I leave tomorrow for The Blathering, a blogging meet-up in Sacramento at this lovely woman's house. I've already met her, so I know she's lovely.
If I'm meeting you this week in Sacramento or along the way, you should probably know some things about me.
Such as:
1. I often reference things I assume you know about even though you may not know about them at all. Take Friends, for instance. I can work a good Friends one-liner into absolutely every conversation I have. In fact, I do it often. I will always assume you have seen every episode as I have, and that you don't need any sort of explanation for why I just said, "I grew up with Monica. If you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat." Now that I type that out, I see it probably requires quite a bit of explaining.
2. I drink a lot of Diet Coke. Probably more than anyone else you've ever known.
3. I repeat stories. Sorry about that.
4. You will not find me off in a corner, talking to my husband for hours at a time. We've never been that couple. We don't do long phone conversations. It doesn't mean we don't like talking to each other, we've just always preferred that talking to happen in person. It's why we never attempted a long-distance relationship even though the idea came up once. It would never have worked.
5. I went to Texas A&M. I'll probably want to check the score of our Saturday game at some point. Even though no one but people who went to Texas A&M care about the score of a Texas A&M game.
6. I stay up late. Even as someone who desperately loves her sleep and desperately misses napping like a sonuvabitch since becoming a mother, I still manage to make it to midnight most nights. Elizabeth, you should know I'll probably try to make you stay up into the wee hours of the night talking about life and paint colors with me. I'll make you coffee in the morning!
7. I may come across really quiet when you first meet me, which is very, very strange, since anyone who knows me would not say I was 1) quiet or 2) shy. I think I'm just a natural people watcher. I like to get to know a room, observe from a corner, before I dive in to the conversation. Bear with me, won't you?
8. I don't have anything that even resembles a Texas accent. I moved here when I was 11, but when I've had just a little too much to drink, the twang comes out of nowhere. It's ... rather ridiculously embarrassing. Let's pretend you don't hear it, OK?
9. I will ask someone at the table at dinner to help me figure out the tip. I can almost guarantee this.
10. Unlike BlogHer 2008, I will not be pregnant at this meet-up. So, kindly leave my mimosa alone.
11. I'm a very liberal, very Obama-loving, pro-choice voting woman, but I live in Texas. I'm surrounded by conservatives. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's to sidestep politics and religion and controversial topics like that. We can enjoy a beer together no matter how we voted. I truly believe that.
12. This is the first time I'm really leaving my son. I may get a little weepy after that mimosa I won't let you touch. I probably won't. I'm sure I'll be fine. BUT JUST IN CASE, BRING ME ANOTHER MIMOSA TO NUMB THE PAIN, WOULD YOU?
13. I like to think I'm pretty good at going with the flow. I believe the more the merrier and life is an adventure and the best of times happen without a plan or an agenda, so I can roll with the punches along with the best of them. BUT, I'm sort of a time nazi. If there's somewhere we need to be, I'll light a fire. I hate being late, which probably stems from my dad being perpetually late my entire childhood.
Bonus!: I love karaoke, and can probably be encouraged to partake in karaoke even if there's not actually karaoke.
I wrote something similar before BlogHer 2008. Everything still applies except for being pregnant.