What A Great Day

I had the pleasure of attending the Milblog Conference held in Washington DC today, what an incredible experience. I was considering skipping it, because I really need to start cleaning and packing for my move, but decided that I should go. I'm so glad I did, I would have kicked myself for months if I would have skipped it.

First, thanks to Andi of Andi's World for putting most everything together. She did an incredible job with the panels, location, sponsors, and speakers. She also allowed me to meet a few of my favorite bloggers, so thanks again!

The first people I saw when I entered, no surprise volunteering to help out at the welcome table, were Greta and Silke (who's name I can now pronounce) from Hooah! Wife. Greta has every bit of energy I imagined she would, and looks just like the picture on her blog.

If you ever hold an event and need someone to walk around with the microphone for speakers, Greta did an awesome job :) Silke is a wonderful lady also, and I'm glad I got a chance to meet her in person. It never dawned on me how close she actually lives, we could have met sooner.

I had a great time with them, and Toni from Bear Creek Ledger at lunch (thanks Military.com, great chow). It's not often I get to sit with a table full of lovely ladies at lunch.

I also got to meet David, of the Thunder Run, who frequently links with his web recon posts. Thanks for the publicity.

A real pleasure was meeting Uncle Jimbo and Matt from Black Five. While I read their blog regularly, I was amazed to find out just how much Matt does for the military blogger community. Jimbo is as funny in person as on the blog, and Matt is as good a speaker as he is a writer.

Speaking of people who do a lot, Holly Aho from Soldiers Angels was there, that's a group that does a ton of good things, and can always use some extra support.

Kit and Heidi from Euphoric Reality were there, and live blogged the event (here's a link to the third panel's discussion). They did an awesome job of getting the event up in close to real time on their blog. It was a delight to meet them since they did so much to help get my traffic up when the Murtha proposal went before the house. By the way, how many points do I get for leaving Kit speechless?

Finally, the highlight of my day was meeting two very special people, Carla from Some Soldiers Mom, and Stacy from Keep My Soldier Safe.

While I've been deployed, and been in harms way, I never experienced it from a "family member" standpoint until the soon to be son-in-law made his first trip to the desert. These two wonderful women have put into words on their blogs a lot of what I thought about the whole time he was gone. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have a third of Carla's talent with words, or Stacy's incredible humility and down home charm.

As soon as I met them both they asked about him, and my daughter, when his next deployment is, what's up with wedding plans. Knowing how many readers they both have, it amazed me that they remember so much.

I won't try and describe the panel discussions, and what they covered, check out LaShawn Barber who is a wonderfully friendly person, and Euphoric Reality and the others who live blogged the event, and Mudville Gazette for the wrap up.

Thanks to the VFW, Military.Com and all the others who made the event possible, I appreciated all of your efforts.

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