Alkelda, thanks, but I think we’re going to have to go with Chicago. Hope you can get a direct flight there.

Liz and Emma, thanks for joining in with your thoughts. I hope you can both come to a party so we can all be together for just one Saturday night. (Emma, start buying lottery tickets.)

I’ve met lots of lovely friends through my blog (and before that, an internet mailing list). I’ve even met up in real life with people here in Australia! And swapped books with them, a great advantage to meeting people online who share your interests. And one of the things I’m looking forward to when I move to the UK is meeting more of my blog friends. And not just because I’ll need books to read to replace the ones I’m leaving here.

I promise that if I (miraculously without a ticket) win the lotto I’ll be at your party to catch up with all you US blogging folk.

PS: It’s possible I found your blog through the 7-imp interview, too. I think I remember that.

You would like Patrick a lot. He will probably be everyone’s most BFF.

Robin, I do feel like you’re my new best friend and I look forward to coming here and sharing my nice things I did for myself and seeing what you’re up too. It’s very cool.

And Eisha and Jules brought us together (and I love them in their own right, mind you) when I saw your best line “now I’m going to have to recut all the paper dolls” on their self interview.

But just like I don’t have one “real-life” best friend, I don’t have one blogger best friend. Though I do have some BFF (Blog Friends Forever).

Kelly is my touchstone on being a reading mom (and we’re going to meet in person in two days!). Betsy shares my sense of humor. Susan and Jen and Little Willow share my sense of community. And there are so many more bloggers that I like and visit and am getting to know.

Oh, and I think I would really like Patrick. Just from reading his comments I’ll say that. Just putting it out there. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.

I have also been pleasantly surprised by the warmth and congeniality I’ve encountered since I started blogging, and amazed at the real connection I feel to people I’ve never laid eyes on. I wonder if it’s a facet of written conversation, like Sara said, where all the small talk we’d go through if we met for the first time in person is stripped away. There’s something about writing that makes it easier to be honest and direct. And there are never any awkward pauses or other conversational hitches. And also we’re all here because we already have a shared interest - books. So I think it’s kind of like we get to skip a lot of the polite BS we do when meeting strangers in person, and skip right to the good stuff.

Heather, start with “a” for annette, because she obviously needs a sensible friend like you. Then add on the rest of us.