Wordcamp 2007

So… I wen to Wordcamp Saturday in San Francisco and ended up leaving early. Turns out, my crazy curls stood out too much among all the Caucasian and Asian hair. There was just this one other girl whose hair reminded me of myself, but hers was crazier and dark. How dare she threaten my uniqueness! Anyway, it wasn’t just my curls. I brought a bunch of mini skirts back from Santo Domingo that one of my sisters gave me. She thought they’d be great for work with my petite figure and all. Turns out, they’re too provocative for weekdays, so Saturday, I figured it would be the perfect day. That new top I bought that makes me look somewhat pregnant, but which I don’t care because it’s in anyway, had me showing cleavage. Not that there is that much cleavage to show, but somehow I felt uncomfortable showing my cute embroidered bra underneath the top, as much as it is fashionable and all. There were just too many geeks in there. I should have worn a plain t-shirt, a pair of lose jeans and sandals. When will I learn?

Oh, and did I mention I got lost on my way there? Well, for all I thought I didn’t need to take directions with me because it was soooo clear that the Swedish American Hall was between 14th and 15th Streets on Market. I mean, what idiot could possibly miss that?! LOL. I ended up parking five blocks down and then having to get back in my car after unsuccessfully asking a few tourists and then finally stumbling into a slender SF couple who pointed me in the right direction. I was pissed, I was hungry. All I wanted to know when I got to the conference was, “where’s coffee?”. Since I’m late and the place is packed with, mostly geeks with their laptops, of course there’s nowhere to sit. Darn it! and I’m wearing heels! I got my size small t-shirt (deep blue, white Wordcamp 2007 on front – quite cute!), went to the main hall and tried to find a place to put my coffee and croissant down while I listened to the speaker going on about podcasting. I look around…. damn! there are some nice looking geeks in here! I’d be very happy to date one of these if I can get him away from the laptop for just a minute… but I digress. Yes, the crowd, the lecture I didn’t understand anything from, and the spooky high chairs at the Hall. I mean… I felt like I was in this weird S&M party (picture the Power Exchange with creepier furniture), with some people who fit in just fine and some that seemed to have been teleported there by a futuristic machine. It just felt weird. It was just wrong. Couldn’t they hold this conference at the Google campus in Mountain View? I mean, that’s where Matt almighty works. He’s a cutie, Matt. Quite sweet and I guess he’s one of the geniuses behind WordPress.

Next up the list of workshops was “blogging and journalism” and what I got from the two jovial but somewhat Daily Showy speakers was that basically blogging and journalism are the same thing, except blogging requires more work on one end, because of all the comment moderating and then less work on the other end because you can just ask people to fill in the blanks of a story. Well, I’m glad I paid $25 and drove my pettuti out of bed on a Saturday morning to listen to this! At this point, I have stolen a chair from somebody who went to the bathroom, and I’m sitting there wondering if I’ll make it to lunch. And so I did. I was too hungry not to wait for my sandwich, so I got in line, chose the roast beef sub and grabbed a bottle of water. There was no place to sit while eating and I’ll be damned if I stay in and pretend I actually have an interest in networking with all these dudes who couldn’t take their eyes away from the computer screen if they wanted to anyways. I needed some fresh air, quick!

On the street, I set my purse and sweater on the mail collection box. I eat my sandwich and glance across the street: aha! A Walgreens! Yeah baby, now I can buy my Claritin and get out of head cold misery. But what else did I need to get there? Who cares, I get in, get distracted by Penelope Cruz’ photoshop-perfect complexion for the Loreal poster and wonder if I should change my moisturizer yet again. Some guy asks if he can be of service. Of course, no. I’m still annoyed so I get out of there. I find my car where I parked it at some hill somewhere in the vicinity and call my sister. I think if I follow Divisadero I’ll get to Lombard and finally home through the Golden Gate Bridge. “At least I got a cute t-shirt, all is not lost”. Not lost indeed. I missed the workshop about making money off the blogs. Figures. I guess I’ll just have to keep entertaining myself for free.

Eye drops. I knew I’d forgotten something!