meetups and stuff
Okay, so... I have been to two meetups so far. I went to the sushi one in Mechanicsburg which was aweseomely fun. I did actually try sushi... two vegetarian-ish rolls (cucumber and california) and your basic tuna roll. The jury is still out. I got ordered a maki combo and didn't realize that there were going to be like... 6 of each one. I think I ate like... four of them. I did have some salty miso soup and a sad little salad (that orange gingery dressing on some soggy iceberg lettuce) that Sandra warned me about. So um, that's my excuse. I did actually eat at least one of each, though, so I didn't wimp out or anything. They did have other non-sushi Japanese food, so I probably could have cheated, but that would have totally defeated the purpose. I would try it again, definitely, and it's a niiiice place. I got way confused trying to find it though. Sandra helped me out with some skillful googling which didn't really help because google does not know its way around Mechanicsburg apparenty... but I found it in the end. The meetup itself was fun, I met cool people, had a blast, even felt slightly adventurous, all very good.
The second one I went to on Monday was just a local "dining out" group which I joined because they were going to this place I always wanted to try. It turned out to be a much smaller one with an older, less diverse crowd, but it was still a good time and the food was awesome, too. It's a Mexican/Italian restaurant called... Mexitaly. Yup. Apparently, they have a garden out back where they grow some of the ingredients that they use and I mean it really just looks like this little shack by the side of the road with mismatch patio furniture and a minigolf course, but what it lacks in... well, ambiance?... it makes up for EVERYWHERE else. I'm glad I finally checked it out. I would definitely go again but I remember that day I was feeling sooo torn about it, like I don't wanna go/I already RSVP'd. I'm late/you have a shitty commute, they'll understand. What if they don't?/Deal with it. I just wanna go home/if you don't have fun, you're 10 minutes from home, etc. I mean, I REALLY had to talk myself into it, but grudgingly I pulled into the lot, and grudgingly I got out of the car and I forced myself to walk shyly up to the table and join. I'm glad I did, too. That's what a lot of this is about because the nice part is... honestly, the best thing... was getting to hang out and talk to people that were just other people.
I mean, I work in a call center, I talk to people all day... and a lot of them are great, but business is business and unfortunately... the nature of my business kinda sucks, not the kind of conversations I would choose to be having all day, believe me. But for better or worse, it's a job and I'm grateful to have it... but with all my friends being... everywhere else, I was really feeling people-deprived, so it was great just to feel even remotely social. Which happened again for me on Saturday, too, but in a different way.
When I was growing up, before I knew like... ANYBODY on my flist, there was an elderly couple who lived next door to me named Janet and Dennis Myers. They had a granddaughter, Natasha, who would come to visit over the summers and who was like my for serious childhood BFF. We were like sisters and they were like a third set of grandparents to me. Janet is probably the person who I can trace my love of cats back to... and I got my own first cat, a Himalayan named Sugar, from a litter Natasha's family cats had had. Anyway, it's hard for me not to enumerate every great memory I have about them and the time when they lived there, because they were there for almost my whole life. Eventually, though... Dennis got sick so they moved down south to live with another of their children so that they would have family nearby to care for him. So new people moved in, we never really saw much of Natasha or her family anymore, there really was no reason for them to come to Red Lion with Janet and Dennis gone. But last year, Janet passed away. There was a ceremony held down south which my grandmother went to, but I wasn't able to, which I always felt kind of ... uncomfortable about. I wanted to be there, I felt like I should have been, but on Saturday I got another chance. There was another ceremony here in PA to spread the ashes and we all went and it was just... right. It was relatively small, 13 of us there including the pastor and the four of us in my family, but it was great. Maybe not the circumstances you like... but it's so oddly refreshing and nourishing to be with people you have that kind of history with... to remember with you and remind you where you came from and all that you had back when you didn't even know it. I didn't ever really notice how much I had compartmentalized and forgotten those years, and others... that you kind of push aside or let go of or otherwise don't feel because of the necessity of the present, the pressure of the future. Things get lost sometimes without you ever meaning for them to. Sometimes, you are lucky and you find them again.
The second one I went to on Monday was just a local "dining out" group which I joined because they were going to this place I always wanted to try. It turned out to be a much smaller one with an older, less diverse crowd, but it was still a good time and the food was awesome, too. It's a Mexican/Italian restaurant called... Mexitaly. Yup. Apparently, they have a garden out back where they grow some of the ingredients that they use and I mean it really just looks like this little shack by the side of the road with mismatch patio furniture and a minigolf course, but what it lacks in... well, ambiance?... it makes up for EVERYWHERE else. I'm glad I finally checked it out. I would definitely go again but I remember that day I was feeling sooo torn about it, like I don't wanna go/I already RSVP'd. I'm late/you have a shitty commute, they'll understand. What if they don't?/Deal with it. I just wanna go home/if you don't have fun, you're 10 minutes from home, etc. I mean, I REALLY had to talk myself into it, but grudgingly I pulled into the lot, and grudgingly I got out of the car and I forced myself to walk shyly up to the table and join. I'm glad I did, too. That's what a lot of this is about because the nice part is... honestly, the best thing... was getting to hang out and talk to people that were just other people.
I mean, I work in a call center, I talk to people all day... and a lot of them are great, but business is business and unfortunately... the nature of my business kinda sucks, not the kind of conversations I would choose to be having all day, believe me. But for better or worse, it's a job and I'm grateful to have it... but with all my friends being... everywhere else, I was really feeling people-deprived, so it was great just to feel even remotely social. Which happened again for me on Saturday, too, but in a different way.
When I was growing up, before I knew like... ANYBODY on my flist, there was an elderly couple who lived next door to me named Janet and Dennis Myers. They had a granddaughter, Natasha, who would come to visit over the summers and who was like my for serious childhood BFF. We were like sisters and they were like a third set of grandparents to me. Janet is probably the person who I can trace my love of cats back to... and I got my own first cat, a Himalayan named Sugar, from a litter Natasha's family cats had had. Anyway, it's hard for me not to enumerate every great memory I have about them and the time when they lived there, because they were there for almost my whole life. Eventually, though... Dennis got sick so they moved down south to live with another of their children so that they would have family nearby to care for him. So new people moved in, we never really saw much of Natasha or her family anymore, there really was no reason for them to come to Red Lion with Janet and Dennis gone. But last year, Janet passed away. There was a ceremony held down south which my grandmother went to, but I wasn't able to, which I always felt kind of ... uncomfortable about. I wanted to be there, I felt like I should have been, but on Saturday I got another chance. There was another ceremony here in PA to spread the ashes and we all went and it was just... right. It was relatively small, 13 of us there including the pastor and the four of us in my family, but it was great. Maybe not the circumstances you like... but it's so oddly refreshing and nourishing to be with people you have that kind of history with... to remember with you and remind you where you came from and all that you had back when you didn't even know it. I didn't ever really notice how much I had compartmentalized and forgotten those years, and others... that you kind of push aside or let go of or otherwise don't feel because of the necessity of the present, the pressure of the future. Things get lost sometimes without you ever meaning for them to. Sometimes, you are lucky and you find them again.