So I popped my meetup.com cherry a couple nights back, and I must say I’m really glad I did.
The meeting of the Portland Philosophy Group was held at a recreation center in way-south Portland. South enough that, to me, it wasn’t really Portland anymore. I walked in the rec. center and aside from the front desk two room were in immediate view. One was an exercise room with treadmills and stair-climbers and such, the other was a room with people jump roping, hitting punching bags, and doing other Rocky-esque stuff. It was so stereotypical that if felt as if I had walked onto a Hollywood set. I liked it.
The lady at the counter directed me up to the hall and to my right, room 10. It was about five past seven as I entered the room for the meet-up that started at 7:00. My honest-to-god first thought as I walked in was “sausage fest.” Nothing but dudes in the room. I admit to being a tad bit disappointed, but I was really there for the philosophy so no big deal.
My second thought? Fight Club. The room had brown chalkboards running the entire length of one of the side walls, the other side displayed windows from front to back. At the front of the room another solitary brown chalkboard took it’s place in the spotlight of the wall’s center, wearing a pull-down projection screen as it’s crown. Light-brown metal folder chairs were arranged in a circle, most of which were already filled by bodies. Much like my first impression of the rec. center, the room was such a classically stereotypical scene that it almost seemed fake. I thought of the movie Fight Club where Ed Norton’s character goes to self-help groups. My little philosophy group could have just as easily been an AA meeting, or a “Survivors of Testicular Cancer” meeting. Ahh Hollywood, how you have screwed with my brain.
The meeting then started; it’s preface being a few quick announcements. I quickly learned that this was not the normal meeting place for the group, as their normal place (I believe it’s a library) was fully booked. Several people also commented on the lack of women which obviously leads me to believe that normally I can expect to find at least a small dose of estrogen in this group. At that point we actually go to talking.
The format was a 20 minute (or so) presentation on the evening’s topic, “stoicism” in this case. After the floor was opened up for discussion. The next 90 minutes were a lot of fun. We really go to to talking and sharing ideas & perspectives. I found myself enjoying it more and more as the group conversation dug itself deeper. I even felt as if I had learned a little something, and more importantly found another topic I’d like to spend more time reading about.
In my first few minutes with the group (which are always the most superficial) I found myself questioning whether or not I really wanted to be here. By the end however, I was happy that I had gone. We had to be out of the room we were using by 9:00, and so began wrapping things up at 10 till. Then about half of the group, myself included, hit up a nearby bar. We shared a few beers and some more discussion.
The group’s ages had quite a range. The youngest looking like mid-20’s and the oldest I would guess somewhere in their 60’s. The idea behind the meetup groups are three-fold for me: 1) enjoy the evening, 2) make friends and 3) meet women. Obviously #3 wasn’t going to happen, but #1 definitely did. Number 2 will take a little more time, if at all. I definitely plan on going to more of these meetings, maybe in time I’ll be hanging out with some of these people outside of the group. Maybe not.
So that was my adventure spawned from meetup.com. I’m sure there will be more coming soon. 
