Hanging with Blogging Buddies – Just What I Needed

I spent last weekend in Los Angeles, California hanging out with my close blogging buddy, Suba from Wealth Informatics, and meeting up with a bunch of other bloggers along the way.  It ended up feeling like I was just hanging out with my friends back home – it was that relaxing and awesome.

Day 1 – Thursday

I didn’t land until past dinner time on Thursday.  Suba picked me up at the airport and we headed home.  I had been avoiding Indian food since college (I had some bad experiences, lol), but Suba had cooked and I was not going to be a douche.  I learned four things:

1.  I still don’t like curry…even the really mild type that Suba made just for my no-spice palate.  Sorry Suba, I suck.
2.  I love soy cheese with a tomato and onion broth.
3.  I really love Nan (think Indian pita bread).
4.  I really, really love eating with my fingers.  Okay, I already knew that, but at Suba’s it’s actually okay to do so and not get looks.

Then we spent the rest of the night gossiping about blogging, learning more about each other, and ended up crashing way past both of our bed times, lol.

Day 2 – Friday

We actually didn’t have anything scheduled on Friday until the evening, so Suba and I ate Fruity Pebbles, hung out in our PJ’s, and talked even more.  We went out for lunch and groceries mid-day, but returned to hanging out pretty fast.  Despite the fact that our backgrounds couldn’t be more different, Suba feels like a friend I’ve had forever.  If she ever visits me in Houston, I am so totally getting the whole group together since we all would have a ton of fun.

That evening, Little House in the Valley came over to hang out too.  She is a very sweet woman who handled my opinionated, cussing self so very well.  Yep, to all of you, I do not cuss (curse…damn Yankees, lol).  But in real life, especially around friends and family, I have a potty mouth.  Sorry.  I am not a mean person and do not cuss at people, but I think a properly placed curse word really sums up an experience or adds oomph to a description.  Little House is not like that but she never even flinched (neither did Suba for 4 days but she already knew me pretty well from online and FINCON11).  So thank you for not hating me you two!

Anyway, we all hung out for a few hours before LH needed to head out.  I’m wishing her the best of luck in her upcoming endeavors!  Then Suba and I stayed up way too late talking and laughing again.

Day 3 – Saturday

Since we stayed up so late, we were running behind Saturday morning.  We ended up picking up Kay Lynn from Bucksome Boomer 15 minutes late at the train station at about 10am.  Sorry Kay Lynn.  Next time, we will make the 3 hour trek to meet up with her and she can leave us standing around, lol.  But we had a great time chatting and catching up from what happened since FINCON11.

Then Jesse from PF Firewall (and the co-owner of sites with me like Money in the 20s) drove in around noon and Suba made some delicious vegetable puffs while I hosted the lunch I had bought the ingredients for the day before – grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell’s tomato soup.  Don’t worry, I made adult grilled cheese – Pepper Jack, Colby Jack, and Provolone.  I know I could have aimed classier, but darn it, I think we all deserved some comfort food, hahaha.  I was really happy that even Suba and her husband, aka Mr. Suba, seemed to like the sandwiches, and they hadn’t had grilled cheese before.  Yay!  AND, Mr. Suba made us an Indian dessert, called coolfi, which is an almond and raisin icecream that was YUMMY!

Jesse, Suba, Mr. Suba, Kay Lynn, and I sat around talking so long that Kay Lynn had to push back her return train trip.  Then she had to head out while Suba, Jesse, and I jumped in the car to make it to the FINCON meetup group that was happening about an hour away.  I hate Topanga Road.  It is twisty and stomach curdling…I was probably still looking green in the face when we arrived.

We only spent about an hour and a half at the sushi restaurant, but I did get to talk to Krantcents, Well-Heeled, and American Debt Project.  The nice group from Wisebread was there again too and I spoke with Greg and Will.  I also saw Courtney from ConsumerTrack, Briana from 20 and Engaged, and about 4 other people that I should remember the names of, but I stink, stink, stink with names.  Thank you everyone for a nice meetup!

Thankfully we did not take Topanga on the way back.  We arrived home NOT sick, had banana splits (another thing I picked up at the grocery store), and just talked and talked some more until Jesse had to head out too.  That didn’t stop Suba, Mr. Suba, and I from continuing to talk, hang out, take a walk, and talk some more for way longer than we thought.  We even played a board game and once again, Suba and I went to bed way later than we should have, but it was so worth it!

Day 4 – Sunday

Yeah, yeah, we were once again late meeting Daniel from Sweating the Big Stuff at a coffee shop in the mall across the street.  I think I am a bad influence on Suba.  Anyway, we had a chat mainly about business stuff and Daniel had to leave.  So Suba and I picked up more bread and headed back home.  She, Mr. Suba, and I had grilled cheese again, polished off the Coolfy, and we generally just hung out for a few more hours before Suba dropped me off at the airport.

My Summary

I had a fantastic time.  Suba and her husband are awesome.  Absolutely awesome.  They are sweet, funny, and really make a girl feel welcomed.  I had a great time hanging out with everybody and now I will just have to fly out to hang out with Jesse too.  For Kay Lynn, Suba and I will have to take a train to visit but I won’t crash there thanks to my stupid asthma problems with cats.  But if you are ever at a Financial Blogger Conference, you should totally find these people and say hi.  Nicest people.  Really.

Yep, it was just what I needed, a fun weekend mostly away from work.  I made even better friends and hope Suba doesn’t mind me flying in pretty regularly from now on.

What’s your favorite type of vacation?  I know some of you are going to wonder why I didn’t push to see more of L.A., but I honestly just wanted to talk blog stuff without someone’s eyes glazing over. 

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