In the best way, I am bushed. So.flipping.tired. I head home tomorrow and will be glad to be back, but it's been a really special week, and I'm enormously grateful for time with dear friends, for myself, to learn, to reconnect with and get to know better some blogger pals, and to enjoy a needed break from motherhood. How much fun was I having in these pics?!

Since arriving in LA on Thursday, I've been inspired and moved and energized repeatedly.

I can tell you that Mayim Bialik is a seriously cool, intelligent, grounded, thoughtful, and funny woman. Check out her new website, GrokNation, which is about all the things that move and interest her. As someone who has been encouraged to narrow the focus of Em-i-lis but who has chafed at that idea, it was refreshing to hear Mayim say, "Yeah, from a marketing perspective, my site isn't easy, but I love a lot of things so why can't I write about them?"

Amen.

I can tell you that this country is a more exciting, honest, funny, good place because of women, writers and activists like Jenny Yang, Luvvie Ajayi, Taz Ahmed, Lucy McBath (Mothers of the Movement, Everytown for Gun Safety), and Sallie Krawcheck.

"When you stop being afraid of what failure looks like, some really cool stuff happens." -Luvvie

"'We' is not just your family." -Jenny Yang

"Use any privilege you have to amplify less-privileged voices." -Luvvie

"I had to get past the grief, the 'never will haves' and get up each day and do what I had been teaching Jordan to do." -Lucy McBath (mother of Jordan Davis who was shot and killed in 2012 by a Jacksonville man angry at Davis for playing the music in his car too loudly)

Yep, that's me and Luvvie, and there's Tig on the right.

I can tell you that Michelle Dockery is going to be terrific in Good Behavior, and I look forward to the show starting in November. I can also tell you that I continue to love Tig Notaro, saw a sneak of her new show, One Mississippi, today and got to sit 20 feet from her in the Q&A afterwards. It was great, and when the whole of season 1 becomes available on Amazon on September 9, I'm watching!

I can tell you that when you meet someone who blows you away, who intrigues you, who makes you think "I want to know her/him." you should do what you can do to make that happen. Two or three years ago, at a food writing conference in Richmond, VA, Denise Vivaldo led a session on food styling. She is talented, hilarious, irreverent, and she lives big and joyfully.

I had to get to know her. And, thanks to Facebook, I've been able to. On Friday night, she had me over, and we sat in her backyard, drank champagne, talked and cracked up repeatedly. What an absolute and totally cool few hours. It never hurts to reach out, y'all. Never hurts to ask and try.

And I can tell you that investing in yourself -with time, self care, education, rest, welcoming good people into your life- is something most of us, including me, don't do nearly enough but need to do much more. We deserve and require self-investment and so should not feel guilty about doing it. I struggle mightily with this but will continue to work to better balance my life and make my Self a priority more often. This week away has reminded me of all the value and happiness and lightness that come from doing so.

Are you familiar with Denise Vivaldo, a renowned food stylist in LA who also writes for the Huff Post and is an absolute dynamo? I hadn't heard of her until Friday afternoon when she lit up a panel at the MidAtlantic Food Writers Symposium. Later that night, in reviewing the next day's schedule, I was thrilled to see that she would be co-leading the Perfect Plates seminar, a three-and-a-half hour food styling and photography session.

People, Denise is one of the most charismatic, hilarious forces of nature I've ever met. I about fell out after every sentence. I would give an arm to have recorded her presentation, simply to belly-ache laugh again and again. There was something about the importance of lighting in relation to "just thinking about Barbra Streisand," some priceless commentary about Sandra Lee and a Kwanzaa cake, another bit about something being as elusive as seeing a panther in the wild during the day. I loved Denise's candor, her confidence, her strength and her seemingly complete awareness about her strengths -and playing on them- and her weaknesses. I really admire the sense of her I got. What a tough and cool cookie.

She offered a wealth of great advice and Adam Ewing, the photographer who co-taught the session, was a real talent as well. Made me want to go buy a couple new lenses, a buffet of fabulous props and get busy!

`````````` On another note, as Jack doesn't like most cake or any frosting, he asked for a huge Oreo for his birthday. I ordered the Nordic Ware creme filled wafer cake pans, but we worried that they wouldn't make thin or crunchy enough wafers. I'll return those and in the meantime started testing recipes. Today's maiden voyage was my take on a recipe I found on Momables. These were really tasty though Oreos they were not. Ol, T and I totally enjoyed them, but J said "No," probably because the filling wasn't firm or fake enough. Heh. So, I'll keep chugging along, but for now, eye candy for you!