You get the funnest (yes, funnest) dinner EVER.
(You didn’t think we were done talking about Blissdom yet, did you?)
Our good buddy AmyInOhio 
(Public Service Announcement: if you haven’t yet read her account of the Elevator 13, you do not want to miss it) arranged a big dinner with a gang of Ohio bloggers at the New Orleans Manor
(that’s what it looked like before we rearranged the tables. You’re welcome, restaurant staff).
So after we made the most of our drink tickets at the cocktail party (BTW the bartender told me that a Blisstini is just a cosmo with sugar on the rim, so we can order them up any time we want!) we headed out to the lobby to meet the group for dinner.
And who did we see in the lobby, but the Blissdom keynote speaker, Jen Lancaster! And since I have a little bit of a girl crush on her (go to Amazon and buy all her books now. All of them, I tell you! Especially “Such a Pretty Fat.” Trust me on this.), Jenny and I rushed over to see if we could get a picture with her, which she happily obliged… until Jenny completely freaked her out.
“Emily totally wants to lick you right now,” Jenny said giddily.
“There will be no licking,” Jen said sternly.
“….” I couldn’t say anything because I was on experiencing emotions ranging from elation (from being in the presence of one of my favorite authors) to mortification (because of my cousin’s lack of social graces). The result? Me looking scared to death. 
(Jen, if by some odd chance your google alert leads you to this blog, know that I would never, ever lick you. Or anyone else for that matter. And also, I am pretty sure that we could be BFF, because if someone asked me who my favorite authors were, I would totally say you, Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin and Christopher Moore. The exact same answer that you gave at Blissdom. So if we ever cross paths again, we should totally hang out. I promise to leave Jenny in the elevator.)
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The best dinner ever. Right. So after my moment of happiness/horror, Jenny and I ran out to the bus that the New Orleans Manor had sent for us. That’s right, they sent a bus! 
Can you say “no designated driver?” I can!
As you can imagine, we took the New Orleans Manor by storm. We immediately made ourselves at home, rearranging the tables and breaking the sound barrier. Chef Claude 
knew how to handle a room full of 25 women, however. This was not his first rodeo. He was part maître d’, part Comedy Central, and part Barry White. He provided great service and great entertainment, and made sure to hug each and every one of us on the way out the door!
The food was amazing, but the company was even better.
The only way we could have improved upon our dinner was to do it speed-dating style and rotate seats every five minutes, because I did not get to spend enough time with each of these fabulous women!
Seriously, this was one of the most fun nights I can remember. I had such a great time, and I wish we could do it again tomorrow. These are women you want to know, people. I highly recommend reading their blogs, following them on Twitter, and pretty much stalking them. For real.
They are, in no particular order (wait, that’s not true, it is kind of the order they were sitting in)…
Amy from AmyInOhio (@amyinohio)
Shannan from Mommy Bits (@shannanb and @mommybits)
Andrea from Mommy Snacks (@mommysnacks)
Cortney and Tricia from Once a Month Mom (@oamcortney and @onceamonthmom)
Heather from Queen of Shake Shake (@queenofshake)
Heather from Domestic Extraordinaire (@dextraordinaire)
Christina from A Mommy Story (@amommystory)
Marcy from Stretching a Buck (@stretchingabuck)
Carrie from Money Saving Methods (@moneymethods)
Shari from Diary of a Crazed Mommy (@shash)
Jennifer from Playgroups are No Place for Children (@playgroupie)
Kelly from Mrs. CPA (@mrscpa)
Kate from A Simple Walk
Erin from $5 Dinners (@5dollardinners)
Toni from The Happy Housewife (@HappyHousewife)
Victoria from VDog and Little Man (@vdog)
Dawn from KaiserAlex (@kaiseralex)
Julia from Hooked on Houses (@hookedonhouses)
Amy from Living Locurto
Angie from The Arthur Clan
It was a lot of hotness for one room. Are you jealous?
I laughed so hard that night that I was hoarse the next morning. It seriously was the most fun you could have without getting arrested! Loved your recap. 🙂
So some people did get to eat dinner! I had no good meals while in Nashville! Glad you had a good time!
Kinda makes me wish I was from Ohio! Until I remember the snowstorms ya’ll just escaped, hah!
I totally think blogger speed “dating” should be on the Blissdom10 agenda, too. Many of us choke in a lrge group but are better one on one so if we got to meet twenty people one-on-one at the beginning the large group wouldn’t be so intimidating. Of course some of us choke one on one, like me, but what are you goona do? Lol I think a local group is a great idea, too-we just heard at the conference how getting a local blogger community can bring many opportunities.
Ohio ladies are smart!
Oh, I totally agree with the speed switching, especially if I could have switched to the crab leg seat, those looked yum!
Great night and thanks to Amy for making it all work!
Toni
snort 🙂 “leave Jenny in the elevator”. tee hee.
You all are too funny! Sounds like you are having a ball.
I finally joined twitter! I have no face book, no my space but, I finally had to hop over and see what’s what. 8)
I am BigBadWool over there. I haven’t quite figured out how it works yet, lol.
Totally jealous!
Hilarious about the elevator, cousin. HILARIOUS!
And I keep telling you, I am just trying to make Jen Lancaster REMEMBER you! I am creating MEMORIES here, so when she reads this post, she’ll know who you are, and she’ll see that you like her favorite authors as well, and that she’ll email you and ask you to be BFFs. ALL BECAUSE I CREATED A MEMORY. You’re welcome!
It was too much fun not to do monthly if you ask me. So get your plane tickets now!
Briana – at our next conference together, stick with me – meals are never forgotten if I’m in the room. It’s a blessing and a curse!
This was hilarious! I am so thankful Amy arranged it (and apparently paid no attention to the rest of the conference ;-).
I too like the idea of speed blog dating…ooh, that is a good one for sure! But, the thing is, we’re stuck behind the flippin’ computer screen all the time that we would probably NEVER shut up!!!
So, I’m guessing since Jenny created that memory for you and you were a little embarassed you didn’t mention the breast milk stained pages…no… 🙂
Great pictures! It was such a fun night wasn’t it? You did a great job summing it all up.