Keeping Up With The Kerns: What I'm doing these days....

With nothing specific to write about I thought I would fill you in on last week, it was a very fun week filled with way more exciting events than my normal day to day. I was at a work event called ITME Tuesday-Thursday in Chicago. It is an event where hotels, destination management companies, CVB’s etc. from around the world come to represent the tourism in their country. A lot of companies similar to mine as well as meeting planners etc attend this to network, find out about more info about a destination, new properties, hotels, cruises etc. I went to this event last year as well and it always sponsors a lot of parties and dinners so it is always fun to meet people from all around the world and network at this event. I packed a lot in the two days I was there: we went on a Chicago River Cruise, went to a party that rented out House of Blues, a dinner and cocktail parties and a Las Vegas Party. Most importantly I got to see Kate while I was in town! She met me at one of my parties, we stayed there for awhile before leaving and embarrassing ourselves at a karaoke bar where we were the feature singers of the night, enough said. We capped off our night at 3:00 AM by going to a cute little restaurant downtown and ordering yummy grilled cheeses and fries. I was pretty impressed considering I'm pretty sure the only thing that would be open at 3:00 AM on a Wednesday night in Charlotte is Waffle House. It is always so good to see her and we had so much fun. This was the 4th time I have been to Chicago and I really do love the city!

I returned from Chicago on Thursday night and went down to Clemson on Friday. Clemson was playing Maryland this past weekend and we had a lot of friends come to the game. On Friday Matt, Neil, Maggie and I had a quick dinner at Backstreets complete with pizza and liquor pitchers (ahh Backstreets- always a fun Clemson staple!) Then we went to a lake house that a bunch of our friends had rented for the weekend and hung out there for the rest of the night. It is always fun to get back and see everyone! We tailgated on Saturday morning and got to see Hayley and Jay (my new sister and brother in law) for the first time since I found out Hayley was pregnant! So it was really good to see them and I know Matt was excited to see Neil and Hayley at the game. It was a noon game which we won (finally-Go Tigers!)

We were planning on leaving right after the game was over because Matt and I had tickets to see Chelsea Handler in Charlotte Saturday night. Well to make a long story short, I am obsessed with Chelsea Handler. She’s pretty much my favorite celebrity and I think she is hilarious. Well Matt tells me on Friday night (after we were already in Clemson) that he found out Chelsea was doing a book signing on Saturday at Park Road Books in Charlotte at 4:00 PM before her show that night. I was a little sad because we had planned on staying for the game and I knew there was no way I could make it back in time for the signing. Matt ended up calling the bookstore that night and they said she would only be signing for an hour: 4:00-5:00 and 400 books max- so I felt better thinking I would never have made it there without waiting in line all day anyways. So on Saturday at half time during the game (around 2:00pm) I decided to call the bookstore just to check the status. They said there was only 10 ppl in line for the 4:00 signing. I couldn’t believe it. We called again around 2:30- only 25 people in line. Matt, being the wonderful husband he is, could tell I was freaking out and really wanting to go so he suggested we just leave the game early and try to make it there. So that’s what we did. We booked it to Charlotte and I ran in the bookstore at 4:48 PM. Only to find out she was GONE and had left at 4:30 because no one else was there to get a book signed (I could have had her all to myself!) I was so bummed we had left the game early and that we still missed her! So I went home to get ready for the show. I saw something online saying that she might be doing a book signing as well after the show that night. So we got to the show extra early to try to get to the bottom of this. I’m so glad we did because when we got there they said the first 400 ppl to buy her book get a wrist band and can go to a signing after the show. I was so happy, also slightly annoyed considering I already had the book and had to buy it again twice (one for me and one for Matt). So I now have 3 copies of her book, but it was a small price to pay. The show was AWESOME. She performed with Heather McDonald (who is one of my favorite comedians on her show who I also love). After the show we waited about an hour and a half for the signing (again, Matt is such a trooper)! So we got two signed copies of Chelsea’s book and the only picture I could get was the one below. We also got a signed copy of Heather McDonalds book and a few pictures with her (security didn’t make you move immediately with her like they did with Chelsea.) Even though I only got to talk to her for like 20 seconds (I told her I loved her and have been watching her since she was on Girls Behaving Badly then asked her if she was going to go out after the show-she said no :( ) it was so worth it and I’m so glad we stayed.

Sunday we slept in after a long weekend, relaxed all day, went and saw The Social Network (really good) and to dinner. The perfect end to a perfect week! I hope you all out there had a great weekend as well!

Until next time…