Planet WordPress

Ah, the depressing dearth of WordPress meetup attendees this month was quite offset by the Philly Blogger meetup that happened afterward.

First, let’s give props to the gang that showed up, and then I’ll tell you all about the crazy Irish dancing and Santa invasion that you missed when you left early.

This list is mostly copied from the list at Philly Future, kindly collected and posted by Scott, and modified only slightly to point at posts talking about the meetup:

• Michael from Just another Geek’s Blog
• Dan from philadelphia will do
• Mystery blogger from The West End
• Tulin from PoliticsPhilly
• Duncan from Eschaton
• Albert from philly and Messy and Picky
• Tony from Mere Cat
• Michael from River Tyde
• Marisa from Apartment 2024 and Metroblogging Philadelphia
• Bobby from Something Unpredictable
• Luna from Strolling Luna
• Howard from the smedley log
• Scott from Blankbaby

And now, photos, movies, and “Run for your lives! It’s the Santas!”

Well, I showed up way early for the meetup, which was quite shocking. Traffic was not bad on the expressway, since they must all have been gathering around the shopping malls.

Lunch at Fregie’s is always tasty, which surprises me for Bar/Pub fair. The bartender even recognized me - not bad for less than a year of once-a-month meetups!

Two guys showed for the WordPress portion of the evening - Mike, a local blogger, and masquerade, from WordPress IRC and all the way from Dover, both came and exchanged some WordPress discussion. Thanks to everyone who RSVP’ed, even if it was a “No”, since we know you’re still out there. Hopefully being after the holidays you’ll be able to hit our next meetup.

After 3pm, we moved to the back table to sit with the Philly Blogger folks, and the group grew considerably. Perhaps next time I will take the opportunity to mingle more, to avoid being labeled as some kind of techie person. ;p

As usual, the conversation was engaging. It’s nice to be around folks with considered thought that is out of the regular stream of things that I usually think about.

As I said in my previous post, I’ve never seen Fergie’s so busy, but I guess bars in the city on the weekend tend to draw a crowd, especially on the holidays. The evening rolled on and a couple of folks started to leave for other destinations, but that’s when things started to get really weird.

At 4pm they had started the Irish music. The fiddle players kept multiplying through the evening, and I think there were a total of 9 musicians by the end of the night. It was strange because every time I would look behind me, there would be another guy with a fiddle or a drum sitting at that table.

The music was so good that it inspired three folks to spontaneously start Irish step dancing. (Cameraphone Video!) It was unexpected, yet very cool, and we all clapped along to the music and dancing. I’m not a judge as to how good they were, but they were better than I would have done, I assure you, and fun to watch.

Not too long afterwards, the pub was overrun by Santas from the Santacon. Here is the Philly evite, and check out the photos from other cities, since the Philly Santas are obviously still too hung-over to have posted their own photos.

Scott mentioned on Philly Future that there were 30 Santas. The capacity in this bar is 48. Yes, the place was actually freakin’ packed with Santas and their helpers, elves, and Miss Clauses alike.

Need photographic evidence? Thank goodness for my Treo, or there might be only our word of this strange occurrance.

Fortunately, the Santas left before we did, and we didn’t have to worry about the reindeer or sleighs causing any traffic issues when we were leaving.

Ahem.

I didn’t leave until around 9pm to pick Pat up from the airport. That’s a hella long meetup, and a roaring good time. Hopefully next month’s is as grand. Thanks everyone for coming out, see you next month!