It Pays to Ask Questions!
Yesterday, I checked my grades for the class I’m enrolled in this session in school. Last week, the feedback on my discussion post (which I made a 94 on – figured into that score were discussion response grades of 85 & 90) said that I need to condense my posts to under 300 words and that my two responses to classmates’ postings should be more critical. I followed those instructions for the most recent posting and responses, but got a grade of 85 (which included two discussion response grades of 100 each). I was rather confused how I could follow all the instructions I was given but make an entire grade letter less than what I made when I was doing it ‘my own way’ … of course, being my social media addicted self, I tweeted:
Realizing that no one on Twitter could change my grade or explain the way my grade was calculated, I decided to take my husband’s advice and email my professor.
I received your feedback for last week’s postings. I am a bit confused about the grading process. Last week, your feedback instructed me to limit my posting to 250-300 words, so I drastically cut down the length of my post in order to meet this requirement. This week, I made 10 points lower than my average for the two weeks prior and was asked for more examples, which would have required more words. I don’t mean to question you on this but I did my best to follow the four instructions you gave me from last week, yet made a much lower grade than I was making before. I felt my discussion of the topic was stronger than that especially since even my responses received perfect scores this week (up from 85 & 90 last week) reflecting a strong understanding of the material and was just curious as to why my initial post grade was so low for this week. Thanks in advance for helping me understand.
I know some teachers detest being questioned so I was concerned as to how my email would be received; prayerfully, he would understand that I would accept whatever grade he determined my work deserved, but I just wanted to get a bit more feedback as to why it had been scored so low. I was ecstatic to receive the following email in response:
Kathleen, I am glad your asked that question, and please never apologize for questioning a grade; that is your right and more students should do it. After looking at your two postings, I can understand your confusion. This was my thinking process in detail: First of all, I do not compare a student’s postings from week to week, but look at each week’s postings as an individual unit. Your longer post contained some examples (one for each book) and it did include some great explanations on the topic. I gave it a 100 minus 5 for being over the work limit. When I looked at your second posting I saw that you had a great understanding but no examples, therefore the 85.
This gave me a more solid understanding of how he calculated the grades, which I definitely appreciated. In the end, he agreed to regrade my post since I modified my method of posting in order to follow his instructions, but he did advise me to include more examples in the future in addition to keeping my posts to a 300 word maximum. The final verdict: I made a 95 :) People, it pays to ask questions! The worst that can happen is that nothing changes, but the best that can happen is what happened here: my point was acknowledged and he understood why my post wasn’t up to the same “par” as my previous posts had been. He reconsidered it accordingly and gave me instruction for future reference so that this wouldn’t happen again. WHOO HOO!!!!
New Orleans Trip, American Idol: The Audition
If you have missed any of my New Orleans Weekend blog posts up to this point, you’re totally out of the loop on ALL the Bloggers on Bourbon excitement! Get caught up by clicking here and reading the posts listed on the page: New Orleans Weekend :)
The original plan was to be at the audition venue (the New Orleans Arena) at 5am, which was the earliest listed time we were allowed to line up. After reading several blogs by people who had auditioned in the past, I decided it wasn’t really worth it. I already had my ticket so my section was determined before I even arrived on audition day; plus, the general consensus was that we wouldn’t actually get into the venue for 2-4 hours after arriving if we went at 5am. Those of you who know me well are fully aware of how much I dislike heat. I dislike sweat even more and anyone who has ever been to south Louisiana knows that the humidity PULLS sweat out of you within minutes of being outside. Considering all of this, I figured we’d sleep til about 7, get up and have some breakfast from the hotel, get dressed, and drive down to the Arena.
We got up the next morning just as planned. I went down and had some yogurt, fruit, and a banana nut muffin as well as some juice, got ready for the audition, and we drove over to the Arena. We got awesome parking – right out front – for $1.50 per hour and then walked around the SuperDome to the Arena. Since Barry hadn’t registered with me on Saturday (even though he was WITH me, no one mentioned he needed to register also…) we thought we would try to fight our way through the crowd to get up to the front because we had about 10 minutes before they would stop registration.
I wasn’t sure if he would be able to register at this point but it was worth a shot. Needless to say, no one was really thrilled about us pushing past people to get closer to the doors. I overheard, “Where do they think they are going?” and “Why are these people just skipping everybody like that?” as people expressed their disapproval of our actions. Oh well. They’d get over it. I’ll never see any of those people again in my life so I didn’t really care how they felt about it. All I knew is I wanted my husband inside with me… not to mention, hotel checkout was at 11am and we were already tight on funds when we GOT to New Orleans so it was a given than there was pretty much nothing for him to do for the HOURS I would be inside the Arena unless he could get in also.
We finally saw a guy with a camera and an American Idol shirt on so we stopped and asked him if Barry would still be able to register. He directed us to a chick and she said it was no rush; he would still be able to register once we got inside. YAY! But it turns out that pushing our way up to THAT point totally paid off because by this time, they were opening the doors and letting people in. Oh, but wait. They were only letting people in from the front of the line down to the very point where we were standing LOL! We were outside less than 20 minutes. Can you say I didn’t even break a sweat?! SWEEEEET! This is a photo I took of the folks who got left behind to suffer the heat a while longer as we entered the building. :) Sorry, people. You should be more pushy next time hehe <— That is a joke for those who are too slow to “get it” :) That kind of worked out purely by accident.
We got inside and sure enough, there was a table right there ready to register those who hadn’t registered before. The sucky thing was that he was seated in like section 124 and I was in 114 which is clear on the other side of the stadium, but at least he was inside which meant we could eat together and walk around together while we waited on them to process all the sections before mine.
We had Dominoes from the top level and I practiced with several different groups of people which calmed my nerves significantly. Most of the people I heard had rather strong voices… which made it especially encouraging that so many of these people seemed blown away when I sang, but yet had amazing voices themselves. One of the guys I practiced with shocked me when he started singing — and he came up later and asked me to let him record me singing Etta James, “At last,’ which was really sweet. I was told that if I didn’t make it, the whole thing was rigged. I felt sure I would get accepted… everyone seemed so confident and so supportive of me! There were awesome people there… super cool.
Ryan Seacrest talking to all the American Idol hopefuls…
They played a minute-long clip of all the American Idol winners
and some finalists on this thingie which was inspiring; everyone loved it!
When they started lining people up after they set up all the judging booths, it instantly became obvious how many freaks were in the crowd. LOL Here is Dorothy and Toto… you know, from the Wizard of Oz? Oh, and by the way – YES, she got a golden ticket and skipped off to follow the yellow brick road to the next set of judges. *jaw drop* Seriously? Hmmm… I wonder if Toto got his own ticket?
Reptar… from the Rugrats cartoon. Sadly, Reptar didn’t make it.
To all you future American Idol auditionees, here’s a bit of advice from this guy… If you don’t make it, don’t take no for an answer. No, really… Instead, drop down and start crying and begging and guess what!? They will give you a ticket. Yep. They will. I saw it with my own two eyes. Then be sure to point up to the heavens and thank God above for making all of this possible… you know, for giving you the gall to beg.
See Tinkerbell there? She made it. Yep, she earned her wings. LOL
I don’t know if this chick made it or not, but I couldn’t NOT photograph this hair.
Barry and I met back up in the food court area and grabbed a table where I could exercise my vocals and mingle with some other Idol hopefuls as they continued to process the sections. By this point, they were on 109 and moving pretty quickly toward mine – 114. I was nervous, especially since every time I started singing, people stopped to listen and then gave me feedback and told me how natural I was at this. I’m one of those people who are uncomfortable when people compliment me. I always feel undeserving and I don’t know how to respond, but I appreciate it greatly because it does boost my confidence and make me feel more “ready” to take on the world… or an American Idol judge, either one. :)
Finally, my section was up. This was it. My time to shine. I had busted up my nerves for the bloggers Friday night. I had busted up my nerves belting it out walking down the street. I had busted up my nerves singing in front of everyone on the upper level of the Arena. Now, my nervousness had turned to anxiousness. I was just ready to hum for the judges and get my yellow ticket. Completely strangers had told me if I didn’t make it through, they would lose all faith in the audition process for American Idol. Surely the judges would see what everyone else saw, right? The thing I hated about this part of the audition was that no one interviewed you. No one asked you for a synopsis of your story; no one knew who you were or what you could bring to the table. No one knew how they could — or couldn’t — market you for the show. You didn’t even have a name yet — only a number.
I waved to Barry as the first guy in my line started singing. The judge seemed super cool and very receptive, which made me feel better about the fact that THIS booth only had ONE judge. He finished his first selection and she smiled and asked him if he had another. He did. He sang it. She asked for another. Yes, a third selection. He was okay. I mean, he could carry a tune, but he wasn’t anything you’d really get excited about. Unless you were her I suppose… She thanked him, then prompted the second guy to step up. He was 16, sang a super old tune. She asked for something else. He sang something else. She asked for something more contemporary. He couldn’t think of anything. Anything. At. All. She smiled, told him to step back in line and think of something else – she would come back to him. Seriously? Wow. She’s really cool. Or so I thought. I stepped up, started singing and KILLED Alicia Keys as I sung Fallin’ at the top of my lungs with everything I had. She waved after a few seconds (seriously, like 10 seconds…) and I stepped back in line.
The chick to my left sung her selection with a strong, steady voice and stepped back. The judge asked the second dude to step up and he sang some chick song which had me laughing on the inside. He had a nice voice, but you could hear the nervousness just about as much as you could hear mine Friday night when I sang for Bloggers on Bourbon. You had to kind of listen for his voice because it wasn’t really apparent. You could tell he would blow it out of the park if he were in a more comfortable environment, but here… he just wasn’t spectacular. He stepped back. Then came the judgement: “All of you did great; unfortunately for both of my ladies, this is the end of the line.” I was in disbelief. My first thought was, “You’re letting US go and keeping THEM?!” but all I could get out of my mouth was, “Can’t WE sing another selection like you just let THEM do… TWICE?!” She nodded. “No, I’m sorry.” And that was that. The end of the line.
My husband jumped over the barriers the staff had in place and threw his water in the trash can, walked over to me, put his arm around me, and told me I did my thing and that they are stupid. As we walked out, a cameraman came up and asked me how it went. Well I’m walking out of the non-winners door so how do you think it went, idiot? Before I could say anything, my husband saw the tears forming in my eyes and got in front of the camera and simply said, “This contest is rigged. Period.” I tweeted to let all of you guys know I didn’t make it… we got to the car and I cried to myself for a few minutes while Barry tried to cheer me up. Then we headed to Hattiesburg to get our kiddos. I don’t really have a reaction at this point. I’m disappointed, obviously. I was SO concerned that I wouldn’t be able to fight my nerves; that I would screw it up… but now I see it really didn’t matter. I had nothing to be scared about because it’s not about how talented you are or how well you do.
I almost wish I would have frozen up or my voice would have cracked — at least then, I would be dealing with the frustration of me having stagefright and them having a reason to dismiss me rather than dealing with the frustration of performing perfectly and being sent home along with all of the other outstanding talent they passed on that day. Then, I got home and started reading through the comments for the New Orleans auditions on the American Idol website and the only judge I read anything negatively about was judge #10. Mine. The chick that decided I couldn’t cut it… that I wasn’t going to have a shot at being the next American Idol. The only yellow tickets she was handing out that day was to either mediocre talent or horrible trainwrecks. Here are a few of the comments from that day (taken from the American Idol website):
See, I told you someone begged for a ticket and got one LOL (below)
Complaint about judge #10 (below)
Another complaint about judge #10 –
response to the first commenter (below)
Complaint about judge #10 — again lol (below)
Plea for God’s mercy on judge #10 LOL! (below)
Yet another complaint about judge #10 (below)
… and another complaint about judge #10 (below)
You guessed it. Again, judge #10 (below)
I actually mentioned the section 117 chick on Twitter.
She sang “I’ve Got Nothing” and EVERYONE cheered her! (below)
Still cranking out those complaints about judge #10 (below)
That’s pretty much it. I gave it my all, which is all I could do. I’m certainly not giving up as I don’t have “give up” in my blood… but I have to admit I’m disappointed and downright disgusted at the way things went once I got in the American Idol audition process. I am one of those naive people that believe things are fair and that talent searches actually are searches for talent. Call me crazy, but it made sense to me before :)
New Orleans Trip, Canal Street Cemetery: Photos!
If you have missed any of my New Orleans Weekend blog posts up to this point, you’re totally out of the loop on ALL the Bloggers on Bourbon excitement! Get caught up by clicking here and reading the posts listed on the page: New Orleans Weekend
Sunday, Jessica called and got me out of the bed so I could ride with her and Rachel to a cemetery on Canal Street. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. The sky was gorgeous and the old cemetery was a perfect setting for an afternoon full of wonderful photo captures! Here are some of the amazing shots that came out that day:
{in this photograph – Jessica}
{in this photograph – Rachel}
{in this photograph – Jessica}
.
After we left the cemetery, we drove around in search of somewhere to eat. We finally found a nice little restaurant (I can’t remember the name to save my life) where we each ordered red beans with rice and pork chops (except Rachel – she got hot sausage with hers instead of pork chops…) It was REALLY good :) We had a great time talking and laughing. It was the perfect end to a wonderful Bloggers on Bourbon weekend… and the perfect “send off”‘ for my American Idol audition the following day!
These photos were taken with the EasyShare Z950 camera I reviewed for Kodak in June :) I’m still absolutely loving it and highly recommend it to anyone in the market for a camera. It’s 12MP, 10x zoom, and runs off of a rechargeable li-ion battery. Check out the full review by clicking here!
New Orleans Weekend, Bloggers on Bourbon – 2nd Night
If you’ve missed any of the prior articles about my weekend, check those out: New Orleans Weekend! That will catch you up to this point:
Jessica called me late Saturday night to tell me they were heading out to Bourbon Street and told me to meet them at the Cat’s Meow. I had been hurting from Fibromyalgia sucky-ness all day so I was still in the bed. My body just wasn’t used to such excitement LOL! If it wouldn’t have been the last night they’d all be in town, I would probably have stayed my butt in the bed! But it was… so I got up and started getting ready to go out, which took a while considering my leg muscles were nearly paralyzed from all the walking I had been doing over the previous 24 hours so I missed the pouring rain Jessica, Lynsey, Brittany and the other girls had to run through to get to the club! I got to the Cat’s Meow but of course, Jessica was nowhere around so I talked to Kim for a little bit and introduced her to Barry. I love her :) She’s hilarious. We walked up and she looked at Barry and then said, “Does this one belong to you?” lol Yuppers, he does. haha
We walked outside to text Jessica and went down to Razoo’s to check it out then got a text back — they were at the Blues Company thingiemabob down the block so we hoofed it down there to find them… We ran into Jessica, Lynsey, Brittany, Paula, Ted (sponsor rep from OpenSky), Kas, and um… were there more? I don’t know. lol It didn’t take long to decide it was time to find a place we could actually DANCE so we all headed out, with my hubby in tow, in search of more upbeat places. The only problem was that when we found that place, we couldn’t enter with any drinks. Jessica had JUST bought a fruity daiquiri and Barry had just bought a beer and I had just started chugging down my water :( Darnit.
We asked everyone to wait on us inside the club until I helped Jessica drink her daiquiri (the first time I drank anything alcoholic since my wedding anniversary in 2006) and Barry drank his beer. We walked to the end of Bourbon and back which was only time enough for us to finish less than half of the drink even with us sharing it LOL But we chunked it in the trash for the greater good and set out for the dancefloor… Then problem number two became the fact that Barry couldn’t enter with his plan black Tshirt on… so we walked across to a shop that sold tons and tons of Tshirts and he found one that said something about loving New Orleans, bought it, and headed back to the club where everyone else was waiting on us.
Once inside, we found Lynsey with a Hurricane that she just couldn’t possibly finish on her own so it became community property. Good thing none of us have cooties. I hope lol
Jessica taught me the Cupid Shuffle and some random guy decided he would teach the whole group how dancing is really done. Except he couldn’t dance. Me, Barry, and Jessica just watched the trainwreck that followed with amusement, awe, and complete surprise LOL!
On our way back to the Cat’s Meow to try to catch Kim singing karaoke, Kas became instantly fond of a bouncer standing in the doorway of some random club and ran over to shake her groove thang for about 15 seconds while we all grabbed for cameras, only to be seconds late for what would have been the best shot of the entire trip. I did, however, catch her timidly running away as if to say, “No one saw that, right?” :) I’m not sure what the dude was saying — possibly something like, “I’M THE MAN!” lol
Still more to come!!! :)
Check back tomorrow for some amazing shots I took at a cemetery on Canal Street Sunday with Rachel and Jessica! And of course, I still have to give you all the run down on the American Idol audition from Monday!
New Orleans Trip, American Idol: Registration
Since we were out until 4am Saturday morning (or Friday night, however you choose to look at it lol), I decided I would stay up and go register right at 5am. That didn’t work out well for me. LOL I fell asleep and woke up around 10am — we hurried down to the Arena to get registered for the audition on Monday. We walked. And walked. And walked… for what seemed like eternity! Maybe it just seemed that way because my legs felt like I had bear traps clamped onto them from all the walking we did the night before! Everything hurt from my hips to my toes, literally. Between walking in those God awful 4″ heels before peeling them off my feet and walking barefoot through our French Quarter tour and walking around Bourbon Street aimlessly for 5 hours the night before, my body was on strike Saturday morning.
We finally got to the SuperDome and got directions as to how to get to the Arena. The cops in New Orleans are SO nice, by the way. Not. We walked ALLLLL the way around the SuperDome (by the instruction of one cop who halfway told us where to go while mumbling something and getting into his car, shutting the door before he was even finished) only to have another cop turn us around about 30 yards from the front door of the Arena to go ALLLLL the way back around the SuperDome (which for those who don’t know is about ten thousand miles around!) because there was construction going on. “But those people just went through that came before us!” I exclaimed. She responded, “LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING! If you want to get to the Arena, you’ll….” then I turned around and walked off before I ended up in jail. Lack of sleep and my natural attitude don’t make me a very reasonable person when two groups of white people just walked through the same area that this cop is now refusing to let an interracial couple pass through. I mean, I’m just sayin…
So we walked ALLLLLL the way back around the SuperDome to the Arena where THANKFULLY it only took about 2 minutes to get registered. I presented my birth certificate and my ID, they gave me a wristband and a ticket as well as a list of instructions for audition day and that was a wrap.
We walked back to the hotel to get the car and go find somewhere to eat breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever. I called Jessica and the bus had already left for the Plantation that Bloggers on Bourbon was going to visit that day which turned out to be over an hour away. No WAY was I driving all the way out there so I missed that completely. In missing that, I also forgot to get my Bloggers on Bourbon tshirt later that day. Darnit. But, hey, registration was the main thing for Saturday and I honestly hadn’t expected to be able to go to the Plantation anyway because I expected registration to be insanely chaotic, which it surprisingly wasn’t at all. We found a McDonald’s and had lunch then headed back to the room.
My body was KILLING me by the time we made it back to the hotel and I can’t imagine having walked one more step. Barry and I spent the rest of the day recuperating from the night before, which involved me not moving one inch from the bed (except for a quick trip to Walmart for microwavable dinners — eating out was just TOO expensive!) until Jessica called later that night to say they were headed to the Cat’s Meow — up, up, up I went… got dressed and made our way to Bourbon Street again for the last night of Bloggers on Bourbon and some fun with my girls! I hated missing the Dickie Brennan’s dinner… I heard WONDERFUL things about the dinner itself and the Opensky presentation afterward that I regretted being bedridden while it was going on :(
There’s still more to come!! I took some great photos at a cemetery on Canal Street Sunday and then of course I’ve yet to tell y’all all about my audition experience on Monday. Check back later!
New Orleans Trip, Bourbon Street – the 1st Night
Barry’s cousin, Jerry, and his girlfriend, Danyelle, decided to drive over from Hattiesburg to keep him company while I was with my Bloggers on Bourbon buddies. They were there by the time we finished getting our swag, drinking wine and eating cheesecake, and playing American Idol in Trisha’s suite (you can read all about all that here: New Orleans Weekend: Day 1, Bloggers on Bourbon) so I got Barry to pick me up and take me back to our hotel to change before heading over to Bourbon Street to meet everyone.
We walked to Bourbon and once we got there, I called Jessica to see where the ladies were. One problem: you can’t hear anything on cell phones when you’re in a club, so she had no idea what I was saying… and you can’t hear anything when you’re talking to someone who is in a club because there was so much background noise drowning her out that I had no idea what she was telling me either. Then my phone died. Great. So I walked up and down Bourbon Street with Barry, Jerry, and Danyelle trying to figure out where the group was without any luck. Once we got back to the hotel and I charged my phone, I got a text from HOURS earlier that said, “Come to the Cat’s Meow.” Oh ok. Thanks Jess. LOL
Even though I later found out I missed karaoke and Trisha getting carried out of the bar by mildly less drunk bloggers than herself (I know, of all the things to miss, eh?!) we still had a great time feeling our way through block after block of the most diverse strip of pavement in the country… We found a little shop that had a TON of artistic African American historical memorabilia … Jerry even managed to find this nifty little hat. I’m not sure if the hat was super small or if his head is just super big, but these two didn’t pair well LOL
How ironic is it that when it was all said and done, I actually went inside the place I would have found the Bloggers on Bourbon chicks — if only I was about an hour earlier. This is the Cat’s Meow, where I visited around 2:30 or 3am but by that time, everyone had gone back to the hotel already :(
We got a good taste of Country when we walked around inside some cowboy bar that Barry insisted entering to find someone who had a lighter for his Black ‘n Mild cigar. I bet everyone can imaging the looks we got int that place, huh? LOL Here was the band… they weren’t half bad either haha:
The cousins, Jerry and Barry. lol
The Mr. and Mrs. :)
The whole crew:
Nothing really interesting about my husband here… he was obviously enjoying himself LOL What is interesting about this photo is the couple in the background. I couldn’t even have fun in this place because the blonde woman at the table behind us kept getting up and leaving her purse at the table — it was worrying the mess out of me. Her guy friend there kept disappearing and she would just wander off and leave it either on the back of her chair or on the table. At one point, I even took it to the bartender because someone was gonna end up walking off with it. She hugged me and (in the drunkest manner I’ve ever seen… like, EVER…) thanked me and told me I was her angel. I told her she was more than welcome but to PLEASE keep her purse with her this time. Then she left it. Again. Ugh… drunk people. Blah. HAHA
That’s it for the first night…
We stopped by Krystal’s on Bourbon Street on the way back to our hotel around 4am and konked out pretty quickly LOL This was more excitement than we’ve seen in a LONG time… More to come later :) Still two days of our trip unaccounted for, so be sure to check back for the rest of the “story” :)
New Orleans Weekend: Day 1, Bloggers on Bourbon
If you missed my first post, check it out: New Orleans Weekend: the “Pre” Trip Deets
We arrived at the hotel around 3:20pm and were met by a man that was part of a movie crew that would be shooting on our block the entire weekend. Yay. Not. His news: “We’re using your hotel parking lot so you can’t park here… but you can probably find a parking garage in the French Quarter.” Um. The French Quarter was several blocks away. I had to meet the Bloggers on Bourbon ladies at Trisha’s hotel suite by 4 so we got checked in and went back downstairs to see about the parking situation. Thankfully the film crew had determined they didn’t need our lot so we were good on parking… oh, except that wasn’t included in our pre-paid reservation. It was extra. As in $22 extra. Per night. This just kept getting better and better. We got that taken care of and started our trek over to Conti street to find the Prince Conti Hotel where the other Bloggers were staying.
By the time we dealt with the parking issue at the hotel and walked the half mile over to Conti Street, it was already 4:45pm. I collected my materials from Trisha (including a really amazing printed book created by Lynsey featuring all the Bloggers and Sponsors participating in the event!) and walked back to our hotel to get ready for the complimentary dinner provided by Harrah’s Casino for our whole group at the Besh Steakhouse. Dinner was DELICIOUS!! The menu they put together for our group consisted of:
- Family style appetizers
- Besh Barbecued Shrimp — the sauce was “different” but very tasty; it was unlike any other shrimp I’ve ever had…
- Marinated heirloom tomatoes — didn’t try them; I’m not big on tomatoes by themselves
- House-made “Natchitoches Meat Pies” with buttermilk ranch dressing — a bit spicy; I ate all of mine :) I didn’t try it with the ranch sauce but even on it’s own, it was very good!
- Entrees
- Garlic Crusted Louisiana Shrimp with crushed hot-house tomatoes and “mac ‘n cheese — this is what I had and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!
- Tournedos of beef, Anson Mills grits and crawfish béarnaise — this is what Barry had; I didn’t try it, but he ate every bit of it!
- Garlic Crusted Louisiana Shrimp with crushed hot-house tomatoes and “mac ‘n cheese — this is what I had and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!
- Dessert
- Brendan’s Bread Pudding with Irish whiskey ice cream and toffee sauce — hands down, the best dessert I’ve had in a long time. I ate every bite of my rather generous slice and was mad it wasn’t larger (lol)
Barry and I had a good time getting to know some of the other bloggers and were seated next to the two Harrah’s reps who happened to be super cool! Jessica Benton and I talked to them at length about everything from the Casino to the restaurant we ate in to how the lady rep cooks beans to how the dude rep (Alex who runs @harrahsnola on Twitter) prefers his cornbread (made with cake mix, topped with powdered sugar, and dipped in syrup – can you say diabetes?).
I got to meet Trisha — the lady behind MomDot,
one of the awesomest mom communities online!
(She was also the co-organizer of the event)
I got to meet Leah — the woman behind Mamavation –
and see how amazing she looks in a corset! :)
(She was also the co-organizer of the event)
I got to meet Nicole — the woman behind GoodGollyMissBlondie –
and hear her “Bwoston” accent!
I got to meet Jessica Benton — the lady behind That Tech Chick,
who happens to love bread pudding as much as I do!
These are some of the amazing bloggers I got to kick it with all weekend:
Kim, Rachel, Tara (sponsor: Global Resort Homes), Brittany, Kas, Paula, Shasta, Jessica, Me
After we left Harrah’s, Barry, Jessica, Kim, and I took our car to the hotel to change (or so was the plan) and then meet up with the rest of the bloggers who had walked over to Jackson Square for a guided “ghost” tour sponsored by Lingerie.com. But then we got lost… and didn’t have time to run by the hotel, so I was stuck walking in 4″ heels which didn’t go over well with my feet. About a half-mile later, Jessica proved just how wonderful she can be by actually walking barefoot with me through the French Quarter LOL
We had a blast walking around learning about New Orleans’ history
and hearing a lot of the folk tales that have been circulating for centuries!
Many thanks to Lingerie.com for sponsoring the event!!
Jessica and I:
Brittany and I:
Ted (sponsor: Opensky) and Kim:
This is one way to show your daily special LOL
(This was OUTSIDE the door on the sidewalk LOL)
Community Coffee sponsored the bus ride to Houmas House & plantation.
I missed it because I was registering for American Idol, but I was told it was a GREAT time :)
There were horse drawn carriages all over the French Quarter providing tours
People were singing on the street and green water flows through gutters LOL
Ahhhh… the rich culture of New Orleans. You won’t find it anywhere else!
Our ghost tour guide wrapped up at the end and told us about her book.
Maggie pushed Jessica to the room.
This is truly the only way to travel in a hotel LOL
The swag bags… it’s only right.
I mean, after all, we are celebrity bloggers, right? :) hehe
There were some AWESOME products included… I took individual photos I’ll upload later!
SO MUCH FUN :)
We ended the night with wine and cheesecake in Trisha’s hotel suite
where I sang for the group American Idol style with Chris, Nicole, and Trisha as my judges.
It REALLY helped singing in front of the group to prepare for the American Idol audition!
More to come!
Keep checking back for more photos and details about our weekend!
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