Esther Brady Crawford - faintstarlite

This past weekend was exhausting… and completely worth it all.
Amidst the chaos I got to reconnect with old friends and meet lots of new ones, which is truly the heartbeat of BlogHer and why each year for a couple of days the blogosphere quiets down as women hang together IRL.

The weekend began at Sears Holdings where I took part in a personalized styling session with Susan & Janice, Stephanie and Jennifer. Originally I was one of the organizers helping to facilitate communication between the ladies and Kmart but was then invited to participate too. So, with a bit of fear & trepidation I accepted. Why pray tell would I be anxious? Well… out of all the lovely ladies I was probably the most leery about having someone else pick out my clothes – after all, nothing seems to fit right, and I’m just not fully comfortable with my in-between-pregnancy-and-goal-weight body. Plus, I haven’t really shopped at Kmart since I was a kid and have never bought clothes there as an adult. Truthfully it wasn’t until I met a couple of the designers (including Theresa and Rick) whose passion is contagious, that I started to think that perhaps the styling session wouldn’t be too painful. Turns out, I really enjoyed the whole process!

I worked with Kathy, who happens to not only be my exact height (4′11 & 3/4″), but is so sweet and stylish (and wears what she designs!). It was obvious she was all about making sure I felt good in the clothes & I was pleasantly surprised by her picks. I didn’t love every item – but she was spot on with most of it. One outfit in particular struck my fancy: a yellow beaded tank, with a grey cardigan & slightly flared jeans… all for under $45. (see photo on top)

I’d compare the quality to Kohls or Target, but the outfits they put me in all costs less than I’d expect to pay at those stores. I know at the Design Summit Theresa mentioned that they were putting a renewed focus on fixing up the stores’ design + layout; I hope that does happen because the in-store experience is still incredibly important to me. My takeaway from this: they actually do have cute clothes at a low $$$… but I’d like to feel better about walking in to a store, so til then, I’m more likely to use kmart.com to shop for good deals.

Oh… and they also gave baby Jude some new digs. My favorite being this two piece outfit for $4.80. No joke. That’s less than five bucks!

Below is a short video of the styling session – definitely worth checking out (& not just because I’m in it, ha!).

Now that a few days have passed I feel more comfortable saying a few words about the overblown Nikon episode. My perspective is that it was tantamount to receiving poor customer service at Target, but let me tell you – I’ll think twice before using the hashtag #bitchyTargetcashiers again because it might just end in me having to speak to their PR agency about damage control. In fact, only a few weeks ago I called AirTran cold-hearted for being inflexible after canceling a flight that caused us an overnight delay in Atlanta. Now that really pissed me off. A few people commented but no one really cared. So what was the difference?

It happened at BlogHer.

First off, there has been so much misinformation spread on Twitter & blogs that it reminds me of playing telephone in elementary school. Here are the facts: there were two moms turned away – I was one of them. One mom took a cab and was politely refused entry at the door, while I was turned away when ready to board to head over to the venue.

On my RSVP it said it was a cocktail party at a restaurant, and based on my previous knowledge of how baby-friendly BlogHer is I mistakenly assumed that this party would be too. I should have double-checked but I didn’t. My bad.

After being told babies weren’t allowed I turned and headed back in to the hotel to get in line for another party. I wasn’t angry or bitter, but I did find it pretty ironic and funny that the party chose a venue that couldn’t accommodate nursing moms… not because I think every event ought to do so but because of the demographic of the conference. Looking back I think they had every right to make that call – I just wish it had been more clearly communicated.

Before going back inside I ran into a few other bloggers I love & had a good laugh about my status as a reject. It was then that the phrase “Nikon hates babies” was spoken – it was obviously a joke and thinking it was pretty hilarious I used it as a hashtag when I tweeted about being turned away. It seemed over-the-top enough that people would know it was tongue-in-cheek… but the fact that I have since been asked, “Do you really think Nikon hates babies?” is proof positive that hashtag humor does not always translate well. I’m considering adding a disclaimer to my Twitter page, “Am not a literalist”. [Hmm... perhaps I should've used #nikoneatsbabies... but no, think of how confusing that could've been for people...]

The point is there was no huge scandal, and certainly no heads need to roll for what was a rather minor hiccup. That must boggle your mind after all the hype you’ve seen!

Say what? There was no evil corporation? There wasn’t even a hysterical mother standing around crying over lost swag attempting to take down a company via Twitter?

They made a mistake. I made a mistake. Big deal.

Since all this blew up I’ve reconsidered a lot of things. Steph & I spent a chunk of Sunday morning talking through whether either of us should’ve brought our babies. I wouldn’t have gone to BlogHer without baby Jude, and truthfully I’m still glad he was there.

I know I should’ve been able to just brush it all off, but seeing people write nasty things about my parenting choices is still a tough pill to swallow after entering the mommyhood only 11 weeks ago.

Am I overly sensitive right now? Probably. It’s just that I’m new to all of this and like I shared with Kristen, I’m trying *so damn hard* to get it right… it’s like, c’mon folks – give me at least a few more months of screw ups before throwing me under the bus.

One other thing I’d like to mention before I shut up about this – while I appreciate all the sponsors that make events like BlogHer possible, none of them (not even the ones that sponsored me, thank you KmartDesign!) should ever be able to buy our total loyalty. If someone makes a gaffe it needs to be okay to say, “Ya know, this organizer made a mistake”, and not be bum rushed by an angry mob fearing the PR police.

PostScript 1: One other piece of irony in all this is that my husband is a Nikon photographer with far too many thousands of dollars of equipment.

PostScript 2: A lot of great posts have come out of BlogHer that highlight some of the growing pains the mommyblogging community is facing as marketers & PR agencies flood the space. Here are a few that are relevant to this post in particular: MWW/Nikon’s response, Mom101, Motherhood Uncensored, MamaPundit, AdventuresInBabywearing and TheHappiestMom.

I’m a bit behind in posting these videos so I’ll try and get a couple more out to catch up to where I am with my weigh-ins. :) Here’s the second installment:

Several days ago I bought the new iPhone after months of researching alternatives to my Blackberry Pearl. The frustrating part was that once I decided the iPhone 3GS was what I wanted I had to take a leap of faith because buying one meant waiting & hoping that I’d be able to use it. As a T-Mobile customer with a great contract I would’ve quickly lost money by switching to AT&T … so I opted to sit & wait it out hoping the Dev Team or someone else would come up with the jailbreak needed.

What does jailbreaking a phone mean? From Wikipedia:

Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to run unofficial code on their devices bypassing Apple’s official distribution mechanism, the App Store. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many applications previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia and Icy.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long – GeoHot (a 20 year old hacker who first broke the original iPhone) released his program purplera1n. Once I was able to get Cydia on my phone I could unlock it with another program called ultrasn0w, meaning I could use it on any carrier by inserting a different sim card.

Even though I’d never attempted anything like this before, reading through forums and watching a few videos inspired me to give it a whirl… and it worked! The video proof with directions to follow along is below.

Below are the steps I took to get my 3GS up and running on T-Mobile:

[[the following directions jailbreak the phone using purplera1n]]

1. Get on a Windows PC (XP seems to have fewer issues than Vista)
2. Make sure iTunes is updated. Tun off auto updates.
3. Go to http://www.purplera1n.com/
4. Download and run purplera1n (should say “waiting for phone”)
5. Connect iPhone 3GS to computer.
6. Be patient – puplera1n takes a couple of minutes (should say “entering recovery” then “done, wait for reboot”)
7. Phone reboots – you see image of purplera1n
8. Make sure your wi-fi is connected
9. Run Freeze application to install Cydia
10. Download Cydia
11. Reboot

[[the following directions unlock the phone using ultrasn0w]]

12. Disable 3G network in (Settings, General, Network) so T-Mobile can run smoothly
13. Go to Cydia: Manage, Sources, Edit and type in repo666.ultrasn0w.com (the o is a zero in sn0w)
14. Go to Cydia: Changes, and install ultrasn0w
15. Reboot
16. Use paperclip to remove sim card, & replace with your own
17. Voila! You are now on the network of your choice!

Rejoining Weight Watchers was a no-brainer… but truthfully I wish I didn’t need to. It would’ve been fabulous if I had only gained 20lbs while pregnant and could’ve slipped right back into my clothes again – but alas, I am not one of those women.

At least I’m not alone in the ‘I ate too much while pregnant’ camp… I recently posted a question to the Weight Watchers MySpace page asking, “Are there any moms out there trying to lose the baby weight?” and got 69 responses – all Yes! – in a matter of hours.

Almost exactly three years ago was when I first joined Weight Watchers and embarked on an eleven month journey to lose close to 70lbs. Although when I joined I had much lower expectations, I figured if I could just lose 15 – 20lbs it’d be worth it because I was flat out tired of being tired.

I had just bought an iSight camera before moving to England for grad school so I could videochat with Nick while away… and then I discovered this burgeoning little site called YouTube. I was sucked into making my first video as a response to Renetto’s life story, and was then hooked on video blogging. It wasn’t long before I started documenting my weight loss journey on camera and found that it resonated with other folks who were struggling to get in shape, just as their stories of success inspired me.

This time around will be very different for me: I’m a busy work-at-home mom. I’m breastfeeding (& hungry!). And, it’s not just about me anymore – I have to consider what Nick likes to eat & accept that our lifestyle involves frequently eating out at restaurants and eating over at friends’ houses. They’re certainly different challenges than what I faced while living in a dorm but thankfully the program is flexible enough to cover all of those variables.

I’ll be posting my own thoughts (not endorsed or approved by Weight Watchers) on my YouTube channel and am also creating a video series for WW that will live on their MySpace page, and possibly elsewhere on the web. [Side note: the one for WW will be coming out very soon & I'm really excited because they're my favorite videos made so far, so I'll be sure to pimp 'em out once they go live]… til then, here’s the start of my unofficial weekly weigh-in series: