Getting home from #BlogHer 08 was arduous. My red-eye was canceled, and the backup red-eye (from San Jose) was delayed. I slept intermittently between two burly armrest-jockeys in a non-reclining seat. On the way in from JFK, a fire rerouted all the subway traffic. Under normal circumstances, a trip like that could turn anyone into a Grade A misanthrope that would have told the too-perky JetBlue agent where to shove it. But I was a cool cucumber. Eerily content. Happy, even.
That was BlogHer. If you've had the chance to scroll through all the effusive tweets and posts and pictures and other BlogHerbole, believe it. It's all true. And it's taken me four days of Bert wrangling in this dreaded, soppy humidity to string together a coherent sentence about it. (I did manage to upload a few pictures, though.)
The weekend went pretty much according to plan: 1) see old friends, 2) meet up with new ones, 3) overwhelm Twitter, and 4) embarrass myself. But the highlight was the Community Keynote, which you can see here. (I show up about 38 minutes in, and after Eden announces me I recommend you lower your volume. After the lovely Casey, who preceded me with a harrowing tale told with halting sobs, my booming voice might take out some of your glassware.) The 22 pieces came together amazingly well, and when it was over, we all had the feeling we were stepping away from a very satisfying meal.
When the BlogHerati chose me to present a short piece in it, I'm glad no one told me I was about to become the first man to speak at a BlogHer conference. If anyone had, I might not have appeared so calm. It was a great honor, as was inclusion in Rita's "Sleep Is For the Weak" blogthology. In both cases, I was the only man among a crew of delightful, warm, talented, funny, crazyhott women, and I've never been more proud of my token testicles.
Thanks to everyone who made me feel so welcome, and as I ruminate on my place in history--among the Sandra Day O'Connors, Danica Patricks, Harriet Quimbys, and other crusaders for gender equality--I humbly await my Wikipedia page. Could somebody get on that?
