I'm Having a Party. Won't You Come?

Auds at Barking Mad is hosting a virtual dinner party. Each participant is supposed to invite 10 bloggers so we can all meet new and wonderful people in Blogoslovakia. Welcome to my party!

I'm going to try to go off of the beaten path today and invite some people that I met at BlogHer that I had (mostly) never read before. These people are fascinating, talented, intriguing, funny, and more. Pull up a chair, grab a glass of wine, and make your self at home! (To my old pals: don't hate me! I really couldn't only invite 10 of you, could I?)

First I would like to extend an invitation to Sarah from Dopp Juice. She was on a great panel at BlogHer that discussed coming clean to your readers about BIG issues in your life, some that you don't necessarily discuss with people in your real life. I was blown away by her maturity (she's only 25!) and her poise. I was lucky enough to get to meet her on Saturday evening and have a great chat. Read her writing and you'll see what I mean.

After talking with Sarah on Saturday I got to meet Genie of In a Bottle. She's a newlywed-she and her husband are still trying to get in to their new house. Won't you go give them some luv?

I can't forget my new AllMediocre pal Andrea from The Sweet Life. She is as cute as her name. And if you thought that you had interesting thoughts about the Olympics, just read this.

Also, Kellan from On The Upside. We really bonded over our kids of similar age and our frequent trips outside to enjoy the refreshing San Fransisco breeze. ;-) And not only that, she just had her bloggoversary!

I also ran into Erika several times over the weekend. She writes at bipolarlawyercook and covers it all! I enjoyed getting to laugh with her over the craziness that was around us sometimes. She writes about her own brand of craziness with such grace and open-ness-very refreshing!

I enjoyed a great dinner with Jennifer (and a bunch of others) on Friday night. She blogs about Green parenting and going non-toxic in your homes at The Smart Mama. Lots of great info there, friends, and she does her homework and will call you on it. She's also a lawyer and her husband is a crash-test dummy. I'm not lying!!

I can't leave out Amie from Mamaloves. Anyone who puts "I peed on myself...and immediately went home to blog it" on their business card definitely deserves a place at this table. She's having a rough go right now-go give her some luv!

Next I'd invite Leslie-her three sites make me feel undereducated, but she never did. An amazingly smart woman with a passion for the education of our children, we had a great talk on Thursday night. She also writes for BlogHer in the Research, Academia, and Education. Yikes!

I'd also invite and Missy. She is so young and has such great energy, and certainly gets the award for Longest Flight-she came all the way from Australia!

Finally, I would extend a special invitation to Jenn of Mommy Needs Coffee. It is hard to express what she means to me. We have some things in common-we're moms, we have teens and elementary school kids, but the bonding went way beyond that. I would never have thought a 'rock star' blogger and I would hang out like we did, but we did. And I could have talked to her all weekend. She is funny and sensitive and open and...I don't know. We just clicked. Thanks, Jenn, for a great first BlogHer experience!

Headless Dad has decided that we will serve Chateaubriand, with Bernaise, potatoes, and asparagus. (Sorry if you're a vegetarian-I'll be sure to have salad and other stuff on hand, but you'll be missing out. He's a fantastic cook!) So while you're waiting on each course, grab a glass of wine and check out these great blogs over the long weekend, let them know you were there, then come back here and tell me what you thought!

*****

Thanks for hanging out for my party. Now I'm going to go party the weekend away with my husband's company on a 3 day cruise to Mexico for their 50th anniversary.

That is after we take Headless Girl to move into her dorm. Don't start! I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Hopefully I will have some great pictures to share, and a post that won't render me sobbing in the corner about MAH BABEE. A mom just has to be ready to talk about these things.