PeaceBang
The manic mind of the minister -- Auntie Mame Meets Cotton Mather. Blogging about Unitarian Universalism, UU Christian spiritual practice, occasional cultural and political ravings, and the inner life of ministry. PeaceBang is the alter ego of a small town pastor serving an historic New England Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Meet Ups
August 16, 2008 on 7:43 pm | In Cultural Commentary, Just Funny, PeaceBanging Around |Have any of you ever attended a MeetUp? I’m a big believer in social networking as a positive way to create instant community, so I try to attend them a few times a year at least. I like the democratic nature of these things: loosely organized, open to anyone, very reliant on people’s flexibility and good will. Sometimes the organizer is a dingbat and fails to make the group easy (or possible) to find. Sometimes you wind up on a sort of blind date with one other person who shows, even though eight people said they’d be there. Sometimes it’s a great, rowdy time. Sometimes it’s a great, rowdy time that turns into a depressing display of alcoholism and loneliness and you have to back out the door and make a run for it. Sometimes the movie/music/dancing/event is awesome, sometimes it’s dull or pretentious, and sometimes you drive around looking for parking for so long you give up in frustration and go home.
I still want to attend local Spanish language MeetUp but I haven’t gotten up the nerve. The folks who sign up for it seem to be nearly fluent and I’m nervous that I’d sit there sucking down sangria and thinking of grammatically-correct phrases five minutes after someone asks me a question or directs a comment my way. “Si! Muy bien!” ::staring down at my burrito:::
But this new Meetup looks right up my alley. I think if you do it right, you probably don’t even have to find parking… you can just attend on the astral plane. I wouldn’t even have to wash my hair.
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Well, I’ve been to a few meetup type activities over the past year and a half. Only problem is most of them are in and around Boston/Cambridge. I wish there were more of these type of get togethers on the South Shore (MA).
I signed up for a dinner get together at the Boston Harbor Hotel last summer. There were supposed to be 6-8 people there. However, nobody but me showed up. I found out later that it was cancelled about 1 hour before the scheduled gathering time (too many people sick/delayed at work/etc). That is when I get frustrated. But I did get out to MIT last winter for a screening of “Sicko” with a group discussion afterward. I met one other person there.
I signed up with a jazz lover’s group a while ago (again, based in Boston) and things seem to be picking up there over the past few weeks.
PB - What do you think about an internet based music lover’s group based on the So. Shore? Do you think there would be enough interest?
Comment by Jim B. — August 16, 2008 #
Hee hee! Love the Astral Plane meetup. Reminds me of something a friend of mine in K.C. said once:
“Did you see that big billboard announcing the Psychic Fair?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do they need that?”
Comment by Miss Conduct — August 16, 2008 #
Jana-who-creates lived with her boyfriend in the Slavic Language dorm at Brown for a couple of years. They had caviar and Vodka every week and she survived on “Nyet,” “Dah” and reading people very carefully.
CC
Comment by Chalicechick — August 16, 2008 #
I’ve been to three or four Spanish language meetups, and really enjoyed them. In fact, I met a guy in one of them that I dated for a short while. I thought the group was really good. You can learn a lot from the very fluent people. One of my spanish professors used to always tell the class: “When it comes to Spanish, you must be a baby!”
Comment by h sofia — August 17, 2008 #
I’m not a “joiner”, but I attended a Meetup (for people who like to travel) when I moved to my new town. It’s worked out really well, and a core group of us have become pretty good friends, much to my surprise!
Comment by Lisa T — August 18, 2008 #
Thanks for bringing that up, PB!
Having just moved down to the Charleston, SC area, we’re looking for people to meet and interesting things to do. So I just went a joined a few local Meetup groups!
Comment by Paul Wilczynski — September 3, 2008 #