Alabama Meetup - Hot Wings and Hot Politics

For those of you who missed the Alabama Netroots meet-up in Huntsville yesterday ... well you missed a memorable evening.  I really can't describe it for you. No kidding, I can't, because what's said at the meet-up stays at the meet-up.  Sorry.  But maybe it's ok to share some general observations and a few photos, just to make you jealous.

Note, some of the photos are fuzzy and some of the faces are fuzzy.  It isn't just bad photography.  Some people have jobs and are sensitive about being seen in a political setting.  That's the reality we live in.

Enthusiasm is just as high in North Alabama as it was for last month's meet-up in Birmingham.  About 18 of us gathered at Beauregard's -- some arrived early and a couple of people came late.  One blogger even came early, left and then returned later -- I'm telling you, it was a fun group.  Speaking of late, we more than stayed until closing.  The staff were gracious enough to clean around us and let us stay until they actually did turn out the lights.  It was a great opportunity to make friends and get to know each other better.  

Several folks drove up from the Birmingham area -- but I don't think we had anyone from further south. Kossaks BenGoshi, mmcole, countrycat, Terra Mystica and herding old cats were there.  Also fdeaton who blogs at The Haze Filter, joekneegee and Go Blue who hang out at Left in Alabama and journalist/blogger Glynn Wilson of The Locust Fork Journal.  Plus assorted lurkers, family, friends and those who might possibly think about looking into this blog thing in the future -- hopefully we didn't scare any of them too much.

Dress was anything goes casual, as usual.  Let's just dispense with the media myth up front: no one showed up in pajamas.  We managed to get photos of a few of the interesting t-shirts present. There were at least 2 from the other end of the table that escaped being photographed.  It's a shame too, because the lady in purple was wearing a great shirt.

We munched on wings, cheese stuffed peppers (very good - they use hot red peppers instead of green ones) and onion rings, got to know each other, had dinner, shared some more  opinions and personal experiences and eventually moved into the next room to get out of the way of the staff.  And kept talking, etc. for another 2 hours.

I didn't hear much conversation about presidential candidates, or even senatorial candidates, but it was raining outside and that was big news for a state suffering from the worst drought in a century.  The University of Alabama (at Tuscaloosa) was mentioned more than once and those of us lucky enough to attend YearlyKos 2007 shared our impressions along with some of the souvenirs we brought back from Chicago.  It's beyond belief that eighteen progressive people could be in a room for several hours without mentioning Iraq, George W. Bush and health care, but those topics didn't dominate the discussion.

Honestly, it doesn't matter what we talked about.  These meet-ups aren't political strategy sessions.  They are meet-ups, where we meet each other face to face and develop in-person relationships with each other.  Person-to-person contact makes our electronic relationships even richer and more productive.  Any of you folks around the country who aren't having some social activities like this are missing out on a big piece of the progressive grassroots movement. Missing out on a lot of fun, too.