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(Thanks to Kristie Wells for the beautiful picture of Grace with the newspaper story about Blogher.)

What follows is a very long post about BlogHer ‘06. While usually I’d blog this at my personal blog, A Mama’s Rant, I feel an obligation to my editors at ClubMom who gave me the pass to the conference and to my fellow ClubMom bloggers as well. I’ll come back to books and food tomorrow.

BlogHer ‘06 was amazing. And I’m still exhausted. That’s what 13 1/2 hours of sleep over 3 days will do to you. (When Arianna Huffington in the closing keynote talk mentioned that sleep deprivation is a huge issue, I had to laugh.)

First, meeting many of the ClubMom bloggers, as Amy has already documented so well, was thrilling. These women are smart, fun, silly, serious, haughty, goofy, lovely, warm, generous and every other adjective you can think of to describe a group of awesome women. There’s great joy in finding such like minded people who 1) know what a blog is, 2) can have deep conversations about blogging, politics, motherhood, and business plans, and 3) can have a lot of fun too, like the me. you. me. discussion and drunken yoga at 3 a.m. (I think it was Jenny of Big Slice, but it was dark out.)

But there’s sadness, too. I have a lot of acquaintances but few deep friendships outside of my family. There’s very few women I’ve met in my life that I truly click with. Several are in the Chicago/Milwaukee area, one in San Diego, and a couple down in Denver. With one exception, many of the women I’ve been hanging with locally don’t "get it" whether it’s about blogging, motherhood, politics, feminism, music, or education. And my girlfriends who do "get it" are far, far away or too busy to get together except for a couple of times per year, if that.

I have so much more in common with the women who attended BlogHer (those at ClubMom and women who blog elsewhere) than I do with people in my neighborhood, and that really pisses me off. Yet, through ClubMom and BlogHer I have access to virtual sisterhood of like minded souls who I hope to keep meeting and working with in the future. Maybe one of you will move to my neighborhood, too. (Yes, Genuine is only a mile away, but he’s a fella and his kids all have cooties. Mrs. Genuine’s cool though.)

Then I want to give a few shout outs as well (and if I leave your name out, please don’t take it personally. Just blame the sleep deprivation and the martinis.)

Tracy at ClubMom. Thanks for the pass and helping me to get to BlogHer in the first place. Many kowtows in your direction.

Erin of Queen of Spain who inspires me by daring to write about the upkeep of her nether regions. She’s funny, a terrific writer, and came to my emotional rescue when the blogtards in my Colorado neighborhood came after me after I dared to write about the local school district and the apathy of parents out here. Erin’s husband - who’s incredibly cool too - gave me excellent advice about vasectomies on the second night of BlogHer (and bought me a drink as well). Unfortunately, Paul ain’t buying it because he’s convinced, due to my fabulous driving skills, that I will kill myself and our children. So he won’t be a pathetic and lonely widower, he needs "his boys" intact to start a new family. Sigh.

Grace of State of Grace and Marathon Mom who truly lives up to her name and inspires us all. Honestly, I want her to adopt me but she’s too young. However, I could always use a big sister.

Denise of Fast Times at Homeschool High. Not only do I love her blog’s book lists and cool homeschooling ideas, but I found out her partner runs Retro Food, one of my favorite food blog sites. It’s cool to meet other people who love vintage kitsch and food.

Arianna Huffington, the Jackie O. of the blogosphere. Not only is she gorgeous, smart and talented, but warm and approachable. An inspiration.

Devra of Parentopia.net and Mommy Guilt - finally we meet! What a warm, wonderful woman and one of the marvelous Jewish female bloggers I met at conference. She makes me long for the Jewish female community of my youth.

The Food Bloggers, as chronicled by Kalyn’s Kitchen and Elise of Simply Recipes. (That’s me in the lower left hand corner of the picture.) Elise gave a wonderful class on Audience Building and I hope to use many of her ideas to clean up my blogs and increase traffic.

Mecca Ibrahim (a.k.a. Annie Mole of Going Underground) who was lovely (and not just because of her English accent) and so much fun to talk to and drink/eat with. Brilliant!

Jim Turner of Genuine and Amy Gahran of Contentious. Go Coloradans!

Joan Blades of MomsRising.com - The documentary was cool, I just wish more people attended. Can’t wait for the nation wide houseparties to view the final cut.

Finally, the Great Classes and Discussions that inspired me to take my blogging further: Audience Building and Monetizing Your Blog. Mommy Blogging is a Radical Act. Writing Naked. Ten Types of Web Writing. Thanks to all the presenters and participants.

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