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To start, wow.  What’ a weekend!  For those that don’t know, Collective Bias flew @RyannFMT and me to Chicago for the end of BlogHer 2009 and the BowlHer event sponsored by Collective Bias, One to One Networks, and Mom it Forward.  Collective Bias, my new employer thought that the event would be a great opportunity for me to meet the bloggers as well as a few sponsors and brands so Friday, shortly after my exit interview from my previous employer, we loaded the car and hit it to Tulsa to join the party.

We arrived in Chicago just in time to catch a Hershey tweetup at the James hotel.  Very nice venue and the people were even better.  On a side note, Hershey Bliss is slap-yo-mama good… and you can quote me on that one.  From there we ran to the hotel, changed, made a pit-stop by the lobby bar at Hotel Sax and met up the Collective Bias group for a great dinner at Texas de Brazil.  See the pictures for a little insight into that evening.  The food was great (duh, who doesn’t like a constant parade of different meats coming to your plate via sword-service) and conversations ranged from the latest in social media tools to new product lines to hometowns.  Thanks to everyone for a great night.  We turned in fairly early on Friday night and it was definitely for the best.  I had been up since 6am and had a huge day ahead in setting up for BowlHer.

Saturday we were up with the early birds, enjoying an excellent breakfast at our hotel with about 1,000 other guests.  I parted ways with FMT and headed to a meeting-turned-search and rescue that moved smoothly and directly into BowlHer setup.  We broke around noon to have lunch at Gino’s East.  Yes the pizza takes a full hour to cook, but take a look at the pictures, classic Chicago pizza at its finest.  From there it was back to Lucky Strike for more setup.

Once we found a stopping point, FMT and I ran to the hotel for showers and 10 minutes of rest before running back to finish final set up and get ready to greet the bloggers.  BowlHer was an unmitigated success thanks to our gracious hosts and sponsors and all the wonderful mom bloggers.  Stories are still swarming around the blogsphere and twittersphere.  I encourage everyone to search your favorite social media tool and post comments with links to your favorite posts, pictures, and more.  Enjoy these pictures and look for a few more posts on my favorite new people!

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