Didn't even have to dress up.

We tricked.  We didn't treat.  The big kids went with friends and instead we scared the jeebus out of my seven year old, as she started to whine, we suggested that the full moon brought out the werewolves.  We don't have a shitload of candy, thank GAWD they didn't last long and didn't fill up too much.

Till next year.

**Free Asterisk Asterisk!

Somehow this does not seem like Free Samples.

Sick Halloween Thrill.

From The World According To Eggface, who has apparently lost her mind.

Strength in Numbers, Let’s Help BIG MEDICINE!

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Going to bed, but leaving a potential smoldering pile of ass lit.

I need to find a better way to answer that question.  I will likely regret having responded to it, and then the umpteen opposite replies that will be tacked on before I wake up.

Oh, what question?  (And, she left this open for intrepretation, I could not just SAY, Yes! or No):

Some of your posts make me think your not that happy with your surgery. Is that the case?

GastricBypassSupplements.com is giving away a One Month Supply of Vitamins from Bariatric Advantage!

GastricBypassSupplements.com is giving away a One Month Supply of Vitamins from Bariatric Advantage!

Come to Atlanta with me!

Are you busy next weekend?  Get yo' ass off the couch and come to Atlanta for the last event of the year! Discount code below!

Halloween Night's Protein

6 Creepy Halloween Meatloafs (Loaves?)

Effect of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery on the Sex Steroids and Quality of Life in Obese Men

Woo-hoo!  One good reason to lose that weight!

Effect of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery on the Sex Steroids and Quality of Life in Obese

Thoughts on a fly-by trip to NYC.

I went to NYC for a brief visit during my stay at the OH Event (more on that in another post) and a few people asked me what I thought of the big bad city. 

I said, "Underwhelming and overwhelming."

It's not nearly as big and beautiful as I had made it out to be in my head.  TV does that to you.   Seriously, walking by ABC GMA windows, I was like, "This is IT?  WTF?"  Looking at it from a camera, I could find things to photograph potentially forever.  I am not so sure I'd have enjoyed it without looking at it that way.

But the speed of the people in the city would drive me ape shit.  And I Do Not Want A Bus Tour.  Thanks!  I have a thing for signs, ads and people, especially those who look beat down and sad.  There is no shortage of that in NYC.

How do you who live in town deal with that constant nagging?  I guess you learn to be blank faced and ignore everything.  I'm not a city girl -- I live in the biggest "town" in my state -- but it doesn't have anything like NYC.  Boston, a bit, but... Boston seems "pretty" to me now.  Go figure.  Going out to LA last year made Boston feel CLEAN, too.  Figure that out.

I need to see MORE of NYC.  We only spent a short time, walking what we could from a parking garage, hitting up the Carnegie Deli with no wait, in which I ordered a brisket sandwich but only ate a pickle (stupid) and couldn't imagine doing that on a regular basis. People shoved in like dirty smelly sardines.  Blech.  I thought for sure we were bringing home H1N1.  Don't breathe my AIR!  Shoo!

Overall, my trip was quick and dirty, and I would love to go back, and STAY IN TOWN. 

Hopefully I can make a reason to do so, because it's hella expensive to DO SO.

And I missed this?! Baconfest!

We shoulda brought it to NY and had a little bacon-festivity during the OH conference, is that so wrong?  Can you imagine the smell in this place?    Baconfest!

We all remember our first taste of bacon. Maybe it wasn’t perfect: maybe the bacon was cold; maybe there was congealed bacon grease clinging to the rasher. But we remember it, because it opened the door to a lifetime of bacon memories. It was that first crispy step on the path to a bacony life. It set the bar for every slab and slice and hunk of sweet cured pork that was to follow.

Baconfest Chicago is in the business of creating new bacon memories. To that end, we find it convenient to list our beliefs about bacon so that you may discern whether the bacon memories we offer are the ones you’ll want lodged in your head.

"...the reverse pig in a blanket (pictured above) consisted of buttermilk biscuit dough mixed with bacon bits, all wrapped in bacon and then griddled."

Obesity Help NY Event 2009 Photos, Video...

Fun to be HAD, guys. You missed out. Next time, come along.

Or the full-sized photos via Flickr with no thumpa thumpa music:

There are other photos all around, Facebook tags are going wild, and I plead the fifth on anything my name ends up on. Thanks.

If you didn't get yours...

While at the OH Event, I was nearly MAIMED for CLICK SAMPLES.  You don't believe me?  HA.  I was scared for a moment.

If you did not recieve a sample in your schwag bag - I know many did not - is please to email [email protected] with subject line "MM" for yours.  There were a lot of people - and not nearly enough samples.   Go ahead and get you some now.

Rumor has it. Mo'nique's Weight Loss Surgery!

Yes, I totally posted about "Mo'nique's Weight Loss WITHOUT Surgery" not too long ago, from my previous post:

Because it's a title in the making. The overweight comedian has been known for her size, and now she's losing weight, OMG! 

Good for her.

Source: http://straightfromthea.com/2009/08/19/the-incredible-shrinking-woman-monique-precious-movie-trailer/

“I was very comfortable at 262 pounds,” she says. “I’m in the bathroom mirror one day admiring 262. And Sid says to me when he comes out of the shower, ‘Mama, how much do you weigh?’ I said, ‘262.’ And he said, ‘Mmm.’”

Mo’Nique says she knew something was coming next. “He said to me in the most gentle, loving way, ‘I want you for a lifetime,’” she says. “Baby, I started working out right then.”

Rumors have circulated that Mo’Nique took the easy way out and had gastric bypass surgery, but she flatly denies those accusations. The author of “Skinny Bitches Are Evil” and “Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted”

However.  You knew it was coming.

A source a step away from a surgeon or two has shared that Mo'nique actually had weight loss surgery, a VSG or vertical sleeve gastrectomy.  Now, you didn't hear it from me, because it's just a rumor, but this person swore on her life that it will come out soon. 

GAH.  If it is true - why aren't people honest to begin with?  It's not worth the DRAMA, is it?

Watch this video from CBS News yesterday, if she has, in fact, had WLS, this all seems so dishonest.  I don't know.  Whatever.  I don't know people's motivations to hide, and I actually hope she didn't and I was misled.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

How Does MM Get Embarrassed?

When a nice doctor says, "You're Melting Mama," and all you can manage is, "You are on TV."

I would love to post a photo blog, but I can't just yet from this laptop.  I m sitting in the hotel lobby again, but I can't blog in public, especially without coffee.  I am way too distracted.  Look!  Someone is leaving! 

While I enjoy this -- the traveling to conferences -- and I would likely love to do it for work in some capacity -- it is more better with a travel and room companion.  Yes, I said more better.  This situation, coming by myself (not entirely) is a bit different than the previous conferences.  

Lots of really wicked nice people have stopped me and said, "Wait, you're Melting Mama!" and I have finally started to react appropriately with "Hi, it's so nice to meet you!" (*Instead of the blank or embarrassed look.) But, in that same respect, folks don't socialize with "MM." )  MM is not one of them, Beth is.  Does that make any sense?  I don't know.  Like, last time, I never needed to worry about meals, someone was always available to make a plan.  I haven't done anything with anybody this time around.  MM isn't part of any group, and she doesn't know anybody, really.  Folks don't invite MM to dinner.  Oh God, don't say a word about this, it's just WEIRD being this entity in a group of 250.

Otherwise - I have talked non-stop today -- to vendors and peers and even Dr. Garth Davis said, "I know you, you're Melting Mama!" and scared the crap out of me.  It was a great day and I can't wait to come to another event.

Lots of photos of NYC Times Square and the event to follow.  I'm off to photograph the Fashion Show and dancing.  (I just watched Elena  --I'll add her link here later -- do her "Single Ladies" dance, and can't stand her cuteness.

Arrival.

I made it.  Three and a half hours in the car and we are somewhere outside of New York City.  I am currently sitting in the hotel lobby stealing WI-FI access and partying wicked hahhhhd.  Tomorrow will be a bit of tourist-ing before the Obesity Help Event.  I have my costume -- let's just assume it MAY fit.  ;)

Just because. I've done this.

I'm leaving on a...

... well, in a car.  I'm off to New York for an Obesity Help Event tomorrow morning. And instead of packing my bag, I'm over here rambling about,, actually going somewhere... because is it "vacation?"

Although the Mr. is technically On Vacation as of tomorrow night, any/all of our would be sitters are going away actually On A Vacation, so Mr. could not accompany me to the event.  (Oh, he's all torn up about it, I promise.  O-o.)  Vacations at the casa de la MM aren't vacations, we usually just catch up of things that have lapsed in the house and little piddly things, we haven't vacation-ed since 2005 or so, aside from one or two bad camping experiences since then.

He's on his own to make brownies and roast turkeys until Sunday afternoon, but let's face it.  He. Loves. It.  Having been working full-time since he was 16 year old, staying home with the kids makes him happy.  He'd be a good at-home parent, probably better than me. 

Hell yes we would swap.  Wife Swap!  No, but, if I landed a job making more than he does (and could keep blogging) I would totally go to work and let him be a Stay At Home Dad.  I could not take HIS job as a Bank Branch Manager, but I would love to find something else?  ;)  I could do most facets of his job, but the whole daily balancing shit is for the birds.  "We're off $12,000, oh, whatever, we'll find it tomorrow."  Not really my thing. 

If I could GO to work, GO being the word that we are missing, there are a hundred things that I would like to do, I just need training and experience and schooling, so GO-ing is unlikely.  At my experience, I'd land a job hanging feetie pajamas at Target making $20,000 a year full-time and we'd be back to where we were in 2000 paying $1000 in rent on $20,000 a year.  (We don't rent, although I wish we did, and it's way way more than that, but I thought I was trying to make a point, that it was super hard.) 

We don't need toilet paper this month, do we?  Yeah, no.  Thank you Mr. for working, and unless I can match and increase, you really do have to.  GAH.

Which is not what I started this post to discuss.  That Mr. loves to stay home and bake brownies, he does.  I don't.  I am sure I would change my tune once I had to get out of the house by 7am everyday, as I sit here in my pajamas drinking coffee shuffling kids out the door.  I don't have to get dressed at all, frankly.  I could stay in jammies all the time.  (I don't.)  But, I could!

I was posting to tell you that I AM going away for a few days to the Obesity Help Event.  I am going to take an unfortunate number of photos this time, because I'm going in an attempt to be "social."  So, I guess that makes it a bit of vacation, huh?  A bit, yes. Going to sleep in a hotel On A Bed Like A Starfish Because I Can --- that alone --- is a vacation.  (Why?  Because I spend most of my nights curled up on my side with a seven year old on this side, a three year old on that side, and Mr. falling off over there.)