What do you do all night?

After going out to an author talk/mom-gathering with fellow bloggers (neither of whom I had met before, but who were both very charming and funny), I...

• Briefly consider checking my email/blogging but decide instead to go up to bed.
  
  
• Tell my husband all the interesting and funny parts of the evening, even as I consider what I can blog about.
  
  
• Wonder whether/what my companions will write about the evening and meeting me.
  
  
• Think about hair and how unfair it is that some people have such amazing long curls while I suffer from the blandly mid-length, not a curl in sight yet completely frizzed out in places 'do.
  
  
• Consider whether Amy Scheibe (the author whose reading we attended) realizes that she kind of lost us when she talked about her live-in nanny.
  
  
• Feel catty for even thinking that, considering what a pro-mommy, we-are-all-connected kind of event this was.
  
  
• Decide it is ok not to feel at one with all mothers, given what Amy said about the tendency for there to be an upswing in all things pro-mom during wartime. (See WW1, WW2...) Interesting point, and as an editor she's got to know that momlit is a nice little marketing niche. But her book seemed funny and I was entertained by the reading, so what's with the snark? Why do I have a stick up my butt about fiction targeted at women (much less at mommies)? Is it a holdover from continually refusing to allow my bookclub to read books I find insulting to my intelligence, gender and common sense? I think that I am resistant to this kind of book (mommy lit) because it is such a hot marketing niche. I'm sure the sponsors of last night's event (a mom-focused cable channel that also dabbles in blogs) like to get women together for discussions and snacks. But they also want to promote their ventures, and this is a cheap way to do it. Pay for some two-buck chuck, some crackers and cheese and Voila! buzz for you and your featured authors.
  
  
• Laugh about how quickly a literary event turns into a discussion of breast-feeding, naked children and naked parents and how much sex is expected/wanted/hoped for after babies.
  
  
• Inspired by some things Ms. Scheibe and this clever blogger said last night, I wonder how to write a full post about the extent to which (mom)blogging provides a format in which we are supported for sharing our insecurities, failings and misgivings, at the same time we are ridiculed or slammed for pronouncing our strengths and joys (particularly when those are outside of the traditional realm of parenting/wifedom, or suggest we value other things as much as our families...).
  
  
• Decide to think about these things in the morning, roll over and slide quickly into sleep.