Me, Myself, and My Spray Tan are Officially in Chicago

** If you are a first time visitor/ new friend from Blogher '13 - WELCOME to my little corner of the internet!! First and foremost, I feel it is only fair to disclose that, in real life, my skin is VERY pale and very freckly.  Pretty much everything else you need to know about me you can learn by scrolling through the About page up there... THANK YOU for stopping by, and I hope you'll leave a comment to let me know you've been here so I can pop in at your place too! **


Ok, first of all, we need to talk about the fact that I am, literally, blogging IN THE AIR right now.  Yes, I paid $5.95 for "inflight wireless" and I should be partying it up on a fireworks cruise right now; but, really, what kind of blogger would I be if I passed up the opportunity to join the social-media nerd's equivalent to the "mile high club"?

So, a little about my day of traveling adventures...

This is me at about 2PM on Wednesday getting ready to walk out the door and head to the airport...

 (I know this picture is terrible - and it totally doesn't do my spray-tan justice - but I was alone... In person, I look exactly like a tanned American Flag.  #represent)

And this is approximately five seconds later when my suitcase rolled down the front steps while I was shutting the door...

(Remember the last time this happened? It wasn't a suitcase that rolled down the stairs while I was closing the door; it was Sam. Oops.)

That suitcase contains six pairs of shoes (and I'm not even a "shoe" person), three "summer scarves," and an extra duffle bag for "swag," but apparently I forgot to pack my BRAIN...

First, I almost missed my flight because, even though I was over an hour early to the terminal of my very small airport, I decided that I needed to use the bathroom right when they started boarding. #whoknewtheywouldboardsofast? I literally came out of the bathroom to my name being called over the loud speaker - again, mind you, in the tiniest airport ever.  #winning

Then, once I was safely seated on the plane, I somehow forgot how to turn off my iphone and had to ask the burly teenage boy sitting next to me.  Cool.

Obviously, the moral of the story is this:  All the planning in the world, can't keep a hot mess from being a hot mess on a travel day... ;)

I napped on the first leg of my flight.  (As a side note:  I used to wonder how people could just get on an airplane and fall asleep before they'd even taken off... How did they get comfortable? Weren't they excited about where they were going? Didn't the noise bother them? Now I know - they must be parents.  ANY time is a good nap time in my book.)

Not to worry, the peace was short lived... When I arrived at the Charlotte airport about an hour later, I was greeted by loud sirens and a massive crowd of chaos in the terminal.  Apparently one of the moving walkways had caught on fire and the entire terminal (that I had just landed in) was closed down.  (I mean, I couldn't make this stuff up!) 

Of course, I had to stand in a line with hundreds of grumpy, sweaty people and wait for a Charlotte city bus to pick me up and drive me to my connecting terminal (which would have been about a five minute walk through the airport under normal circumstances) and, naturally, missed my flight to Chicago by about 15 minutes...

Two hours, one Frappuccino, and forty-five minutes of lightening delays later - I was officially Chicago-bound. :)

Sadly, my messed up flight caused me to miss the Seadogs Fireworks Cruise I had planned to attend; but, otherwise, it really wasn't so bad... And, lucky for you, if I have this much to say before I've even gotten to the conference,we're in for a real treat these next few days!!

Alright, I better go now... The girl sitting next to me is beginning to wonder about the selfie I just uploaded for above (of myself in the exact same outfit I'm currently wearing, keep in mind), and I seem to have misplaced one of my shoes... But, onelastthing:

I'll be trying really hard to keep up (in a healthy way) with the social media mavens throughout the conference this week/weekend.  If you care at all, I would LOVE if you'd follow my adventures (and I'm sure there will be plenty) via Twitter (@justemyselfandi) and Instagram (@emyselfandi).  And, if you are at Blogher this weekend, please come say hi - I'll be the bronzed beauty awkwardly sipping diet coke in the corner!

P.S. Thanks for being the best readers and friends EVER.  Your words of wisdom and encouragement on this post meant SO much to me.  YOU are why I blog.  :)