6:00 a.m.

AND I AM SPENTFirst of all, a multitude of thanks for everyone who stopped by to leave a comment and cheer me on over the course of the day. Those comments kept me going just as much as pledges from sponsors. The pledges gave me the reason, but the comments gave me the will. spending most of the day with a headset strapped to my face, interfering with my drinking and making mush of my words was at times overwhelming, but in the end it was doable. Granted, I miss being able to type, but this has proven itself over the past 24 hours to be a capable and painless alternative to using my hands. Which is a heartening thought for me. Pain may prevent me from being able to post in a manner I'm used to, but it isn't preventing me from posting. This means that it is manageable. (Actually, I'm thinking about this as part of my theme for next year. I'm definitely going to give myself enough time to hunt down a reputable fibromyalgia research foundation.)

I signed up to do this 20 minutes before the deadline on Friday, made one phone call to a family member to secure my initial pledge, threw the blog together before bed, and then dove on in today. I really had no idea what to expect. One post every 30 minutes doesn't seem like much initially, but I didn't take into account the time it takes to write and edit these posts. I have basically spent the last 24 hours living in 15-minute cycles. My house is cleaner than it has been in a month, and I'm exhausted, but I haven't missed a post. They are all here, in order, for your perusal.

I am glad that what started out as a vague idea did manage to turn into a cohesive theme that made sense with the charity I chose. I borrowed more on picture posts and Internet memes than I would have liked, but I still think that for a first-time Blogathon this is an amazing success. I met my goal of $500 by 10 PM, and an extra $15 well before the end.

What does this mean? All of you helped me earn 206 books for the First Book charity! That's nine books per hour, or $22.50, which is so much better than I expected to do when I signed up for this yesterday. My only regret is being unable to sponsor as many people as I would have liked-- I have seen some amazing work here today and have felt terrible being unable to contribute to the causes these Bloggers are supporting.

At this point I am definitely planning on doing this again next year, and a little bird told me that Maddo is also interested in participating. I know enough now to plan ahead and get good sponsorship ahead of time, a solid theme, and a better schedule for posting so I don't end up resorting to lolcat when I'm tired.

Now all I have left to do is enjoy a celebratory chocolate croissant, make my bed, which I forgot to do earlier, and slide blissfully into sleep. I hope that all of my fellow A-schedule posters are planning on doing something similar, especially the monitors, who have all put in an incredible amount of work for this event. I spent all day spying on the monitor blogs, and I cannot fathom how they managed their time so well -- I was having a hard enough time with just this blog!

For those of you on the B-schedule, best of luck! I will be checking back in when I wake up to cheer you guys on. I urge all of you to stick it out until the end if at all possible, because it is a very rewarding experience, and the sense of satisfaction you'll receive at the end will be well worth the effort.