Better late than never

August 25, 2014 12:35 PM

I never got a chance to thank my fellow Chicago MeFites for going above and beyond the call of duty in celebrating MetaFilter's 15th Anniversary. Did you know we had 29 straight days of meetups in July? Here's just some of the stuff we did:

- MCMikeNamara held a fierce mini-golf tournament

- bibliogrrl and baniak blew shit up

- crushonastick introduced us to the unseemly world of musical improv

- garlic lead a kayak tour of the Chicago River

- phunniemee hosted the first ever JenCon

- We enjoyed a walking tour of Chicago's moving bridges (and discovered you can totally go into the Michigan Avenue bridgehouse!)

- We beat the stuffing out of not one but two Reddit trivia teams (and set a record in the process)

- We saw Top Gun, 20 Feet from Stardom, and Snowpiercer; enjoyed Janelle Monáe, Tomeka Reid, and Moon Hooch; feasted upon mac and cheese and crepes and poutine and alcoholic root beer and goat cheese gelato and delicious radlers; fed some strangers, sang some songs, and ran this town roughshod for almost a month. And then we did even more stuff.

So, belatedly, thanks to the Chicago Cabal* and all of our wonderful out-of-town guests for setting up and participating in such interesting, educational, and just plain fun events for our MeFi chapter. You're a special group of people and not a month goes by that I don't pause to reflect on this amazing community. I'd also like to thank mathowie, jessamyn, cortex, pb, vacapinta, restless_nomad, taz, LobsterMitten, goodnewsfortheinsane and everyone else past, present, and future that's been involved in creating such a fantastic site that's encouraged so much great debate and deep reflection and just plain fun both online and off for over fifteen years.

I love you people.

posted by eamondaly to MetaFilter-Related at 12:35 PM (28 comments total)

*there is no cabal
posted by ocherdraco at 12:38 PM on August 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

That sounds like a fantastic slate of meetups. Three cheers for Chicago!
posted by ocherdraco at 12:38 PM on August 25, 2014

I love you people.

We love you, eamondaly.
posted by phunniemee at 12:49 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Though I feel it's necessary to note: all that meetuppin' and I think the two of us only managed to ever be at one meetup (the Goat) simultaneously, and even then for only a few minutes.
posted by phunniemee at 12:50 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh! I think this July may also have marked a year and a half of garlic getting us out to make food for Ronald McDonald House, and garlic getting everyone to go kayaking a few times, and garlic posting the metatalk thread to encourage everyone to go do MoMu15 activities, and garlic generally making us better people.
posted by phunniemee at 12:58 PM on August 25, 2014 [6 favorites]

Yes, garlic definitely gets a hero badge for organizing so many events!
posted by eamondaly at 1:00 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Now I want to move to Chicago.
posted by arcticseal at 1:02 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's a heck of a town.
posted by beagle at 1:12 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh man, that all looks great. I'm glad none of the events actually coincided with my trip up because then I would have really kicked myself for not checking IRL.

(BTW, did anybody else go see Monstrous Regiment at the Lifeline? It was super duper awesome.)
posted by kmz at 2:33 PM on August 25, 2014

It's a heck of a town.

With very big shoulders.
posted by octobersurprise at 4:13 PM on August 25, 2014

Nice! I lived in the Chicago area for over 25 years before I moved back to New England. I remember seeing Top Gun in the theater with my roommate and a couple of guys who were stationed at Glenview Naval Air Station. It was pretty amazing at the time.

Makes me miss the friendly people and the food. You guys rock.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 4:26 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Though I feel it's necessary to note: all that meetuppin' and I think the two of us only managed to ever be at one meetup (the Goat) simultaneously, and even then for only a few minutes.

Speaking of numbers, by my estimate*, our 29 meetups were attended by 35 unique MeFites (and 11 non-MeFite +1s); attendance figures for each meetup spanned from 2-18, with an average of 5.7.

It was great to see so many new faces (or previously-familiar faces who I hadn't seen for a while). But I also think it's neat that of the 46 attendees, at least 27 made it to more than one event. (The average number of Meetups attended was 2.81 or so, though some of us may have skewed that more than others.)

(* I won't testify to these numbers; it turns out going out to many meetups and organizing a few is a lot more fun than doing stats work afterwards, as amused by it as I was at first.)

Thanks again to everyone who participated, to eamondaly for the inspiration, and for everyone else here who has made this community one that would have ever convinced me to meet people from it in real life in first place.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:27 PM on August 25, 2014 [4 favorites]

YOU SAID "CHAPTER"-- I am so excited.
posted by crush-onastick at 6:06 PM on August 25, 2014

Now we need to build a dedicated Chapterhouse!
posted by Iridic at 7:31 PM on August 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm going to start planning a trip to Chicago RIGHT NOW.
posted by ColdChef at 8:21 PM on August 25, 2014 [4 favorites]

I appreciate the ego boost, but I'm clearly an ass, as ask.metafilter knows.
posted by garlic at 8:23 PM on August 25, 2014

No you're not. You just have an eccentric understanding of the calendar. Also, I'm wicked booked on the 31st, but if you'd like help moving things to a secure location on the 30th, the subaru and I are here to help.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:00 PM on August 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sydney is shite. And Sydney MeFites are shiteheads.





























Or are they?
Dun dun dun dun.
posted by taff at 11:09 PM on August 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Somehow left off of this list was the meetup I Skyped into where nobody could hear me. That was a highlight.
posted by SpiffyRob at 6:05 AM on August 26, 2014 [5 favorites]

Sorry Rob, I think I forgot to include you in my calculations too.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:49 AM on August 26, 2014

Coincidence that this happens immediately after I flee Chicago? I THINK NOT, O LORD OF THE SHINY PANTS, I THINK NOT.
posted by sldownard at 12:46 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thank you Eamon for your infectious bonhomie. That bridge tour looked awesome.
posted by readery at 7:37 PM on August 26, 2014

Garlic, now I'm curious what solution you found to your moving problem!
posted by Omnomnom at 7:10 AM on August 27, 2014

It's an ongoing saga. I'm on to plan b, plead with my landlord to accept my original plan, and see what other things would help her be willing to do that.
posted by garlic at 8:56 AM on August 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

Great job, everyone!
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 6:32 AM on August 28, 2014

Wowzer. I picked the wrong few months to go me-fi dark! That is so damn awesome.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 12:40 PM on August 30, 2014

Man, you guys better be ready to re-up your game when I am living in Chicago for all of October.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:13 AM on September 7, 2014

Oh man I missed this thread.

July was AWESOME. and Chicago MeFites are even MORE awesome. I love you guys a whole lot.

so much so that I even went to the pequod's meetup last month between breaking my ankle and ACTUALLY GOING TO THE ER. (Admittedly I needed fortification before braving the ER on a Friday night, but the friends made it 100% worth it.)
posted by bibliogrrl at 9:01 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]