This time last week I was sitting in an engaging opening keynote speech at Blissdom.  You would think that since a week had passed I would be able to put my thoughts onto paper (as it were) and share.

But no.  The three conference days bookended by two days of driving have left my mind rather, well, mushy.  I’ll do my best to give a rundown but I know I am going to miss a lot.  And, even with all I miss, this is going to be a long post- with lots of links.  Just sayin’…

Day 1: The Drive

It’s a 10 1/2 hour drive to Nashville from Des Moines.  If you don’t stop.  Which, of course, you must.  While a couple of our “potty breaks” were downright creepy and we couldn’t get away fast enough (hello Dirt Cheap Beer & Cigarettes in St. Louis!) we took an extended break in Hannibal, Missouri.  Note: must return when it’s warm.

I was lucky enough to have two of my best friends coming along with me: Paula and Kara.  I say lucky because I’m not sure I could have handled that much time in a cramped mini van filled with shoes to donate to Soles4Souls with people who don’t really know me.  Not to mention rooming with said friends.  We had a lot of girl time- and I hope they understand that I still love them…  I just don’t want to see them for a few days.  A big thank you to our road trip sponsor: Cozi.

We arrived around 9pm at the Opryland Hotel.  Wow.  Just wow.  I’m not going to go into it all here since I shared over at Family Rambling.  Warning: you will want to visit.

Day 2: Wisdom Workshops

Ahh…  The ladies of Blissdom (@AlliWorthington, @BarbaraJones & @PaulaBruno) really know how to plan an event.  A lovely buffet was set up with fruit, biscuit sandwiches, pastries, juices, coffee & tea.

I attended 3 workshops this day: Media Training, Coding and Apps & Plug-ins.  I plan to go through this info at a later date- once I absorb it and review my notes.  I’ll just say that I got so much out of these smaller sessions and they were well worth the extra time and cost.

I did, however, skip a session to take a field trip of my own.  I hit the road and went to Brentwood, about half an hour away.  Any guesses why?

That would be me standing next to Dave Ramsey in his studio during a commercial break.  I’ve seen Dave live before- he seems taller when he’s on stage.  He was very kind and I really enjoyed meeting him.  But, and no offense to Dave, I absolutely LOVED talking with Martha.  In case you haven’t heard of Martha Thompson, she’s the Director of Guest Relations and the creator of delicious baked goods.  Martha showed me around the building’s back halls.  I saw photos of Dave and his family, his new Marconi Award (syndicated personality of the year 2009), the break room…  And we talked about working at Financial Peace Plaza, blogging and my family’s travels.  It was a joy to meet Martha after “speaking” to her via email for a few weeks.

Thursday evening ended with a party at the Jack Daniels Saloon and lots of people in a small space.  I spoke with many women here including Angela England (Renaissance Woman), Megan Maguire from Mom Central and Holly from BeckyandHollee.com.

Day 3: First Day of Conference

After a short night of sleep (this is a trend for the conference) we wandered down to breakfast and the sponsor exhibits.  Yummy Bagelfuls, eggs and bacon and fresh fruit were waiting.  Big shout outs to the wonderful sponsors:

ConAgra Foods, Blue Bunny Ice Cream, Hallmark, Intuit (I won a new blackberry!), Invisalign, iRobot, One2One Network, Soles4Souls, Proctor&Gamble and the BlogFrog.  While the swag is nice I really appreciated everyone who spoke with me at length and was genuinely interested in what we do.

The opening keynote was presented by Kevin Carroll.  His story is truly inspiring and has me asking “What is my red rubber ball?“.  If you ever have the chance to hear him speak I recommend going.  It was an energizing kick off for the conference.

And then…  I didn’t do much.  I skipped all the sessions on Friday.  Yep, all of them.  Instead I talked with sponsors and other bloggers and tried to catch up on emails and work.

Lunch was a treat- sponsored by Hunts (a ConAgra product).  They brought in their spokesperson George Duran from TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off.  He talked tomatoes and gave us a little preview of lunch -eggplant Parmesan- before we went to Ristorante Volare.   Lunch was delish- served by George himself!  (OK, he didn’t serve it, but he was kind enough to pretend to.)

My lovely friend Andi won his signed cookbook- but since she doesn’t cook she gave it to me. I just noticed that it’s published by Meredith- which is headquartered in Des Moines…  (OK, no reason to mention that but seriously, I just noticed it.)  I suppose I’ll have to cook something for her when she visits Iowa in November (for I_Blog).

After lunch I explored the hotel- really, if you haven’t yet hop over to Family Rambling.  The hotel is amazing!

I went to the workshop on balance…  It was good but since I led a session on this topic last November I mostly just checked email and hung out on Twitter.  After that I rushed back to our room to drop off some things and head out to meet my Mabels Labels maven @caitm.  We’ve spent a lot of time chatting through emails & twitter but this was the first time I got to meet her.  That party had to break up early because of the “special guest”.  Apparently he had a Super Bowl party to attend the next evening so he rescheduled to fit us in (which is cool because he could have just canceled).

Ummm, yeah, that’s Harry Connick Jr.  (In the background of the pic you can see @chilihead who has staked out her spot for photos following the performance.)  I didn’t get a photo; I’m not one to stand in line for much of anything.  Plus I have enough rockstar stories from the 80’s and 90’s to last the rest of my life. (I didn’t stand in line then, either…  It was much more fun to be plucked from the crowd.)

After that was the Tastemakers party and the {in)courage party.  I was wiped out.

Day 4: Second Day of Conference

I really would have liked to stay in bed but I had signed up for a prayer breakfast put on by Pensieve Robin that I really wanted to attend.  So I dragged myself to the shower and then woke my roommates- who were also going.

Then off to breakfast- yummy breakfast burritos- where Paula and I sat with two lovely women from Minnesota; Chris and Mela.  After lots of geek talk (yes, I did most of the talking) it was time for sessions- which I attended today.  Leveraging Social Media to Build Your Business, Getting Published and Niche Blogging filled much of my day, with a break for lunch (sponsored by Arnold -another ConAgra Brand- and Blue Bunny).  I sat next to @frelle, who I seemed to run into a lot at Blissdom.  (She may have been stalking me…)

Paula, Kara and I took a break and ventured into the Delta to pick up some souvenirs.  We had to have our picture taken together (we’re the short ones):

The final keynote was on Women, Technology and Community.  It was a high impact ending with @mckmama sharing the story of the community of bloggers and other who rallied behind her family and Stellan.  Tears flowed.

The conference ended later that night on a high note for me as I won a two night stay at the Opryland during the Hanes sponsored “Come Comfortable” night.  We didn’t stay for the karaoke as the drive home the next day was already looking daunting.

Day 5: The Drive Home

OK, we didn’t get out of the hotel by 7am…  Yes, it was a pipe dream.  But we were out by 8:30.  The drive through Kentucky and Illinios wasn’t too bad.  After a quick stop at the Gateway Arch (Paula had never been) we were heading north to Iowa.  Kara had taken a nap, and it was my turn.  When I woke we were in Iowa- and it was beginning to snow and sleet.  Ick.  30-40 miles per hour on the interstate.  We made it home about 8:30pm- 12 hours of driving.  But we got home more quickly than those who flew back.  Yes, really.

If you want to learn about the sessions I took I suggest subscribing to Iowa Geek.  You can do this at the top right of the page.  I’m going to try to get the recaps posted in a timely manner but, well, life may get in the way.You won’t miss anything if you subscribe.