Camping Trip
We had a chance this weekend to go Victoria for a camping with some members from this site. This had been a relatively long term planned trip. My initial reasons for going were to discover or understand the poly side and get Pengrah some exposure to poly as she didn't spend online or reading the books. Those concerns are long gone with how well she has come along without the need for being online or reading.
So we came into this trip a little nervous. Finances were tight, the trip itself kept getting flipped a bit on the week of, and of course meeting new people. Some things going on in my life and how they were evolving were also making me nervous to meet them. All that said, we said screw it, and started planning to come down. Thanks to RP for calling me up in the final hour and offering up some equipment which would have been difficult to lug down to victoria. MBG had kindly offered us the same equipment, but transporting it became daunting.
I won't go into a play by play of the weekend, but the group was inviting and intelligent. A large array of discussion and topics. Not to mention a number of interesting people who don't exist on this site. While there were a lot of poly people, this was not a poly meetup. It was a group of people meeting as friends most happened to be poly. Two other people were from this site and I enjoyed my interactions with them as well. Gentlenest (thanks for your patience) and Geminigirl (it was a pleasure to finally meet you) were there and added to the interesting people list.
Lots of good discussion took place from utopian design, ideal relationship structures, mountain biking, bike mechanics, gender differences in athletics and gender identification. While I didn't participate in all talks, I was paying attention to what I could. I found the discussion on egalitarianism in combination with matriarchal lineage fascinating. And while I found the discussion interesting, I kept myself out of it due to a lack of overall knowledge (I have no specific education in the field and my knowledge is based strictly on my experiences). While I don't believe in any utopian society being possible on a large scale due to the differences in people in the world, it was still something to take note of in my head. I also had an interesting thought listening to these well spoken people. I wondered if they realized how exclusionary the discussion could become in the wrong atmosphere. In the wrong group of people, if this had occurred, it could have easily scared someone away due to some of the intricacies of it. It was something I had considered simply because of discussions on the forum recently. As a long term geek, I hadn't ever considered it until this discussion but I have exclusionary often in my life due to the topics i tend to discuss. Not on purpose or design.
Pengrah had her time too. She got to meet and greet people and I believe made some real connections. So happy to see her in this as she was in her element. The first night when there was singing and guitar playing, I knew the group had won her over. Thats exactly her thing and it is something she misses dearly from Ontario. I was so happy for her to slowly work her way through the group meeting and making new friends. God I love her
...
I walked out of the weekend finally feeling i had found a bit more of a space. I have gone through a lot of self-identification challenges and have been exploring various aspects of my sexuality, inclusive of poly, trying to find a place I feel comfortable. Its been an odd 9 or 10 months. I have begun to find that comfort, this weekend showing me exactly what I want in poly. Thank you for this trip and the the new friendships, I am having some NRE for the new people I have met as well
...
On a side note, all of this trip it has made my aeeting SJ even more wanton. Damnit I can't wait until the summer time has slide by so I can see her in 3 weeks.
Ari