First let me mention the people in my super-exclusive inner-circle posse. In no particular order except that Elizabeth totally comes first. She picked me up and dropped me off from the airport, she let me stay with her, she let me rant at her drunkenly, she designatedly drove me home, and she never betrayed the slightest hint that it was anything other than a pleasure to do it. She is my goddess.

Then there are others. Weetabix, who is not only a wonderful friend who gave me the tiara I wore all weekend, but hosted a Sweet Suite party that allowed us to escape from the hotel bar, with their eleven-dollar drinks and their wall-to-wall hipsters. (Also her sidekick Chauffi, who would kill me if he had to, but I love him anyway.)

Speaking of presents, I got tons of compliments on the adorable little marble-purse that Angelina made for me after I told her last year how much I wanted one. It has my name on it in marbles. It is the coolest. I must take a picture so you understand the coolness.

Chiara let me cry on her shoulder and played Ms. Pac-Man with me and told me I'm not allowed to post the kissing picture that got a little out of control which is really too bad for the internet because it is hot. Corina bought me shots at karanoke and said, "You know the saying 'drink till she's pretty'? I'm going to drink till this is fun." (We had lots of fun. And lots of shots.) Mandy made time for a heart-to-heart with me in the middle of Kat's crazy vodka party.

My fellow (by which I mean hot) panelists: Juliekins, Juju and Kat, I just can't say enough about them. These gorgeous, wonderful, articulate women. They render me speechless. And Russiagirl who is not only adorable and gracious, but gave me a hat. Had I not been wearing my tiara, that hat would be in all my Journalcon pictures.

I moderated a panel with Bix, Trance and Suzy on anonymity (which I really should have learned to pronounce before I moderated a panel about it) during which we served mimosas and I uttered the sentence "I'm a total whore!" and then I think spilled secrets about my sex life or something. Thanks, girls! It was an excellent panel, at least I hope it was.

Rob showed me the body of Woodrow Wilson. (File that under "not a euphemism, but should be.") Coleen was the sweetest and the prettiest. Pineapple told the best jokes and gave the best gossip. The Matthew Show didn't mind that I kept calling him that all weekend and has a charming wife. Monty did some a cappella karaoke for me.

Dawnie, Rebekah, Kate, Maxwell, Molly--I list you all together not because you are interchangeable, but because I cannot think of five different adjectives that all mean adorable. Sassy is sassy and has the best smile. Mare and Laura are shinier than the Hope Diamond. Mary Kay (not affiliated with Journalcon) had the best hand gestures.

There were also more than the average number of cute couples: I remember LovingLavender (whose handle I had wrong--oops) & Mike, Minarae & Petrouchka, and then a guy named Sean and a guy named Eric, both of whom were lovely and have lovely significant others, neither of whose names I can remember one hundred percent. (I have guesses. These guesses might be wrong. I'm pretty sure one of them was Science Girl.) But I mention them anyway because I really liked them. ("Sure she did. She liked us so much she forgot our names.") But I-- sigh. Yeah, I suck.

As you may have noticed, for me the conference is about the people far more than about the conference. This year there seemed to be a few glitches--events that were supposed to happen but didn't, timing being off, that sort of thing. I was afraid that people had fallen through the cracks, especially first-time Journalcon people. Seems like a lot of people had a good time, though, and that's great to see. The one person who (notoriously) didn't have a good time was someone I didn't even get a chance to meet.

Outside of the actual Journalcon events (which were a couple of panels, karanoke, and a whole lot of parties in people's rooms), I went to the Smithsonian on Friday with Weetabix and Mary Kay. Among other things I saw Mr. Rogers's sweater, Julia Child's kitchen, and the Hope Diamond.

On Sunday I went to the National Cathedral with Rob (who took all the good pictures) and Elizabeth. As I was telling them, although I'm not Catholic anymore--or even religious-- magnificent buildings like the cathedral still have the power to move me emotionally, and I think they always will.

Speaking of emotional movement, that's it for Journalcon! If I screwed up your name, your link, your picture-posting preferences, or I didn't mention you because I am not quite sure what your name was even though we totally bonded, drop me a line. Had a fabulous time this year. Mean it.