#BlogHer13 - TOONswag & The Drunkies...day 2/3

Meanwhile, back at the Sheraton's Chi Bar...

Oh BlogHers, I'm a cheap date. It doesn't take much to get me drunk and I'm a bit of a slut for Chardonnay, so when those who would be drawn plied me with chilled glasses of the stuff I didn't stand a chance. I got completely distracted and forgot my Number 1 Rule: never drink on an empty stomach.

But first, there was toonswag. I asked Angela Belford to pose and she agreed.

VP of Sales and Marketing for Theraderm skin care, Angela has natural beauty and poise. She radiates confidence.

Believe it or not, very few people come marching up to me to say "Please drawez moi". I imagine they must be shy but more likely it's because they don't know who I am or what I do. So quite often I have to ask if I may draw them. I'm pretty shy myself (unless Chardonnay) so I have to work at it. But I'm getting better; I now realize that I draw people to draw them to me.

FINALLY Lizz Porter showed up. She's kind of a big deal cuz not only is she the blogger behind Am I A Funny Girl, but HELLO she was owning the catwalk in the BlogHer fashion show this year. Lizz is unapologetic-ally way taller than me (I am short). So I drew her as a chibi, to even things up a bit.

So chic. AND FUNNY. I hope I did her justice. She only gave me fifteen minutes to whip it up on account of her being a celeblogger now.....*sigh*.

By now I'd had ONE glass of wine. Then Adam, my old room mate from 1988 showed up and whisked me away for drinksies with his lovely wife. Here's a drawing I did of him 25 years ago:

There was ANOTHER GLASS of rosé. And a ride in a porsche.



I managed to find my new best friend Lin, the blogger behind The Absence Of Alternatives in the EXPO Hall. She looks like this:

EXPO Halls are a maze of crazy: people work long hours in there, handing out swag, engaging in lively conversation and generally being "on". Bloggers scrape the booths for free stuff (much of which is, let's face it, food for the land fill). But some is useful! We gravitated to the sparkling wine (just ONE GLASS I SWEAR) and stumbled into the Kuyam booth where lo and behold, a fellow artist lurked!

Jackie Chang was both working the booth and drawing people. She's talented - blimey, just see her stuff at JaxCha.com.

Look, she depicted me with a champers flute; I guess I do look a little squiffed already. She was the only person that I toonswagged who actually drew me back. I wonder if was the same for her...?

Back at the Sheraton I forgot all about dinner, put on my party frock and elevatored down to the BlogHer Welcome Reception. Another glass of wine (does that make FOUR or FIVE?) and The Drunkies set in for realz. But I managed to do one more toonswag that night: Deborah Goldstein, who blogs at Peaches & Coconuts.

I'm still pretending she didn't know that my liver was saturated. Never drink and draw, people. Unless you are me. After that, Lin and I closed the bar. Gah.

Happy Hangover.

The next morning was bad. I shunned the light of day and tried to remain horizontal as long as possible. In the end it was hunger starvation that forced me to venture out in search of nourishment. That's the only reason I got to see Guy Kawasaki's keynote. Toonswag!

I hear animators moaning all the time about how they want to make their film but can't for whatever reason and I tell them the same thing. So Guy's words made sense to me.

But oh man, I felt like death. I was massively hungover, and I had to do my VOTY Award performance thing in just a couple of hours. Like with Queen Latifah. On a stage in front of five thousand bloggers. GULP. How do I even...?

But that's another blogpost...

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