Thanks to everyone who came out Saturday night to Galway Arms! I had an awesome time and hope you all did too. The poor family that somehow got seated for dinner in our “private room” did not have such a good time, and I almost feel bad about it… but not really. I’m sure our souls were properly prayed for yesterday morning and we’ve all been forgiven.
Unfortunately I only have 2 pictures from the night. I started taking pictures and then got distracted by great conversation that I forgot to take more!
My husband, who is not a skeptic, was amazed at how our conversations always managed to came back around to some kind of crazy skeptical topic. He thought he was going to trick us into talking about Dave Chapelle for a while but it was a no-go when immediately Gerg pointed out that Expelled and those stupid detoxifying foot pads are advertised on Comedy Central. The night was a pretty amazing stream of skeptical consciousness.
After everyone headed out to take care of dogs/catch trains and buses/get home before turning into pumpkins, David joined my husband and I at another party where we tried to bring skepticism to my husband’s drunk co-workers. We stayed until the keg was dry, breaking the hearts of people who thought facilitated communication was the real deal.
I do have one complaint though… Ladies? Where were you? The only other female to make a showing was the lovely Buffy and though it was pretty kick ass to have probably the only two opera singing skeptical chicas in Chicago in the same room, it would have been even more kick ass to have some more “chick” for the Skepchick meet up! Some incentive for the single ladies – Buffy and I both brought dates… so if you’re into sexy smart boys (and what’s sexier and smarter than reading Skepchick?) we certainly have no shortage of those!
Upcoming meet-ups: We threw around some ideas for future meet ups and I know everyone really wants to find a way to see Expelled for free. I don’t know if there’s a way to do that legally right now, with it being out in the theaters and whatnot.  I’m trying to find an angle but I think we’re all going to have to wait until it’s out on DVD. Perhaps then we could throw an Expelled Party.
If you guys have any suggestions, you can send them to me using the comments box on the left side of the page.
For those of you planning ahead, next meet-up is May 17.
Doesn’t being married to a nonskeptic get on your nerves? I’m not married so I can’t really relate . Maybe there are bigger things to worry about.
You know, it’s probably more the other way around. It’s not that he’s a true believer or anything, he has a pretty good sense of what is crap and what is not… he just doesn’t really care enough either way to be considered a skeptic. However, being a non-skeptic married to someone who has to look everything up first has got to be pretty annoying.
I think we have a pretty good system – I’m in charge of research, food, cocktails, anything medicine related and money. He’s in charge of diplomacy, all things sports, laundry, and bringing home a paycheck.
Wow! I was mentioned on skepchick! I exist!
Thanks for a great night, Elyse. You and your husband are mega-cool.
Well, your hubby shouldn’t feel bad. I’m not really a skeptic either. :-) Mr. Writerdd thinks the whole skeptical thing is a waste of time. We were both sort of bored with TAM when we went.
Neither of us cares much about many of the skeptical topics that seem to enthrall everyone else around here and on JREF so much. I only look up things that interest me, and mostly that’s about religion, unless I have a superstitious friend who asks my opinion on something. Then I’ll do a bit of digging for them.
Well, I just wrote a whole post about this the other day so I won’t bore you with any more here.
Funny, I always thought opera singers were more prone to woo… (along the lines of anything that makes us think we sound better ie: magnet therapy, homeopathy, “Airborne” — the list goes on and on…) but now that I know there are at least 2 of us in the world, I may have to revisit that idea! It was a great night E! Will see you all when I get back in July and we can sing a skeptical duet!
Buffy
Elyse,
sounds like you and your husband have a good system going! I pay the bills, laundry, food, research, organize, plan our social calendar. He brings home the pay check and keeps my MIL in line!
Buffy-
My voice teacher’s pet peeve is the term “diaphragmatic breathing”. This idea that “using your diaphragm” is a special skill that only classically trained singers are able to master. She has a hard time getting people to understand that all breathing is diaphragmatic. You can’t breathe without using your diaphragm! The woo starts the second we start looking for our first private teacher because, you know, “all good teachers teach diaphragmatic breathing”.
It can only go downhill from there.
Joshsmom-
I try to keep track of the social calendar. In fact, I specifically scheduled Saturday’s meet-up so it would not conflict with his co-worker’s BBQ… basing it on the date he told me the BBQ was. Of course, we ended up double booked.
As for keeping the MIL in line… he does that by just keeping us out of the same room as much as possible.
I took singing lessons one time. The shapely instructress said use your diaphragm. I replied I didn’t bring one will a condom do?
Sorry if I’m not discussing skeptical topics but why are MIL’s such a pain in the butt? She always tell us how to raise Josh, what and how to feed him; it seems she just wants to control our every move. Anyone else have this problem?
Thanks for letting me rant!
*giggle*— yup, that diaphragmatic breathing always left me cocking an eyebrow and snickering in the best ‘Beavis and Butthead’ fashion…
I’m going to second ctchrinthry’s “Wow! I was mentioned on skepchick! I exist!”. You too can be validated by a blogger.
I’ll try and convince my liberal, yet not quite non-believer, fiancee next time. As for ideas for group outings: Might I suggest a group outing to see Bill Maher’s movie “Religulous” when it comes out (best I can tell, that’s sometime in the summer)?
You Could always by tickets to a different movie around the same time and sneak into Expelled, that way it doesn’t get any of your money.
My recommendation is that you take more photos!
Glad you all had a good time. Keep rocking, Skepchick crowd!
It took me almost 5 minutes to figure out what MIL stood for!
Sounds like it was a fun time. I think it’s pretty cool that a non-skeptic spouse joined in the festivities. My wife is similarly not-quite-so-skeptical but not a true-believer either and I hope she’ll indulge me in attending some of these skeptic shindigs someday (we’re in NJ – so no immediate plans for a Chicago gathering).
Maybe we could even get the MIL to join us :-)