The meet-up was such a good time. Thanks again, Zev, for hosting. One thing that struck me was how driven everyone was. Although we shared a desire for ERE, people at the meeting seemed to have an energy around them. It was very inspiring and I'm grateful to have met everyone.
After hanging out and chatting for about 3 hours, my BF and I had to leave to join a couple of our friends for dinner. I thought I'd share with the forum a bit of our dinner conversation. Our friends asked what we had been up to during the day and I explained the blog and the meet-up. They were intrigued and I explained how ERE is mostly about giving yourself more options, treading more lightly on the earth, and (if desired) being able to pursue work that is meaningful to you. One of our friends then asked, What would you do if you could do any job you wanted? We went around the table and these were the responses: 1) My BF said he wasn't sure but that ERE appeals to him because it would give him the financial stability to explore different options; 2) Our friend who works for a major financial company said he'd want to work for a nonprofit that teaches disadvantaged teenagers how to sail. He thinks it's terrible that sailing is a sport that's viewed as being only accessible to wealthy people. He said it's incredibly therapeutic to sail and it is something that should be available to everyone; 3) Our friend who works for an influential auction house said she'd want to do art therapy with children; 4) I said I'd want to run a small farm animal sanctuary. This led to some really meaningful conversation and I left feeling heartened. This may make me sound like an idealist, but imagine if everyone could do the job they truly wanted to do? What would the world look like?
So thanks to everyone for the meet-up! Often in social situations I feel slightly sheepish about not wanting to spend money (I get the PBR when everyone else gets the cabernet savingnon) but yesterday I felt sheepish anytime I talked about something that I realized wasn't frugal! (To be clear, no one was judgmental; it's just that my consciousness was different in that setting.) It would be great to be around other EREs not only for the great conversation but also for the social pressure to be frugal!
NYC Meetup - 9/18@3pm, 928 Broadway #504, RSVP required! Phone # in thread
Yeah I need to work on my dismounts 
I pulled off the road into what intially seemed like tall grass, but it was tall grass plus big rocks. I bite the dust and did the Peter Griffin "schhh...ahhhh..." for like 10 minutes with a bloody knee. I tend to land on my right leg when I crash at slow speeds because I unclip my left leg first. Luckily, it didn't really start hurting until the last 20 miles on Friday and I was able to tough it out and navigate the city on Saturday to get to the meetup and on Sunday to get on a bus to take me home.
I enjoyed the meetup too. We talked quite a bit about cycling and the structural problems related to car traffic and human traffic. On the cycling note, I had the opportunity to speak with another cyclist from Spain that Zev was hosting for Saturday night along with myself. The Spaniard (I call him this although he is originally from Argentina) is taking a trip from NYC to Florida on a $60 bicycle that he bought here in the States. He talked about some of his other tours (6 and 9 months long!) around South America on bikes even worse than the one he is using now. So he's definitely proof that one does not have to spend crazy money to tour the world if you examine what is really necessary and what isn't.
SteveAustin was kind enough to handout books for us to read, and I took a novel by Kerouac, and I got a hearty thumbs up from one of Zev's suitemates for it. I appreciated Steve's maturity and ability to keep the conversation flowing.
We are all eagerly awaiting the book, both for ourselves to read and as recommendation for others to read. In my experience its easier to get someone to read something if its a book than if its a blog.
@runrun Yep, I felt the same way too, but like you said not from overt group pressure, just the setting.
I pulled off the road into what intially seemed like tall grass, but it was tall grass plus big rocks. I bite the dust and did the Peter Griffin "schhh...ahhhh..." for like 10 minutes with a bloody knee. I tend to land on my right leg when I crash at slow speeds because I unclip my left leg first. Luckily, it didn't really start hurting until the last 20 miles on Friday and I was able to tough it out and navigate the city on Saturday to get to the meetup and on Sunday to get on a bus to take me home. I enjoyed the meetup too. We talked quite a bit about cycling and the structural problems related to car traffic and human traffic. On the cycling note, I had the opportunity to speak with another cyclist from Spain that Zev was hosting for Saturday night along with myself. The Spaniard (I call him this although he is originally from Argentina) is taking a trip from NYC to Florida on a $60 bicycle that he bought here in the States. He talked about some of his other tours (6 and 9 months long!) around South America on bikes even worse than the one he is using now. So he's definitely proof that one does not have to spend crazy money to tour the world if you examine what is really necessary and what isn't.
SteveAustin was kind enough to handout books for us to read, and I took a novel by Kerouac, and I got a hearty thumbs up from one of Zev's suitemates for it. I appreciated Steve's maturity and ability to keep the conversation flowing.
We are all eagerly awaiting the book, both for ourselves to read and as recommendation for others to read. In my experience its easier to get someone to read something if its a book than if its a blog.
@runrun Yep, I felt the same way too, but like you said not from overt group pressure, just the setting.
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Steve Austin
- Posts: 177
- Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:17 am
Took some downtime after the trip back from NYC, and then have been catching up on various other correspondence. But let me start by saying I had an excellent time at the meet-up, thanks to Zev for taking us in out of the city noise so that we could converse, and thanks to all attendees, especially Jon, who scored serious hero points. He was sitting there talking with us, rubbing his right knee, didn't even ask for anything. We had to suggest that he get an ice pack from Zev.
From my memory, the attendees were as follows, not including myself (using forum handles) in arrival order:
Zev
Jon
Chris
runrunruneateateat, plus her SO (not sure if he's joined the forum yet)
Greg
I was quite happy to find a new home for 4 of the 5 books I brought:
PDF printout of Doctorow's Makers to Zev
Kerouac's Dharma Bums to Jon
a picture-heavy bicycle maintenance book to run3eat3's SO
Long's How To Survive Without A Salary to Greg
couldn't unload Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching ( maybe no one liked the translation ;-\ )
For the benefit of other meet-ups, what I did was note "FOR CIRCULATION: ERE LIBRARY" inside the front cover, as a reminder to try to keep it in the ERE Library System. I won't mind at all if I never see the books again, but would like to someday hear how the distributed ERE Library System is still circulating books.
Definitely want to attend further NYC and other meet-ups.
I have a few notes of things that I'm going to research based upon attendee suggestion, shared here in the forum:
* run3eat3 recommended to us the documentary Surfwise http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479547/
* run3eat3's SO and one other attendee recommended to us a recent radio episode of The American Life -- I jotted down the theme "on the lam / on the road", but couldn't align that with the descriptions of recent 2010 episodes -- would the attendees please clarify?
* Chris gave us a great story about IBM's Corporate Service Corps, where he did a trip to South Africa that resulted in some beekeeping -- run3eat3's SO also shared a family beekeeping anecdote -- we all seemed kinda interested in bees
* two or more attendees recommended a podcast called the Limits Of Science on radiolab, about human endurance http://www.radiolab.org/2010/apr/05/limits-of-science/
Some personal comments from me:
* I related how (approximately) I landed in ER at age 36, and then returned to a full-time gig, which has the side effect of allowing me to do ERE proper the second time, demonstrating that even though the first time wasn't ERE, I do have ERE cred [my approach is that I'm pretending -- as in an accounting exercise -- that I don't have the capital from ER, so the ERE will be secured only on money saved from earnings during this round 2.]
* I was grilling (politely I hope) Zev on all sorts of things, his business operations, paleo vs. warrior, bike trailer transport of firearms in the State of New York, hunting, exercise regimen
* Greg briefly mentioned that he gains much wisdom from his grandparents who lived through the Great Depression -- I always loved to do the same with my grandparents when they were living -- I suggested that, if he's comfortable, Greg should start some threads about there EREois of Depression-era comers-of-age
* one other anecdote was that after we distributed books, and run3eat3 and SO had departed, and we broached caloric intake, Greg suggested "Yeah, let's go eat some beans out of the trash." Instead, we procured some reasonably-priced rotisserie chicken from the Whole Foods Market, the diehards headed back to the park to dine, while I headed to Penn Sta to jump stand-by on a bus heading south.
I hope I covered all the major points not covered by others.
Thanks again to Zev for the wine, beer, and other beverages.
From my memory, the attendees were as follows, not including myself (using forum handles) in arrival order:
Zev
Jon
Chris
runrunruneateateat, plus her SO (not sure if he's joined the forum yet)
Greg
I was quite happy to find a new home for 4 of the 5 books I brought:
PDF printout of Doctorow's Makers to Zev
Kerouac's Dharma Bums to Jon
a picture-heavy bicycle maintenance book to run3eat3's SO
Long's How To Survive Without A Salary to Greg
couldn't unload Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching ( maybe no one liked the translation ;-\ )
For the benefit of other meet-ups, what I did was note "FOR CIRCULATION: ERE LIBRARY" inside the front cover, as a reminder to try to keep it in the ERE Library System. I won't mind at all if I never see the books again, but would like to someday hear how the distributed ERE Library System is still circulating books.
Definitely want to attend further NYC and other meet-ups.
I have a few notes of things that I'm going to research based upon attendee suggestion, shared here in the forum:
* run3eat3 recommended to us the documentary Surfwise http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479547/
* run3eat3's SO and one other attendee recommended to us a recent radio episode of The American Life -- I jotted down the theme "on the lam / on the road", but couldn't align that with the descriptions of recent 2010 episodes -- would the attendees please clarify?
* Chris gave us a great story about IBM's Corporate Service Corps, where he did a trip to South Africa that resulted in some beekeeping -- run3eat3's SO also shared a family beekeeping anecdote -- we all seemed kinda interested in bees
* two or more attendees recommended a podcast called the Limits Of Science on radiolab, about human endurance http://www.radiolab.org/2010/apr/05/limits-of-science/
Some personal comments from me:
* I related how (approximately) I landed in ER at age 36, and then returned to a full-time gig, which has the side effect of allowing me to do ERE proper the second time, demonstrating that even though the first time wasn't ERE, I do have ERE cred [my approach is that I'm pretending -- as in an accounting exercise -- that I don't have the capital from ER, so the ERE will be secured only on money saved from earnings during this round 2.]
* I was grilling (politely I hope) Zev on all sorts of things, his business operations, paleo vs. warrior, bike trailer transport of firearms in the State of New York, hunting, exercise regimen
* Greg briefly mentioned that he gains much wisdom from his grandparents who lived through the Great Depression -- I always loved to do the same with my grandparents when they were living -- I suggested that, if he's comfortable, Greg should start some threads about there EREois of Depression-era comers-of-age
* one other anecdote was that after we distributed books, and run3eat3 and SO had departed, and we broached caloric intake, Greg suggested "Yeah, let's go eat some beans out of the trash." Instead, we procured some reasonably-priced rotisserie chicken from the Whole Foods Market, the diehards headed back to the park to dine, while I headed to Penn Sta to jump stand-by on a bus heading south.
I hope I covered all the major points not covered by others.
Thanks again to Zev for the wine, beer, and other beverages.