Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey

Happiness is a Yahoo! Mother Board Dinner at Nola’s…

Author: thenicknick

When the buses pulled up in front of Nola’s, I knew I was in for a treat.  I like a place that isn’t guilty of false advertising.  In the wall over one of the windows was a sign that said: Booze.

Oh, and the booze was FLOWING.  It was amazing.  I knew we were going to have a great time there.  No, not because of the seemingly limitless supply of alcohol, but because of the atmosphere and the company.

Nola’s is a Cajun restaurant, modeled after New Orleans.  All the napkins are decorated with beads.  Yes, THOSE beads.  And if that wasn’t enough, they were going around passing out tons of beads.  I came home with so many beads, by the way, that it caused him to remark upon my return…

HIM: So, what did you have to do to get all those beads?

me: Mwah ha ha!

Seriously?  I stood there and had them thrown around my neck.  Easy peasy.

Well, we had the entire top floor of the restaurant.  And it was really cool because there was this central open courtyard area that we looked down on and could see everyone there.  On our floor, we spent forever simply mingling.

It was so nice to have an opportunity to talk with everyone, to wind down from such an amazing day, to get one last chance to build a bond with some seriously cool and inspiring chicks.  I can’t imagine a better meal.

There were appetizers laid out.  I didn’t touch any.  I was still full from the other food I’d been eating all day.  And because I don’t do a lot of Cajun dining, all I can say is that it looked really good, even if I didn’t recognize it all.

What I did recognize was the alcohol.  There were Mojitos and Hurricanes galore.  In fact, they kept bringing us pitchers of the Hurricanes.  Yay!  And they had to be the strongest Hurricanes I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.

There was a buffet for dinner consisting of Caesar salad, some Cajun pasta, Cajun fried chicken, flank steak, and some kind of Cajun rice.  I know I’m forgetting something.  Just trust me when I say there was plenty of food choices.  And…despite the fact that I really was not hungry, I did manage to choke down some food.  I’m such a trooper.

The best part, however, was the conversation, the mingling.  I had a great time talking to everyone.  And it was nice to be somewhere that everyone else was as into taking pictures as I was.  And it was funny that I knew all these pictures had the same purpose.  They would be shared on Flickr and imported into blogs all over the country.

After dinner, and the dessert that I skipped, we made our way to the shuttle stop.  It was full and it seemed like I was going to have to wait for an hour with Lisa and MJ before getting back to the hotel.  It was 8pm by then and I had to be up at 4am to get ready for the flight back.  I would really only be able to hang out for another couple of hours and I didn’t want to waste a minute of it.

Luckily, Sheila came to the rescue.  She drove us back to the hotel.  Some of the ladies were getting together for Karaoke at a Korean bar.  I didn’t see me doing that for sooo many reasons.  I can sing, but I’m shy.  (I’m the reigning champ on our American Idol video game at home.  And we know how accurate that is…  Video Simon Cowell is just as brutal as the real one.)

We were given a tour of Palo Alto on the way back.  Sheila drove us by the office where Facebook began.  That’s right.  And she showed us some faulous houses.  I only managed to get one blurry picture as we were driving by.  Sorry.  But trust me, nice houses.

And it was there in the car on the way back that Lisa made the funniest comment out of nowhere.  She had been playing with her long dark locks all day, reveling in how smooth they were, frizz-less, nothing like back home.  Like so many of the women at the conference, she had attributed this to the magic of the Four Seasons hair dryer.  And she had sent a tweet and purchased one, like so many others.

Lisa: Oh my God!  I just spent $40 on a hair dryer.  And it isn’t the dryer, it’s the lack of humidity.  Great!

We all laughed.  Still, I did try the dryer the next morning before leaving.  It seemed faster, even if I knew the results wouldn’t last the minute I reached Charlotte.  Oh, but to dream…

The rest of the evening was a blur.  I spoke to the kids.  I spoke to HIM.  I hung out with Lisa and MJ.  We had an impromptu Passion Party in Kim’s room.  We went to a pool party where wine flowed.  There was much laughter.  It was precisely what I needed.

Then it was over.  Only, it’s not.  I’m still in touch with Lisa.  I’ve officially followed all the moms on Twitter, and all the Yahoo! people we worked with.  And I feel different.  I’m focused.  (I try at it more often than I succeed.)  I’m determined.  I have a plan.  I’m moving forward.

Watch me go…

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 12:02 am and is filed under Happiness is..., Yahoo! Mother Board. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.