I know how I looked.
Most of the bloggers meeting me in downtown Chicago were hungover/tired and I had brought my 4 year old. I could feel my coolness level dropping. We all walked into the Taste of Chicago, trying to figure out tickets, what food we wanted, locations, etc. Some bloggers tried small talking with me "How you doing?" "How old is your daughter" but since I missed the pizza/booze party from last night I was out of the loop. Finally we found a corner to plan when my phone rang.

"Hey, it's Jenn. Where are you guys?"
"We are at the corner of A & B. Where are you?"
"At the corner of A & B. I don't see you guys...."
"We are by the Chicago Souvenir booth."
"So am I...."
"....are you invisible?"
I finally decided to stand at a high point and start flailing my map around flamboyantly.

At this point the Chicago bloggers that knew me relaxed, realizing that even under my mom hat I was still crazy Rachel. We all grabbed some food and then Diana & I parted ways with the bloggers to go do some family events. Then it was time to go home to get ready for that night's party!

*************

"Here's what I'm thinking Jenn, I'll be your DD and we can stay longer tonight."
"Are you sure? That means you can't really drink...."
I looked at my wallet and saw the moths flying out of it.
"Yeah, I'm sure."

On the way to the party Jenn and I tried out her GPS unit. Within 5 minutes we were playing good cop/bad cop, trying to get the computer lady to tell us where to go. We tried making her British and that only resulted in us yelling at her in an English accent. Eventually we got there and joined up with other bloggers.

The night got moving in the right direction. Our group was the first in the bar so the place was ours for a couple hours. By the time it started to get crowded we were having too much fun to care. We were dancing to Michael Jackson, writing on Jenn, and getting to know each other.

Being the sober girl meant that I had to entertain myself while others got their drinks. I decided to take people's phones and change their backgrounds to pictures of me. By the end of the weekend I was getting requests from people to be on their phones. If you want one, join the facebook group that the amazing Erini created.

As the night progressed the Wrigleyville men were getting more and more drunk. They were also gathering up liquid courage to hit on the amazingly lovely ladies of our group. Being a sober girl and a mom I felt the need to protect the ladies so I became the official 20sb bodyguard. I grabbed them from men that wanted to dance from them, became a wall to block the guys that couldn't get a hint, and stayed nearby for the ladies that got stuck listening to drunks tell them their life story. It was kind of fun and it made me feel useful.

It got worse at 1 am. All the guys left without a girl in the bar realized that they had 45 minutes left to get some bootay so they stepped up their "moves". One guy grabbed me from my seated position and started twirling me around. He then started to position me so that I was grinding his leg. I stopped him and asked;
"Has this ever worked on a girl?!"
He shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to the next girl.
Another guy sat down and asked me what made me feel fantastic. I pointed at the nearest guy blogger (which was Derek) and indicated that I was with him;
"He makes me feel fantastic."
Unfortunately Derek was blitzed and instead of chasing the guy off he accepted the drunk's high-fives.
*rolls eyes*

Finally the lights were turned on, bouncers were yelling for us to leave, and I hit the road with Jenn to get home. I gratefully crawled into bed, exhausted but looking forward to the next day of blogger fun.

To be continued.....

If you want to see more pictures go to the 20sb ultimate meetup flickr page!