Adventures in blogging

Last night I attended a blogger's gathering at the home of Mimi of Israeli Kitchen. The gathering was also hosted by A Mother-in-Israel. The evening was a fun, informal way of us getting to know each other. There was a planned program, in which we got to "interview" each other. I had fun chatting with Baroness Tapuzina and Isramom, and then introducing them later on in the evening.

I discovered several things there:

1. There is a whole big, beautiful English-writing-Israeli-blogging world out there. People blogging about art, food, financing terrorism (how to identify and prosecute it, not how to do it) and budgeting for Israelis, as well as what it's like to be a start-up wife (we're waiting to hear about that) and about settler life. And of course, Fern Chasida, who gave me a People Magazine Care Package, which I've hidden from my kids.

2. Until three seconds ago, my blog title did not have an apostrophe in it. I don't know why. I've always thought that my basic grammar skills were intact, but was mortified to find out that I've been blogging for over two years without the darn apostrophe. That's practically like being naked.

3. Bloggers are great resources for when you're in trouble. One Tired Ema was kind enough to give me a lift to the blogger's party, but unfortunately her car wouldn't start when it was time to go home. Not to worry, the Baroness and her terror-financing-fighting husband were there to jumpstart the battery. Unfortunately, as soon as they left, the car died again. Robin was still there and told us she wouldn't leave until she knew we were okay. She vaguely remembered a volunteer organization of people who come to your aid when you're stuck on the road. Robin contacted Mom, who got on the internet to try to find this organization. She found Rafi over at Life in Israel (who did not attend the event) awake and he relayed the pertinent information to us via Mom. As luck would have it, that was a dead-end as well. Finally, Robin offered to drive us to the airport, where we grabbed a cab to Modi'in. I arrived home at about 1:15 AM, just in time for the Yankee Pre-game, but that's a whole other story. It was so nice of Tired to offer to drive for the second time, and well, she's pretty good company even in a somewhat stressful situation.

4. If your blog name starts with an A, you'll get alot more hits. I think I'll change the name of this blog to A Blog Called I'll Call Baila (of course, with an apostrophe, what am I, stupid?).

If you head on over to Mom's place, she has a nice synopsis of all the bloggers who attended.

In spite of the car adventure, it was a fun evening, spent with talented, intelligent people. Thank you Mimi and Hannah for organizing this. I hope we do it again soon.