Last night I headed to Sheila and Evo’s house to celebrate Debbie’s birthday Hawaiian style. Second Hawaiian themed party I’ve been to this month, and it was as fantastic as I expected.

As it started out that day, I ran errands that afternoon to find something I was in the mood to bring, ingredients for a dish to take along, and Strongbow for Debbie. I was able to pick myself up some Boddington’s but four stores had no Strongbow? Ridiculous.

By the time evening came around I was ready to head out. First stop though? Coffee for me and then Bevmo to pick up Strongbow. I ordered a large mocha from Solo (mmmm), but on the way to Bevmo discovered a flaw in the cup. It was religiously dripping.. not only on my almost white new pair of jeans but my cup holder was holding about 1/8 of my mocha. Ugh. So there was a detour back to my house to change jeans as well as grab a Pipeline Porter to start the night off, as it has Kona coffee in it. I guess I jinxed myself with the slight mention on twitter that I was thinking about turning my awesome off.

When I finally arrived, I thought I had ended up at the wrong house on accident; it was way too quiet! Good thing I was wrong, because I was ready to party. I handed Debbie her Strongbow and opened up the porter. I was then lei-ed twice at once and thus initiated into party mode.

Sheila made the best red velvet cake, despite it not having a red coloration. I’m serious. It was damn good. And I know red velvet cake. It’s one of the only two cakes I really like. I think for my birthday I will have Sheila make me her red velvet cake and CJ make me her cherry cake of awesome.

There were so many awesome people there and it made me so happy to be invited and considered part of the gang. Sometimes I think I am still an outsider to Phoenix so it’s nice to know that I’m really not. You are all amazing friends. Truly.

Dancing happened. Talking happened. Drunk dials happened. Chaos happened. Good times happened. Sea Monkeys happened.

I also realized that I have been a small topic of conversation. I think I came across last night like it was a bad thing, but it really wasn’t. It was kinda cute and flattering really. You guys are awesome. I have such great friends. Now just hook me up with a man that fits my requirements and we are good!

Oy. Now it’s time for Monday to start.

Now that I think about it, I might try my thought of capturing my tweets.

So without further ado, my day in tweets (The Hits Vol 1):

• Okay all you bright and cheery morning folk. A) Where’s my coffee? B) Why didn’t anyone wake me up earlier?
• Listened to Boy Meets Car, Skindred, Nonpoint, & Framing Hanley on morning commute. I could fight *all* the world’s villains & win right now
• Putting the Biggie dog tag on. That means it’s business time!
• @matthewpetro oh no. You are full of awesome now. There will be *no* stopping you. Time to conquer the world!
• Its damn cold in this room. I could use a snuggie. Wait did I just say that?
• @hollysue I’d much rather snuggle but not sure that would be appropriate in my meeting. Come to think of it not sure a snuggie would either
• If meetings = productivitty I’m doin it right. #productivitywednesday
• Thinking this issue w not finding the perfect laptop bag might give insight into why I can’t stay in a relationship lol.
• @WaynesWhirled I will take any suggestions I can get. However I must warn the rejection rate has been high

I haven’t felt like blogging much lately. I always think of things I want to say but then become too lazy or occupied with something else to elaborate on them so they just end up on twitter instead. I should start posting my tweets throughout the day when stuff like that happens.

I’m wondering if it’s the craziness catching up with me or that I’m becoming more of a twitter addict. Hmmmmm…..

Anywho, once again nothing super fantastic tonight because I’m either going to be motivated to work or motivated to head to bed!

Last night, East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn) was at Studio 5C in Tempe. It is three flights up on a building on the corner of 5th and College and has a gorgeous view of the skyline and the mountains. The artwork was fantastic and it was sponsored so we had free beverages and snacks (yay).

I hung out with my typical crowd and met some more people too (always fun). After viewing the art and chatting it up for awhile, I was convinced to head to Rula Bula after being told they had Strongbow on tap. Chaos soon began of course, and I believe I was quoted on twitter several times (and there were probably a dozen more that didn’t make the cut). We chatted, sang, I probably danced, and I got to try the most amazing ice cream I’ve ever had!!!! Well it’s definitely in the top five at least.

Afterwards, a few of us came back to my house to play Rock Band and it was fantastic.

This morning I had about 7 twitter friend follow requests. Yay

I’ve been spending a lot of time since I have been back from Vancouver thinking about what I could possibly write about Interaction 09 and all that I learned and experienced while I was there. I have realized that it was about so much more than the education on techniques, processes, and deliverables that were shared in workshops, lightning rounds, and keynotes; it was also about friendship.

There is no way for me to completely describe how amazing the experience was from a personal level. Up until Interaction, I had never met any of the people that were attending face to face. Thanks to Crowdvine I was able to begin tracking the people that I wanted to meet. There were people that I had conversed with through volunteering for the IxDA via email and phone. There were some that I had found through the lovely IxD twitter crowd, and there were some I was just plain a fan of. Not only did I end up meeting nearly all the people I had aimed to (Christian, I promise next time we are doing coffee or something), but I met so many more that I admired and those I had never been aware of until the conference started.

I made some great professional connections, but even more than that, made truly mind-blowing friendships; friendships that are truly real and extremely overwhelming, to the point of being emotional. Being around so many talented minds was truly inspirational.

However, as with anything else, I also learned that some relationships end up being one sided. Sometimes these relationships can appear to be fantastic, but when evaluated, it’s learned that you are the one putting all the effort into the relationship and making it work. Not much is being returned to you. While this does have to be done on occasion especially when learning a new craft or skill, I feel that mentors and other role-models should play a more active role in those relationships. It made me start to evaluate who I interact with on a daily basis through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, and email.

And now, a list of people that I found truly awesome at Interaction, that I hope to continue to learn from and build better friendships with.

If I am following you on twitter (and even if I’m not), chances are very good I want to keep in touch. My account is locked, but please request a follow. My id is @toniambartz

• Mario - I cannot even begin to describe how truly energizing it is to even be around you. You are so inspiring and great to be around. Hell you completely threw me off my rocker and flattered me when you said I was an amazing person. You’re always in a good mood and constantly trying to make sure everyone else is having a good time.
• Denise - Super awesome woman!! We didn’t get to see a lot of each other (and I’m always told I’m the social butterfly), but hopefully that won’t happen again.
• Matt - I enjoyed meeting you. It was great to hear about all the awesome things that Toronto’s IxDA group is doing and to have some good IxD conversations as well.
• Liz - It was so awesome to finally meet you and be able to have discussions about IxDA, the profession in general and just get to hang out. I look forward to helping out more with the organization.
• Dante - What a great and innovative session you led at the conference. Not to mention you are fun to hang out with. And hey, anyone that thinks I’m awesome is a friend of mine. I hope we keep in touch.
• Eric (kink.com guy) - It was determined we are tied for the best business cards right? Rock out.
• Will - It was great to get to hang out with you, and no, not just because you had the kick ass suite. Maybe it was because we stalked each other haha. Hope we keep in touch, and hopefully will be at another conference together at some point!
• Whitney - Any friend of Mario’s has got to be phenomenal. It was nice to meet another down to earth woman around my age that is passionate about her career.
• Nasir - Glad to have had the chance to spend time with you and discuss the organization as well as hear your ideas for local groups. Next time I will be at karaoke for sure!
• Shaun - I cannot believe it took us until the last day of Interaction to meet. Thank you so much for all your help before the conference in regards to local groups and I hope to continue sharing that knowledge in the future.
• Angel - Loved getting to meet you finally. Any friend of Colleen’s is a friend of mine. Thank you for all of your help and support with starting up a local group.

If I left your name out I truly apologize. There was no way I was going to be able to write about everyone tonight - I would never get to sleep. I want to keep the friendships and conversation going.

Pics of my adventure are scattered both on Flickr and Facebook

Well tonight is my last night at home for quite a few days (close to a week). I am currently working on running the dishwasher, doing laundry, and updating my phone plan to an international one. I might not be awake enough to pack tonight but I will be in a great position to crash early tonight and pack tomorrow morning.

I am headed to Vancouver for Interaction 09 tomorrow morning and will be there until Monday evening. I am so excited for not only my first trip to Vancouver and my first professional conference, but also to meet so many IxD colleagues I have connected with via Twitter, mailing lists and other outlets. I will be attending some fantastic workshops and hearing some fantastic speakers.

I am going to be disabling my incoming and outgoing text messages while I’m there to try and curve the cost of international calling, but those will be back on sometime next week. I am also going to attempt to limit data usage on my BlackBerry so twitter and email access will be whenever I am able to use wireless on my laptop.

Tomorrow I will be trading in my sandals and tank tops for hats, scarves, and boots. I’ll see my PHX peeps later on, and I’ll see my IxD crazies tomorrow!!!

I crossed something off my list last night - going out by myself. One thing that is so great about Phoenix is all the things that go on and how there is such a sense of small community in such a large metropolitan area. Every Friday there is a gathering after work in the East Valley called EVFN. This week I decided to go and see what happened. It started out at the Blue Adobe Grille in Mesa, which ended up being a disaster. We retreated for another bar shortly later, which ended up having karaoke. I also was able to put faces to some twitter folk, never a bad thing!

I planned two things for Friday night so I had to leave early to head back to Tempe to go to Last Exit. I was headed there to meet another twitter gal. Her boyfriend’s band, Sawcello was playing, and I love live music and we both have realized we are going to be BFF’s soon… and we were right. The band was great but I was tired by the time the night was over.

I’m sure part of this will sound odd. Especially since although I am very much very involved in new and emerging technology and social media blah blah blah, I am not one to do the friends online that I don’t really know thing. With that being said, Twitter has become a great networking tool since I’ve moved and it’s really helped me connect, find things to do, and find others in the area with common interests. Yay to twitter helping the transplant.