Yesterday I finally took some great advice that Lacey's Dad (who blogs way too infrequently) at It's a Dog's Life gave me months ago. I attended a gathering hosted by a meetup.com group in my area. In early summer he and I were discussing how hard it is to meet people and he gave me several suggestions, all of which I quickly dismissed as too outgoing for someone like me. But I did look around the meetup website for my area, and I've been looking at a specific Japan-oriented group for months, striving to come up with great reasons why I can't attend their meetings. I finally ran out of reasons this week and forced myself downtown to a Japanese tea house where about sixteen or seventeen of us folded origami for two hours. I was a little worried that the group would consist of a bunch of angsty American teenagers into anime, but the majority of attendees were my age and have a real interest in Japan. It was nice to use little Japanese phrases, and listen to people talk about Japan with love and sincerity that matches my own. So surprising but true, I had fun with a bunch of strangers and am looking forward to next month's meeting. Honto ni? Honto ni! (Really!)New favorite song: The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of his Mind by Griffin House
Two years ago: I was chillin out with Anderson Cooper when the craziest thing happened . . .
go you! i'm super introverted and to read this kind of gave me the cold sweats, so believe me when i say with all sincerity that i'm in awe that you could actually do something like this. without drinking or taking a percoset or something.
ReplyDeleteI'm like you in a way. I have these meeting groups I can go sometimes, but I always find excuses for not going. But when I do go, I'm always delighted.
ReplyDeleteWow. I'm shocked. And now I'm famous, sort of. Well, more famous that before LSL. I also attended another meetup.com thing. It was a hike in a local park with a bunch of dog lovers. As I drove in to the park, I recalled that as a kid, my dad would come home from work early on a friday, my mom would have picnic fixins all packed up, and we'd all jump in the car and drive out to this park where my dad would proceed to build a fire and my sister and I would climb trees and run around. I could visualize it in my mind...we would always go to the exact same table, same grill..."OUR spot" in the park. As these thoughts formed, the car rounded a bend and THERE IT WAS!!!! Our spot. OMG. I was so surprised that it was so recognizable, and still there, trees, grills, tables...amazing. So, yeah, sometimes I think the whole meetupdotcom thing is so bogus...(what kind of a loser am I that I have to go out searching for like-minded people to spend time with?) and then I actually GO to something, and have such a good experience, doing something that it would not have occurred to me to do otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm glad you went. I love the origami bird, too. Or is that an F-15 fighter plane? Oh, well, what EVAH. So maybe upstate doesn't SUCK quite as much as you were thinking? (I'm just sayin')
Good for you! Sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteYay! That sounds just like what the karma ordered. ;) And also I'm inspired, trying to get less isolated and more out of the house and being around people these days... Very cool, I think I may have to check out meetup.com myself... :)
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you enjoyed yourself!