Bloggeur, Moi??

This has got to be one of the strangest evenings I've spent in recent memory. Get this, folks: I'm at France 24, a cable news channel outside of Paris, in a room full of bloggers from all over the world blogging about the French election. What?!??! How on earth did I get here? One of the other bloggers, in fact, just asked me that very question (but not in a mean way). I am asking myself that same question right this minute. Well, the answer is simple: connections. My friend V told me about the gig, because she knew someone on the inside. Et voila, here I am.

Talk about feeling like an imposter. First of all, I am almost the only woman in the room blogging (I've been told that there will be 2 or 3 others, but I have yet to see them. Apparently I am not the only one who took her time choosing an outfit to wear.) Second of all, it appears that most of the other bloggers are either journalists or pretty serious about French politics. Yikes! Please don't beat me up, fellows. I promise not to say anything too silly or distract you from your work (actually, I don't promise the latter at all - distraction is my middle name).

But enough about me - we're here to blog about the election! I better get to work. I'm desperately trying to get up to speed here. The Italian blogger to my left, Luca , just told me that a Belgian website has published some early exit poll results but I'm not allowed to tell you what they are because it is against the law in France to publish election results until all the polls are closed at 8 pm (luckily the blogger to my right, Anders, has a legal background and just explained this law to me, preventing me from getting a 75,000 euro fine. Thanks Anders!)

Back to me (because I can't talk about election results yet): as a side note, this is the first time my laptop has left the house in years. I was a bit embaressed by the dust on it, and the duct tape holding the screen together, but no one else seems to mind, or even notice. These are computer nerds, after all.

Oh my god! There is someone behind me filming this with a camera. Talk about performance anxiety. Now I know how men feel. My fingers are feeling awfully limp right now....I might need to go lie down. Do you think I could find some vodka around here?