Sunday, October 18, 2009

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.

13 comments:

Robin said...

It was a fun night, and everyone handled their various transportation headaches with aplomb and a good sense of humor, too. It was great to finally meet you face to face, we'll have to do it again soon.

OneTiredEma said...

At least the whole time out in the parking lot I never felt unsafe. You know, I can't say that I would have felt that way in NYC--I used to run early in the morning, but one of our doormen got mugged two blocks away from our building during daylight hours...

Anonymous said...

Nice to read about the same event from a different perspective.

Anonymous said...

Ever since I read MII's post on the topic I can't get Naomi Shemer's song out of my head (which is not necessarily a bad thing, but still)

Risa Tzohar said...

It was great meeting everyone and I'm glad you made it home OK in the end. The only thing I can think of is 'at least it wasn't raining'.
Looking forward to our next meet up!

Baroness Tapuzina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I am sorry we didn't wait a little bit longer. I am so thankful Robin was able to give you a ride to the airport. It was great meeting everyone and I can't wait for the next meet up.

Leora said...

"without the darn apostrophe" - And here I thought you had a dark, mysterious reason! Oh, well.

I am not sure if you are all real or just characters in a play. It feels like a soap opera sometimes, reading all the various English language Israeli blogs. Thanks!

mother in israel said...

Leora, LOL. I came to see the apostrophe in person. Now I understand your tag line too. Alls right in the world. :)

Gila Rose said...

Totally thought the apostrophe thing was a cool, funky, I'm-so-modern-I-don't-need-punctuation thing, ala ee cummings.

Mrs. S. said...

What better time to discover one's "apostrophe-nakedness" than on Motzai Shabbat of Parshat Breishit...
:-)

SuperRaizy said...

I always wondered about the apostrophe.

Marta said...

THANK G-D you are adding the comma! It's been bothering me FOREVER! Every time I saw it I thought "ill" of it. I just assumed that technically you couldn't put punctuation in the title of your blog. What a relief!
Marta