Well... kind of anyway. I'm sticking my ever-so-private toe into the big scary world of meetup.com. I've signed up for a local Atheist meetup, at Hometown Buffet no less.
I am not a social animal. Every attempt I have ever made at social events with people outside of my family/friend circle has resulted in several incomprehensible libertarian men pounding tables to make some obscure point on the efficacy of public transit subsidies. After a few beers, I usually start pounding tables too.
Not so with my soon to be new Atheist friends. Tomorrow I will eat glazed pork and swill tepid ice-tea while they regal me with stories of the their Atheist struggles. Or... maybe they will talk about D&D since most of them are part of the local D&D group too. Who knows for sure, tomorrow I dine with my kind for a change. That should be something to look forward too. Right?
I'll take notes and pictures. I am sure more good stories will follow. After all, I'm eating at the hometown buffet, I hear that is where all the action is on a Friday night in the heart of a big city.
Not that I am complaining, but my local atheists must be poor because 6 good restaurants and 3 great bars within two miles of this little hell hole of a restaurant. They better be poor, because if given the choice between glazed communal pork and sushi, I choose sushi ever time. If I find out they have money but like Hometown Buffet, I'm going to go all libertarian on them and start pounding tables!
5 comments:
Hometown Buffet is deeply lame, it's enough to make one become a deist.
I will be very interested to hear about your experience. The closest meet-up group for me involves just over an hour drive each way. I keep thinking I should give it a try one of these days.
I guess I'm outside the curve on this one, but most of my close friends are atheists. That's just happenstance, since none of us, as far as I know, did any personality checking beforehand. If truth be told, we discuss politics, books, wine, food, movies, music, our relatives, our cats, our work, and even our medical ailments far more than we discuss our collective nonbelief. If a current religious news item happens to come up in conversation, we're on rare common ground, and everybody enjoys trying to top each other in sarcasm. But we don't tend to "talk atheism" philosophically unless it wraps into another of our preferred topics.
On the other hand, only a few of my pals are fellow birders, so I joined my local Audubon Society for a year. When I couldn't stand the communal meals, though, I quit.
As far as I'm concerned, I'd much rather dine with a religious gourmet (gourmand?) than an atheist who'd choose the hometown Bar-B-Q over a decent sushi joint. Why don't you suggest that the freethinkers meet over coffee and Danish?
I look forward to reading your follow-up.
Hey, judging by your pics at El Dorado, I assume this is a roughly Long Beach-located event? I might be interested in checking this out myself... do you have any more info about the group?
It's at the downtown Long Beach Hometown Buffet at 7:00.
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