Do you know who you’re sleeping with?

Staying at the hostel Friday night was really cool.  While I was a wee bit nervous that I might have been placed in a co-ed dorm (thanks Becki!) I was not.  When I checked in, I asked, and she told me that no, I’d be rooming with 3 other people who all had the same parts as me.

Whew.  (But you could you imagine the blog fodder that might have accompanied that?)

I dropped my stuff off before the closing keynote and then ventured back to the conference.  As previously mentioned, when I came back to my room I met one of my roommates, but the other two beds were unoccupied.

When I came strolling in during the wee hours of the morning, my other roommates were sleeping peacefully.

The following morning I was awoken by a conversation of which I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming it or if it really was happening.  That followed with the text messages going off and while one might think that a vibrating cellphone is quiet, mine is not.

And because I can’t stand knowing that there are messages, I had to look at them.  Most of them were the tweets that had began with the conference at 8am.  There was just no way that I was going to be there.  Three hours of sleep after being up for 22 hours and my body confused as to the actual time warranted a little bit of sleep in the morning.

There were DMs from Lisa B. who was following the tweets of HP throughout the conference and this one…

Please tell me you are following HP_BlogHer2008 — you have a chance to win a laptop right now at BlogHer

As if I hadn’t gotten the tweet from HP and didn’t know that I was missing my shot as retiring the craptop for a pretty new addition to the family.  I thought about getting up, getting dressed and hoofing it there for my chance to guess where Ann’s necklace was, however, I know that it had to be some obscure country, otherwise it would’ve been too easy to guess, hence, not making the contest as fun or drawn out.

I responded to Lisa, mustering up every bit of energy that I had to rub my eyes and actually type the response, making sure that I had the text code right so that it would go just to her and not to everyone else.  I managed to get out

hi I’m not even there right now……i just got up….didnt get to bed until 5am pst

For the record, Ann’s necklace from was from Cambodia.  I don’t even think I know where Cambodia is.  I would’ve never guess that, so choosing sleep over trying to win a laptop was a wise move on my part.

Shortly there after there was another text from Bri.  Remember Bri?  She was the one that I was planning on attaching myself like a leech to.  The only problem was that we didn’t find one another Thursday night or Friday night and only shared a brief text encounter Friday afternoon.  Why I thought that I would run into her while mingling through 1,000 attendees and exhibitors, I’m not sure, but I did.

And the conversation went a little like this…

Bri:  Good morning are u up and around yet?

Me: sadly, I just woke up….

Bri: That’s ok im still laying here too.  Just thought id see if you wanted to walk over together for the first session

Me:  How long you need to get ready?

Bri: Not too long. 20-30 minutes

Me:  Same here…how about 945-10 in the lobby?

Bri:  Sounds good.  See you there.

This conversation, throught text, lasted 10 minutes.  That’s important.

And now, because I’ve promised someone that I will meet them, I knew that I HAD to get up and get moving.  It was now twenty after nine.

As I got up and sat on the edge of the bed, my roommate from the bunk across the room got up as well.  She was the one that wasn’t home at 1am and sleeping soundly (as most people would be) when I came in at 5.

I wasn’t sure what to say to her as we had both just gotten up.  I know how I am when I first arise so I just started going through my bag to pick my clothes out for the day.

I’m not sure who started the conversation first, however, she did talk to me first and explained the morning phone call.  It was then I realized that I wasn’t dreaming and she started to explain the phone call while she dug through her suitcase.

And then I asked the question that I asked everyone all weekend.

“So where are you from?”

“St. Louis,” she replied.

NO!  Bri was from St. Louis.  What are the odds?

“Bri?” I asked…

“Heather?” she returned.

Yes.  We ended up being roommates.  Neither of us were in a “blogher room” but we ended up being roommates.

Is that not the weridest thing?

So we got ready, had breakfast, I checked out and we walked to the conference together.  And that’s the last time that I saw Bri.  We never crossed paths again.

But it made for a super interesting story for the blog… and I wish that I had gotten to spend some more time with her.  The brief time that we talked, I really liked her.

Until next time…