Let's meet!

I heart Meetup! You know how it's hard to meet new people, right? Well, with Meetup, you can meet people whom you know you have something in common with right from the start. It's wonderful for someone like me who works out of her house and doesn't have the built-in social interaction that an office or similar workplace affords.

At present, I belong to four Meetup groups. Some are more active than others, and some are a better fit than others. I really enjoy the women's wine and book club I belong to. I get to spend time with intelligent, personable women, do some wine tasting, chat about the book we read, and usually share food as well. And if we have time, chat about anything we feel like. The owner of the group is an outgoing, well-organized person, two attributes that probably contribute greatly to the success of a group. The other success factor is that quite a few women in the area find the group as interesting as I do.

Last night, I went to the first meetup of another women's group. The focus is fashion, but that's just a starting point. Six of us met at a downtown restaurant for drinks, food, and great conversation. We talked about clothes and shoes and shopping of course. But we talked about a lot more, and we got to know each other a bit.

I had some trepidation about a planned activity—rating each other's outfits. But that turned out to be quite fun. One group member had made up folders with space to write comments on one side and a series of lines on the other with labels at each end such as "Effortless" on one end and "Contrived" on the other. We wrote comments, and we put marks on the lines where we thought the outfit belonged. We were all being rather nice, I imagine, looking mostly for positive things to say. Maybe if we all get to know each other better, I might hear some real critiques. That might not be easy to hear, but it would be great feedback.

I had a great time, and hopefully the others did as well. It seemed that way. We talked about other things we might do together, such as a spa visit. Maybe we'll take a walking shopping trip down Main Street, which has a combination of local designers and consignment shops. I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.