I don't know what possesed me, but I went to the local Weblogger Meet-up tonight. Okay, I do know what possesed me--that curiosity that arises upon occasion and moves me to check something out. So anyway, 'round 7 o'clock, I punched out to lunch and headed down to the Crossroads Mall. I gathered the strength of will to walk past Half Price Books and made my way to the food court. There was a crowd gathered by the stage area and my suspicions that they were the Weblogger group was confirmed when I saw a couple of laptops in use. I was greeted by Anita Rowland, the big meetup kahuna in these parts, who told me to grab a nametag and a chair and have fun. I scribbled my name on the tag and wandered over to the least crowded table. I then hastily added my weblog URL onto the tag, following the example of others. I wonder if maybe I should have just foregone the name and just wrote my URL. Nah, that'd be a bit too geeky. Anyway, I met some folks, forgot some names, and saw a few other folks I recognized from my perusal of their blogs. I seemed to have sat at the Microsoft table, but then as one guy said, given the proximity to Redmond, every table was probably a Microsoft table. Had I remembered everybody's name, I would have made a list of the folks I conversed with, but since I didn't, I'll refrain. (Anita posted the official list of attendees for your convenience.) The event progressed pretty much as I expected--I listened a lot more than I talked and my eyes glazed over a few times when the conversation got technical. I did enjoy myself, though, because the first time I checked my watch, I found out that I had already spent my self-alloted hour. So will I do it again? Ah, maybe. Time is always at a premium and working late after a long lunch gets boring real quick. But it was fun to meet folks and eavesdrop on a bunch of chatter. One thing's for sure: if i do go again, I will definitely order something smaller than the huge pile of chicken fried rice I had tonight. (urp.)