Here I am at the BlogHer conference in Chicago surrounded by women. I went to a girl's high school, for chrissakes, and I still have never experienced anything like this.

Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of the more traditional "girly" things happening around here even though it is a tech conference. For example, I have been known to run into someone, stare at their boobs to read their name tag, discover it is someone I love online, and I confess, girly noises come out of my mouth as I hug-tackle the poor recipient.

But let me get back to this being a tech conference. For women.

Fucking amazing.

This morning as I was listening to Esther Dyson, Annalee Newitz and Rashmi Sinha speak at the keynote I was struck by the fact that almost everyone in the room was a woman. Almost everyone I have spoken to since Thursday has been a woman. And I can't remember the last time this happened.

I've always thought "girl power" and other womanisms were a load of shit. I never felt like I needed more or less of a connection to other women or men. I always thought that our similarities outweighed our differences.

I still feel that way, but.

I now wonder if my "we're all the same" rhetoric was really just an excuse for the fact that I needed to assimilate into geek life and most geeks are men.

But up on stage I saw these amazing people who think like I do, who have the same kinds of interests I do, who if we worked together would absolutely be the people I would seek out for knowledge. And they were women. And that made a difference to me. And that was mind-blowing.

More posts to come about the people I've met here who have touched me personally as well as professionally. I feel like I'm sitting in front of a fire hose, so get ready to have it turned on you.