blogging goodness

i had been looking forward to last saturday's date, may 3rd, for a long time for several reasons. it would mean the first day after the gift basket bidding was officially closed and so that is obviously huge, but it was really the blog party that i couldn't wait for. for almost a year now i've been reading jill's and kristi's and michelle's blogs and feeling sort of guilty - sort of a voyeur kind of guilt i guess, like maybe because i hadn't met them i didn't really have a right getting to know them on such a personal level. make sense? i was super excited to meet them in person, along with several other women i've grown to admire, the anticipation leading up to the party felt sort of like a class reunion! these girls put on a great party, there was tons of great food - just look at these cupcakes with ribbons! and kristi thought of the ribbon-adorned keyboards as centerpieces - so clever! when we first walked in, jill was right there to greet us and i said, "hi jill, i'm wende" and she laughed and said, "i know who you are!" and gave me a big hug. that was such a great moment for me, it was a little surreal to be taking photographs and having a conversation but at the same time felt totally natural because i know her already! it was great meeting kristi too, i have really loved reading about her cute girls, especially her washington d.c. posts because they take me back to when we lived there. i've also copied several of her ideas already so it seemed only appropriate to be able to thank her in person for sharing her brain with the rest of us - i'm so glad she does! michelle was darling and her lipstick was perfect - of course i was sort of expecting that, and chatting with her was just so delightful, i'm such a fan of her beautiful blog and it was nice to have the opportunitity to tell her so. i met lots of fabulous women and especially loved how much we laughed and laughed trying to get a good group photo. kristi requested the "jazz hands" pose which of course made us laugh harder! good times. i needed those laughs after the stressful couple of months with the fundraiser, it felt so good to stay out until 1:30am! it's been a long time since i've done that just for fun. i loved sharing the experience with my fellow blogger moms, i mean the local ones. of course we all went together and it made it a whole lot less scary to mingle and meet other people knowing we were all there supporting each other. what i really want to say in this post that's getting longer by the minute, is what a blessing blogging has been to me. i draw strength from all these women somehow and it buoys me up to share in their triumphs and struggles because i realize we are all the same this way, we all have good days and bad. and i'm grateful for friends, because seriously, who doesn't need a friend? i love these girls! thanks so much to jill, kristi and michelle for putting on such a great event!