Twitter This - Part 1

*this post is sort of longish, so get yourself comfy... and a drink.

You know when something cool and off the beaten track falls in your lap and you're pretty sure that you've been mistaken for someone who actually knows things and can contribute valuable insight but really you're just sort of clueless and are having a bad hair day?

Then you'll enjoy hearing about my weekend.

Or,

30 hours in Memphis.

Or,

Sexy men design sexy cars.

GM invited me to a social media event in Memphis featuring the all new Chevy Malibu... it was a drive the car/meet the people in charge/eat BBQ kind of event... also, it was the kind of event where all your expenses are paid. Come! Stay at the Westin! On Us!

Now, having been out of the professional world for many years, it has been some time since someone offered to pay for anything to have me anywhere (unless you count the time I was an out of control hormonally pregnant nightmare and my husband tried to ship me off to Hawaii to visit my mother), so to say I was flattered to receive this invitation would be a bit of an understatement. WHOO HOO was more along the lines of my response.

7:00 am Friday morning found me sitting on a Northwest flight for Memphis... excited to be on my way and a little worried that someone at GM would wonder how my name slipped on to the guest list.

I need not have worried... for along with the writers from Edmunds, Left Lane, the Torque Report, the NBC auto correspondent and a guy from Wired, were 6 fellow, (dare I say it?) Mom Bloggers.

Or, as Kelly (the prettiest woman in the Internet) put it, bloggers who are also mothers. But then she also writes "butt sex" in the memo section of her personal checks, so I think the fact that I developed a huge girl crush on her is no great surprise.

Before I go too much further, I need to say this: Kudos to you General Motors, for realizing and respecting the reach of the Internet and the influence of women in the blog-o-sphere.

Our first afternoon was spent comparison car driving. The Toyota Camry, the Honda Accord and the Nissan Altima... the cars which are the Malibu's biggest competition. Not for nothing, but let me tell you this - the Malibu is by far the best name amongst the bunch... if you drive it you can pretend to be Malibu Barbie or Mali-boozer (not mine - that would be Kristen from Mommy Needs a Cocktail.... which she didn't because she is an incredibly pulled together woman with a very cute baby who came along and served as a chick magnet for Mr. Needs a Cocktail).

So cars were duly taken out and driven around town and little notes were made and then we had to go change for cocktails.

Cocktails were across the street at the Gibson Guitar Museum and Factory... we were given a tour which was awesome and also maybe gave some of us a bit of a contact glue high and then we were introduced to the Team (yes, bold with a capital "T") behind the (all new!) Malibu.

All I can tell you is this: If the entire world brought forth the amount of passion for their work as Tim, the aforementioned sexy designer, we'd all be living happier lives.

So, the new Malibu? She's really good looking! She's sleek and vaguely European and wayyy better than before. The interior is sporty and roomy and apparently she has enough safety features to please even the most hysterical of drivers (me).

We oooed and ahhed and nodded intelligently as the many auto enthusiasts asked questions and then with chat about being excited to drive all over MISSISSIPPI (quick! spell it backwards!) in the morning, we headed out for a fabulous dinner at BB King's restaurant where some of us Twittered the evening and some of us (me again) drank too much wine and ended up in a quasi-gay bar chatting with a pregnant girl who was getting married in the morning.

That's when I knew it was time to go.

my photos are rather sparse of the weekend thanks to an unlucky move involving a semi-opened bottle of VASA water, a Prada bag and the digital camera.

info on the drive itself in part 2... coming in the next day or so...

OMG! Are You A MOMMY BLOGGER?

Oh yeah. That's the question I had to answer today.

Sigh.

Whatever happened to just picking your kids up from their so expensive you could remodel the kitchen with the tuition money school?

Enter ex-Dallas cowboy cheerleader this fact has no bearing on the story, but is just sort of interesting in a way... I mean, she is in her forties and it is the very first thing I learned about her.

And current mother of fellow students and sort of new friend to a friend of mine, a friend, I might add, that just might be getting her ass kicked tomorrow morning over a Decaf Venti Sugar Free Vanilla Skim Latte.

And since we're all just being chummy and getting to know each other in the painful and rather brightly sincere way that women have with each other, we are talking about what we do...

So, I say, "Nothing. I don't do much of anything." as this is what I say when: A) I don't want to talk about myself because, B) I don't care enough about the person with whom I am talking to invest much in the conversation.

I know. Hostile!

But, my girlfriend pipes up with, "You do SO much! AND, she writes this really great blog!"

Blog? Que, "blog"?

You can see the wheels spinning in her pretty blonde head.

Then...

OMG! Are you a MOMMY BLOGGER?

And really, I don't know... am I?

Yes, I am a mom.

Yes, I blog.

But, does the term "mommy blogger" mean I only blog about my kids and lead in toys?

I realize that this subject has been done to death amongst the Interwebs, but for whatever reason, probably because I am shallow, I have yet to give it much thought.
"Mommy Blogger" sounds sort of painful... like detailed accounts of weaning and sentences that are along the lines of, "Lindsey-Britney just loves her blankie from Nana!" Not there is anything wrong with Lindsey-Britney or her blanket or her Nana, and truth be told, my last post was simply about my daughter needing to go #2... so, yes, on that level I am what I have always thought a Mommy Blogger should and would be.

But, then again I have posted about my insecurities, my extraordinary ability to make an ass out of myself, people who hate me and why I am all for gay marriage. Do these topics make me more or less a mommy blogger?

Why do those 2 words make me feel defensive?

I want to say, "I am a mommy blogger and I am pretty damn interesting at times and other times I am very very dull so I take the easy way out and post photos of my cute children."

But, I don't.

Instead I tell this Amazonian ex-cheerleader of a woman that, "Yes, I guess you could call me that."

And you know what?

Bitch didn't even ask for my URL.

:-)

So, how about you? How do you define your blogging existence?

and looky here... the skin of doom is looking less leopard-y and mo' better.

also, maybe time to learn the art of the self portrait, no?