Two incidents in the past two weeks have demonstrated to me just what a phenomenon Meet-up.com has become and how essential it has become to Denver's social scene. A lady I met a couple of weeks ago told me that she turned down a good job in another smaller city because it had no vibrant single's social scene to move to this area. In her opinion the major asset that Denver had that this other city did not was a lot of active single's meet-up groups.
Then after ending a stormy long term relationship earlier in the fall, I had been going to a number of different meet-up events and most of them had been fun when I got an email from my ex asking me not to attend meet-ups in her part of town. She told me that she had cancelled a meet-up single's potluck because she noticed that I had RSVPed that I might attend.
That, of course, made me realize that I had foolishly been using my real picture and name on my meet-up profile. Thus she had been able to read which groups I belonged to, when I had posted flirty greetings to various ladies, etc. I also noticed that she had not made that mistake and was apparently using a pseudonym either with no picture or a fake.
I first attended meet-ups during one of the numerous times we had been broken up. Thus when the break-up became final, I began going to one or two every week. It wasn't until the two aforementioned incidents that I began to realize just how integral meet-ups had become to my social life, and apparently to the social lives of countless other Denver singles.
That is not to say that Meet-up.com caters exclusively to singles. There are plenty of groups for couples, families, parents, etc. One of the couples groups caters to "swingers," so I am supposing that playground activities are important there.
There are a lot of business oriented groups for networking and some groups that mix networking with socializing. One of my favorites is a group called "Lunch in Lodo," that is hosted by the lovely Erin Rose. Erin picks out a nice restaurant, usually somewhere along the 16th Street Mall giving people that work downtown a chance to meet new people instead of eating alone or in the same old lunchroom. The only drawback is that everyone always enjoys themselves so much that it seems a shame that most of us only get an hour or so for lunch.
There are karaoke and dance meet-ups that are almost always great. In that venue there are the "Adventure Karaoke Meet-up Group," "Over 45 Singles Meet-up Group," "Denver Nightlife Meet-up Group," and many, many others. I get a weekly reminder that last week listed 833 meet-up group events.
This Saturday there will be a dance called "Christmas in the Highlands," at the Sanctuary downtown on Saturday. I loved the last dance event they held at the Sheraton Denver Tech Center so I will be sure to attend that, but what I am really intrigued about happens Sunday.
Are you, were you an old or even young hippie? If so, there is a meet-up this Sunday at 1 p.m. in Washington Park (the exact location in the park to be disclosed later, perhaps with signs posted at the Park itself), which will be a "Rainbow Family themed potluck." Even though it has been years since I let my hair grow, I can't wait. The meet-up groups' name is "Nowhere You Are," but they really would like it if you can make it to Wash Park this Sunday. The weather is supposed to be fine. For more information go to Meet-up.com or email or leave a comment for me. Tis the season for mingling.
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