Question: When is a private chat not private?
Answer: When the invitation to chat appears (even briefly) on a publicly accessible blog.

That was the situation last night, when I routinely visited Eric's blog, and found instructions on how to access a private chat hosted by Batgrl. According to the invitation, the chat was to begin at 10PM ET. I found the notice just after 11PM. What the heck, I thought. Maybe someone is still there...

So I followed the directions, entered the room, and found a relatively small group of fellow bloggers just sitting around the virtual coffee table, talking about anything that entered our minds. I didn't recognize many of the nicknames (who knew that people use different nicknames for different media - obviously not me), but over a short time, it was clear that these were mostly people who read eachother's blogs. As such, we knew a bit about eachother, and I confess, the conversation was entertaining.

The reason I'm even talking about this, is that this morning, on my routine visit to Eric's blog, I noticed that he had reinstated my link. He's got me listed under my nickname (JEfromCanada) rather than my blog name, but hey, what difference does it make. A click is a click. I guess that having the opportunity to talk "face to face", share some social time, and get to know eachother has shown me that Eric is really a nice guy bad-ass muthaf-- *** . The kind of guy whose blog I can read (though sometimes with reservation) and recommend. He must have had a similar thought to have reinstated me. At the risk of sounding like I've added a reciprocal link, I tip my hat to Eric and have added him to my list.

I have yet to read Batgrl's blog on a regular basis, but she also sounded cool last night, so I'll have to check her out.

***Edit done as a result of feedback from Eric