Greetings friends, old and new, and Happy MY BIRTHDAY Week!!
Have you not been celebrating? Might I suggest a No Pants Wednesday (or Monday) in my honor? Perhaps crush a cup of tasty beer with a friend. You just gotta ask yourself, WWJ(ordan)D? (No sacrilege meant here. I’d really be curious to know what folks did when they thought, What would that Jordan do?) If you’re new here, check out my 7 Links post for a little more about me!!
I’m currently celebrating my birthday week in style with a private, GIANT booth at Rockfish Seafood Grill (my home away from home).
How many people will be joining you? None? But you need a table? We got this.
Yet again, I can’t thank the folks at Rockfish enough for being so accommodating (always) AND emailing me a gift certificate for my birthday (!!!! FISH IS THE GREATEST GIFT EVER !!!)
Anyway, chances are, you didn’t come to hear about my fish fiesta. You came here to find out what this whole HLS drama is that I’ve been posting about, tweeting about, and generally abuzz about since…. well since I bought the ticket.
I’ll start at the beginning….
The beautiful Krissie from PhillyNerdGirl picked me up moments after I walked out of the PHL airport, a grin on her face and a bag of tiny pumpkin donuts in her hand. What a giver!
And a chatter! Love talking blog-talk.
Krissie and I sped crawled through some serious 3:30 traffic in Philly before eventually reaching Chez Ali (aka the Infamous Allison who planned the entirety of the Cocktail Party and saved us all from sobriety). Without wasting a moment (ok, we wasted several, ogling Krissie’s sexy shoes and eating s’mores crack like it was…. crack), I politely requested hungrily demanded a trip to Wawa. This Southern girl needed her fix.
Come to Mama. That's the good stuff.
Then, it was time for some Boost Boozy (DAMN YOU, AUTOCORRECT!) Arnold Palmers (I’m sure there’s a real name for them. But I like to imagine Arnold Palmer himself, all liquored up, hanging out with us.)
Thumbs up for booze, buddy! (Click image for Source)
Krissie, Ali, and Jordy: Sipping
We could only drink and gossip for so long before the itch to primp kicked into high gear.
A Glam Slam! (like a grand slam. I wish this was a real phrase.)
My best friend Ring, who was quite a hit at the party
We took an incredibly easy cab ride over to Reading Terminal Market, a place where I once enjoyed the best roast pork sandwich known to mankind (at DiNics) and the home of the HLS Cocktail Party. After jimmying the door open with my superior lock picking skills asking a security guard to let us in, we rounded up the rest of the ladies and, like a herd of extremely willing cats, headed to the party spot.
Hell hath no fury like HLBloggers tryna get some snacks.
Guess where I headed, with my two complimentary drink tickets?
Am I really that predictable?
The selection was actually top notch:
- Dogfish Head Chicory Stout
- Voodoo Brewery’s Pilzilla
- Philadelphia Brewing Company’s Fleur de Lehigh
- Philadelphia Brewing Company’s Kenzinger
- Some wine (yeah, I had no eyes for that)
- A YUMMY cocktail made with DrinkChia that was like a creamy daquiri with jelly chia bits
I went straight for the Chicory Stout first. And then I realized that I could still enjoy a few nibblets.
Quite the spread.
Single asparagus spear? Ok.
Also, I wore a tiara.
See, the thing is, with Ryan moving this week (Wahhhhhhhhh! – Snookie) and me having a work training then heading to OCNJ (again) for my cousin’s bridal shower, I wanted to celebrate. But really, I just wanted to wear a tiara. That’s What Jordan Would Do.
I met bloggers, large and small.
A lesson in extremes
I tried to meet them, one and all.
That's a lotta ladies.
I even took a picture near a stall!
Class-Act.
There were spider senses,
With the Okie in Pink, Lisa
And some blog-lebrity blends(es? I’m just trying to rhyme here)
Courtney and Julie, two of the women I read before knowing what HL was!
Birthday buddies!
Carly and Michelle finalllllly found some tiaras! (and a really weird fellow who photobombed from within a photobooth. that's skill.)
And my very favorite sponsors of the entire conference, Chandra and Mark from Drink Chia!!
Ch(i)andra!
I also think I found a kindred spirit in Jess, a fancy lady from the heart of dairy land.
Sassy as hell.
There was dancing.
There was not dancing. This might be my greatest disappointment of the weekend. There was something wrong with the iPod hookup, or something, and I felt very weird mingling and running around with no (and then, later, very quiet) music. Sort of like if the cocktail party was hosted in a GIANT elevator (full of food and drinks).
However, they more than made up for it by allowing me to drink as many cocktails as I wanted. Either there were so many pregnant ladies that their drink tickets somehow all were given to me, or they overestimated how much folks would drink…. or the beer gods were shining down on me (I choose this one.) Whatever happened, it worked out completely in my favor.
I want them all.
I tried to mingle, I truly did. I figured the tiara and octopus ring were both great ice breakers. And some folks were totally happy to chat. Other ones were either uninterested, or in the zone with their own little groups. I’ll admit, I’m not very well “established” in this particular community, and I had never met most of the men and women before, so I understand. But I’ll say that my heart was swollen with joy when Katy Widrick chatted my head off about beers. Finally, I felt like my two passions were merged and I didn’t feel like the odd girl out.
Then again, maybe I’m just a little too rambunctious to be brought out in public to new people. Like that time, at the end, that my overzealous flinging of an umbrella resulted in the demise of said umbrella.
JORDAN SMASH!!
Blonde hair, don't care. (Balaguer, 2011)
But, as I’d learn later in the conference from the wisest of all owls….
Thanks, Pauly.
But to see the source of this hilarious picture…. well, you’ll just have to stay tuned.
Food, Sweat, and Beers 
How did I not get the chance to catch up with you and your fun self at the conference? 😦
Hilarious recap, Jordan!
It was such a pleasure meeting you 🙂
Right back at you, Courtney! You were just as lovely and sweet IRL as you are on your blog!
Dear Friend,
I am so glad we met at HLS. Pretty sure we are two peas from the same pod.
See you on the Twitterverse and Blogosphere.
Ciao,
Jess
P dot S – may I please use that picture? I heart it.
Abso, snag and share with your friends.
It was great meeting you this weekend! I loved the tiara and ring!
So glad they were as big a hit with others as they are with me.
seriously best HLS recap ever I loled for real! Happy Birthday!
Thank you so much!! I literally can’t hear it too much, LOVE birthday weeks.
This is by far the *funniest* recap I’ve read!
You are a crazy girl but I had a blast getting to chat about beers and other non-healthy stuff. 🙂 Hope to see you at next year’s HLS — and I hope you have a blast when you come down to Orlando!
Thank you Katy, it was too fun to just shoot the breeze and feel like everyone was just partying, not focusing so much on blogging. A healthy mix is always nice. Add some brews, and you can’t beat it. Thanks for bringing me back down to earth.
Well, I think its safe to say after this post we could be great friends. You are too funny.
Also, non-virgin Arnold Palmer is a John Daly. He may have sobered up but his legend lives on.
Haha, thank you SO MUCH for the clarification. I knew it had to be real.
You’re hilarious! I’m sad I didn’t get to meet you at HLS. Maybe I’ll get to go next year! Thanks for the super fun recap of the evening! Can’t wait to hear what other shenanigans you got into 🙂
Luckily, we can faux-meet (seitan?) each other online.
I am just going to say that I love you. I am glad to have found another healthy living blogger with a bawdy sense of humor. God bless the almighty Katy Widrick for tweeting about you so that I might find this blog. hello, blog reader, you have just ticked up by one.
Thank goodness for that K. Widrick. Bringing people together since…. whenever she was born.
Jordan, you are ridiculous and I love you
Lee, STOP you’re making me blush!!
You are freaking awesome :). So wish I could have been at HLS and met you! Someday? Yes please! Boozy arnold palmers are fabulous…and kinda dangerous bc they taste so good!
Definitely dangerous, definitely worth the risk.
Jordan is like the sister I never had even though I have four. 😉 Look at my ghetto mirrors in the car! That’s some high class Hyundai there!
Only the finest wheels for us!
you are a riot!!! 🙂
and YOU are a blogspiration!
good lord, woman… you had me CRACKING UP throughout this entire post! So glad I got to see you again this past weekend (2 weekends in a row… wooHOO!!) Happy Happy Birthday Week!!!!!
Hi Jordan! Just came across your blog and I love your energy! You’ve got a lot spunk! I’m a newbie blogger from Raleigh. It’s nice to find another local! Looking forward to perusing your blog and reading future posts.
So jealous of all of this HLS fun!!! Next year, I’m in!
I would like that very very much. We could even be roomies. And eat far less healthy options than many (most).
I agree that there should have been some dancing music at the cocktail party. That would have been a blast!!
Perhaps next year, we can all BYOS(peakers). That’ll guarantee a killer music lineup, right? Or total sound chaos.
Either, or.
This was a great {and hilarious} recap. Thank you for making it different from the zillion others!! Annnnd it’s nice to meet {hear the existence of} another blogger from area–I’m in Mebane! 🙂
Mebane = stone’s throw. Outlet shopping blogger meetup? Or discotheque. I heard they may be in Mebane.
The outlet exit IS my exit! That’d be mighty fabulous to have a blogger meetup there cuz there is pretty much nothing else to do!! Ummm, so now follow me back on Twitter dagnabit and we shall discuss this sometime!! I almost unfollowed {ask Krissie, I have a weird policy, but I am also plain old weird myself–but still quite fun and fabulous–) anyhooooo, happy birthday fellow NC’er!!
Jordan you are hilarious! Loved the recap. So great to meet you at HLS!
Right back at you, Katie! Thank you so much!
Yayy for weekend recaps, and so many wonderful comments from people who love you. Here are my thoughts:
1. WW(Jordan)Do? Eat a delish breakfast of egg whites and orange peppers on a TJ’s whole wheat sammie thin. probably while reading a blog update. CHECK. done and done.
2. WAWA xoxo ❤ ❤ ❤ if i ever move away (which dear God, let's hope i do) I know i will miss that beloved institution more than anything.
3. The Tiara looked perfect
4. #GlamSlam , i'm making it a thing. It combines baseball and being fabulous, my two loves. Well done, i'll be sure to credit you.
5. that blondhairdon'tcare shout out made my morning 🙂
6. umm, EXCUSE me Courtney's dress??? AMAZING.
7. Glad you had fun, can't wait to hear about Pauly D… (i'm already looking up 'cabs are hea' in Japanese to prepare for Jersey Shore Season 8 -Tokyo)
8. I'm getting new sneakers this week… any profound insights/recommendations?
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spidey sense! loved meeting you and i had a blast!
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Looks like so much fun Jordan!!!!
Great dress pick 🙂 It’s so nice of you to take the spare drink tickets off the hands of the preg ladies!! Other favorites: single asparagus spear, your lil rhyme, the tiara at a jaunty angle, and the octopus ring!
Glad you had a fun night!!
I do what I can to help EVERYONE that I can help.
Mostly when it involves drinking their beers.
Best recap ever.
I’m so sad I didn’t get the chance to meet you!
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