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Just An Online Minute... Internet Week Party Roundup, Part One

Internet Week New York

Party Roundup: Part Une

As Internet Week 12011 winds down, it appears that my liver and sanity both made it out unscathed. Mostly.

The first party on my Internet Week itinerary Monday was the joint eHow and Rachael Ray event at Bar Basque. I was a little apprehensive because the last Rachael Ray event I went to was horrible -- stale food, weird drinks and an awkward venue. So, imagine my surprise when I walked to the balcony to find a beautiful setup of food stations, pleasant music, great decorations and delicious drinks. Rachael showed up and buzzed around, made acquaintances with the guests, had a glass of wine and made her exit all in about a fifteen-minute time span. I couldn't stay long because I had to go to the Internet Week kickoff party at Internet Week headquarters. Before I left, however, I found Patrick Durkin of Coburn, who'd invited me to the event. He's from Baltimore and I recently got into "The Wire," so we spent some time talking about the genius of David Simon and how I once got lost after an Orioles game and was scared for my life. 2

I was already an hour late to the kickoff party, so I scurried out of Bar Basque and hailed a cab. When I got to the party, I realized that, while I was invited, I hadn't RSVP'ed. I frantically searched through my email and found many "Internet Week RSVPs," but none that matched the party I was at. The girl at the regular line was onto me, so I tried to play it off while looking at my phone and said, "Oh, I'm a VIP. Where's that check-in?" She pointed me to a far-off table where I walked up to the gatekeeper and announced that "Jessica" and I had been corresponding that day and she had just added me to VIP. Now, I don't know any Jessicas, and I had3n't been corresponding with anyone about the event, but, after years of honing my bluffing skills, I've come to find that if you deliver your BS just right, no one will question you. And what do you know? The guy at the VIP table apologized to me for not being on the list and granted me access. Open bar time!

I found Jocelyn Johnson of Miller PR. Jocelyn's quickly becoming my NYC BFF because we work together a lot and both love Korean fried chicken. She was with David Wood of DECA. DECA is a lady-centric digital media company. I met with DECA's CEO, Michael Wayne, a few weeks ago and was interested in talking with David about what they were working on. The only problem was that the music was so obnoxiously loud that I couldn't hear anything. I went into "smile and nod" mode and interjected some "this music is so loud!" screams while pointing to my ears. It's okay, though, because I was set to attend DECA's Inter3net Week party that Thursday (more on that event in Part Deux of this report) where the music wouldn't be deafening.

It was about 10 p.m., early for this night owl, but I was already getting tired and grouchy. The Meebo After Party hadn't even started yet, but I was sure I wasn't going. I had a lot on my plate the next day and just wanted to shower and sleep.

The next day, I went to the CementBloc party that I wrote about yesterday. After that, I went back to Internet Week Headquarters for the Kaboodle 5th Anniversary fashion show sponsored by Bloomingdale's. The models were bloggers and influencers, and I was excited to see my friend Emily Gannett of IRL Productions walk the runway. It was a great event and I unfortunately don't have anything snarky to say about it. The bar was well stocked, the lines were short, there was a fun photo booth, the gift bag was fantastic and no one was rude to me! I even met one of my favorite bloggers, Ashley Brady from The Luxury Spot. I may have freaked her out a little when I went up to her and said, "Hi, are you Ashley? I know your picture from the Internet and I love your blog!" But she was a good sport about it even though my plus-one was visibly mortified that I went up to a stranger and announced that, "I know you from the Internet." Oh, well! The show ended and I blew off the other parties to go to Gramercy with my friends to drink wine and eat 5spaghetti.

More adventures in Internet Week 2011 parties to come next week...

As always, if you want to invite me to a party, email carrie@mediapost.com. Also, more pics from Internet Week will be on Facebook - "Just an Online Carrie."

 Thanks to Insider Images's house photographer, Gary He, for the Kaboodle Fashion Show pictures.

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