[General impressions on the NBN Convention will have to wait for another post.]
Rachel Yechezkel and I had planned to travel together, then agreed to try and meet at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. Despite my bus running 45 minutes late and “resting” on the side of the highway a few times, Rachel had stuck around and we went on to NBN together. I realized we had met before, when I picked her up off the street and brought her to our book club. (I do this regularly.) Later she moved to a different town.
I noticed the nursing mother as soon as I walked in. This just had to be someone I knew. . . . Sure enough, it was Abbi. (For the record, she was nursing discreetly.) The baby fussed and made it difficult for Abbi to enjoy the panels, which in my opinion held little interest for non-bloggers (and for at least some bloggers, apparently). I mentioned both Abbi and Klara, another participating commenter, in my half-minute of fame on the webcast. (You didn’t miss anything, unless you are curious about what I look like. What the heck, you can look here. I’m on the right next to Rachel; Safranit is on the other side. Notice what she’s doing?)
Frum Satire and I met at the refreshment table. I’ve read his kiddush posts so I was sure to position myself well.
Yael, a podcast blogger, is a fan of this blog. (I had no idea.) Yael has young children and especially likes my posts on breastfeeding. She notes that I have a “lot of good stuff” in the older part of my blog.
I was disappointed to speak to Baila only briefly.
Carl and my husband go way back. According to him, his wife doesn’t believe anyone reads his blog. He was afraid to tell her that he was spending half a day at NBN a week before their son’s wedding.
Chana (Jenny) Weisberg admires this blog.
Rafi shared details of his camping trip–see his post for more.
Jameel made a DVD containing current episodes of Srugim, because he felt sorry for my TV-less status.
Gila now has a car and promised to visit and tour my beautiful town.
Yael (Oleh Girl) and I spoke about the next flu epidemic, which is scary stuff. I’ve read both John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza on the 1917 pandemic, and an historical novel based on that book called The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen. It’s about a town that tried to isolate itself to prevent infection. Yael’s comment: “It didn’t work, right?”
Back in November, Yaakov Kirschen of the Dry Bones Blog, competed with me, Treppenwitz, and seven others in the 2007 Weblog Awards–Africa and the Middle East. It turns out he never even knew he was a finalist . . .
I introduced myself to Seraphic Secret, an American blogger flown in by NBN, and asked him why he wasn’t on a panel. He replied that he doesn’t think about marketing or traffic (the only panel relevant for non-Isrealis). “They tell me I have a large readership,” he said. When I thanked him for linking to me, he said it was his pleasure and that I have a very nice blog. That pleased me enormously.
Doubletapper asked me to inform my readers that he is not an action figure. His gun looked real.
Israellycool‘s wife is a good friend of mine (I think that’s me he’s talking about here.) But after Frum Satire’s comments I know better than to ask Dave to put me on his blogroll. 
I met many other bloggers, but could not find Miriam or Elisheba.
Rachel, Lisha and I took a taxi back to the bus station. Lisha mentioned that Israelis find her “videos of the ordinary” boring, but non-Israelis love them. We noticed someone with an NBN tag, who turned out to be an oleh chadash named Gavi. Gavi thinks that running errands in Beit Shemesh is more interesting than his conversation with me, and that’s his prerogative. (He may be right in this case.)
Read more on Selected Conversations from the NBN Conference…
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