m still recovering, in fact. Reentry, the adjustment back into my everyday life, is the very worst part about attending this conference for lots of us; for me it begins when I say goodbye to my friends and continues as the exhaustion—which has been building for months and approached breaking point last week—sets into every pore and then doesn’t leave for days. FOR DAYS. I expect to regain the ability to…

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  • Food,  Friends,  Travels

    My #BlogHerFood In Pictures

    June 9, 2013

    Although I have attended BlogHer’s annual conference for the past four years, this was my first BlogHer Food conference, and my first conference as a member of the BlogHer team. The Super Special Bonus of my weekend was that I got to work and play almost every minute right alongside one of my BFFs. I had a great time and the experience only made me more excited about next month’s annual conference in my hometown. I have gathered some pictures together to try and give you the essence of my weekend. Here goes: Momo and I attended an event with The Pioneer Woman and, while sitting on a couch across…

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  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  My Sister Has Mad Skillz,  Queen of Denial

    Knife Skills Are Only Helpful When You Use Them

    November 5, 2012

    Where was I? Oh yes, sitting here with a wrapped up finger after my kitchen accident yesterday. Here’s what happened. Not quite six weeks after attending a knife skills class during which we learned to “curl your fingers under when holding whatever you’re cutting, to protect your fingertips from the knife”, I was dicing apples for my very delicious and popular apple bread recipe with the Chef’s Knife I received at that very class (the VERY SHARP Chef’s Knife*) when it happened. *insert elevator music here, instead of the gory details* I didn’t panic; I grabbed a paper towel and started applying pressure immediately, keeping my finger above my head.…

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  • Random Thoughts

    Sunday Quickie

    November 4, 2012

    I had a really nice post planned for today about the apple bread I was making earlier, but that all went to hell when I was making said apple bread and cut the tip of my finger off, resulting in my sister taking me to Urgent Care. I love that, when I checked in at the Urgent Care on Facebook, Momo commented “The lengths that Melisa will go for a blog post!” because one of the first thoughts that came to my mind as I was sitting in the waiting room was of course, “I can’t wait to write about this.” I will have to, though, because although I’m going…

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