BlogHer - san francisco - Comments

I love holding babys, I sure

KylieKay80 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:24:39 -0500

I love holding babys, I sure hope everyone has a great time

I brought my toddler in 2007

thisKat — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:07:03 -0500

And thanks to all the great planning by the BlogHer team it went really well. I had wanted to go to BlogHer for years but I was either broke, pregnant, or to chicken to travel with a kid. When I heard there would be childcare in Chicago (a city I knew b/c I'd lived there) I decided to just do it.

The childcare was really convenient, and I even did some accelerated bonding with Lindsay from Suburban Turmoil in the dark of the nursing/napping room. Iris was always an easy baby so she had a good time with all the kids. They were also really careful about her food allergies.

I took advantage of the in-hotel childcare one night, but I probably wouldn't do that again. It was expensive ($100 for a few hours!) and Iris was tired of being with strangers at that point. I brought her to the closing party and while she was adorable it was hard to talk to people. And we were both exhausted at that point. Catherine is right--it's probably easier to tote around a new babe than a fidgety toddler off her schedule. But you know your kid so do what works.

One great thing about Chicago is the free zoo at Lincoln Park, great for all ages. Maybe there should be a BlogHers-with-kids meetup!

This is exactly what I needed to hear....

zchamu — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:00:28 -0500

The unvarnished reality. Thanks lady. *mwah*

If I did go, husband would come with me so that would make life a lot easier for certain. But still, I don't know if I will even be able to push myself to pack and get on the plane. If I could just teleport myself there I'd go for sure.

But it's all a moo point til the kid actually shows up. Til then I can't make any decisions... and if it's not soon, the decision will be made for me. (Which is sometimes the easiest way, heh.)

Visit my blogs at ThreeSeven (all that's irrelevant and amusing) and ecochick (all that's green, cool and Canadian).

I'm an excellent baby holder

ameliasprout — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:37:01 -0500

I'll hold any baby that needs holding. I won't be having any more babies of my own, so I have to get my fix somehow.

I hereby volunteer to hold babies

jaelithe — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:52:49 -0500

I used to be a nanny, you know. I'm a professionally trained baby-holder. I have references.

I remember seeing Jasper in the hallway at last year's BlogHer (someone was holding him for you). He was starting to get cranky so I went over to smile at him. Then you came out and you looked so flustered that he was crying, like maybe you were afraid that he was bothering people. But all I'd been thinking was that I was so happy you'd brought him because he was ADORABLE. I should have told you that at the time instead of rushing off to the next panel I was supposed to be at, and I'm sorry I didn't, and I intend to stop whatever I am doing and congratulate anyone I see with a baby this time. Because babies are more important (and cuter) than whatever politician or journalist I might be running off to see.

I'm practicing my baby swinging.

Backpacking Dad — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:20:46 -0500

Just in case.

http://www.backpackingdad.com

Blogher

sanewithoutdrugs — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:55:35 -0500

I am looking forward to everyone's trip. I hope all of you have a great time.

Eileen

http://sanewithoutdrugs.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Maria...

allisono — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:12:05 -0500

He's a joy to read. Seriously, watching him, though trying to (excuse the overplayed phrase) put lipstick on McCain's bullpitted selection was too sad. He's too real to be spinning the party line. Like Andrew Sulliivan, he should remind Republicans what their party once stood for--then stand back and let the Dems balance the budget, and the other issues facing our country.

Serenity now,

Josie

Nice homage

Maria Niles — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:16:56 -0500

I think Topher ;) will be pleased with your really well written letter should he happen to read it.

I join you in the detox.

Liz Rizzo — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:51:55 -0500

I actually left BlogHer thinking that that's the last time I let myself eat like that. The minute I'm away from my normal life it's crap food, crap food.

I was bloated from the carbs by the second day because I usually do South Beach and my system was in total shock. Next year I am scouting the hotel restaurants and if I have to pay $20 for a breakfast with eggs, then that's what I'll do.

Avoiding the sweets... that's another whole challenge!

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

Followup report on accessibility guide

Liz Henry — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:15:00 -0500

I'd like to follow up with my actual experience of accessibility of the hotel.

First of all, when I said this about parking:

"In the garage, there are at least 5 van-accessible parking spots, on
level ground right next to the entrance, with a marked crosswalk."

I was wrong. There are marked spots, but they are unused by the hotel as anything other than road. Instead, they have valet parking. The crosswalks are ignored. That caused me a lot of stress as I got in and out of cars. I think that walking people of around 5 or 6 feet off the ground might not feel that stress, but from lower down, it is hard not to have crosswalks. I freaked out at one point when a cab was coming right towards me and the cabbie didn't seem to see me. (I flipped off the driver and yelled, and then was very embarrassed.) I also kept going out the side doors, and completely forgot (!!!) about the entrance on Geary that doesn't go through the parking garage. So, don't forget the way to the sidewalk! Ha! Also, I did not realize that parking was expen$$sive! I ended up parking elsewhere, and taking a cab. That worked well.

The conference was mostly very compact. I had an easy time getting around. The bathrooms were reasonably close to where all the action was. Carpets were (as predicted) somewhat exhausting to wheel around on. As we left i cheered and said goodbye to the horrid thick luxurious carpets with a lot of joy.

Room reservations. I explained on the phone and then when I arrived (before checkin time) that I did not want an ADA room with a roll-in shower and shower bench. I prefer a regular room with a bathtub. My priority is that the room be as close as possible to the elevator. I can manage a bathtub, and I can walk around a room (usually). Unfortunately in between when I talked with the desk and when I actually checked in, my mom checked in. And they confused me with her sort of, and then she said Oh that's my daughter, and they said Oh My Gosh but she does not have a "wheelchair accessible" room, and my mom said Oh, better change it then. They all had the best of intentions, but they erred in not calling me on my cell phone to check. I lucked out in having a nice person (Alex) help me at the desk when I did check in. He listened to me, did not TELL ME what I needed, did not act annoyingly confused when I explained my preference, and then he got me a super great room. He even flirted with me by complimenting my awesome triceps and not in a gross way either. Thanks, Alex!

I will add to the note about room reservations that the hotel has two blocks of rooms and two main areas. One is the Tower. It's on a different side of the hotel than the main lobby. The main part of the hotel is where most of the conference stuff happened. So, I also lucked out in having my room be in that section. Otherwise, it would have been very hard on me to run back to my room and rest, or get things that I'd forgotten. And if I'd been on crutches instead of the chair, it would have been impossible.

There were secret extra elevators, which I used quite a lot!

The room itself was very nice. It was room 825 and had a view of Union Square. I could have fit a power chair into it, with a slightly tight squeeze between bed and chest of drawers but then there was a wide turnaround space. My small manual chair fit into the room just fine.

The room service staff were extremely nice, brought the dinner to my bedside and offered to raise the table height for me if I needed it.

Bathrooms were very good except for the first floor main lobby, which had kind of small stalls but again not impossible for my itty bitty manual chair.

Next year I will coordinate with our conference planner to put up a few "consider using the stairs" signs.

I was bumped, jostled, leaned on, pitied, advised, and asked rude questions about 1 million percent LESS than last year and than all other conferences except WisCon. Thank you, everyone! You were so full of manners! You all got down to my height to talk! I didn't get a crick in my neck (though I ruined all your knees).

Meanwhile, most of my visibly disabled blogherista sisters were hanging out in Second Life. Jennylin and Aleja from GimpGirl ran a session and helped to organize transcriptions of some of the other sessions and keynotes.

-----------------
Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Contributing Editor, World and Latin America

I will as soon as I get

Super Jive — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:06:23 -0500

I will as soon as I get home!

SJ also writes at I, Asshole.

Make it vertical

Liz Henry — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:45:07 -0500

I overheard someone in the hall saying "Wait! make it vertical, for the header!" before they took their photo...

----------------
Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Contributing Editor, World and Latin America

Power Strip Packed

Mistiejourney — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:08:34 -0500

What a great post - I'm a Walkie, but I learned more about the Westin than I ever did staying there!

And if I see sparkly wheels I'll come up and say hi! And you won't know me, but I'll say hi anyway! : D

Guide to SF With Kids

debbiedubrow — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:16:29 -0500

I just updated my own Kid-Friendly guide to San Francisco. The guides include restaurants so good you would eat at them even if you were flying solo, tons of activity ideas, and important information like how to get from the airport to the city center with a carseat-aged child. We even have printable maps with 1/2 day outing ideas (including activities and food) around the Westin.

I hope you will check it out:

http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal/2008/jul/13/blogher-kids-check-out-our-san-francisco-kids-guid/

and feel free to send me email if you need more help... if you have a question about something it is a safe bet that some other mom does too.

Debbie Dubrow

debbie at deliciousbaby dot com