Tonight, I went to an arts and crafts Meetup group. I’ve been wanting to meet more people who have similar interests, and since I really enjoy making greeting cards and scrapbooking, I figured it would be nice to find friends who do the same. Everyone who came to the group did something different – scrapbooking, card-making, sewing, calendar-making, embroidery, tatting (like crocheting, but even more intricate). It was fun being around women who had different crafts hobbies, but I’m not sure we quite clicked. They were all from the tri-state area and seemed so surprised when I said I was originally from San Francisco. I thought Meetup (and New York City, at that) welcomed everyone and attracted people from all over the place?

This sounds like such a PC, I-went-to-Wellesley-and-want-to-make-a-difference-in-the-world type thing to say, but I’d love to make friends who are from everywhere – here in the tri-state area, the Midwest, the South, the West Coast, Canada, China, Singapore, Germany, France, whatever. But when I meet them, it would be nice if they all didn’t treat the idea of not being from their native place as odd or surprising. I thought that was what made New York City so great – that it attracts people from around the globe? Or maybe it’s just that the people I met tonight just surround themselves with locals only?