My friend Sluggo wrote a terrific post about how being the guy who knew how to paint a flat surface to look like a brick wall turned out for him to be a bit of a life-altering event. That got me to thinking about things we learn along the way that seem unremarkable when we learn them, but later turn out to be a big farookin’ deal.

For me, the long ball was taking one lousy semester of “Non-Commercial Typing” in my freshman year of high school. I have often said that Mrs. McGrath’s typing course, complete with the brain numbing drills “J…U…J…space…J…U…G…space…J…A…J…space…EYES OFF THE KEYBOARD…” etc. was the single most important course I ever took. In terms of its usefulness to me, it trumped every other course I took in high school, college, graduate school and law school.

I never had to stress over finding someone to type my term papers, and I could blast out a letter (when we wrote those things on paper) while others lumbered along with a ballpoint pen. I believe, although I can never be certain, that my ability to type “thirty-‘fie’ mutha f***in’ words a minute” played some small part in the “black box” of decision making that resulted in my not toting a rifle and getting my ass shot off in Vietnam.

Years later, when I was a Law Clerk, I scrounged around the courthouse to get my hands on a Royal manual typewriter, which enabled me to do the initial drafts of long bench memos infinitely faster than doing them in longhand. Much to the delight of the judge’s secretaries (who had the then state-of-the-art Wang word processors and would have to transcribe our memos) my typed drafts were more readable than my chicken scratch. I learned then the value of not pissing off secretaries.

Nowadays when doing virtually everything from writing a letter to ordering socks online requires use of a keyboard, I am golden. I can type faster than most people who are hired to be typists.

I may be a techno-knucklehead, but I can type my ass off.

The guys I hung around with in high school back then all opted to take mechanical drawing and were not shy about busting my horns over taking a typing course. I figure that the joke’s on them, because I have gone through life thus far without ever having to use a T-Square or having to draw an orthographic projection of damned widget.

Thank you, Mrs. McGrath. Oh, and my bullet-free ass thanks you too.

I arrived home very late from work. Although I have something in mind to write, I may not get to it, because I will be updating Mr. Blogroll, a process that often results in painful hair.

Let’s see how it goes, shall we?

Update: Dammit!! So far, about half of the Jersey Sites I want to link to are unreachable. I wonder if flooding all over the farookin’ state has anything to do with it.

Nah. I figure it must be me — or, at least in part, BlogSnot.

It was a helluva party.

Before I say another thing about it, I wish to acknowledge and thank those whose assistance made the event a success.

Thanks to daughter TJ and Mrs. Parkway who showed up like the Marines before the party and told me to get out of the way so that they could make the place presentable and set up the food.

Thanks to Ken, my “bodyguard” and to Jeff, “da Chef of da Future,” both great friends and Usual Suspects, for volunteering to tend bar and for keeping everyone’s glass full and ensuring that I was never without a beer in my hand. They also selected and played the music, which set the tone and provided the background for the conversational roar that inevitably exists when a bunch of blabber-mouth bloggers are in one room.

Thanks to The Original Bill and the Quietly Sinister Linda, also great friends and Usual Suspects, who voluntarily did food duty. Bill also braved the monsoon-like weather to head out to a local store to pick up a bottle and some formula for Jaynee’s son.

I don’t think it’s possible to have better friends.

Oh, and thanks to Shelley, the Yenta Usual Suspect, who made an appearance later in the evening for a couple Diet Cokes and who, in no time, knew everyone in the place. You haven’t lived until you have heard Shelley pronounce Billy Joel’s name – “Billy Jo-well.”

Thanks to Erin a/k/a Gigglechick for creating the Blogmeet logo and button that has graced so many people’s sites.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank Kate of KateSpot for having the idea of the Jersey Blogmeet in the first place and for helping me put it together. She also presented me with a wonderful 80 proof giftie that came with two glasses – one for me, and one for me. She also managed to circulate a card for people to sign without my noticing it. I’ve read it several times since last night, and it will remain a permanent fixture here at the House by the Parkway. She is a great lady and was a joy to work with.

As for the party itself, I think that a question posed by my friend Bill captured the essence of the gathering. Watching the bloggers interact, he asked, “Have most of these people met on another before? It looks a bit like a high school reunion.” I responded that most of the people in the room had not met before, but that we already “knew” one another. That’s the way it is with bloggers and blogging.

The problem, of course, is that there is just not enough time to spend as much time as one would like with everyone. Fortunately, I got to spend some quality bullshitting time with TigerHawk, Sluggo, and Roberto, which was a real treat. These are interesting and funny guys. Gregor came with interesting conversation and a tray of killer brownies. What’s not to like?

Patrick of Jerseystyle.net took me at my word and brought his axe (a very nice Ibanez), and we got to play a couple tunes together. Speaking of tunes, I was most surprised to learn that Riss (who I figure is twelve years younger than my guitar) knows Everly Brothers songs! She said that she learned them from her father (oy!). Speaking of Riss, she introduced me to Tabasco-laced shots of tequila. Holy cannoli!! I think Riss is ready for some moonshine Georgia wine.

Shabe and Tracey, both exceeding nice folks, showed up bearing gifts, which were a real crowd pleaser. I wish I had gotten a chance to spend more time with them.

Mr. Surly a/k/a Mr. Son-in-Law, and one of the trio of excellent bloggers at The Idiom, was great company.

I was happy to finally get a chance to meet and shoot the breeze with Lynne of Shamrocketship. In the future, I’ll have to make it a point to take a drive “Downa Shore” to have a couple pops with her at her favorite Irish saloon.

I was particularly taken with Mary of Bookblog, who came early with Kate. At first she seemed to me to be a bit tentative about it all. But that didn’t last long as she settled in at the end of the bar. She’s an interesting person, with a great sense of humor. In fact, she and Kate stayed on to hang with the Usual Suspects after everyone else left. Great company.

I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked with Erin, Lizbeth, Liz, Jaynee, or the Barista. My loss, for sure. I hope to remedy that in the future. As I said earlier, there is just not enough time.

Finally, as an example of the reach of the blogosphere, I, along with other bloggers, got to chat on the phone with Christina of Feisty Repartee, Dax Montana, and Zonker, all of whom called in their best wishes. Pretty amazing, this blogging thing.

Check out the sites of the attendees, as many, if not all of them, have shared their impressions of the event, and some even have posted some great pictures.

We’ll definitely do it again.

Update: It has come to my attention that I forgot to mention Cripes, Suzette. In truth, I had written a bit about my conversation with Suzette about copyright and trademarrk law (She is being hassled by the “joy of cooking” folks). I decided that I wanted to move those sentences to a different place in the post, so I “cut,” and something must have intervened (perhaps a moment of hangover relapse) before I “pasted.” I apologize, as I in no way meant to overlook this very nice person.

This site is at the top of the Google search results list for parkway great hair.

That makes my hair smile.

I have often said that I use my morning walk time to mentally compose most blog entries. I never realized how true that is until my recent bacterial bout that kept me off my feet for damned near a week. Although I am now fully ambulatory and, as far as I am concerned, fully recovered, I still have a couple days’ worth of meds to take, so I am laying off morning walking until the meds are gone and I continue to feel good for a day or so post-meds.

Not walking in the morning has provided me with a bit more sleep time, but it has completely knocked the shit out whatever little creativity I have. I have temporarily lost that hour or so of mental space that almost never failed to spawn something moderately interesting or humorous to write about.

Right now, I feel about as creative as a piss-clam.