Bla, bla, blog

Couponman dropped me off early this morning at the San Diego Convention Center for my first Blogher Convention.  He was good to go with a free movie ticket in hand. 

I waited by the large glass double door looking for a fellow blogger I’d never meant before.  “I have dark FRIZZY IN SAN DIEGO shoulder length hair,” Lisa texted me.  I felt like I should be holding a sign at an airport as I watched strangers passing by wondering when my blogging buddy from Colorado would appear from the great abyss. One woman looked like she might fit the profile, until I noticed she was about seven months pregnant.  Probably not likely for my grandma friend.  Another looked promising.  Her hair was shoulder length and extra curly, although Lisa probably would have mentioned the purple streaks.  Then another face.  I saw it.  The lips were mouthing, “Penny.”  We had found one another.

We were definitely older than the average bloggers in attendance.  Everyone sat tweeting on iPads and iPhones.  We pulled out a pads of paper and pens.  About as close as I got to tweeting was tooting from the broccoli salad they served with lunch. 

I was on overload after one awesome class on design.  I attended another on social media where panelists discussed smart phones, 4G networks, and apps.  I secretly dialed Couponman’s flip phone during the class and quietly whispered, “Come, rescue me,” then uncomfortably slipped my cellasauraus into my purse along with my membership to the 4H club.  

About ten minutes later, I received a text message from my daughter, the GAP, saying Couponman was out front waiting for me.  She was on vacation in San Francisco.  How’d she know he was waiting? 

I hugged my new friend fond farewell until we meet again, and ran out to Couponman waiting at the curb.  “Did you get the text message?” he asked.  “I didn’t want to ring you during class, so I called Jenn and asked her to text you that I was waiting.”  Couponman is resourceful for a man who can’t type.

“Wanna go into the Expo?” I teased.  “They’ve got all kinds of freebies.”

His eyes lit up.  We spent the next two hours roaming and mingling from booth to booth, licking Skinny Cow bars, nibbling Lindt chocolates, and munching Pringles chips, washed down by a McDonald’s mango smoothie, all while collecting loads of things we could no longer live without.  We openly confessed to loving King’s Hawaiian bread, and were rewarded with two full loaves.  We now own five rolls of invisible tape from 3M and seventeen Command utility hooks.  (If I can’t make it blogging I can maybe earn income organizing closets.)  “Yah sure, you betcha.” the fun vendor had said, showing off her Minnesota accent.  We made friends.  It was reciprocal.  People handed us items for our “get hyper” junk food emergency kit and we invited perfect strangers to stay in our home when they vacation.  Right before closing, we were handed a Scotch Fur Fighter and extra pads by a nice exhibitor even though we candidly admitted we had no pets.

“This was as good as robbing a bank,” Couponman sighed, his eyes rolling back into his head, as we trudged out carrying eco friendly bags of loot. 

“I didn’t get that much,” I head one woman say, pointing to our bulging bags. 

Couponman really knows how to work an Expo, I thought.  Maybe that could be a post.  Oh, punny.  I guess it just was.