I don't know if I've ever had as much fun with a group of people as I have in the last day. It's hard for me to explain the connection… Everyone was as different as one can expect from nine different people. And yet the simple act of being vegan abolitionists kept things extremely open.

The best part is that I'm not active on the forums, and so I've never interacted in any way with any of these people, but there was a sense of comfort from the start that I rarely get from strangers.

Something that most people miss is that, once we've chosen this path, we've put ourselves in a spot where social norms and hierarchy start to crumble. These rules and traditions just stop making sense all together. It's not just about nonhuman animals (even though that is our focal point of frustration and anger and pain). We start to notice and dissect how deep-rooted everyday wrongs are. And we can vent and empathize openly about it, and have discussions that are non-confrontational, because everyone is receptive to learn and question and respond.

One thing that's understood but never really addressed, which someone at the meetup brought up, is our phases of depression and hopelessness once our eyes are opened. Asma and I are new vegans, and it is a normal feeling initially, but it looks like it's not something that eventually just goes away. Maybe it's managed better, or doesn't happen for long, but it seems like it's always lingering.

That was good to hear from other people, because I have been becoming increasingly negative recently. And being around them was a good outlet for that. The weekend wasn't one downer after another (where's the fun in that?), but even the downers were a good thing. It's something everyone shared, and no one seemed jaded by that feeling.

So, I'm excited to see these people again, in a month hopefully. And we might be hosting a meetup in May.

I never wrote about a vegan wedding we went to last weekend: it was amazing. On the same lines as the meetup. Except that the veganism was exposed to non-vegans in a way that [hopefully] wasn't confrontational. The couple, Victor and Miranda, were just open about their compassion and what they knew. And the gifts they asked for amounted to this: give veganism a chance through a handful of meals each week for a month, and even start to get some exposure to the truth if you wanted to go a little further.

We met the couple and were invited to the wedding somewhat randomly. The night before, we were invited to dinner with them through someone on the forum (Monica) who was supposed to stay the weekend with us. By night's end we were invited to the wedding. And it turned out to be a beautiful ceremony [with a great vegan buffet at the reception]. What more could you want?

On an unrelated note, we met an extremely pregnant and sweet cat in Fresno (one of twenty, apparently, hanging out around the apartment complex). I wish we could've brought her home.