Most useful information about events according to my experience.
Essential to know: near Oceanside airport, easy street parking, dressy casual, leave your shoes on, bring your favorite drinks to share, plant-based easy snacks, sit separately from your mate, good games, suggest ideas.
Ask me anything you want to feel good at the gathering!
I add updates to events in color.
Rules, or How it Usually Goes
You are welcome to bring your partner, please let me know and share my number and this link with them. People who come together sit separately: it is an old tradition that helps focus on individuality.
Nowadays, these events are by invitation only, which are sent via text (SMS) or email. Please tell me within 3 days whether you are coming. This way, in case you RSVP "no," I have a chance to invite someone who may live further away or is less familiar with the crowd. Please send me a note if you would like to attend, but I have not messaged you for some reason. There are no fees of any kind, of course, all events are free and do not require any money exchanges.
The dress code is dressy casual, creative outfits or refined simplicity are welcome. Leave your shoes on (hard floors). Often, we open windows for air circulation, so please consider additional layers of clothing. For a picknick or plein air, please have sun, wind, and cold protection.
Please bring your favorite drinks and easy to handle plant-based snacks. Please avoid strong aroma and single-use plastics. It is usually a small potluck with finger food served Swedish style (cold buffet). We will prepare simple refreshments. Most of the time, I make floral and herbal infusion (with many fresh ingredients).
We gather in one large room. For games, we usually sit in a circle around a table. When over 12, we pull two tables together. If we are under 8, we can sit in armchairs with head support around a coffee table.
The Place
Location and Parking
We meet in Oceanside, California, the Airport neighborhood, North of 76 and Benet or Foussat, on a hill behind a small river. The house is on the right, close to the round end of the short destination street.
You should find the street parking easily. There is a big streetlight on the right side of the house, the front door is to the left of the garage, the narrow path to it should be motion-detector lit. The ring bell is to the left from the door, under the lamp.
The events are usually inside with an option to step out into the garden, sometimes outside for picknicks and or fruitlucks. Caution: in the garden, please step only on the white stones for your's and seedlings' safety.
Kitchen and Bathroom
The open kitchen is to the South, to the right from the entry. Filtered water is from the top refrigerator dispenser (push activated). All glasses and plates are in a glass shelf by the bigger kitchen window. All silverware is in a big drawer to the right of the refrigerator. Please take what you need.
The guest bathroom is in front of the main entry, diagonally to the left (North). I keep there additional individual hand towels, toothpicks, etc. Find some hygienic items you might need in the wall mirror cabinet.
Why I Organize Informal Gatherings
The idea is to see those we like and miss as often as possible. We love to see multiple friends but have only one weekend a month for which we can plan a bit ahead, so one solution is to bring everyone together, even if they do not know each other yet, and the group tends to be always different, which makes it more interesting.
Why at home? It is not easy to find a suitable place for a croud to talk. Cafes and restaurants have many restrictions on tables, noice, open times, and can be loud and expensive for some. By chance, moving back to San Diego County, we found a place with a nicely divided living spaces.
Why discussing serious topics? The current format arose from a mix of experiences with more formal secular gatherings, fun parties, fruit sharing, and meetings with three local intellectual discussion groups. Despite not having all qualities for being a good host, I dared to organize events for friends, humanists, filmmakers, fruitarians, vegans, artists, and a couple of times for a local conversational group. I am not an entertainer by nature, I just think that letting people experience each other in a free and safe setting is well worth my time. Even if I fail here and there, being together can be so beautiful.
I enjoy a good discussion a lot. I grew up in a subculture where people visited each other regularly in small and bigger groups and had candid conversations. My parent's friends' children and I were largely nurtured by the ideas from the ongoing philosophical debates, with all paradoxes and character knowledge they tend to reveal. In some way, I want to integrate the best styles of experiencing each other from Europe into my different culture here, and maybe you might like it.
Please share your view of the world, influence the flow of conversations, and, if needed, adjust it to your moral convictions with persuasion. Please stay concise and ready for an opposing argument. When free-minded personalities interact, "magic" happens, so do co-create our reality.
