I’m quite comfortable in the company of women (I’m the middle child of two sisters*). Still, I felt a little nervous heading to the Blogher conference in Chicago. But my date with hundreds of Bloggers, web junkies, and one lover of Cuban jazz just when I needed one was incredible: an ambush of new people overflowing with ideas—some even making a living doing what they love.

Overheard within my first hour at Blogher:

“My name is Sheila. I blog about family travel and motorsports.”
“My name is Dave Wescott. I blog about blogging. … I’m sorry.”

Sitting down to take in a panel of online communities, I met Gabrielle Blair, aka the DesignMom, who’s also the cofounder of SK-RT, which I’m calling the hot idea at the conference (or, as we like to say, this season’s Twitter**). SK-RT is like a cross between DIGG, Real Simple, Lucky, and Daily Candy—a peer-to-peer story recommendation site for women. It’s brilliant.

I immediately SK-RT’d our Beautiful Pregnant Women series. If you love the beauty of pregnant women, and want more people to know about SMITH, go to SK-RT and vote the story up.

Here are some pics of my peeps—especially my incredible copilot Rachel Fershleiser, the confession obsessed Romi Lassally and her partner/Girl’s Gone Child rare gem Rebecca Woolf, and the final “R” in the picture, ever eros-minded Rachel Kramer Bussel.

No trip would be a SMITH trip without coming home with a few more six-word memoirs. Susie Bright delivered hers with her typical tour de force and delight; we also nabbed the short, short life story from another Woman We Love—but I’ll let Rachel tell you later in the week.

For me, Blogher, in six words, was “not quite what I was planning” in many ways and even better than I expected in others. Still, it’s good to be back on my own home turf, a place where the coffee is stronger, the banter’s a bit more bitter, and I’m just another blogger in the crowd.

* Which also means I never, ever leave the seat up.
** Which just closed a round of financing—congrats Twitter!